German is a language of the West *Germanic language group. It is the
official language of Germany and Austria and one of the four official
languages of Switzerland. High German, the official and written form,
developed from dialects of the highland areas of Germany and Austria. Old
High German was spoken before 1100 AD when Middle High German, based on
Upper German Dialects, became the standard form. Modern High German
developed from the 16th century dialect of Luther, whose biblical
translations spread this form. Low German exists only in a spoken form in
the lowland areas of North Germany and is derived from Old Saxon and
Middle Low German speech. The main difference between Low and High German
is the sound system, especially the consonants.
*Germanic languages are a subgroup of the Indo-European language group.
Its member languages are spoken in Britain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands
and Iceland. There are three recognised subgroups: East Germanic, North
Germanic, and West Germanic. The first of these is now extinct, but it
included Gothic, one of the earliest Germanic languages. North Germanic
covers the Scandinavian languages. West Germanic includes modern English and German among its descendants,
as well as Dutch.
While the pronunciation for English speakers is
relatively straightforward the nominative, accusative, genetive
and dative case make learning German a bit of a headache!
Watch out for:
The many cases and plurals after prepositions.
About Germany
Germany is located in central Europe. Germany has extensive plains to the
north, which border the North Sea, and rise to a central hilly area with
the peaks of the Alps in the extreme south. The chief rivers are the
Rhine, the Danube, Ems, Weser, and Elbe.
