Around million people speak a Germanic language natively, with English accounting for around million speakers. The next biggest language of the group is German with approximately 76 million native speakers. However, if we include the number of second-language speakers, then the number jumps up to around 2 billion speakers mostly, again, from English. While quite a few people still believe that all Germanic languages evolved from different German dialects , it would be more accurate to say that they are all linguistic siblings.
This is why they seem so similar! So how does this look today? For example, the German word finden to find is spelled vinden in Dutch. Or the German word Antwort answer is spelled antwoord in Dutch. Here are a couple other cognates along with their English equivalents :. But what about the other Western Germanic languages? As in all language families, the different languages often share common root words. Here are some prominent examples:. Generally the further south you go, the more pronounced they get, which is why a resident of Hamburg will have a terrible time following the conversation in a Viennese coffeehouse.
And as with all languages, German is also in constantly changing. Try Babbel. Toggle Menu. Ready to learn? Pick a language to get started! Herzeliebez Vrouwelin : Middle High German CE Knights, Minnesang and fiefdom: The High Middle Ages were shaped by economic and cultural growth, but also by political fragmentation: From on, the German-speaking world was divided into a patchwork of individual domains, and the German language developed in a similarly multifaceted manner.
Dutch, one of the German dialects, became its own language in the 16h century. German as a National Language: 19th and 20th Centuries When the majority of German-speaking territories became a part of the German Reich in , people saw increased need for a singular set of spelling conventions for their new nation-state. The German language today is unified to an extent — different dialects still pervade across the country. Learn a modern language today! New words from other languages have been adopted by German speakers.
Others have been introduced into the German language due to more interaction with foreigners either due to migration, trade, war or the development of new technology from cinema to the Internet. Similarly, most speakers have adopted English words related to technology like Internet or email, as it happens in several other languages. German is an interesting language due to the dominance of dialects, which emerged due to the fact there was no cultural centre, like Paris in France.
By the end of the Middle Ages attempts were made to create a "Standard German language", so that the several independent regions could communicate more easily with each other. Let us not forget that Germany did not exist as a political entity until the 19th century. The translation from Hebrew aimed at an "East Middle German". That "style" was largely based on the language used at the Saxon court. This became the basis of what we know as German today.
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