The German language

German is one of the large group of Indo-Germanic languages, and within this group is one of the Germanic languages, related to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Dutch, as well as to English. At the end of the Middle Ages there were a large number of regional written languages. With the wide dissemination of Luther's Bible translation a uniform written language gradually became established, based largely on the official written language of Saxony (the written language of Meissen).  

Germany has a wealth of dialects. Usually, a person's dialect or accent gives away where he or she comes from. If two people, one from Mecklenburg and one from Bavaria were to hold a conversation, each in their respective dialect, they would have great difficulties in understanding each other. Long ago, there were various different tribes living in what is now Germany – Franks, Saxons, Swabians and Bavarians, for instance. Today, these old tribes have not existed in their original form for a long time, but their traditions and dialects live on in regional groupings.  

German is also the native tongue of Austria, Liechtenstein, the majority of Switzerland, South Tirol (northern Italy), northern Schleswig (Denmark) and in small areas of Belgium and Luxembourg along their borders with Germany. The German minorities in Poland, Romania and the countries of the former Soviet Union have also partly retained the German language. German is the native tongue of more than 100 million people. Around every tenth book that is published worldwide is written in German.