German is basically a language which is the native language of Germany. There are more than 110 million people who speak and read or write German so it is obvious that it is one of the world’s major languages. This popularity of German language was enhanced after World War II when Germany defeated France and even in French schools German was compulsory language and no one was allowed to speak any other language than German even in their day to day life! This shows the love of Germans for their language.
1. Origin
German language is very close to English because it was originated from an ancient European language which was called Proto- Germanic language.
2. History of modern German
History shows that ancient German language (before the division of Germany in several states) was very difficult and had hard and fast rules to speak, read or write so in the first decade of 19th century this language was revised a bit. This whole process is known as shift of the language from old high to high German and from high to modern High German.
3. Major language
It is the second most popular language of world and the event of voting between German and English, English secured the victory by just one vote!
4. Mixture of languages
Modern German is not an entirely separate language, but it’s a mixture of English, old and high Germanic languages.
5. Regions
It is spoken not only in Germany but also in Switzerland, Italy, few parts of America and several parts of Europe as well.
6. First text book
The first text book, in printed form, was in German and it was translation of bible. So German can also be rewarded for our introduction and recognition to printed books today!
7. Asian region
Though German comes right after English, still it is very interesting to know that in most of the Asian countries (especially in south Asia) most of the people do not know even a single word of German.
8. Easily learned language
German comes in top three most and easily learned language in the world. One of its reasons can be its high association with English.
9. German quotes
German quotes are world famous and today most of the quotes and proverbs are translation of German quotes.
10. Different in grammar
It is interesting that unlike other languages German has 3 genders.