'''German''' (''Deutsch'') is a major world language, spoken by some 120 million people worldwide. The German vocabulary is closely related to [[English]] and [[Dutch]], and all three use the [[Latin alphabet]] in writing. German is widely spoken in [[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Liechtenstein]], [[Luxembourg]], and [[Switzerland]].<ref>[http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=deu Ethnologue:German]</ref> and is an official language of [[Belgium]]. Liechtenstein is the only state that has German as its only official language. Typologically, German follows the [[syntax#SVO|SVO syntax]].
==German Alphabet==
The German language alphabet consists of every letter in the English alphabet, with additional letters. German makes use of the letter ß, called the ''scharfes S'' ("sharp s"), which is a ligature of the letter "s" and "z" from cursive scripts. It is used for occurrences of the ''voiceless alveolar fricative'', the sound of the "s" in the English word "sea", after long vowels and diphthongs, for which German otherwise uses "s" or "ss". This to avoid confusion with the ''voiced alveolar fricative'', the sound of "z" in the English word "zoo", for which German always uses the letter "s". The common name for this ligature It is ''Eszett''. Howeversometimes called "sz," however, if the letter is not available it has to be replaced by the letters "ss", and not by "sz". In Switzerland and Liechtenstein this letter is generally omitted in favor of "ss". The other additional letter are the three vowels ''ä'', ''ö'' and ''ü'', also known in English as [[Umlaut|Umlauts]]. If not present on a keyboard they customary customarily are substituted by ''ae'', ''oe'', and ''ue''.
==History==
The modern German language is descended from the language known as Proto-Germanic, which is believed to have been spoken in central and northern Europe during the first millennium BC. Proto-Germanic was eventually divided into several different but similar languages, specifically East Germanic, West Germanic and North Germanic. [[Gothic]] is the only known East Germanic language, while North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages.
Generally, the later development of the West Germanic language can be divided in two distinct lines of descent: Upper German, spoken in Central and Southern Germany, and Low German, spoken in Northern Germany. "Low" and "Upper" are geographic terms, referring to the lowlands of Northern Germany and the more mountainous areas of Southern Germany, respectively.
The term "High German" refers to the standardized version of German that derives mostly from Upper and Central German dialects. It evolved through Old High German (c. 200-1000 AD), Middle High German (c. 1000-1500 AD), Early New High German (c. 1500-1700) and finally to the present New High German, which is the standard modern German language. Low German went through a similar development, starting with Old Saxon and similar languages, through Middle Low German into the modern Low German, which is in linguistics often referred to a Low Saxon. It was the standard language of the Hanseatic league, but was superseded as standard language in North Germany when High German was accepted as official language in Prussia. Due to the influence of Prussia as political power, and later Hamburg as media center, a more Northern German pronunciation has been adopted as standard pronunciation in television and radio. It is said that the best High German is spoken in Hanover, while the traditional dialect of the Hanover area is a dialect of Low German.
== German Dialects ==
The dialects of German are classified as central and upper German. Central German dialects are Ripuarian, Central Franconian, Rhine Francoinian, Hessian, Thurinigian, Saxonian, and Berlinerish. Luxemburgish is often included as a Moselle Franconian dialect. Upper German dialects spoken in the South of the German speaking area, which includes Bavaria, Austria, Liechtenstein and northern areas of Italy, the northern part of Switzerland, and eastern parts of France are Bavarian, East and South Franconian, Swabian, Allemanic, and Alsatian.
Official Minority languages in Germany are [[Frisian]] and , a west Germanic language, [[Sorbian]], a Slavic language, and [[Danish]]. ==Grammar==German has a great deal of inflection compared to English, including three genders of nouns (plus the plural), and four cases. Adjectives are also given endings based on their gender and case. The plural forms of nouns follow complex patterns that are difficult for a non-native speaker to master. The system of auxiliary verbs for various tenses works similarly to English. Word order has some definite differences compared to English, but also has greater flexibility in several aspects. ===Noun inflection===German nouns can have one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. The definite articles in the nominative case are as follows: *'''Der''' Hund (Nouns are always capitalized in German.) = The dog*'''Die''' Ente = The duck*'''Das''' Schwein = The pig These three genders collapse into a single plural form, using the definite article '''die''', as in '''Die''' Schweine = The Pigs Indefinite articles are represented by only two types in the nominative case, ''ein'' and ''eine'': *'''Ein''' Hund = A dog*'''Eine''' Ente = A duck*'''Ein''' Schwein = A pig As in English, there is no indefinite article for plural nouns. ===The four cases===In German, four cases are used, known as the ''nominative'', the ''accusative'', the ''dative'', and the ''genitive''. Nominative is the case which is used in the subject of sentences, or to say A=B. Accusative indicates a direct object relationship, as in "I bought '''the book'''." The dative case shows an indirect object relationship, as in "I gave '''you''' the book." The genitive case has slowly fallen into disuse, but indicates possession; this usage is often replaced by the dative in most cases. The definite and indefinite articles change according to the case: {| class="wikitable"|-!Definite ! Nominative! Accusative! Dative! Genitive|-! Masculine| '''der''' Hund| '''den''' Hund| '''dem''' Hund| '''des''' Hund'''es'''*|-! Feminine| '''die''' Ente| '''die''' Ente| '''der''' Ente| '''der''' Ente|-! Neutral| '''das''' Schwein| '''das''' Schwein| '''dem''' Schwein| '''des''' Schwein'''s'''*|-! Plural| '''die''' Schweine| '''die''' Schweine| '''den''' Schweine'''n'''*| '''der''' Schweine|} {| class="wikitable"|-!Indefinite ! Nominative! Accusative! Dative! Genitive|-! Masculine| ein Hund| ein'''en''' Hund| ein'''em''' Hund| ein'''es''' Hund'''es'''*|-! Feminine| ein'''e''' Ente| ein'''e''' Ente| ein'''er''' Ente| ein'''er''' Ente|-! Neutral| ein Schwein| ein Schwein| ein'''em''' Schwein| ein'''es''' Schwein'''s'''*|}<nowiki>*With the genitive case, masculine and neutral nouns take the "s" or "es" ending, while the plural form of masculine and neutral nouns take the "n" ending in dative.</nowiki> Any other articles take endings by gender and case according to one of these two models. Other examples of article types include possessive (mein Hund = my dog) negative (kein Schwein = no pig), and "this one" (diese Ente = this duck). ===Adjective declension===When adjectives appear modifying a noun, their ending must agree with both the case and gender of the noun. These endings follow separate rules from those of the definite and indefinite articles, making this extremely difficult for the non-native speaker. The endings with a definite article always take either an "e" or "en" as ending: {| class="wikitable"|-! ! Nominative! Accusative! Dative! Genitive|-! Masculine| der schwarz'''e''' Hund| den schwarz'''en''' Hund| dem schwarz'''en''' Hund| des schwarz'''en''' Hund'''es'''|-! Feminine| die gelb'''e''' Ente| die gelb'''e''' Ente| der gelb'''en''' Ente| der gelb'''en''' Ente|-! Neutral| das schlau'''e''' Schwein| das schlau'''e''' Schwein| dem schlau'''en''' Schwein| des schlau'''en''' Schwein'''s'''|-! Plural| die schlau'''en''' Schweine| die schlau'''en''' Schweine| den schlau'''en''' Schweine'''n'''| der schlau'''en''' Schweine|}(schwarz = black, gelb = yellow, schlau = clever) So-called "strong" declension occurs when there is no article, or when the determiner has no gender (as in "some" or "many"). In strong declension, the ending of the adjective takes on the ending of the definite article: {| class="wikitable"|-! ! Nominative! Accusative! Dative! Genitive|-! Masculine| schwarz'''er''' Hund| schwarz'''en''' Hund| schwarz'''em''' Hund| schwarz'''en''' Hund'''es'''|-! Feminine| gelb'''e''' Ente| gelb'''e''' Ente| gelb'''er''' Ente| gelb'''er''' Ente|-! Neutral| schlau'''es''' Schwein| schlau'''es''' Schwein| schlau'''em''' Schwein| schlau'''en''' Schwein'''s'''|-! Plural| schlau'''e''' Schweine| schlau'''e''' Schweine| schlau'''en''' Schweine'''n'''| schlau'''er''' Schweine|} So-called "mixed declension" is used with indefinite articles and possessive articles. Both the article and the adjective take an ending, but the masculine and neutral forms change in the nominative case to carry the "lost" ending caused by the use of an indefinite determiner: {| class="wikitable"|-! ! Nominative! Accusative! Dative! Genitive|-! Masculine| mein schwarz'''er''' Hund| mein'''en''' schwarz'''en''' Hund| mein'''em''' schwarz'''en''' Hund| mein'''es''' schwarz'''en''' Hund'''es'''|-! Feminine| mein'''e''' gelb'''e''' Ente| mein'''e''' gelb'''e''' Ente| mein'''er''' gelb'''en''' Ente| mein'''er''' gelb'''en''' Ente|-! Neutral| mein schlau'''es''' Schwein| mein schlau'''es''' Schwein| mein'''em''' schlau'''en''' Schwein| mein'''es''' schlau'''en''' Schwein'''s'''|-! Plural| mein'''e''' schlau'''en''' Schweine| mein'''e''' schlau'''en''' Schweine| mein'''en''' schlau'''en''' Schweine'''n'''| mein'''er''' schlau'''en''' Schweine|} ===Plural forms===In contrast to English's simple addition of "s" to make a noun plural, German plural forms use several different inflections depending on the word. They fall into seven types: ;1. No change :der '''Zimmer''' (room) → die '''Zimmer''';2. No ending, with Umlaut:der Apfel (apple) → die '''Ä'''pfel;3. Add -e:das Ziel (goal) → die Ziel'''e''';4. Add -e, with Umlaut:der Tanz (dance) → die T'''ä'''nz'''e''';5. Add -er, with Umlaut:das Glas (glass) → die Gl'''ä'''s'''er''';6. Add -n or -en:die Frau (woman) → die Frau'''en''';7. Add -s:das Tabu (taboo) → die Tabu'''s''' There is no logical formula to determine which plural form a given noun will take, so the plural form must also be learned as one learns a new noun. ===Auxiliary verbs===Just as in English, the German language uses helping verbs for most of its tenses. When this occurs, it is the helping verb which is conjugated. The perfect tense exists in German, which uses either the verb ''haben'' (to have) or ''sein'' (to be) together with a past participle. The future tense also uses a helping verb, ''werden'', which is also used for the passive voice (i.e. The lawn is watered daily.). German also uses modal verbs just as in English: ''können'' = to be able to<br />''dürfen'' = to be allowed to<br />''müssen'' = must<br />''sollen'' = should While German has two forms of the past tense which are constructed like the English past simple and perfect, they are used for different reasons. Generally speaking, the two types of past in German have the same meaning, but the simple past is used for writing and the perfect for speaking. The past participles for many irregular verbs follow similar vowel transformations as in English: English: I sing. I sang. I have sung.<br />German: Ich singe. Ich sang. Ich habe gesungen. Many of the most important verb forms in German have irregular verb forms, so it is necessary to learn all three forms when one learns a verb. ===Word order===German word order in complex sentences is based on a so-called "bracket construction," with the most important parts being close to the beginning and at the end. In sentences with more than one verb, the remaining verb or verbs go at the very end: ''Ich <u>habe</u> ihr das Buch in der Schule <u>gegeben</u>.'' (I gave her the book at school.) In the example above, the verb ''haben'' is conjugated in the first person singular and placed just after the subject, and the past participle of ''geben'' (to give) is placed at the end of the sentence. The sentence also contains a direct object (das Buch = the book), an indirect object (ihr = her), and a place indicator (in der Schule = at school). Word order other than this bracket construction is somewhat flexible. For example, the following sentences have the same meaning: ''Das Buch <u>habe</u> ich ihr in der Schule <u>gegeben</u>.''<br />''In der Schule <u>habe</u> ich ihr das Buch <u>gegeben</u>.'' This bracket construction is a defining characteristic of German word order. It is also used with modal verbs and with the future tense: ''Ich <u>kann</u> ihn überhaupt nicht <u>verstehen</u>.'' (I can't understand him at all.)<br />''Sie <u>wird</u> vielleicht morgen in die Oper <u>gehen</u> <u>wollen</u>.'' (She'll probably want to go to the opera tomorrow.) Notice that however the constituent parts are arranged, the main verb always is placed in the second position, and the remaining verbs are placed at the end. This structure also holds true for the so-called "separable verbs." An example of this is the verb ''abgeben'', which means to "give up." When it is the only verb appearing in the sentence, the prefix "ab" is separated from the rest of the verb, which is conjugated and placed in the second position, and the prefix is placed at the end of the sentence: ''Ich <u>gebe</u> jetzt <u>ab</u>.'' (I'm giving up now.) German has many such verbs, which are always constructed from a definable preposition and a main verb. However, when using the past tense, future tense, or a modal verb, these separable verbs appear at the end of the sentence in the appropriate form: ''Er <u>wird</u> irgendwann <u>abgeben</u> <u>müssen.</u>'' (He'll have to give up sometime.) ==Bibliography==Martin Durrell, Katrin Kohl, Gudrun Loftus, ''Essential German Grammar'', 2002.<br />Christian Stief and Christian Stang, ''Langenscheidt German Grammar in a Nutshell'', 2002.
==References==
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[[Category:Germanic Languages]]