The standardized West Germanic language of Germany, Austria, and most of Switzerland — built on Luther's Bible translation and refined into one of Europe's most influential languages.
Where it’s spoken
Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is the official language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein, and co-official in Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Belgium. It coexists with regional dialects — Bavarian, Swabian, Saxon, Swiss German — some of which are not mutually intelligible with the standard. Significant German-speaking minorities live in Italy’s South Tyrol, Namibia, and Brazil.
What it sounds like
German is famous for compound nouns (Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän), final-obstruent devoicing (Bund sounds like Bunt), and the front rounded vowels ü and ö. Stress typically falls on the first syllable of native roots. The “ch” sound has two allophones: the soft front ich-Laut and the velar ach-Laut.
How it’s written
German uses the Latin alphabet plus the umlauted vowels ä, ö, ü and the eszett ß (used in Germany and Austria, replaced by ss in Switzerland). All nouns are capitalized — a holdover from the early modern period.
History
The orthographic standardization of German was driven by Luther’s 1534 Bible translation, which blended East Central German with northern dialect features. The 1996 spelling reform updated conventions across the German-speaking world.
Find more languages by letter
Standard German starts with S and ends with N. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Standard German":