Germanlanguage

German language, or Deutsch, is a West Germanic language within the Indo-European family. It is primarily spoken in Central Europe and is the most widely spoken native language in the European Union. It is an official language in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg, with co-official or widely used status in parts of Switzerland and Belgium; it is recognized in Italy’s South Tyrol and Denmark’s southern regions. Globally, there are about 90–100 million native speakers and roughly 120–130 million total speakers.

The language has a complex dialect landscape. Standard German (Hochdeutsch) forms the basis of education, media, and formal writing, but everyday speech varies considerably. Major dialect groups include Low German (Plattdeutsch) in the north and High German in the central and southern regions; within High German are Central German and Upper German varieties, including Bavarian and Alemannic (which includes Swiss German). Mutual intelligibility between dialects is partial, which is why Standard German serves as a lingua franca.

The writing system uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics ä, ö, ü and the ligature ß. Swiss Standard German generally does not use ß. German spelling was standardized in the modern era, with major reform efforts in the 20th century and continued updates in the 21st century.

Historically, German developed from Old High German during the early Middle Ages, evolving through Middle High German and Early New High German to the standard language used today. It has a strong tradition in literature, philosophy, science, and music, and remains widely taught as a foreign language.