The German Language

The majority of the world's 100 million German speakers are found in Germany, Switzerland and Austria; in addition, significant numbers of German speakers can be found in Poland, Romania, Paraguay, Kazakhstan, Italy, Hungary and Belgium. German is the official language of Germany and Austria and is a co-official language in Switzerland.

German is part of the West Germanic group of languages within the Indo-European language family and is a close relative of English, Frisian and Dutch/Flemish. The standard form of German is called Hochdeutsch or "High German," referring to the southern highlands dialect from which it is derived. Hochdeutsch is the standard language of literature, magazines, newspapers, television and schools/universities not only in Germany, but also in Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. Despite the standardization of the spoken language through Hochdeutsch, there is still a tremendous amount of dialectal variety within the language in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland - there are not only distinct language differences between regions in these countries, but many times the flavor of German spoken can be different from one small village to another.1

Below are some brief but important facts about Germany, Austria and Switzerland:

Germany

Capital: Berlin
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Government Type: Federal republic
Population: 82,424,609 (July 2004 est.)
Internet Country Code: .de
Internet Hosts: 2,686,119 (2004)
Internet Users: 39 million (2003)

Austria

Capital: Vienna
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Government Type: Federal republic
Population: 8,174,762 (July 2004 est.)
Internet Country Code: .at
Internet Hosts: 387,006 (2004)
Internet Users: 3.73 million (2003)

Switzerland

Capital: Bern
Currency: Swiss franc (CHF)
Government Type: Federal republic
Population: 7,450,867 (July 2004 est.)
Internet Country Code: .ch
Internet Hosts: 667,275 (2004)
Internet Users: 2.556 million (2002)

For additional demographic information on the countries listed here, you can check out the following link:

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

For information on The German Writing System, please see our Quick Facts Library.



1 "German language" Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9036570
[Accessed December 12, 2004]