Introduction to German

Countries where German is the dominant language Countries where German has some official status Countries where German is a minority or regional language Other countries where German may be heard or understood The German-Speaking World

German is the Dominant Language Germany Austria Switzerland Liechtenstein

German has Official Status Luxembourg Italy (Bolzano/ Südtirol) Belgium The European Union

German is a Regional/Minority Language in Europe Czech Republic Denmark France (Alsace) Hungary Netherlands Poland (Silesia) Russia Spain U.K.

Other Areas German is spoken or understood in many areas of the world where German-speaking immigrants settled:  South America  Argentina  Brazil

Other Areas German is spoken or understood in many areas of the world where German-speaking immigrants settled:  Africa  Namibia (Formerly German Southwest Africa)  South Africa

Other Areas German is spoken or understood in many areas of the world where German-speaking immigrants settled:  United States  Amish communities, Texas Hill Country, Upper Midwest  Over 50 million claim German ancestry – the largest single ethnic group in the U.S.  1.38 million speak German  2 nd most common language in N. and S. Dakota

Native Speakers Total Speakers How many people speak German?

How Many People Speak German?  According to SIL Ethnologue*, there are:  84 million Native Speakers of German  112 million Total Speakers of German *SIL Ethnologue is a web-based publication containing statistics for 7,000 world languages. The above data is from the 17 th Edition, 2013.

How is German related to other world languages? Classification of German

Language Families  The languages of the world can be divided into Language Families.  The languages of a language family share a common ancestor language, so they tend to have similar characteristics.  The largest language family is called Indo- European.

Indo-European  The Indo-European language family can be divided into different subgroups.  Languages within a subgroup have more in common than other Indo-European languages.

Subgroups of Indo-European Indo- European CelticRomance GermanicSlavic Greek Indo- Iranian

Classification of German  Indo-European  Germanic  German

Classification of German Indo-European Germanic English Afrikaans Dutch German Swedish Norwegian Icelandic

Review

1. Name 3 countries where German is the dominant language. 2. To which language family does German belong? A. Indo-European B. Sino-Tibetan C. Afroasiatic 3. Of the following languages, which one is most closely related to German? A. French B. English C. Russian