German

German is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. German is related to and classified alongside Dutch and English. Around the world, approximately 100 million speak German as first language and another 20 million are non-native speakers. In Europe, Standard German is widely taught in both universities and schools. Worldwide, German accounts for the most written from and into a language. The German language is the 3rd most frequently spoken one in U.S. homes.
Distribution

The German language is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in the South Tirol province of Italy, in the small East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County.
In Luxembourg, as well as in the French régions of Alsace and parts of Lorraine, the native populations are able to speak several German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced the local Germanic dialects.

There are still some German-speaking communities in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. German language is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia) .

In the United States, Brazil and Argentina, we can find the largest German-speaking communities outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union. The reason is that millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years to these countries; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities are to be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. See also Plautdietsch.

In The United States, we can find the largest concentration of German speakers outside of Europe, and there are also large German-speaking communities throughout the country, such as New Braunfels, Texas. The largest concentrations of German speakers in the United States are in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkerites and some Mennonites can speak Pennsylvania Dutch (a West Central German variety) and Hutterite German), Texas (Texas German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Indiana, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Early twentieth century immigration was frequently to St. Louis, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Most of the post-World War II wave are in the New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago urban areas, and in Florida, Arizona and California. In these places, large communities of retired German, Swiss and Austrian expatriates live.

In Brazil the largest concentrations of people who can speak German are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed), Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico.

In Canada, throughout the country, there are people of German ancestry, especially in the west as well as in Ontario and southern Nova Scotia. There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. German immigrants were instrumental in the three largest urban areas of the country: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, but post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective sections and neighbourhoods. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the German language one of Canada's most spoken after French.

In some US and Canadian communities, German immigrant communities lost their native language more quickly than those who moved to South America, maybe because for people who speak German, English is easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish. Moreover, in all English-speaking countries, there was ardent anti-German sentiment during, before, and after the World Wars.

-Translation German-

In Mexico, we can find also large populations of German ancestry, principally in the cities of: Mexico City, Mazatlán, Puebla, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. This ancestry is also said to be found in neighbouring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in the north by the Mennonite communities, and around 200,000 people in Mexico can speak this language. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Mexico City, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon and Quintana Roo.

The German language is the first one of about 90–95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). The German language is the third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the United States (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign language in the EU (English is the first one) German is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French.

6.9% of the Internet population is German, according to Global Reach (2004). According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, making it second only to English.