Introduction
A language belonging to the Dutch-Germanic group, the western branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. It is made up of two dialect groups:High German (which includes normative literary German) and Low German. It is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and in the regions of Alsace-Lorraine and Alto Adige (Italy).
Both High and Low German lived through three periods:ancient (before the twelfth century), middle (twelfth to fifteenth century) and modern (later to the fifteenth century). From an early age, several different dialects emerged, including Bavarian and Alemannic, also known by the name of Upper German. Medieval texts were mainly written in Upper German, a form that spread and became the basis of contemporary common German. The German language was used by the reformers, especially Martin Luther.
High German
Until 1100, Old High German was spoken, a set of dialects without literary norms. Modern High German comes from a medium analogous to that used by Luther to translate the Bible.
Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazi Jews, a group established in Central and Eastern Europe, also belongs to the High German group and emerged from the 14th century, the beginning of the modern Jewish diasporas.
Low German
It includes the French bass, which gave rise to Dutch and Flemish. Currently, Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, South Africa (under the name Afrikaans) and Suriname. Flemish is one of the languages spoken in Belgium.
As a written language, German emerged in the early 16th century, although its current form did not take hold until the mid-18th century. In 1901 a uniform system of spelling was adopted:the Rechtschreibung der Deustschen Sprache (German Spelling), of which numerous editions have been published.
One hundred million people speak German in the world:over 80 million in Germany, 7 million in Austria, almost 4 million in northern Switzerland, around 1.5 million in Alsace-Lorraine and 300,000 in Luxembourg. German is the sixth most spoken language in the world.
Gemanic Civilization
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