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German belongs to the Western
group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of
the world's major languages spoken by an estimated 95 million native and 28
million second language speakers in some 40 countries around the world (Ethnologue).
German diverged from other Germanic languages by a sound change called the
Second Germanic Sound Shift that occurred in the 3rd-5th centuries and was
probably completed by the 9th century AD. Its effect can be seen by comparing
modern German words with their English counterparts, e.g., pound-Pfund, apple-Apfel,
cat-Katze, heart-Herz, make-machen. The Second Sound Shift divided Germany into
a smaller Northern part (without the sound shift) and a larger central and
Southern part (with the sound shift). The border between the two regions
approximates a line through Cologne (Köln) and Berlin. The other countries where
German is spoken are all south of this line. Since the part of Germany where
there was no Second Sound Shift are the North German Lowlands, their language is
called Low German as distinct from High German spoken in the areas where the
sound change occurred.
Word order
The neutral word order in German is Subject-Verb-Object.
However, other orders are also possible because inflectional endings mark
grammatical roles in the sentence making them clear. Word order is principally
determined by topic (what the sentence is about, or old
information) and comment (new information). Constituents with
old information (topic) precede constituents with new information (comment).
Additionally, no matter which element begins a German statement, the verb is
always the second element.
Dictionary of German words and related German
Language resources
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LEO
English/German Dictionary - Allows two-way searches for over
300,000 words and phrases. Several options available.
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The
Alternative German Dictionary - A glossary of slang and obscenities.
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Babylonia Computer Science Dictionary - Large glossary of computer
terms for translation from English.
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Basic
Word List English - German - Two vocabulary lists with a total of
about 1700 basic words.
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Beilstein Dictionary - Two-way glossary of organic chemistry
terminology.
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Canoo.net German
Dictionaries - Meta-search of several dictionaries and a linguistic
glossary. Allows lookup of keywords, linguistic terms, and affixes, and
compound words.
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Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon - Categorized, searchable
glossary featuring images.
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Dict.cc
- Two-way lookup with over 350,000 keywords. User contributions are
encouraged.
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English-German Dictionary - Online lookup.
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English-German Dictionary of Common Computing Terms - Specialized,
one-way word list.
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English-German Idiom Dictionary - Searchable, alphabetized glossary
of over 4400 phrases.
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Excavation Dictionary
- Specialized two-way dictionary for archaeologists. Browsable by first
letter only.
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Foreign Language Master - Includes online Java and HTML versions as
well as Windows and Amiga versions for download.
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FreeDic
- Birectional German-English dictionary with 240,000 terms covering the
most common vocabulary. From publisher Sprachendienst. Requires
JavaScript.
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German <-> English Dictionary - Two-way word translator with
about 165,000 entries and several search options. From the Chemnitz
University of Technology.
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German-English Music Dictionary - Glossary with over 2000 entries.
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How to Swear in
German - Glossary of insults and swear words with English
translations and sound files.
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Library
Glossary - Contains approximately 90,000 technical terms and
abbreviations about libraries, books, and data processing.
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LinguaDict -
Allows two-way searches of over 512,000 entries. Includes several search
options. Requires JavaScript.
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The New English-German Dictionary - Includes more than 190,000
translations, lists of strong verbs and abbreviations, and a Windows
version for download.
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Online
Dictionary: English to German - Word translators to and from
English.
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QuickDic - Two-way word
translator with several options. Windows version available for download.
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Transgem
- Technical online lookup which uses translated texts to provide
corresponding meanings for words and phrases. Requires JavaScript.
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UsefulGerman.com - Glossary of abbreviations, geographical names,
numbers, and expressions of time. |
Related Popular Terms for searching to get more
resources
Dialects
There is considerable variation among German dialects.
All German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German to Low
German. Only neighboring dialects are mutually intelligible. Many dialects are
not comprehensible to those who speak standard German. Low German dialects are
more closely related to Dutch than to High German dialects. High German
dialects, spoken in the upper Rhine region, are divided into Middle German and
Upper German. Standard German is one High German variety, which developed in
Saxony, and accepted as the written standard in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Austrian and Swiss German are based on Upper German. The High German dialects
spoken by Ashkenazi Jews have several unique features, and are usually
considered to be a separate language, called Yiddish. The German dialects spoken
in colonies founded by German-speaking people were based on the regional
dialects spoken by the original colonists, e.g., Pennsylvania German
(erroneously called Dutch instead of Deutsch) is based on the dialects of the
Palatinate region of Germany.
Vocabulary
Most German words are derived from Old Norse. German
has also borrowed from French, and English. Much of its scientific terminology
has Greek and Latin roots. The latest source of loanwords is English. Words are
frequently formed by compounding native components, e.g., Weihnachtsmann,
(literally "'Holy Night Man", i.e., "Santa Claus").
Below are some common words and phrases in German.
Hallo Hello
Auf Wiedersehen Good bye
Bitte Please
Danke Thank you
Entschuldigung Excuse me
Ja Yes
Nein No
Mann Man
Frau Woman
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