German language
German is a language, member of the western group of the Germanic languages. It is spoken in Germany, Austria, the northern part of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. German is an official language in those countries as well as in Belgium, where it is a minority language. German is furthermore spoken in small regions of Italy (the southern part of Tyrol), Romania, Hungary, Poland, France, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Belarus and Khazakstan.
Development of the German language
Dialects of German
- High German
- Middle German
- including Luxembourgian language (closely related to siebenbürgisch "Saksesch" which is Transylvanian Saxon)
- Upper German
- Austro Bavarian--see Austria/Language
- including ancient Southern Bavarian still spoken in the "Sieben Gemeinden" (Sette Comuni) and "13 Gemeinden" (13 Comuni) in Italy, near Asiago and Verona respectively
- Swiss German
- High Franconian
- Low German
- Alsatian (Elsässerdeutsch in German, Alsacien in French), spoken in Alsace
Low German is much closer to Dutch, and it is seen as a German dialect only due to the fact that it is spoken in a part of Germany. Characteristic of German is that /k/, /p/ and /t/ in some positions developed to /x/, /f/ and /ts/. In English as well as Dutch and Low German, the old /k/ /p/ /t/ are still there, cf. English make, Dutch maken, German machen etc.