History of the German Language: Everything You Need to Know

When talking about a language with an interesting story, the German language is always considered. The history of German is a fascinating story that shows how diversity impacts a language over time. With time, the new German words came from foreign languages and this brought great changes in the language.

The German language is popular because of its encounters with immigrants, business partners, technology, and the internet.

The German language is spoken by 121 million native speakers and has around 80 million non-native speakers.

With this, the German language is the tenth most spoken language worldwide.

Speaking German is especially popular in Europe and it is called birthplace of the German language.

After this, it spread and now become widely spoken across many EU countries.

Therefore, it is the official language in Germany, Lichtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Those who demand global business expansion always prefer to enter the German market.

By being one of the official languages of the European Union and the 2nd most spoken language in Europe, seeking German translation can provide great access to this huge audience.

German Language Origin

To know the history, there is a need to go back to 750 BCE, which is called as “Germanic Sound Shift”.

The German language was earlier used by German region tribes.

After, when the Romans arrived in 55 BCE, the German language experienced an expansion in vocabulary and was influenced heavily by Latin.

The history of German goes back to the Indo-European family of languages and falls into three main periods

● Old German (c. AD 750-c.AD 1050)

● Middle German (c.1050-c.1500)

● Modern German (c.1500 to the present)

In AD 750, the local dialects were utilized during writing and there were no particular standards in the language.

In the middle period, there come development in uniform written communication and with more changes, it has become Modern German that is used nowadays.

1- Old High German 600 – 1050 CE

Today, several language translators are not aware of the old German language.

To the time when Christianity rose to prominence in the fourth century, it was primarily responsible for passing on languages.

This brings the historical narrative that the German language was brought to approximately 600 CE.

2- Middle High German 1050 – 1500 CE

In 1050 CE, German-speaking regions were split into distinct local dialects and the new German language grew.

This brought a new language with a different blend of dialects where Middle High German replaced Latin.

With this, the Middle High German was commonly used in official works at the time.

3- Modern German( 1500 CE – Present)

The modern German period is typically said to start by Luther, which became the idea of recent German.

This helped in the spread of uniformity in written German which was also helped by printers.

During the 18th century, the modern standard German gain shape as it is today.

So, there is a huge demand for consistent translation solutions near me that serves in the sector of education and literature.

As there were so many dialectal differences within both old German and middle German, the trend toward uniformity in modern German brought great results.

With time, German-speaking people also increase, the usage of German language also increased.

With its prominence in Europe, the German language is highly considered by businesses that are operating in Europe.

German Language Writing System

The written German language date back to the 8th century AD and this includes several writings.

One of the well-known writing includes consisting poem “The Song of Hildebrand”.

German is also the only major language that capitalizes all nouns.

This was common in Northern European languages until the 1700s and therefore, it persisted throughout the history of German.

When getting chief German translation solutions, the unique grammatical rule stands highly important.

Here are common facts about the German language:

● Speaking and reading German is easy once you know the spelling rules.

● Pronunciation of every word can be derived from the writing system.

● Spelling in the German language changed a lot such as addition of ẞ to replace “ss” in the German language.

Growing German-Speaking Communities

German people migrated over the last 200 years and established the largest German-speaking communities in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.

Like other languages, the German language is constantly evolving throughout the history.

There is the addition of new vocabulary and sometimes grammar rules also get changed in significant ways in Modern German.

German language that people speak today has changed a lot from the time it originated because of the consonant shift.

So, whenever any business thinks about particular product launch checklist, choosing professional translation comes as the top priority.

This is to make the German translation by considering the right dialect.

Here are the reasons for a shift in the language

● Shift is a phonological development with changes in pronouncing consonants differently.

● With time, German people began speaking differently under various influences.

● Surrounding different regions and areas within Germany.

The German language was also heavily influenced by place around and standard German spelling remained virtually unchanged until 1998.

Afterward, governmental authorities formally adopted the German spelling revision from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.

This was the new change and emergence of German language.

Conclusion

There has been a vast history of German culture and this has influenced the German language a lot.

But still, the German language continues to maintain its leading position in Europe.

As the number of people speaking German is increasing, businesses are considering prominent translation solutions in Pune to easily interact with the German audience.

Using German translation makes it easy to attract a diverse audience and improve global prospects. If you are in search of highly accurate and professional German translation solutions, contact us at +91-8527599523 or quickly send us a instant quote.