German language

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{{Infobox Language |name=German |nativename=Deutsch |familycolor=Indo-European |pronunciation=/dɔʏtʃ/ |states=Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Italy, France, Luxembourg, and 37 other countries. |region=Central Europe, Western Europe |speakers=Native speakers: 110 million
Second language: 128 million |rank=11 |fam1=Indo-European |fam2=Germanic |fam3=West Germanic |fam4=High Germanic |script=Latin alphabet (German variant) |nation=Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, European Union. Regional or local official language in: Denmark, Italy, (Official language of Namibia until 1990). |iso1=de|iso2b=ger|iso2t=deu|iso3=deu|sil=GER}}

German (Template:Audio) is a member of the western group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Spoken by more than 120 million people in 38 countries of the world, German is — like English and French — a pluricentric language with Germany, Austria and Switzerland as the three main centers of usage.

Worldwide, German accounts for the most written translations into and from a language. Furthermore it belongs to the three most learned and to the ten most spoken languages worldwide (according to the Guinness Book of Records).

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Geographic distribution

Image:Map German World.png German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in two-thirds of the South Tyrol province of Italy (in German, Südtirol), in the small East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark.

In Luxembourg (in German, Luxemburg), as well as in the French régions of Alsace (in German, Elsass) and parts of Lorraine (in German, Lothringen), the native populations speak several German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced the local German dialects in the last 40 years.

Some German speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although massive relocations to Germany in the late 1940s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Scandinavia.

Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German speaking communities are to be found in the U.S., Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the great majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German speaking communities are to be found in the former German colony of Namibia, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloniero developed), South Africa, Thailand, and Australia. See also Plautdietsch.

In the USA, the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites and some Mennonites speak Pennsylvania German and Hutterite German), Texas (Texas German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin and Indiana. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati. Most of the post Second World War wave are in the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago urban areas, and in Florida. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed), Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo. Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly due to the fact that for German speakers, English is easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish.

In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country and especially in the west as well as in Ontario. There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario.

German is the main language of about 100 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). German is the third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the USA (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign language in the EU (after English; see [1]) It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the EU, along with English and French.

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History

Template:Main The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration period, separating South Germanic dialects from common West Germanic. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low German should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire.

As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardisation of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area.

When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on this already developed language, which was the most widely understood language at this time. This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterit tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) — which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German.

German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava (German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages.

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Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region.

Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas which speak only dialect, for example Switzerland. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age.

The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spelling co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the heated public debate concerning the reform.

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Classification and related languages

Image:FrancLowUpperHigh.PNG Image:DutchGerman.PNG German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family.

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Neighboring languages

In these modern days Germany is surrounded by language borders, in the north by the Frisian and Danish; in the east Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian; in the south Slovenian, Italian, Friulian, Ladin, and Romansh; in the west French and Dutch. Except for Frisian and Dutch, none of these languages are West Germanic, and so they are clearly distinct from German. Frisian, after Scots, the closest related living language to English; and Dutch, the closest related living language to German are generally considered not to be mutually intelligible with German. Although a dialect continuum still exists at certain places along the Dutch-German language border this is fading away because of standardisation in both countries, as can be seen in the pictures to the right in which the dialectal borders and the standard borders can be seen.

While German is grammatically quite similar to Dutch in many ways, it is very different in speech. Speakers of one, especially Germans, require practice to effectively understand a speaker of the other. Compare, for example:

De kleinste kameleon is volwassen 2 cm groot, de grootste kan wel 80 cm lang worden. (Dutch)

Das kleinste Chamäleon ist ausgewachsen 2 cm groß, das größte kann gut 80 cm lang werden. (German)

(English: "The smallest chameleon is fully grown 2 cm long, the longest can easily attain 80 cm.")

Dutch speakers are generally able to read German, and German speakers who can speak Low German or English are generally able to read Dutch, but have problems understanding the spoken language. Germans who speak High German, or, even better, Low German, can cope with Dutch much better than people from Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria who have grown up with the Alemannic or Bavarian dialects.

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Official status

Image:D-A-CH Flag.svg Standard German is the only official language in Germany, Liechtenstein, and Austria; it shares official status in Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in German-speaking regions of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, and Poland. It is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union.

It is also a minority language in Poland, Canada, France, Russia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Togo, Cameroon, the USA, Namibia, Brazil, Paraguay, Hungary, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Croatia, Ukraine, Argentina, and Australia.

German was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe, but first Russian and now English have assumed much of this role. However, German remains one of the most popular foreign languages taught world-wide, and is more popular than French as a foreign language in Europe. 8% of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German, in addition to the 24% who speak German as a mother tongue.[2] This is assisted by the availability of German TV by cable or satellite, where series like Star Trek are shown dubbed into German.

German is also the second language of the Internet. More than 8% of websites are written in German, English 50%, French 6%, Japanese 5%, Spanish 3% and Portuguese 2%.

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Dialects

Main article German dialects

Related article: Dutch dialects

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German and Germanic

The term "German" in German dialects is not to be mistaken by "Standard German". German, in this context refers to the ancestor of all continental West Germanic languages (excluding Frisian), it is just coincidence that "Standard German" and German in the sense as described above share the same name. A little known fact by most non-linguists is that not High German (and its Upper and Central dialects) but Low German dialects and the Dutch language are the closest related languages to this 'German' language as they did not participate in the High German consonant shift. "Germanic" is used, to help non-linguists grasp this tricky concept. Not that the term is false in any sense though. High and Low German languages are the only Germanic language capable to be indentified as such. 'German' as explained previously could also be described as "The ancestor of all West Germanic languages excluding the Anglo-Frisian group".

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Dialects in Germany

The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually understandable. Some dialects are not understandable for someone who knows standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low German (Platt) languages. In the past (roughly till the end of the second world war) there was a dialect continuum of all the continental West Germanic languages because nearly any pair of neighbouring dialects were perfectly mutually intelligible.

Image:GermanicDialectAreas.PNG

The dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages is typically divided into Low Germanic languages and High Germanic languages.

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Low Germanic / Low German

Low Germanic is defined as the varieties that were not affected by the High German consonant shift. They consist of two subgroups, Low Franconian and Low German. Low Franconian includes Dutch and Afrikaans, spoken primarily in the Netherlands, Belgium, Surinam and South Africa; Low German includes dialects spoken primarily in the German Lowlands and in the eastern Netherlands. The Low German varieties (spoken on German territory) are considered dialects of the High German language by some, but a separate language by others; the Low Franconian varieties are not considered a part of the German language, in fact the Dutch language (chief member of the Low Franconian group) is dated older than the High German language.

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High Germanic / High German

High Germanic is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Hessian, Thuringian and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the usual German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German.

The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardized and institutionalized and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish.

Upper German dialects include Alemannic (for instance Swiss German), Swabian, East Franconian, and Austro-Bavarian. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.

The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script.

The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia, while Venezuelan Alemán Coloniero is a Low Alemannic variant.

In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers (German Brazilians) are in Rio Grande do Sul, where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed, especially in the areas of Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo.

In the United States, the teaching of the German language to latter-age students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language. It is often understandable by either party. The speakers of this language often refer to it as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch, although it is known in English as American German.However, this is a pidgin, not a dialect.

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Standard German

Template:Main In German linguistics, only the traditional regional varieties are called dialects, not the different varieties of standard German.

Standard German has originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German (especially in major cities of Germany, and to some extent in Vienna).

Standard German differs regionally, especially between German-speaking countries, especially in vocabulary, but also in some instances of pronunciation and even grammar. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language.

In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectical varieties to more standard varieties according to situation.

In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is almost entirely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Standard German is rarely spoken, for instance when speaking with people who do not understand the Swiss German dialects at all, and it is expected to be used in school.

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Grammar

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German is an inflected language.

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Noun inflection

German nouns inflect into:

one of four declension classes
one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Word endings indicate some grammatical genders; others are arbitrary and must be memorised.
two numbers: singular and plural
four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative case.

Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, it should be noted that the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in Icelandic today. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. This dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, six inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -en, -ns, -e

In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalized, which makes it quite easy for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence. On the other hand, things get more difficult for the writer. This spelling convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxembourgish language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish), too.

Like most Germanic languages, German forms left-branching noun compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: Hundehütte (eng. doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest official German word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. There is even a child's game played in kindergartens and primary schools where a child begins the spelling of a word (which is not told) by naming the first letter. The next one tells the next letter, the third one tells the third and so on. The game is over when the a child cannot think of another letter to be added to the word (see Ghost).

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Verb inflection

Standard German verbs inflect into:

one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English).

(Note: in fact there is a third class, called "gemischte Verben", which can be either weak ("active meaning") or strong ("passive meaning"). There are about 200 strong or irregular verbs.)

three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
two numbers: singular and plural
three moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative
two genera verbi: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic.
two non-composed tenses (Present, Preterite) and four composed tenses (Perfect, Plusquamperfect, Future I, Future II)
no distinction between grammatical aspects (in English, perfect and progressive; in Polish between completed and incompleted form; in Turkish between first-hand and second-hand information)

There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through several prefixes. Examples: haften=to stick, verhaften=to imprison; kaufen=to buy, verkaufen=to sell; hören=to hear, aufhören=to cease.

The word order is much more flexible than in English. The word order can be changed for subtle changes of a sentence's meaning. In normal positive sentences the verb always has position 2, in questions it has position 1.

Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, French, and most recently English (which is known as Germish).

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Writing system

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German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö and ü, as well as a special symbol for "ss", the Eszett or Scharfes-S (sharp "s") ß. In traditional German spelling, ß replaces inseparable "ss" before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings, while it appears only after long vowels or diphthongs in reform spelling, that is, in places, where it originally replaced sz. ß is not used at all in Switzerland.

Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and Sütterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however are claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish.

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Phonology

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Cognates with English

There are many German words that are cognate to English words. Most of them are easily identifiable and have almost the same meaning.

German	Meaning of German word	English cognate
best-	best	best
Bett	bed	bed
Bier	beer	beer
Bub (regional)	boy	boy
essen	to eat	to eat
Finger	finger	finger
haben	to have	to have
Haus	house	house
Katze	cat	cat
Laus	louse	louse
Läuse	lice	lice
Butter	butter	butter
Milch	milk	milk
lachen	to laugh	to laugh
Maus	mouse	mouse
Mäuse	mice	mice
Nacht	night	night
Pfeife	pipe	pipe, fife
Schiff	ship	ship
singen, sang, gesungen	sing, sang, sung	sing, sang, sung
sinken, sank, gesunken	sink, sank, sunken	sink, sank, sunk
fallen, fiel, gefallen	fall, fell, fallen	fall, fell, fallen
hören	to hear	hear
schwimmen	to swim	swim
Tag	day	day
Wetter	weather	weather
Wille	will (noun)	will
Sommer	summer	summer
Winter	winter	winter

When these cognates have slightly different consonants, this is often due to the High German consonant shift.

There are cognates whose meanings in either language have changed through the centuries. It is sometimes difficult for both English and German speakers to discern the relationship. On the other hand, once the definitions are made clear, then the logical relation becomes obvious.

German	Meaning of German word	English cognate	Comment
Baum	tree	beam	Both derive from Old High German boum meaning "tree". It is the English one which, in Anglo-Saxon and Old English, has radically changed its meaning several times.
bekommen	to get	to become
drehen	to turn	to throw	cf. to "throw" (make) a pot by turning it on a wheel
ernten	to harvest	to earn
fechten	to fence (sport)	to fight
Gift	poison	gift
Hund	dog	hound
kaufen	to buy	cheap, chapman
Knabe (formal)	boy	knave
Knecht	servant	knight
Kopf	head	cup	Latin cuppa 'bowl'; cf. French tête, from Latin testa 'shell/bowl'
nehmen	take	numb	sensation has been "taken away"; cf. German benommen, 'dazed'
raten	to guess, to advise	to read
ritzen	to scratch	to write
Schmerz	pain	smart	coll. AmE verb smart retains this meaning
rächen	to take revenge	to wreak (havoc)
Tisch	table	dish, desk	Latin discus
Wald	forest	weald
werden	to become	weird	see wyrd
werfen	throw	to warp
Zeit	time	tide	the root is re-used in German Gezeiten as Tiden ('tides')

German and English also share many borrowings from other languages, especially Latin, French and Greek. Most of these word have the same meaning, while a few have subtle differences in meaning. As many of these words have been borrowed by numerous languages, not only German and English, they are called internationalisms in German linguistics.

German	Meaning of German word	language of origin
Armee	army	French
Arrangement	arrangement	French
Chance	opportunity	French
Courage	courage	French
Chuzpe	chutzpah	Yiddish
Disposition	disposition	Latin
Feuilleton	feuilleton	French
Futur	future tense	Latin
Genre	genre	French
Mikroskop	microscope	Greek
Partei	political party	French
Position	position	Latin
positiv	positive	Latin
Prestige	prestige	French
Psychologie	psychology	Greek
Religion	religion	Latin
Tabu	taboo	Tongan
Zigarre	cigar	Spanish
Zucker	sugar	Sanskrit, via Arabic

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Examples of German

Translation	Phrase	IPA
German	Deutsch	Template:IPA
Hello	Hallo	Template:IPA
Good morning	Guten Morgen	Template:IPA
Good day	Guten Tag	Template:IPA
Good evening	Guten Abend	Template:IPA
Good night	Gute Nacht	Template:IPA
Good-bye	Auf Wiedersehen	Template:IPA
Please	Bitte	Template:IPA
You are welcome	Bitte	Template:IPA
Thank you	Danke	Template:IPA
That	Das	Template:IPA
How much?	Wie viel?	Template:IPA
Yes	Ja	Template:IPA
No	Nein	Template:IPA
Where is the toilet?	Wo ist die Toilette?	Template:IPA
Generic toast	Prosit Prost	Template:IPA Template:IPA
Do you speak English?	Sprechen Sie Englisch?	Template:IPA
I do not understand	Ich verstehe nicht	Template:IPA
Excuse me	Entschuldigung	Template:IPA
I don't know	Ich weiß nicht	Template:IPA

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Names of the German language in other languages

Because of the turbulent history of both Germany and the German language, the names that other peoples have chosen to use to refer to it varies more than for most other languages.

In general, the names for the German language can be arranged in five groups according to their origin:

1. From the proto-Germanic word for "people", "folk": Afrikaans: Duits Chinese: 德語 (déyǔ) or 德意志語 (déyìzhiyǔ) Danish: tysk Dutch: Duits Faroese: týskt German: Deutsch Icelandic: þýska Italian: tedesco Medieval Latin: (lingua) Theodisca Japanese: ドイツ語, 独逸語 (doitsugo) Korean: 독일어, 獨逸語 (dogireo) Norwegian: tysk Marathi: Daitya Bhaasha Romansh: tudestg Swedish: tyska Vietnamese: tiếng Đức Yiddish: טײַטש (daytsch or daytsh)	2. From the name of the historical-geographical region Germany (Latin Germania): Albanian: gjermanishte Amharic: ጀርመን (järmän) Armenian: գերմաներեն (Germaneren) English: German Esperanto: germana lingvo Georgian: გერმანული (germanuli) Greek: Γερμανικά (jermaniká) Hebrew: גרמנית (germanit) Hindi: जर्मनी की भाशा (jarmanī kī bhāshā) Irish: Gearmáinis Malay/Indonesian: bahasa Jerman Maltese: Ġermaniż Romanian: Germană Tagalog: see entry for Tagalog below Thai: ภาษาเยอรมัน (phasa yerman)	3. From the name of the Saxonian tribe: Estonian: saksa Finnish: saksa
4. From either the Old Slavic word for "mute" or the name of the Nemetes tribe: Bulgarian: немски (nemski) Croatian: njemački Czech: němčina Hungarian: német Ottoman Turkish: nemçe Polish: niemiecki Romanian: nemţeşte Russian: немецкий (nemetskiy) Serbian: немачки / nemački Slovak: nemčina Slovenian: nemščina Ukrainian: німецька (nimetska)	5. From the name of the Alemannian tribe: Arabic: ألمانية (alimāniyyah) Basque: alemanera Breton: alamaneg Catalan: alemany French: allemand Galician: alemán Ilokano: Aleman Khmer: Image:GerKh2.png (Template:IPA) Malagasy: alema Occitan: alemand Persian: آلمانی (Âlmâni) Portuguese: alemão Spanish: alemán Tagalog: Aleman/Jerman (Latter more commonly heard in colloquial speech and increasingly on television.) Turkish: Almanca Welsh: Almaeneg	6. Possibly from the Germanic word "folk": Latvian: vācu Lithuanian: vokiečių

Lao is unique in that both under the influence of English "German" (through Thai "yeraman") and French (the colonial language) "Allemand", it chose a name in between: ພາສາເຢຍລະມັນ (phaxa yeylaman), which could be ranked both under category 2 and category 5.

Note: The Romanian language used to use in the past the Slavonic term "nemţeşte", but "Germană" is now widely used. Hungarian "német" is also a Slavonic loan-word. The Arabic name for Austria, النمسا ("an-namsa"), is derived from the Slavonic term.

A possible explanation for the use of "mute" to refer to German (and also to Germans) in Slavic languages is that Germans were the first people Slavic tribes encountered, with whom they could not communicate. The corresponding experience for the Germans was with the Volcae, whose name they subsequently also applied to the Slavs, see etymology of Vlach.

Hebrew traditionally (nowadays this is not the case) used the Biblical term Ashkenaz (Genesis 10.3) to refer to Germany, or to certain parts of it, and the Ashkenazi Jews are those who originate from Germany and Eastern Europe and formerly spoke Yiddish as their native language, derived from Middle High German.