German language

German is the language of Germany, Austria, Liechstenstein, much of Switzerland and parts of Belgium, Italy and Denmark. It is also used in Luxembourg for various official purposes. Hochdeutsch, 'High German', is the version of the language commonly taught in German and Austrian schools and used by business, and government. German belongs to the group of Western Germanic languages. It is characterized by the Second Germanic consonant shift (the 'High German consonant shift'), which distinguishes High German dialects from all the other Germanic languages.

There also exist many German dialects, spoken throughout Germany, Austria and elsewhere. Over 100 million people count some variety of German as a native language, and it remains an important second language for millions more, from Americans interested in the language as a link to their forefathers, to businesspeople, politicians and students who need to communicate with their customers, colleagues and peers. There is also a large corpus of writings, in German, about literature, philosophy, psychology, mathematics, and other fields, that is of interest to a wide international audience.

Hochdeutsch

Hochdeutsch ('High German') is the German dialect encountered by most second language learners, and by native speakers in school. It has considerable prestige because it is used in education, business, government, and literature.

It is the 'standard' variety of the language, but is not necessarily the speech of everyday conversation in such countries as Germany, where regional dialects differ considerably. In Switzerland, standard German is even less likely to be the preferred choice amongst native Swiss German speakers, and is largely confined to print, broadcasting and formal lectures. Because Hochdeutsch has an alternate specialised meaning amongst linguists (pertaining to a specific group of Germanic dialects in one particular region), Standarddeutsch may be used to refer to the German language of officialdom.

Spelling reform of 1996

The Rechtschreibreform of July 1996 standardised the orthography (spelling) of the standard German language by the governments of Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland where German is an official language. (Luxembourg did not agree to this standardisation, but the autonomous province of Bozen-Südtirol in Italy and also the German speaking communes of Belgium did). However, these moves towards standardisation are still controversial and many respected institutions, journals and newspapers still preserve (or have returned to) their old 'house styles' of German and German spelling. Although German spelling was already far more regular than that of English, these codified differences in some ways mirror those between American and Commonwealth varieties of English.