German language (Deutsch): overview, structure, history and regional varieties

Today, the term "German language" is primarily understood to mean the standard German language (Standard Hochdeutsch), which developed on the basis of Middle German and Upper German dialects. The dialects (Mundarten) of the dialect continuum, on the other hand, are only partially covered by this language.

German also includes the historical predecessor languages Old High German (language codes according to ISO 639-2 & 639-3: goh) and Middle High German (language codes according to ISO 639-2 & 639-3: gmh) as well as more recent colloquial varieties or mixed languages (e.g. Missingsch) within the scope of the German standard language.

Luxembourgish as well as some emigrant dialects (e.g. Pennsylvania Dutch) or transitional dialects (e.g. Kollumerpompsters) go back to varieties of the dialect continuum.

Yiddish, which goes back to Middle High German, has developed independently and with its own written language, especially under Slavic and Hebrew influences; the same applies to the creole language Unserdeutsch, which is lexically based on German.

The German language made the transition from orality to writing to a large extent in the Middle Ages. Earlier, still preserved written testimonies of the Germanic tribes are written in the runic script, which was used for inscriptions and probably fell into disuse in the course of Christianization in the early Middle Ages. The language of records and documents, of law books, of historiography, of science in general and of poetry became Latin as lingua universalis. Gradually, written documents in the German language were written in Latin letters. This began with the witness lists of the documents, which contain German proper names. The first ones were written in the 7th century in the West Franconian area. The earliest German lyric is the Wessobrunn prayer on a written testimony of about 790. The still Germanic-mythological Hildebrandslied was probably written down shortly after 800. In the 9th century, the first major poems in Old High German followed, such as Otfried von Weißenburg's Gospel Harmony and Heliand. It was not until the 12th century that a rich development of German poetry began.

Although the first document in German still preserved today, a deed of donation from Augsburg, was drawn up as early as between 1063 and 1077, the German language of documents did not take off until the end of the 12th century in the southwest of the linguistic area. These are arbitration awards, contracts of sale, shrine deeds. The German language of documents originated in the Upper Rhine and Danube regions and spread to Lower Germany, which remained faithful to Latin for a few decades longer. The first German-language imperial law was the Mainzer Landfriede of 1235. Before Frederick II (13th century), royal charters were almost exclusively in Latin, but German gradually gained acceptance and under Louis the Bavarian (14th century) they were already frequently written in German.

The 14th and 15th centuries saw a significant increase in German fiction, as well as devotional and edifying books, and finally the first German translation of the Bible. Reformation writings and the Protestant Church in general acted as a motor for the German written language. German received a small damper from humanism, in whose haze writing was exclusively in Latin. In 1570, books written in Latin still made up 70% of all books printed in Germany. Latin writing receded behind German towards the end of the 17th century (from 1692), when science also used the German written language. Christian Thomasius lectured in German at the University of Leipzig in the winter of 1687/1688, and through his influence the University of Halle, where he later held his chair, became one of the first universities with a German language of instruction. In the late 17th century, the majority of historians used German for their writings, and in the 18th century philosophy and medicine followed suit. Jurisprudence was the latest to be Germanized, as it was not until 1752 that German accounted for the greater number of works.

By 1730, Latin writings constituted only 30% of the appearances of the book market, before Latin all but died out as a written language around 1800, except in Catholic theology.