German language Course & Institute in | Dwarka | Rohini.

German language is a member of the western group of Germanic languages. German is used not only in Germany but also in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and other countries within Europe and beyond German cannot be limited to the language of one country. We might, therefore, modify our statement and say that German is the sole language used in Germany and Austria. This, while again true, excludes the important fact that it is also used in other countries, albeit with a different status. In Germany and Austria it is the sole national language, whereas in Switzerland it is used alongside French, Italian and Romansh and in Luxembourg it competes with French and Luxembourgian.

Thus although there is a core area where German is used, the edges of this area are rather fuzzy. German is also used as a spoken medium, and here standards and norms become more diffuse and difficult to pin down, although there is a recommended model of pronunciation. In many speech communities, what is regarded by the speakers themselves as spoken German is really a regional variety which differs considerably from written German. At its most extreme this can be illustrated by Low German (LG), Swiss German and Luxembourgian. Here the question raises itself as to whether these varieties can still be counted as German or are really separate languages. The answer to this question is not at all clear. Luxembourgian is usually regarded as a separate language, while Low German is still considered to be a dialect of German.

Luxembourgian is the mother tongue of the majority of Luxembourgers, whereas Low German is the mother tongue of only part of the speakers in North Germany. Swiss German dialects, which are universally used in German Switzerland at the spoken level, would probably not be regarded by their speakers as separate languages. In all these situations, however, written German is used as an overarching variety spanning these spoken varieties. In Luxembourg this function is shared with French.

However, this overarching variety is lacking, for example, in Alsace-Lorraine, Danish North Sleighs and the United States, where varieties which seem similar or related to German are used. In this book we shall include spoken regional varieties of German within our definition of German present-day German is a language which exists in written and spoken form, its main area of use being central Europe. The spoken form comprises a range of varieties from those near the written language to those quite far removed from it, differentiated regionally. The written form is comparatively stable and its users can understand texts from as far back in time as the eighteenth century.