Languages of Germany

The official language of Germany is Standard German, with over 95 percent of the country speaking Standard German or German dialects as their first language.[2] This figure includes speakers of Northern Low Saxon, 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.

Languages of Germany
OfficialGerman (95%)
RegionalLow Rhenish; Limburgish; Luxembourgish; Alemannic; Bavarian; Danish; Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian; North Frisian, Saterland Frisian; Romani, Low German
ImmigrantTurkish, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Romanian, Hindustani, Spanish; and others
see also:immigration to Germany
ForeignEnglish (56%)[1]
French (18%)
Dutch (9%)
Italian (7%)
Russian (6%)
Spanish (6%)
Danish (2%)
SignedGerman Sign Language
Keyboard layout
Sourceebs_243_en.pdf (europa.eu)
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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 being spoken predominantly in your household?" was added,[3] nearly eighty years since the 1939 Census asked for the mother tongue of the population.[4]

Minority languages

Recognized minority languages include:[2][5]

Immigrant languages

Immigrant languages spoken by sizable communities of first and second-generation (dominant origin of the speakers in brackets):

  • Turkish (southern Europe and Western Asia) c. 1.8%[2]
  • Kurdish (Western Asia) c. 0.3%[2]
  • Tamil (South Asia and Southeast Asia)[6]
  • Russian (eastern Europe and Northern Asia)
  • Arabic (Western Asia and North Africa)
  • Greek (southern Europe)
  • Dutch (Western Europe)
  • Igbo (Nigeria, West Africa)
  • Polish (central Europe)
  • Serbo-Croatian (Western Balkans, southern Europe)
  • Italian (southern Europe)
  • Portuguese (southern Europe)

Second languages

Most Germans learn English as their first foreign language at school. However, in some cases, French or Latin are taught first; French and Latin are also common second or third foreign languages. Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Classical Greek, and other languages are also offered in schools, depending on the school's geographic location and available resources.

During the existence of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), 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).[7]

However, German schoolchildren's English is not as good as that of their peers in Scandinavian countries.[8]

There exist several bilingual kindergartens and schools in Germany offering education in German and English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, and other languages.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Einschätzung der eigenen Englischkenntnissen von 2016 bis 2020". 2008. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. "BBC - Languages across Europe". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  3. "Mikrozensus 2017 Fragebogen" (PDF). Statistisches Bundesamt: 46. 2017.
  4. Adler, Astrid (2018). "Germany's micro census of 2017: The return of the language question" (PDF). Institut für Deutsche Sprache.
  5. National Minorities in Germany. BMI. 2010. p. 44."Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2014-06-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  6. "Tamil Diaspora - Germany - ஜெர்மனி". Tamilnation.co. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  7. Livingston, Robert Gerald. "East Germany between Moscow and Bonn". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  8. Hanke, Katja. "Fremdsprachen in deutschen Schulen und Kindergärten". Goethe Institut. Goethe Institut Online. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  9. "Informationen zu unserem bilingualen Zweig". Schuele Lammersieth. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
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