The German Language

German is one of the world’s major languages; it is estimated that there are some 100 million native German speakers on the planet. It is also the most widely spoken first language in the EU, which equates to some 13.3% of the population.

A large part German vocabulary is derived from a branch of the Indo-European language family, while some words can be traced back to Greek, Latin, English and French. In addition to ‘Standard German’, there are also Austrian and Swiss variations, not to mention the various dialects that are to be found in various regions of all three countries.

A Global reach survey, carried out in 2004, found that 6.9% of people accessing the Internet were German, while a 2002 listing of the languages used by websites noted that 7.7% of web pages in the European group were written in German.

As far as the English speaking world is concerned, German is the third most taught foreign language, followed by French and Spanish. In terms of European languages, according to a 2004 survey, it is in second place, behind Russian and ahead of French and English, making it the most spoken first language in the EU.

Germany is the largest economy in Europe and ranked as the fourth-largest economy in the world, mostly due to its ability to attract global foreign investments.