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The German language has a rich history, and understanding some of the history helps to put learning German in context. German is arguably the major “first” language spoken in Europe, and is one of the World’s major languages. In terms of learning German, it is the third most learned language in the world.

While there are large pockets of German migration all over the world, which occurred mainly over the last 200 years, to places like Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina (among many other places), many of the migrants no longer speak the native tongue of their ancestors.

And would you believe that there are more who claim to be if German descent in the USA than those who claim Irish or British descent.

German was the primary official language of most of Eastern and Central Europe for many years during the time when the Habsburg Empire rules most of those regions. What many do not realize is that German was primarily a written language until the middle of the 19th century.

The Brothers Grimm were responsible for the first German language dictionary, and this was not until 1845 to 1865, during which time they published over 16 volumes of the dictionary.
It was only in 1996 that the Spelling Reform of German standardized and simplified rules of spelling and pronunciation. Since then German has been in a transitional period, with the new spelling taught in schools, but a mixture of old and new coexisting in the general domain including the media.

German derives from the West Germanic sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. This is shared with a munber of other languages, including English. There are a large number of English words which owe their existence to German – words like hamburger and kindergarten for example.

As with many European languages there are two styles of address – informal and formal.

For English learners of German, the frequency of consonants (perhaps up to 3 in one syllable) can make pronunciation a challenge without significant practice. And the reform in spelling led to huge changes – 212 rules of spelling was almost halved to 112, and only 9 pronunciation rules survived from 52 before the reform. I find all the rules hard not, so I cannot even imagine what it must have been like before the simplification.

There are also many online tools which can help, particularly with vocabulary expansion, pronunciation and verb tenses and rules. Be sure to pick one which does a good job of simulating immersion, this is really necessary to truly grasp the German language in context.

The author operates a language website, and you can view his Learning German recommendations. You can also sign up for a free 6-day learning German online course.

Related posts:

1. German Spelling Reform
2. Learning German – Benefits
3. 8 Learn German Language Mistakes
4. Reasons To Learn The German Language
5. Learning German Is Easier Than You Think

Tags: german history, german language, learn German, learning German