Now that I’ve written a guide to the German language, I think it’s time I write a guide to language in Germany. I’ve done this for all previous language guides, too, so I want to keep up the pattern.
Unlike Indonesia and Belize, though, Germany doesn’t have any (recent) history of colonization and imperialist influence. It’s also a lot less culturally diverse (which isn’t necessarily good or bad, just different).
What this means is that this guide will likely be a lot shorter and simpler than the other two I’ve written. Indonesia has about 1/10 of the world’s languages (~700), while Germany only has maybe 20 in any noticeable quantity.
My goal here isn’t to go over every language and how it works, but to make it easier for you, the reader, to know what languages you might encounter. Obviously, the majority language is German, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be the only language you hear!
Many Germans are bilingual or even trilingual, so you may encounter someone speaking multiple languages!
The English Language in Germany
As an American traveler writing in English for a (presumably) primarily English-speaking audience, I thought it would make sense to talk about English first.
English is the most spoken language in Germany besides German itself. About 60% of Germans speak the language, and it is the official language of business in the country.
So, as an English-speaking tourist, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about finding your way around in Germany if you only have a rudimentary understanding of German (or even if you don’t know any). Just use English instead if you have to! If the person you’re talking to doesn’t speak English, someone nearby likely will.
German Language in Germany
It would be weird if I didn’t talk about German when I write about Germany’s languages.
Standard German is the official language of Germany. What that means, essentially, is that it is expected for everyone in the country to at least know how to read and write it. It is highly unlikely that you’ll encounter anyone who perfectly speaks the standard dialect since language is usually defined by social groups. Still, if you learn the standard you shouldn’t run into any problems getting around unless you’re in certain isolated areas with more distinct dialects.
That said, any standard dialect is based on a real dialect. In this case, it’s High German, spoken in the southern part of the country. It’s called “High” because of the altitude of that part of the country.
Middle German is, unsurprisingly, in the middle region of the country. It informed many parts of Standard German, so is still very similar to the standard.
Low German, located in the north, pronounces some consonants differently from High German. It’s an endangered dialect, starting to fall out of use because of language standardization. Even so, there are several media groups trying to keep it alive with shows and newspapers. (And it’s the main German dialect in Belize and other countries!)
There are other dialects spoken in other countries or parts of the world (like the Austrian and Swiss dialects). But this post is about Germany, so I’m only going to focus on the dialects spoken within that country.
Foreign Languages in Germany
Like I said above, English is one of the more widely spoken languages in Germany. Since it didn’t originate in Germany and isn’t the official language, it technically counts as a foreign language. It’s widely spoken, though, as a second or third language.
Romance Languages
One would expect for a lot of countries in close proximity to speak each other’s languages. As such, French is the third most widely-spoken language in Germany. It’s spoken by about 15% of the country.
Although it’s around the other side of France, Spain is still one of the larger countries in Europe, and pretty close to Germany. So when you look at Spanish being the fourth most spoken language there, it’s not surprising. You’re not super likely to encounter it out and about, but hey, maybe Spanish will be the one common language between you and a native German!
The Not-So-Romance Languages in Germany
Going around the other side of Germany, we see Slavic languages like Russian and Polish are also pretty widely-spoken. When you look at the history of Soviet Russia and East Germany, it makes a lot of sense for them to be present. Russian was commonly taught in East Germany (about as frequently as English is taught there now), but they’re also about as close to each other as Germany and Spain.
One of the more common languages in Germany might seem surprising at first. It’s Turkish, spoken by about 4 million people in Germany! It’s actually very widely spoken in much of southeastern Europe besides Turkey, and with Germany being so centrally located, it makes sense for Turkish to become so common.
Besides this, there are many languages from all over Europe and even India with quite a lot of speakers in Germany, but most encounters you’ll have are likely to occur in the ones above, and there’s no reason to list out every single one. If you’re curious, though, check the Wikipedia page in my sources. It has a full list!
Conclusion: A Surprisingly Diverse Nation?
Admittedly, this post is a lot shorter than I thought it would be.
With my other two posts like this (so far), I had to spend a lot more time researching everything because of the extent of the language diversity in those countries. Belize, for example, has a heavy presence of English and Spanish as well as Garifuna (a creole with African languages), Belizean Kriol, and the Mayan languages. And like I said at the beginning, Indonesia has over 700 languages spoken within its borders!
Germany has a very different history than those countries, and its language diversity isn’t as heavy as a result.
Still, there are a surprising number of widely-spoken languages there. I never would’ve expected Turkish to be so common! And out of the three main dialects I listed, there are way more subdialects, each with their own quirks and unique qualities.
I hope this post was an enjoyable read. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, leave them down below or contact me directly!
(Edit November 7): If you liked this one, make sure to check out some other language guides. I visited Romania this past summer, so I have some experience with the languages you’ll find there, too!
