The

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

is German, with over 95 percent of the country speaking

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the umbrella term for the standard language, standardized varieties of the German language, which are used in formal contexts and for commun ...

or a dialect of German as their

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

. This figure includes speakers of

Northern Low Saxon Northern Low Saxon (in Standard German, Standard High German: ', also ', lit. ''North(ern) Low Saxon/German''; in Dutch language, Standard Dutch: ') is a subgroup of Low Saxon dialects of Low German. As such, it covers a great part of the West ...

, a recognized minority or regional language that is not considered separately from Standard German in statistics. Recognized minority languages have official status as well, usually in their respective regions.

Language spoken at home

Neither the 1987 West German census nor the 2011 census inquired about language. Starting with the 2017 microcensus (a survey with a sampling fraction of 1% of the persons and households in Germany that supplies basic sociodemographic data and facilitates ongoing monitoring of the labor market), a question asking, "Which language is spoken predominantly in your household?" was added, nearly eighty years since the 1939 Census asked for the mother tongue of the population. According to a 2020 Pew Research survey, the most commonly spoken languages at home were: * German (90% of households) * Turkish (2% of households) * Arabic (1% of households) * Other (6% of households) The questionnaire did not distinguish Standard German from

German dialects German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant s ...

German dialects

The German language area is characterized by a range of different dialects. There is a written and spoken standard language but there are also large differences in the usage of the standard and the local dialects. The flight and expulsion of Germans broke down the isolation of dialect areas. In 1959, 20% of West Germans were expellees or refugees. The colloquial speech is a compromise between Standard German and the dialect.

Northern Germany Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...

(the

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

area) is characterized by a loss of dialects: standard German is the vernacular, with very few regional features even in informal situations. In Central Germany (the Middle German area) there is a tendency towards dialect loss. In Southern Germany (the Upper German area) dialects are still in use. Dialects are declining in all regions except for

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. In 2008, 45% of

Bavarians Bavarians are a Germans, German ethnographic group native to Bavaria, a state in Germany. The group's dialect or speech is known as Bavarian language, Bavarian, native to Altbayern ("Old Bavaria"), roughly the territory of the historic Electo ...

claimed to use only Bavarian in everyday communication.

Minority languages

Recognized minority languages include: * Romani (0.8%) * Danish (0.06%) * North Frisian (0.01%) and Saterland Frisian * Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian (0.01%)

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

States of Germany The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

preserve primary competence in minority language policies leading to certain variations in the level of protection of minority languages around the country. While German Federal Government, unwilling to intrude on state rights, maintain position that no specific nationwide law on minority languages is needed, the Committee of Experts on the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, t ...

believes that federal law may lead to positive harmonization. Germany ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on 16 September 1998 for the following languages in respect of specific Länder: * Romani (across Germany) * Danish (in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

) *

(part III in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

and

); (part II in

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, Northrhine-Westphalia and

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

) * North Frisian (in Schleswig-Holstein) * Saterland Frisian (in

) * Upper Sorbian (in the Free State of Saxony) * Lower Sorbian (in

)

Immigrant languages

Germany has a large immigrant population, accounting for about one-fifth to one-fourth of the country’s total population. Besides German and English, many immigrant languages are spoken due to historical migration waves. These figures are based on data from the 2023 microcensus conducted by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany. Based on language family and population, these languages are: Afro-Asiatic language Family *

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: Approximately 1,462,000 speakers. Austroasiatic Language Family * Vietnamese: Approximately 160,000 speakers. Dravidian Language Family * Tamil Indo-European language Family * Russian: Approximately 1,895,000 speakers. * Polish: Approximately 1,024,000 speakers. * English: Approximately 1,010,000 speakers. * Romanian: Approximately 762,000 speakers. * Ukrainian: Approximately 604,000 speakers. * Albanian: Approximately 597,000 speakers. * Kurdish: Approximately 574,000 speakers. * Italian: Approximately 536,000 speakers. * Persian: Approximately 448,000 speakers. * Croatian: Approximately 410,000 speakers. * Spanish: Approximately 336,000 speakers. * Greek: Approximately 301,000 speakers. * Serbian: Approximately 294,000 speakers. * Bosnian: Approximately 256,000 speakers. * Bulgarian: Approximately 232,000 speakers. * French: Approximately 192,000 speakers. * Portuguese: Approximately 166,000 speakers. * Macedonian: Approximately 102,000 speakers. * Dutch: Approximately 102,000 speakers. *

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: Approximately 97,000 speakers. *

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: Approximately 80,000 speakers. *

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

: Approximately 48,000 speakers. * Lithuanian Sino-Tibetan Language Family * Chinese: Approximately 166,000 speakers. Turkic language Family * Turkish: Approximately 2,128,000 speakers. Uralic Language Family * Hungarian: Approximately 217,000 speakers.

Second languages

At least 81% of the German primary and secondary students were learning English as their first foreign language in 2017. However, German schoolchildren generally do not speak English as proficiently as their Scandinavian counterparts and, in some cases, French or

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

are taught first. According to a 2020 analysis conducted by

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...

using 2017 data from

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

, the most popular non-English foreign languages learned in German primary and secondary schools were French (15%), Spanish (5%) and Russian (1%), with others garnering less than 1% each. During the existence of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, 1949–1990), the most common second language taught there was Russian, while English and French were the preferred second languages taught in schools in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Several bilingual kindergartens and schools exist in Germany offering education in German and English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, and other languages.

References

External Links

* {{Minority languages of Europe German language Culture of Germany