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«About German Language»

The German language (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. German is closely related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is the official language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein. In addition, it is one of four official languages in Switzerland, and one of three commonly used in Luxembourg. There are over 100 million native speakers of German, primarily in Europe, though it is spoken regionally by native speaker minorities in many other countries.
 
German falls into three main periods: Old German (750 AD to 1050 AD); Middle German (1050 AD to 1500 AD); and Modern German (1500 AD to the present). The earliest existing records in German date back to about 750. In this first period, local dialects were used in writing, and there was no standard language. In the middle period a relatively uniform written language developed in government after the various chancelleries of the Holy Roman Empire began to use a combination of certain dialects of Middle High German in place of the Latin that until then had dominated official writings (This was during the 14 Century).

During the 18th century a number of outstanding writers gave modern standard German essentially the form it has today. It is now the language of church and state, education and literature. A corresponding norm for spoken High German, influenced by the written standard, is used in education, the theater, and broadcasting. German dialects that differ substantially from standard German, not only in pronunciation but also in grammar, are found in regions of Germany, France, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

In 1880, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Standard German orthography subsequently went essentially unrevised until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spelling co-exist in the media

German, unlike English, makes extensive use of inflectional endings. The verb is inflected to show person, number, tense, and mood; and the subjunctive is frequently used. The declensional scheme has four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. There are two ways of declining the adjective, and there are three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. A distinctive feature of German is its extensive use of lengthy compound words.


Sources:
1. wikipedia (Click here)
2. Vistawide, World languages and cultures (Click here)
3. German Language Guide (Click here)
4. High Beam Encyclopedia (Click here)