Languages of Germany
| Languages of Germany | |
|---|---|
| Official | German (95%) |
| Regional | Low Rhenish; Limburgish; Luxembourgish; Alemannic; Bavarian; Danish; Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian; North Frisian, Saterland Frisian; Romani, Low German |
| Immigrant | Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Romanian, Hindustani, Spanish; and others see also:immigration to Germany |
| Foreign | English (63%)[1] French (18%) Dutch (9%) Italian (7%) Russian (6%) Spanish (6%) Danish (2%) |
| Signed | German Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
| Source | ebs_243_en.pdf (europa.eu) |
| Part of a series on the |
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The official language of Germany is Standard German, with over 95 percent of the country speaking Standard German or German dialects as their first language.[2] 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.
Neither the 1987 West German census nor the 2011 census inquired about language. Since the 2017 microcensus, a survey with a sampling fraction of 1% of the persons and households in Germany that supplies basic socio-demographic data and facilitates the ongoing monitoring of the labour market, a question asking, "Which language is being spoken predominantly in your household?" was added,[3] nearly eighty years since the 1939 Census asked for the mother tongue of the population.[4]
Minority languages
Recognised minority languages:[2][5]
- Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian (0.01%)
- Romani (0.8%)
- Danish (0.06%)
- North Frisian (0.01%) and Saterland Frisian
Immigrant languages
Immigrant languages spoken by sizable[clarification needed] communities of first and second-generation (dominant origin of the speakers in brackets):
- Turkish (southern Europe and Western Asia) c. 1.8%[2]
- Kurdish (Western Asia) c. 0.3%[2]
- Tamil (South Asia and Southeast Asia)[6]
- Russian (eastern Europe and Northern Asia)[citation needed]
- Arabic (Western Asia and North Africa)[citation needed]
- Greek (southern Europe)[citation needed]
- Dutch (Western Europe)[citation needed]
- Igbo (Nigeria, West Africa)[citation needed]
- Polish (central Europe)[citation needed]
- Serbo-Croatian (Western Balkans, southern Europe)[citation needed]
- Italian (southern Europe)[citation needed]
- Portuguese (southern Europe)
Second languages
Most Germans learn English as their first foreign language at school. Sometimes French or Latin are taught first, but usually English is, with French and Latin as common second or third foreign languages. Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, classical Greek, and other languages are also offered in schools, often depending on the school's geographic location.
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).[7]
However, German schoolchildren's English is not as good as the level found in Scandinavian countries.[8]
There exist several bilingual kindergartens and even schools in Germany, offering education in German and English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, and other languages.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "Welche Sprachen können Sie zumindest einigermaßen gut sprechen und verstehen?". Statista. 2008.
- ^ a b c d "BBC - Languages across Europe". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
- ^ "Mikrozensus 2017 Fragebogen" (PDF). Statistisches Bundesamt: 46. 2017.
- ^ Adler, Astrid (2018). "Germany's micro census of 2017: The return of the language question" (PDF). Institut für Deutsche Sprache.
- ^ National Minorities in Germany. BMI. 2010. p. 44."Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). - ^ "Tamil Diaspora - Germany - ஜெர்மனி". Tamilnation.co. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
- ^ Livingston, Robert Gerald. "East Germany between Moscow and Bonn". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^ Hanke, Katja. "Fremdsprachen in deutschen Schulen und Kindergärten". Goethe Institut. Goethe Institut Online. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^ "Informationen zu unserem bilingualen Zweig". Schuele Lammersieth. Retrieved 4 September 2019.