German as a foreign language
Semester course or intensive course? What's different?
Semester courses
German courses during the lecture-free period
The German-speaking world
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Dark orange: Official language/native language
Light Orange: Second language or unofficial language
Orange squares: German minority
Source: Wikipedia
Definition
The term "German language and its dialects" today refers to the standard German language (standard High German), the Central German and Upper German dialects as well as the Lower German language varieties in Germany.
In the broader sense, German Sign Language is also one of the German languages.
Luxembourgish, historical predecessor languages, and some of the mixed languages (e.g. Missingsch) and dialects (e.g. Pennsylvania Dutsch, Kollumerpompsters) are also from the dialect continuum.
Yiddish, which goes back to Middle High German and developed under Slavic and Hebrew influences, creating its own written language, as well as the Creole language Unserdeutsch, which is lexically based on High German dialects, are independent languages.
Dissemination of the German language
| Country | Number of speakers | Accents and language variations |
| Argentina | 330,000-350,000; about 1.5 million of German origin. | Belgrando German |
| Australia | 200,000 or more; 2 million ethnic Germans (mainly around Adelaide). | |
| Belgium | 78.000 (in East Belgium, occasionally also in Areler Land); however, this number increases with the inclusion of native speakers of Lower Franconian dialects and languages such as Limburg. German is one of the three official languages of Belgium along with Dutch and French. | |
| Brazil | 850,000-900,000; 2-5 million of German origin. | Riograndenser Hunsrückisch; German speakers in Latin America |
| Chile | 20,000 | Launa-German |
| Denmark | 15,000 | |
| Germany | About 76-77 million who have German (including Low German) as their native language. German is the legal official language. | |
| Dominican Republic | 30,000 (German residents according to www.spiegel.de) | |
| France | 1,200,000 Alsatians and Lorraineans | |
| Greece | 45,000 | |
| Ireland | 100,000 | |
| Israel | 200,000 | Yiddish |
| Italy | 333,000; German is the legal official language in South Tyrol together with Italian and Ladin. | Zimbern |
| Canada | 438,000; 2.8 million of German origin. | |
| Kazakhstan | 358,000 | Kazakh Germans |
| Kyrgyzstan | 20,000 | Kyrgyz Germans |
| Croatia | 11,000 | Donauschwaben, tourist immigration |
| Liechtenstein | 34,600; German is the sole official language. | The colloquial language is Liechtensteinic, an Alemannic dialect and closely related to the Swiss-German and Vorarlberg dialects. |
| Luxembourg | 474,000 (High German is the official language together with the Central German Luxembourgish and French). | |
| Mexico | 80,000-90,000 | |
| Namibia | 30,000 | |
| Netherlands | 500,000 | Lower German (Niedersächsisch) including various dialects (e.g. Gronings). There are also 386,000 Germans living in the Netherlands and, depending on the disputed linguistic classification, speakers of other dialects or languages (see Lower Franconian, Limburg). |
| Austria | 7.57 million German-speaking Austrians; German as legal official language. | |
| Paraguay | Over 250,000 people of German origin, of whom a maximum of 100,000 are German speakers. | Mennonites, German speakers in Latin America. |
| Poland | 150,000; Mainly remains of the German population before 1945 in Silesia. | |
| Romania | 45,000 | Transylvanian Saxons, Banater Swabians, Donauschwaben, Sathmarer Swabians. |
| Russia | 75,000 (European part); 767,300 (Siberia). | German-Russians |
| Sweden | High German and Yiddish are the native languages of about 20,000 Swedes. | Yiddish is protected as a minority language in Sweden. |
| Switzerland | 5 million (67% of the Swiss population); German is the official legal language with French, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romanic). | Swiss German, a collective term for various forms of the German dialect Alemannic. |
| Serbia | 5,000 | Donauschwaben in Vojvodina. |
| Slovakia | 5,500 | Carpathian Germans |
| Spain | 100,000 (tourist immigration, including 60,000 in the Balearic Islands alone). | |
| South Africa | 300,000-500,000 (100,000 with German passports, 1 million of German origin). | |
| Thailand | 25,000 | |
| Czech Republic | 30,000 (remains of the Sudeten Germans and Hultschins). | |
| Turkey | 25,000 | |
| Ukraine | 35,000 | |
| Hungary | 35,000-200,000 | Hungarian Germans, Danube Swabians |
| United States of America | 6.1 million; 60 million of German origin (mainly in North and South Dakota). | Pennsylvaniadeitsch or "Pennsylvania Dutch,” Texas German, Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites. |
| Great Britain | 230,000 | |
| Recognized minority language in: | ||
| Denmark | 15,000 (members of the German ethnic group in North Schleswig who enjoy minority language rights). However, an estimated two-thirds of them use the South Jutland dialect of Danish as their colloquial language and German as their high-level language. | |
| Hungary | Approximately 200,000, but in fact at most about 50,000 of them are German native speakers (about 0.5 % of the total population). The German minority in Hungary (Hungarian-German) enjoys minority rights, but is already largely assimilated, especially in the younger generations, so that German is mostly only learned as a foreign language. | |
| Romania | About 40,000 to 50,000 German native speakers, which corresponds to about 0.2 to 0.3% of the Romanian population. | Transylvanian Saxons, Danube Swabians |
| Slovakia | 5,500 | Carpathian Germans |
| Czech Republic | About 41,200 (0.4 % of the total population) | Remains of the Sudeten Germans who escaped expulsion after the Second World War. However, the term "Sudeten German" is no longer in use; instead, the term "German in the Czech Republic" is usually used. |
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