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89-746: The Treaty of Vilnius of 1561 included the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti by which the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus guaranteed the Livonian estates several privileges, including religious freedom with respect to the Augsburg Confession , the Indigenat ( Polish : Indygenat ), and continuation of the traditional German jurisdiction and administration. The terms regarding religious freedom forbade any regulation of

178-593: A Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire , part of Estonia with Reval (Tallinn), which was under Swedish protection, and the westernmost part of Estonia with Øsel (Ösel, Saaremaa), which was Danish . In the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , a stable political system was established on the basis of the 1561 treaty, and only in 1617 this was modified by the Formula regiminis and Statuta Curlandiæ , which granted

267-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

356-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

445-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

534-745: A civil war starting in 1556, the pro-Polish faction gained the upper hand. With the Treaty of Pozvol , concluded in 1557, the Livonian Confederation had turned to Poland–Lithuania for protection, triggering Ivan IV of Russia 's intervention in what was to become the Livonian War . In 1558, Ivan IV had conquered the Dorpat (Tartu) area, annihilating the Bishopric of Dorpat . With the Treaty of Vilnius of 31 August 1559 , Gotthard von Kettler , Grand Master of

623-906: A further series of wars Livonia capitulated to Russia in 1710 , the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti was confirmed by Peter the Great . In 1513, the Grand Master of the Livonian Order bought his order out of the union with the Teutonic Knights . Thus, the secularization of the Teutonic Order State , which led to the establishment of the Protestant Duchy of Prussia under the Polish king in 1525 , did not affect Livonia , where

712-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

801-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

890-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

979-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

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1068-688: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and

1157-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

1246-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

1335-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

1424-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

1513-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

1602-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

1691-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

1780-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

1869-475: Is now northern Estonia) and Swedish Livonia (in what is now southern Estonia and northern Latvia) became the governorates of Reval and Riga , when they were conquered by Russia during the Great Northern War , and then ceded by Sweden in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Notably, both Reval Governorate and Riga Governorate were each at the time subdivided into one province only: the province of Estonia and

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1958-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

2047-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

2136-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

2225-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

2314-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

2403-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

2492-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

2581-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

2670-583: The Augsburg Confession , the Indigenat ( Polish : Indygenat ), and continuation of the traditional German jurisdiction and administration. The terms regarding religious freedom forbade any regulation of the traditional Protestant order by religious or secular authorities, and ruled that cases of disagreements be judged only by Protestant scholars. The Livonian regions south of the Daugava River (Düna, Dvina), comprising Courland (Kurland) and Semigallia (Semgallen, Zemgale, Žiemgala), were established as

2759-476: The Duchy of Livonia . Báthory however regarded the re-conquered territories as his war booty, refused to confirm the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti , and in 1582 replaced it with the Constitutiones Livoniae , which tolerated Indigenat and Augsburg Confession, but revoked their status as elementary right and else did not contain any privileges. The traditional German administration and jurisdiction

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2848-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

2937-585: The Early Modern era . The territories were re-organized in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and the Duchy of Livonia , the latter competing with the Kingdom of Livonia during the war. After its reconquest , Sigismund's successor Stephen Báthory (Batory) ignored the privileges of 1561, granted a new constitution and initiated Counter-Reformation . These measures were reversed after the Swedish conquest . When after

3026-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

3115-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

3204-542: The Governorate of Estland ( German : Estländisches Gouvernement , Russian : Эстляндская губерния ) remained unchanged; the February Revolution of 1917 was followed by an internal redistribution of Latvian and Estonian lands between the latter two. The October Revolution of 1917 and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918 created the prerequisites for declaration of independence of these governorships from Russia as

3293-774: The Grand Duke of Lithuania , Sigismund II Augustus with the Pacta subiectionis (Provisio ducalis) . In turn, Sigismund granted protection from the Tsardom of Russia and confirmed the Livonian estates' traditional privileges, laid out in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti . The secularization of the Livonian Order was the "final act" in Livonia's transition from the Middle Ages to

3382-677: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

3471-639: The Holy Roman Empire and became a Free imperial city . Hard-pressed by Ivan IV of Russia , the remnant of the Livonian Confederation concluded a treaty with Poland–Lithuania on 28 November 1561, subordinating themselves to the Sigismund II Augustus . In November 1561 the new Grand Master Gotthard Kettler secularized the Order and surrendered Livonia to Sigismund Augustus, retaining the Duchy of Courland for himself as Polish-Lithuanian vassal. The Northern Crusade

3560-814: The Jesuits of Riga and Dorpat (Tartu). The respective Jesuit colleges and the Catholic bishopric with its see in Wenden (Cēsis) were founded in 1566. Counter-reformation focussed on the Latvian and Estonian population, since they were not explicitly mentioned in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti - a disputed interpretation since the German Livonian estates traditionally spoke for all Livonians. Lutherans were forbidden to preach in Estonian , Latvian and Russian language , while at

3649-575: The Livonian Order , had put the order's lands under protection of Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus . The order ceded about one seventh of its territory, allowed Sigismund to garrison its most important castles, and agreed to share with him any conquests made from Ivan IV. The alliance was intended to neutralize the imminent threat of annexation of the order's lands by Russia , yet despite earning military support from Polish-Lithuanian chancellor Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł , Kettler

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3738-644: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

3827-399: The Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti . When in 1710 Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Russia during the Great Northern War , the capitulations explicitly referred to the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti , with the respective references being confirmed in the Treaty of Nystad (1721). German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )

3916-517: The Recess of Wolmar (Valmiera) forbade any future secularization in 1546. The Protestant Reformation had started in Riga in 1517, and afterward it had spread to all of Livonia; religious freedom was declared in 1554. As the Livonian Confederation was in decline due to internal struggles, a faction of the order favored rapprochement with Poland–Lithuania , while another faction violently opposed it. After

4005-640: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

4094-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

4183-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

4272-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

4361-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

4450-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

4539-418: The German gentry to a degree that they supported the Swedish take-over of Livonia (without Latgalia , Courland and Semigallia ), formalized in the treaties of Altmark (1629) and Stuhmsdorf (1635) . The Polish–Swedish wars had begun in 1600, when Catholic Sigismund III Vasa tried to incorporate Protestant Swedish Estonia into the Polish-Lithuanian Duchy of Livonia , whereupon the local nobles turned to

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4628-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

4717-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

4806-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

4895-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

4984-644: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

5073-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

5162-574: The autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland , the Baltic Governorates until the end of 19th century were not a subject to the common civil and administrative laws of the Russian Empire , but did not have monetary, fiscal and passport system of their own. Like guberniyas of the Kingdom of Poland they were treated as an integral entity and the Russian law provided them the preservation of local authorities. In Baltics these were Landtags . The special legislation which set rules for municipal administration and entrepreneurship according to local traditions, as well as

5251-411: The beginning of the 19th century he acted as an intermediate between the ministries in Saint Petersburg and administration of the Baltic governorates on spot. The Governor-General, the highest local executive official and military authority, was in charge of the internal order in the provinces and had to take care of their overall security. He was in charge of recruiting troops and had to keep an eye on

5340-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

5429-404: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

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5518-446: The duke of Södermanland and later Swedish king, Charles IX for protection. Charles IX expelled the Polish forces from Estonia, and his campaigns in the Duchy of Livonia were concluded in 1621 by his successor Gustavus Adolphus , who established the dominion of Swedish Livonia from the bulk of the Duchy of Livonia . Swedish rule ended the Counter-Reformation, and the privileges of the Livonian nobles resembled those outlined in

5607-435: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

5696-435: The garrisons and fortifications. His civil duties included supervising the provincial administration and prisons, maintaining land roads and bridges, issuing passports, and overseeing collection of state taxes and customs duties. He appointed and dismissed higher officials. The Office of the Baltic Governor-General was abolished at the beginning of the russification in the Baltic Provinces in 1876. Similarly to guberniyas of

5785-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

5874-403: The independent states of Estonia and Latvia . Treaty of Vilnius (1561) The Treaty of Vilnius was concluded on 28 November 1561, during the Livonian War , between the Livonian Confederation and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Vilnius . With the treaty, the non-Danish and non-Swedish part of Livonia , with the exception of the Free imperial city of Riga , subjected itself to

5963-431: The indigenous nobles additional rights at the duke's expense. The situation north of the Daugava was quite different. On 25 December 1566, the Union of Grodno established a real union between the Duchy of Livonia the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Livonia's administrative division was re-organized with its castellans becoming members of the Lithuanian senate. The union however did not impact Livonian jurisdiction, which

6052-417: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

6141-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

6230-423: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

6319-431: The privileges to the local nobility in the Baltics was known under the collective name of Ostsee Right ( Russian : Остзейское право ). From the end of the 18th century through 1917 names and territories of the Governorate of Courland ( German : Kurländisches Gouvernement , Russian : Курляндская губерния ), the Governorate of Livland ( German : Livländisches Gouvernement , Russian : Лифляндская губерния ) and

6408-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

6497-631: The province of Livonia, respectively. In the period of the so-called Regency, 1783–1796, the Regent's (later Governor-General's) Office in Riga was created. It consisted of two subdivisions dealing with local matters and Russian affairs. After an administrative reform in 1796, the Reval Governorate was renamed Governorate of Estland (Эстляндская губерния), and Riga Governorate renamed Governorate of Livland (Лифляндская губерния). The third Baltic province of Courland

6586-586: The same time Catholic documents were published in these languages. Stephen Batory participated in the Counter-Reformation by granting revenues and estates confiscated from Protestants to the Catholic Church and by initiating a (largely unsuccessful) recruitment campaign for Catholic colonists. These measures however proved to have only limited impact on the Estonian and Latvian population, while alienating

6675-672: The secular Duchy of Courland and Semigallia with Gotthard von Kettler as its duke. Shaped after the Prussian model , Courland and Semigallia was thus made a hereditary fief of the Grand Duke of Lithuania , later of the Polish Crown . In contrast, Livonia north of the Daugava was subordinated directly to Sigismund II Augustus as Duchy of Livonia , also referred to as Livonia transdunensis , with Kettler installed as Sigismund's "Royal administrator". These territories however excluded Riga , then

6764-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

6853-521: The succession in the Bishopric of Reval and established the Kingdom of Livonia under Ivan IV's patronage. After the Polish-Swedish victory in the Battle of Wenden (1578) , Russian forces were subsequently expelled from Livonia, and the Livonian War ended with the treaties of Jam Zapolski and Narva-Plyussa . Only then, Sigismund's successor Stephen Báthory (Batory) was able to re-assume control over

6942-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

7031-444: The traditional Protestant order by religious or secular authorities, and ruled that cases of disagreements be judged only by Protestant scholars. When in 1710 Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Russia during the Great Northern War , the capitulations explicitly referred to the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti , with the respective references being confirmed in the Treaty of Nystad (1721). The dominions of Swedish Estonia (in what

7120-592: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

7209-627: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

7298-646: Was defeated in Ērģeme (Ermes, 1560) and unable to prevent the occupation of most of Livonia by Russian forces. After the treaty, the disintegrating order agreed to secularization if necessary, and since Sigismund was reluctant to support it militarily, continued its search for a protector at the courts of Denmark-Norway and the Holy Roman Emperor . In 1560, Johann von Münchhausen sold his bishoprics of Ösel-Wiek and Courland to Magnus , brother of Danish king Frederick II . In June 1561, part of Estonia subordinated itself to Sweden . Riga had turned to

7387-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

7476-530: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

7565-669: Was annexed into Russian Empire after the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. The Baltic Governor-General (Прибалтийский генерал-губернатор) was the representative of the Russian Emperor in the provinces of Livland, Estland and Courland. He was appointed by the Emperor and was subject to the latter as well as to the Senate. His duties were regulated by laws and instructions from central authorities. From

7654-485: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

7743-510: Was gradually impaired by the establishment of voivodeships , the appointment of Royal officials, and the replacement of German with Polish as administrative language. Riga was added to Polish-Lithuanian Livonia by the Treaty of Drohiczyn of 14 January 1581, including a Corpus Privilegiorum Stephanorum similarly reducing its freedoms. Under Stephen Báthory, the Duchy of Livonia was subjected to Counter-Reformation led by bishop Otto von Schenking , who had converted to Catholicism , and

7832-562: Was over, the Northern Wars had begun. Frost, Robert I. : The Northern Wars, Harlow 2000, p. 5. The treaty comprised the Pacta subiectionis by which the Livonian estates accepted Polish-Lithuanian superiority. This document is also known as Provisio ducalis . Also included was the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti by which Sigismund II Augustus guaranteed the Livonian estates several privileges, including religious freedom with respect to

7921-585: Was to be carried out according to the traditional customs. When in 1569 the Union of Lublin transformed the Polish-Lithuanian personal union into a real union , the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Livonia became a Polish-Lithuanian condominium . Ivan IV of Russia subdued nearly all of Livonia transdunanesis between 1572 and 1577. Magnus , in addition to his Livonian possessions, bought

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