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German speaking world

German
Deutsch
Pronunciation [ˈdɔʏtʃ]
Native to Primarily German-speaking Europe, also in the worldwide German-speaking diaspora
Native speakers
90 million (2010) to 95 million (2014)
L2 speakers: 10–15 million (2014)
Standard forms
Latin (German alphabet)
German Braille
Signed German, LBG
(Lautsprachbegleitende / Lautbegleitende Gebärden)
Official status
Official language in


Several international institutions
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated by

No official regulation

(German orthography regulated by the Council for German Orthography).
Language codes
ISO 639-1 de
ISO 639-2 ger (B)
deu (T)
ISO 639-3 Variously:
 – German
 – Middle High German
 – Old High German
 – Colonia Tovar German
 – Bavarian
 – Cimbrian
 – Hutterite German
 – Kölsch
 – Low German
 – Lower Silesian
 – Luxembourgish
 – Mainfränkisch
 – Mócheno
 – Palatinate German
 – Pennsylvania German
 – Plautdietsch
 – Swabian German
 – Swiss German
 – Unserdeutsch
 – Upper Saxon
 – Walser German
 – Westphalian
 – Riograndenser Hunsrückisch
 – Yenish
Glottolog high1287  High Franconian
uppe1397  Upper German
Linguasphere
Legal statuses of German in the world.svg
  (Co-)Official and majority language
  Co-official, but not majority language
  Statutory minority/cultural language
  Non-statutory minority language
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No official regulation

German (Deutsch [ˈdɔʏtʃ]) is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and (co-) official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

One of the major languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union. German also is the fourth most widely taught non-English language in the US (after Spanish, French and American Sign Language) and third in the EU (after English and French; at lower secondary level), the second most commonly used scientific language as well as the fourth most widely used language on websites (after English, Russian and Japanese). The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in the German language.


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