German (Deutsch [ˈdɔʏtʃ] ( listen)) is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and (co-)official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), and Liechtenstein; it is also an official, but not majority language of Luxembourg and Belgium. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, and English. One of the major languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.[2][8] German also is the third most widely taught foreign language in both the US[9] and the EU,[10] the second most commonly used scientific language[11] as well as the third most widely used language on websites.[12] Germany is ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in the German language.[13] German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.[14] A portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants (German, Austrian, and Swiss Standard German), German is a pluricentric language. German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world.[2][15] Due to the limited intelligibility between certain varieties and Standard German, as well as the lack of an undisputed, scientific difference between a "dialect" and a "language",[2] some German varieties or dialect groups (e.g. Low German (Low Saxon) or Plautdietsch[5]) are alternatively referred to as "languages" and "dialects"

• published: 17 Mar 2016
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