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Languages of Germany

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Languages of Germany
OfficialGerman (95%)
RegionalLimburgish, Danish, Sorbian, Frisian, Romani, Low German
ImmigrantTurkish, Portuguese, Arabic, Albanian, Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Romanian, Hindustani, Spanish, and others
ForeignEnglish (56%)[1]
French (14%)
SignedGerman Sign Language
Keyboard layout
Sourceebs_243_en.pdf (europa.eu)
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The official language of Germany is German,[2] with over 95 percent of the country speaking Standard German or a dialect of German as their first language.[3] This figure includes speakers of Northern Low Saxon, a recognized minority or regional language that is not considered separately from Standard German in statistics. Recognized minority languages have official status as well, usually in their respective regions.

Language spoken at home

Neither the 1987 West German census nor the 2011 census inquired about language. Starting with the 2017 microcensus (a survey with a sampling fraction of 1% of the persons and households in Germany that supplies basic sociodemographic data and facilitates ongoing monitoring of the labor market), a question asking, "Which language is spoken predominantly in your household?" was added,[4] nearly eighty years since the 1939 Census asked for the mother tongue of the population.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). The colloquial speech is a compromise between Standard German and the dialect.[5] Northern Germany (the Low German area) is characterized by a loss of dialects: standard German is the vernacular, with very few regional features even in informal situations.[6] In Central Germany (the Middle German area) there is a tendency towards dialect loss.[6] In Southern Germany (the Upper German area) dialects are still in use.[6] Dialects are declining in all regions except for Bavaria.[6] In 2008, 45% of Bavarians claimed to use only Bavarian in everyday communication.[7]

Minority languages

Recognized minority languages include:[3][8]

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

Germany ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on 16 September 1998 for the following languages in respect of specific Länder:[9]

Immigrant languages

Immigrant languages spoken by sizable[clarification needed] communities of first and second-generation (dominant origin of the speakers in brackets):

Second languages

Most Germans learn English as their first foreign language at school. However, in some cases, French or Latin are taught first; French and Latin are also common second or third foreign languages. Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Classical Greek, and other languages are also offered in schools, depending on the school's geographic location and available resources.

During the existence of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the most common second language taught there was Russian, while English and French were the preferred second languages taught in schools in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).[12]

However, many German schoolchildren generally do not speak English as proficiently as many Scandinavians.[13]

Several bilingual kindergartens and schools exist in Germany offering education in German and English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, and other languages.[14]

See Also

References

  1. ^ "Europeans and their Languages". 2012. Archived from the original on 2016-01-06.
  2. ^ "BBC - Languages - Languages". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-09-25.
  3. ^ a b c d "BBC - Languages across Europe". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Mikrozensus 2017 Fragebogen" (PDF). Statistisches Bundesamt: 46. 2017.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference decline1959 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d Stoeckle, Philipp; Hare Svenstrup, Christoph (2011). "Language variation and (de-)standardisation processes in Germany". In Tore, Kristiansen; Coupland, Nikola (eds.). Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. pp. 83–90. ISBN 978-82-7099-659-9. OCLC 1204794772.
  7. ^ Rowley, Anthony R. (2011). "Bavarian: Successful Dialect or Failed Language?". Handbook of language and ethnic identity, 2 : the success-failure continuum in language and ethnic identity efforts. Joshua A. Fishman, Ofelia García. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 209–308. ISBN 978-0-19-983799-1. OCLC 721195501.
  8. ^ "National Minorities in Germany" (PDF). BMI. May 2010. p. 44. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2014-06-23..
  9. ^ "Chart of signatures and ratifications of Treaty 148". Council of Europe. 5 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  10. ^ "Tamil Diaspora - Germany - ஜெர்மனி". Tamilnation.co. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  11. ^ "Wie viele Russischsprachige leben in Deutschland?". Mediendienst Integration. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  12. ^ Livingston, Robert Gerald (28 January 2009). "East Germany between Moscow and Bonn". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  13. ^ Hanke, Katja. "Fremdsprachen in deutschen Schulen und Kindergärten". Goethe Institut. Goethe Institut Online. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  14. ^ "Informationen zu unserem bilingualen Zweig". Schuele Lammersieth. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
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