Want To Learn German?
Posted on December 10, 2009
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Some history of the German language can only help with learning German. As a language it is one of the major languages in the world, and it is also the largest first language in the European Union. German is still the third most studied language, so if you are thinking of learning German you are certainly not alone.
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 surprisingly to some, people of German ancestry form a larger group in the United States than those of Irish or English 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. Interestingly, until about the mid-1800s, German was primarily a written language, with huge regional pronunciation differences in the spoken language from region to region.
In the mid-1800s the first true dictionary of German was published in over 16 volumes – by the Brothers Grimm.
It was only in 1996 that the Spelling Reform of German standardized and simplified rules of spelling and pronunciation. Immediately upon the reform, schools started teaching the new rules, but a transition period led to confusion and protest, as media outlets used a combination of both old and new.
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 speakers learning German, pronunciation takes a lot of practice as there are sometimes clusters of three consonants, even in one syllable of a word. In terms of changes, the reform resulted in 112 spelling rules and 9 pronunciation rules, down from 212 and 52, respectively. So if it seems difficult now, learning German is certainly easier than it was before.
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.
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