German

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German is the main language of 96.75 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken language in Europe, behind Russian (somewhere around 150 million speakers in Europe), and above French (66.5 million speakers in Europe in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in Europe in 2004). German is the third most taught foreign language in the EU (after English and French) and in the USA (after Spanish and French). It is one of the official languages of the European Union.

Standard German did not develop out of one regional dialect but was artificially created by poets, philosophers and scholars. In the 16th century Martin Luther translated the Holy Bible into a German as devoid as possible of regional features by consciously merging dialects. He wanted as many people as possible to understand the text.

The 18th century with Goethe and Schiller at their zenith brought about a further standardization of German. With more than 120 million people speaking German in 38 countries of the world, it is hardly surprising that the actual usage of German language varies. Like English, German is a pluricentric language with three main centres of usage: Austria, Germany and Switzerland.From Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia

Europe | German