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The German Language
About 120 million people who live between Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Denmark have German as their mothertoungue, which results in German being one of the central languages of the EU.Dialects and History
In the past, Germany was part of the Asburgic Empire, which was divided in many regions reaching vast areas in Western Europe. In each region, a different dialect was spoken, so it was possible that standard German, which was mainly used in business and commerce, was unknown in some areas of the Empire. The dialects were sometimes unintelligible one with the other, so that the linguistic situation of the time was far from being homogeneous.Literary works brought the first form of standardization of German, as they were written in a language that could be understood by the greatest number of people. The next step was Luther's translation of the Bible, which for some regions was published together with a list of words translated to the regional dialect. Luther's book was not accepted by the Church, which published many subsequent versions contributing to the shaping of the language. At the end of the 19th century, many German Universities were set up in Europe as well as in Northern America and German acquired prestige as the language of education. A decisive moment in the standardization of the language was with the first German dicitonary, which the Grimms' brothers started writing in 1870 (a task which didn't end until 1960). A few years later, it was published the Duden handbook, which was very useful to solve grammar and ortography doubts. German became a complete language only at the end of the 20th century, when it underwent a spelling reform (1998).
In the 21th century, Hochdeutsch was the name which was attributed to Standard German; nowadays, this language is used in business and tourism, while in different regions inside Germany and in the rest of the countries where German is spoken there are a number of dialects, smaller and more fragmented lingusitic identities. For instance, Austrian German and the German of Northern Germany use different words: "Eine Mücke" is a "house fly" in the first variety but a mosquito in the second. Given to its variation and the numerous changes, German has been defined a pluricentric language.
Grammar
Did you know that the more a language is fascinating, the trickiest is its grammar?..or at least this is the golden rule for German.German has its roots in Latin, of which the complicated grammar is not a secret, but, different from latin, in German nouns inflect not only in their ending, but also in the stem. So, if you are a beginner, you can understand that conjugations are not a piece of cake, not to mention the four cases and more than 200 irregular verbs...if all this has already driven you crazy, be prepared because the worst is yet to arrive. To coniugate adjectives there are several possibilities: each adjective goes with an article..if the article corresponds to the dictionary enter (i.e. der, die, respectevly the masculine and femenine for the definitive article "a"), then the adjective ends in "e"; if the article does not correspond to the dictionary enter (des, den), the adjective ends in "en"..but there is a third possibility: that there is no article in front of the adjective..in this case, you have to look at the gender case...Has this little introduction to German grammar been enough? Are you happy with this panoramic view? come on, it's time to start learning it with serious intentions.
German Slang
All languages have their funniest part, and slang can be considered one of these...have a good time learning the language of German youngsters!If in germany you meet the woman of your dreams, it could be necessary to bring her out for dinner more than once...We really hope you'll never tell her "In meinem Geldbeutel herscht Ebbe", that although is a nice expression, is a way of saying "My finances are at a pretty low ebb at the moment".
Many students at University might say this:
- Gas geben - To step on the gas; make an effort: Der Kursus oedet mich an, aber nun muss ich Gas geben, damit ich die Pruefung bestehe - The course bores me, but now I´ve to hustle to get the exam.
This is an adjective a dad would use in a family situation:
- Chaot; chaotisch - chaotin; chaotic: In deinem Zimmer sieht es chaotisch aus. - Your room looks chaotic.
When the winter snows are gone, summers can be really hot. To express that something is extreme you can use the following:
- Irre - extremely: Es war irre heiss, aber wir hatten eine wahnsinnig schoene Zeit - It was extremely hot, but we'd a terrific time
If you want to invite your German friends at your place, use the following ..it would sound nice to them:
- Kabaeuschen - little house/room: Kommst du mit auf mein Kabaeuschen? - You want to come to my place?
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