129-854: The Habsburg monarchy wins lands in Hungary, the Principality of Transylvania and the Balkans Mediterranean The Great Turkish War ( German : Großer Türkenkrieg ) or The Last Crusade , also called in Ottoman sources as The Disaster Years ( Turkish : Felaket Seneleri ), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire , Poland-Lithuania , Venice , Russia , and
258-460: 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
387-402: 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
516-587: 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
645-723: A Christian alliance that defeated them in the Battle of Vienna (1683), stalling the Ottoman Empire's hegemony in south-eastern Europe. A new Holy League was initiated by Pope Innocent XI and encompassed the Holy Roman Empire (headed by the Habsburg monarchy), the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Venetian Republic in 1684, joined by Russia in 1686. Holy League's troops besieged and conquered Buda in 1686 what
774-642: A Jewish man, violating Ottoman law which forbade sexual relations between Christian or Jewish men and Muslim women. Mehmed IV witnessed the double execution: he offered the man conversion to Islam so as to avoid being stoned to death (he was beheaded instead). After the Second Battle of Mohács in 1687, the Ottoman Empire fell into deep crisis. There was a mutiny among the Ottoman troops. The commander and Grand Vizier, Sarı Süleyman Pasha , became frightened that he would be killed by his own troops and fled from his command, first to Belgrade and then to Istanbul. When
903-556: 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
1032-729: A long and costly war over Crete , the last major Venetian possession in the Aegean. During this war, the Venetian commander, Francesco Morosini , came into contact with the rebellious Maniots , for a joint campaign in the Morea. In 1659, Morosini landed in the Morea , and together with the Maniots, he took Kalamata . However, he was soon after forced to return to Crete, and the Peloponnesian venture failed. In 1683,
1161-453: 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
1290-592: A new war broke out between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottomans, with a large Ottoman army advancing towards Vienna. In response to this, a Holy League was formed. After the Ottoman army was defeated in the Battle of Vienna , the Venetians decided to use the opportunity of the weakening of Ottoman power and its distraction in the Danubian front so as to reconquer its lost territories in the Aegean and Dalmatia. On 25 April 1684,
1419-538: A plague broke out, something which would occur regularly in the next years, and take a great toll on the Venetian army, especially among the German contingents. In April 1686, the Venetians helped repulse an Ottoman attack that threatened to overrun Mani, and were reinforced from the Papal States and Tuscany . The Swedish marshal Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck was appointed head of the land forces, while Morosini retained command of
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#17328446757721548-679: 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
1677-776: 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
1806-475: 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
1935-637: A stalemate, and peace was concluded in 1699 which began following the Battle of Zenta in 1697 when an Ottoman attempt to retake their lost possessions in Hungary was crushed by the Holy League. The war largely overlapped with the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), which took up the vast majority of the Habsburgs' attention while it was active. In 1695, for instance, the Holy Roman Empire states had 280,000 troops in
2064-580: 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
2193-596: 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
2322-546: 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
2451-472: 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
2580-430: 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
2709-520: 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
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#17328446757722838-595: 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
2967-475: Is known as avcı (translated as "the Hunter"). In 1687, Mehmed was overthrown by soldiers disenchanted by the course of the ongoing War of the Holy League . He subsequently retired to Edirne , where he resided and died of natural causes in 1693. Born at Topkapı Palace , Constantinople , in 1642, Mehmed was the son of Sultan Ibrahim (r. 1640–48) by Turhan Sultan , a concubine of Russian origin, and grandson of
3096-559: 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
3225-435: 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
3354-587: 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
3483-401: 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
3612-510: 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
3741-566: 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
3870-481: 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
3999-673: 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
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4128-723: The Invitation to William letter to take control of England as king. Therefore, the French besieged Philippsburg on 27 September 1688, breaking the truce and triggering the separate Nine Years' War against the Grand Alliance , which included the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire . The war relieved the Turks. As a result, the advance made by the Holy League stalled, allowing the Ottomans to retake Belgrade in 1690. The war then fell into
4257-627: 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
4386-522: 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
4515-473: 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
4644-455: 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
4773-570: The Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed and his son Fazıl Ahmed . They regained the Aegean islands from Venice , and Crete, during the Cretan War (1645–1669) . They also fought successful campaigns against Transylvania (1660) and Poland (1670–1674). When Mehmed IV accepted the vassalage of Petro Doroshenko , Ottoman rule extended into Podolia and Right-bank Ukraine . This event would lead
4902-674: The Greek-born Kösem Sultan . Soon after his birth, his father and mother quarrelled, and Ibrahim was so enraged that he tore Mehmed from his mother's arms and flung the infant into a cistern . Mehmed was rescued by the harem servants. However, this left Mehmed with a lifelong scar on his head. Mehmed ascended to the throne in 1648 at the age of six, during a very volatile time for the Ottoman dynasty . On 21 October 1649, Mehmed along with his brothers Suleiman and Ahmed were circumcised. Kösem Sultan , Mehmed's grandmother and regent,
5031-724: 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
5160-668: 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 the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as
5289-644: 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
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5418-640: 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
5547-536: 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
5676-552: The Treaty of Buchach in which they agreed to cede Kamenets, Podolia and to pay tribute to the Ottomans. When the news of the defeat and treaty terms reached Warsaw , the Sejm refused to pay the tribute and organized a large army under Sobieski; subsequently, the Poles won the Battle of Khotyn (1673) . After the death of King Michael in 1673, Sobieski was elected king of Poland. He tried to defeat
5805-400: 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
5934-408: 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
6063-422: The victory title " Peloponnesiacus ", and a bronze bust of his was displayed in the Great Hall, something never before done for a living citizen. The Venetians followed up this success with the reduction of the last Ottoman bastions in the Peloponnese, including Corinth, which was occupied on 7 August, and Mystra , which surrendered later in the month. The Peloponnese was under complete Venetian control, and only
6192-415: The Aegean and the Ionian seas, together with strategically positioned forts along the coast of the Greek mainland since the carving up of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade . However, with the rise of the Ottomans, during the 16th and early 17th centuries, they lost most of these, such as Cyprus and Euboea ( Negropont ) to the Turks. Between 1645 and 1669, the Venetians and the Ottomans fought
6321-491: The Austrians and their Polish-Lithuanian allies under King John III Sobieski won the Battle of Vienna with a devastating flank attack led by Sobieski's Polish cavalry. The Turks retreated into Hungary ; however, this was only the beginning of the Great Turkish War , as the armies of the Holy League began their successful campaign to push the Ottomans back to the Balkans. In May 1675, Mehmed IV's sons Mustafa II and Ahmed III were circumcised and his daughter Hatice Sultan
6450-435: The Battle of Zenta was fought just south of the Ottoman ruled town of Zenta . During the battle, Habsburg Imperial forces routed the Ottoman forces while the Ottomans were crossing the Tisa River near the town. This resulted in the Habsburg forces killing over 30,000 Ottomans and dispersing the rest. This crippling defeat was the ultimate factor of the Ottoman Empire signing the Treaty of Karlowitz on January 22, 1699, ending
6579-462: The Emperor Leopold I resulted in the addition of the Polish hussars to the already existing allied army. The command of the forces of European allies was entrusted to the Polish king, who had under his command 70,000–80,000 soldiers facing a Turkish army of 150,000. Sobieski's courage and remarkable aptitude for command were already known in Europe. During early September, the experienced 5,000 Ottoman sappers had repeatedly blown up large portions of
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#17328446757726708-614: 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
6837-433: The French. Following Bohdan Khmelnytsky 's rebellion , the Tsardom of Russia in 1654 acquired territories from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (currently parts of eastern Ukraine), while some Cossacks stayed in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth. Their leader, Petro Doroshenko , sought the Ottoman Empire's protection and in 1667 attacked Polish commander John Sobieski . Sultan Mehmed IV , who knew that
6966-414: 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
7095-417: 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
7224-399: 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
7353-623: 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
7482-482: The Great Turkish War. He contributed a force of 6,000 Albanian soldiers to the Austrian army which had arrived in Pristina and accompanied it to capture Prizren . There, however, he and much of his army were met by another equally formidable adversary, the plague. Bogdani returned to Pristina but succumbed to the disease there on 6 December 1689. His nephew, Gjergj Bogdani, reported in 1698 that his uncle's remains were later exhumed by Turkish and Tatar soldiers and fed to
7611-401: The Great Turkish War. This treaty resulted in the transfer of most of Ottoman Hungary to the Habsburgs, and after further losses in the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) , prompted the Ottomans to adopt a more defensive military policy in the following century. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in
7740-424: The Greeks to cooperate with them against the Ottomans. Having secured his rear during the previous year, Morosini set his sights upon the Peloponnese, where the Greeks, especially the Maniots, had begun showing signs of revolt and communicated with Morosini, promising to rise up in his aid. Ismail Pasha, the new military commander of Morea, learned of this and invaded the Mani Peninsula with 10,000 men, reinforcing
7869-479: The Habsburg monarchy while Podolia returned to Poland. Most of Dalmatia passed to Venice, along with the Morea, which the Ottomans reconquered in 1715 and regained in the Treaty of Passarowitz of 1718. After allied Christian forces had captured Buda from the Ottoman Empire in 1686 during the Great Turkish War, Serbs from Pannonian Plain (present-day Hungary , Slavonia region in present-day Croatia , Bačka and Banat regions in present-day Serbia ) joined
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#17328446757727998-547: 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
8127-466: The Kingdom of Hungary . Intensive fighting began in 1683 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The war was a resounding defeat for the Ottoman Empire, which for the first time lost substantial territory, in Hungary and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , as well as in part of the western Balkans . The war was significant also for being the first instance of Russia joining an alliance with Western Europe . Historians have labeled
8256-408: 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
8385-458: The Most Serene Republic declared war on the Ottomans. Aware that she would have to rely on her own strength for success, Venice prepared for the war by securing financial and military aid in men and ships from Hospitaller Malta , the Duchy of Savoy , the Papal States , and the Knights of St. Stephen . In addition, the Venetians enrolled large numbers of mercenaries from Italy and the German states, especially Saxony and Brunswick. In mid-June,
8514-478: The Ottomans for four years, with no success. The war ended on 17 October 1676 with the Treaty of Żurawno in which the Turks retained control over only Kamenets-Podolski. This Turkish attack also led in 1676 to the beginning of the Russo-Turkish Wars . After a few years of peace, the Ottoman Empire, encouraged by successes in the west of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , attacked the Habsburg monarchy . The Turks almost captured Vienna, but John III Sobieski led
8643-408: The Ottomans into the Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681) . His next vizier, Köprülü Mehmed's adopted son Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa , led campaigns against Russia, besieging Chyhyryn in 1678 with 70,000 men. He next supported the 1683 Hungarian uprising of Imre Thököly against Austrian rule, marching a vast army through Hungary and besieged Vienna . At the Battle of Vienna on the Kahlenberg Heights,
8772-436: The Ottomans suffered a catastrophic rout by Polish-Lithuanian forces famously led by King John III Sobieski (1674–1696), and his allies, notably the Imperial army. In 1672 and 1673, the sultan, who embarked on two Polish-Lithuanian campaigns with serdar-ı ekrem and Grand Vizier Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, and the acquisition of the Kamaniçi Castle, returned to Edirne after the signing of the Bucaş Treaty. The fire of 4–5 July 1660
8901-428: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was weakened by internal conflicts, in August 1672 attacked Kamenets Podolski , a large city on the border of the Commonwealth. The small Polish force resisted the siege of Kamenets for two weeks but was then forced to surrender. The Polish army was too small to resist the Ottoman invasion and could score only some minor tactical victories. After three months, the Poles were forced to sign
9030-448: The Pope. Also, the Habsburgs and Poles agreed that the Polish government would pay for its own troops while still in Poland, but that they would be paid by the Emperor once they had crossed into Imperial territory. However, the Emperor had to recognise Sobieski's claim to first rights of plunder of the enemy camp in the event of a victory. Kara Mustafa Pasha was less effective at ensuring his forces' motivation and loyalty, and preparing for
9159-425: The Reunions , taking Luxembourg and Strasbourg in the Truce of Ratisbon . However, as the Holy League made gains against the Ottoman Empire, capturing Belgrade by 1688, the French began to worry that their Habsburg rivals would grow too powerful and eventually turn on France. The Glorious Revolution was also a matter of concern for the French, as William III of Orange-Nassau was being invited by English nobles in
9288-522: The Venetian fleet moved from the Adriatic towards the Ottoman-held Ionian Islands . The first target was the island of Lefkada (Santa Maura), which fell, after a brief siege of 16 days, on 6 August 1684. The Venetians, aided by Greek irregulars, then crossed into the mainland and started raiding the opposite shore of Acarnania . Most of the area was soon under Venetian control, and the fall of
9417-528: The arrival of new German mercenary corps from Hanover in spring 1687. Thus strengthened, he was able to move against the last major Ottoman bastion in the Peloponnese, the town of Patras and the fort of Rion , which along with its twin at Antirrion controlled the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf (the "Little Dardanelles "). On 22 July 1687, Morosini, with a force of 14,000, landed outside Patras, where
9546-456: The battlefield. The cavalry headed straight for the Ottoman camps and Kara Mustafa's headquarters, while the remaining Viennese garrison sallied out of its defences to join in the assault. The Ottoman troops were tired and dispirited following the failure of both the attempt at sapping and the assault on the city and the advance of the Holy League infantry on the Turkenschanz. The cavalry charge
9675-653: The borderlands . In 1691, Sobieski undertook another expedition to Moldavia, with slightly better results, but still with no decisive victories. The last battle of the campaign was the Battle of Podhajce in 1698, where a Polish hetman named Feliks Kazimierz Potocki defeated the Ottoman incursion into the Commonwealth. The League won the war in 1699 and forced the Ottoman Empire to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz. The Ottomans thereby lost much of their European possessions, with Podolia (including Kamenets) returned to Poland. During
9804-489: The defeat of the relief army, Nafplion was forced to surrender on September 3. News of this major victory were greeted in Venice with joy and celebration. Nafplion became the Venetians' major base, while Ismail Pasha withdrew to Achaea after strengthening the garrisons at Corinth, which controlled the passage to central Greece. Despite losses to the plague during the autumn and winter of 1686, Morosini's forces were replenished by
9933-478: 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
10062-452: 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
10191-683: The dogs in the middle of the square in Pristina. Among the papers of Ludwig von Baden in Karlsruhe , there is a copy of an intercepted letter, in French, written by a secretary of the English embassy in Constantinople on 19 January 1690. It reported that the "Germans" in Kosovo had made contact with 20,000 Albanians who had turned their weapons against the Turks. The Republic of Venice had held several islands in
10320-507: 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
10449-506: The expected relief-army attack. He had entrusted defence of the rear to the Khan of Crimea and his light cavalry force, which numbered about 30,000–40,000. There is doubt as to how far the Tatars participated in the final battle before Vienna. The Ottomans could not rely on their Wallachian and Moldavian allies. George Ducas , Prince of Moldavia , was captured, while Șerban Cantacuzino 's forces joined
10578-519: The field, with England, the Dutch Republic, and Spain contributing another 156,000 specifically to the conflict against France. Of those 280,000, only 74,000, or about one quarter, were positioned against the Turks; the rest were fighting France. Overall, from 1683 to 1699, the Imperial States had on average 88,100 men fighting the Turks, while from 1688 to 1697, they had on average 127,410 fighting
10707-535: The fleet. On 3 June Königsmarck took Pylos and proceeded to lay siege the fortress of Navarino . A relief force under Ismail Pasha was defeated on June 16, and the next day the fort surrendered. The garrison and the Muslim population were transported to Tripoli . Methoni (Modon) followed on 7 July, after an effective bombardment destroyed the fort's walls, and its inhabitants were also transferred to Tripoli. The Venetians then advanced towards Argos and Nafplion , which
10836-461: The fort of Monemvasia (Malvasia) in the southeast continued to resist, holding out until 1690. After a few years of peace, the Ottoman Empire attacked the Habsburg monarchy again. The Turks almost captured Vienna, but King John III Sobieski of Poland led a Christian alliance that defeated them in the Battle of Vienna, which shook the Ottoman Empire's hegemony in south-eastern Europe. A new Holy League
10965-466: The forts of Preveza and Vonitsa in late September removed the last Ottoman bastions. These early successes were important for the Venetians not only for reasons of morale, but because they secured their communications with Venice, denied to the Ottomans the possibility of threatening the Ionian Islands or of ferrying troops via western Greece to the Peloponnese, and because these successes encouraged
11094-633: The forwarding of ammunition, cannon and other resources from all over the Ottoman Empire to these centres and into the Balkans. Since 1679, the Great Plague had been ravaging Vienna. The main Ottoman army finally laid siege to Vienna on 14 July 1683. On the same day, Kara Mustafa Pasha sent the traditional demand for surrender to the city. Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg , leader of the garrison of 15,000 troops and 8,700 volunteers with 370 cannon, refused to capitulate. Only days before, he had received news of
11223-435: 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,
11352-474: 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
11481-508: The inner city. The relief army had to act quickly to save the city and so prevent another long siege. Despite the binational composition of the army and the short space of only six days, an effective leadership structure was established, centred on the Polish king and his Hussars . The Holy League settled the issues of payment by using all available funds from the government, loans from several wealthy bankers and noblemen and large sums of money from
11610-405: The largest cavalry charge in history . Sobieski led the charge at the head of 3,000 Polish heavy lancers, the famed "Winged Hussars". The Lipka Tatars who fought on the Polish side wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish themselves from the Tatars fighting on the Ottoman side. The charge easily broke the lines of the Ottomans, who were exhausted and demoralised and soon started to flee
11739-408: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Mehmed IV Mehmed IV ( Ottoman Turkish : محمد رابع , romanized : Meḥmed-i rābi ; Turkish : IV. Mehmed ; 2 January 1642 – 6 January 1693), also known as Mehmed the Hunter ( Turkish : Avcı Mehmed ),
11868-561: The last of which was World War I. As a result of the Crimean campaigns and Azov campaigns , Russia captured the key Ottoman fortress of Azov . Following the decisive Battle of Zenta in 1697 and lesser skirmishes (such as the Battle of Podhajce in 1698), the League won the war in 1699 and forced the Ottoman Empire to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz . The Ottomans ceded most of Hungary , Transylvania and Slavonia , as well as parts of Croatia , to
11997-656: The mass slaughter at Perchtoldsdorf , a town south of Vienna, where the citizens had handed over the keys of the city after having been given a similar choice. Siege operations started on 17 July. On 6 September, the Poles under John III Sobieski crossed the Danube 30 km north-west of Vienna at Tulln to unite with the Imperial troops and the additional forces from Saxony, Bavaria , Baden , Franconia , and Swabia . Louis XIV of France declined to help his Habsburg rival , having just annexed Alsace . An alliance between Sobieski and
12126-402: 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
12255-578: The new Ottoman commander, Mehmed Pasha, had established himself. Mehmed, with an army of roughly equal size, attacked the Venetian force immediately after it landed, but was defeated and forced to retreat. At this point panic spread among the Ottoman forces, and the Venetians were able, within a few days, to capture the citadel of Patras, and the forts of Rion, Antirrion, and Nafpaktos (Lepanto) without any opposition, as their garrisons abandoned them. This new success caused great joy in Venice, and honours were heaped on Morosini and his officers. Morosini received
12384-529: The news of the defeat and the mutiny arrived in Istanbul in early September, Abaza Siyavuş Pasha was appointed as the commander and soon afterward as the Grand Vizier. However, before he could take over his command, the whole Ottoman Army had disintegrated and the Ottoman household troops ( Janissaries and sipahis ) started to return to their base in Istanbul under their own lower-rank officers. Sarı Suleiman Pasha
12513-630: 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
12642-420: The overland (Eastern Mediterranean to Germany) trade routes. During the years preceding this second siege ( the first had taken place in 1529), under the auspices of Grand viziers from the influential Köprülü family , the Ottoman Empire undertook extensive logistical preparations, including the repair and establishment of roads and bridges leading into the Holy Roman Empire and its logistical centres, as well as
12771-462: 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
12900-402: The relief army succeeded in taking Argos and forcing the pasha to retreat to Corinth , but for two weeks, from 16 August, Königsmarck's forces were forced to continuously repulse attacks from Ismail Pasha's forces, fight off the sorties of the besieged Ottoman garrison and cope with a new outbreak of plague. On 29 August 1686 Ismail Pasha attacked the Venetian camp, but was heavily defeated. With
13029-508: The retreat after Sobieski's cavalry charge. The confederated troops signalled their arrival on the Kahlenberg above Vienna with bonfires. Before the battle a Mass was celebrated for the King of Poland and his nobles. At around 6:00 pm, the Polish king ordered the cavalry to attack in four groups, three Polish and one from the Holy Roman Empire. Eighteen thousand horsemen charged down the hills,
13158-475: The revival of the empire's fortunes associated with the Köprülü era . Mehmed IV was known by contemporaries as a particularly pious ruler, and was referred to as gazi , or "holy warrior" for his role in the many conquests carried out during his long reign. Under Mehmed IV's reign, the empire reached the height of its territorial expansion in Europe. From a young age he developed a keen interest in hunting, for which he
13287-512: The senior clerics of the empire planned to reinstate Mehmed on the throne in response to the ill health and imminent death of his successor, Suleiman II. Mehmed's favourite harem girl was Gülnuş Sultan , a slave girl and later his wife. She was taken prisoner at Rethymno (Turkish Resmo) on the island of Crete . Their two sons, Mustafa II and Ahmed III , became Ottoman Sultans during 1695–1703 and 1703–1730, respectively. Mehmed IV had an Haseki Sultan and several secondary concubines. However,
13416-451: The smaller Polish front, after the battles of 1683 (Vienna and Parkany), Sobieski, after his proposal for the League to start a major coordinated offensive, undertook a rather unsuccessful offensive in Moldavia in 1686, with the Ottomans refusing a major engagement and harassing the army. For the next four years Poland would blockade the key fortress at Kamenets , and Ottoman Tatars would raid
13545-541: 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,
13674-638: The territories in the south of the Sava and Danube rivers began to join Serbian Militia units. Kosovo Albanian Roman Catholic Bishop and philosopher Pjetër Bogdani returned to the Balkans in March 1686 and spent the next years promoting resistance to the armies of the Ottoman Empire, in particular in his native Kosovo . He and his vicar Toma Raspasani played a leading role in the pro-Austrian movement in Kosovo during
13803-496: 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
13932-446: The three forts that the Ottomans already garrisoned, and compelled the Maniots to give up hostages to secure their loyalty. As a result, the Maniots remained uncommitted when, on 25 June 1685, the Venetian army, 8,100 men strong, landed outside the former Venetian fort of Koroni and laid siege to it. The castle surrendered after 49 days, on 11 August, and the garrison was massacred. After this success, Morosini embarked his troops towards
14061-436: The town of Kalamata , in order to encourage the Maniots to revolt. The Venetian army, reinforced by 3,300 Saxons and under the command of general Hannibal von Degenfeld , defeated a Turkish force of ca. 10,000 outside Kalamata on 14 September, and by the end of the month, all of Mani and much of Messenia were under Venetian control. In October 1685, the Venetian army retreated to the Ionian Islands for winter quarters, where
14190-412: The troops of the Habsburg monarchy as separate units known as Serbian Militia . Serbs, as volunteers, massively joined the Habsburg side. In the first half of 1688, the Habsburg army, together with units of Serbian Militia, captured Gyula , Lippa (today Lipova, Romania) and Borosjenő (today Ienu, Romania) from the Ottoman Empire. After the capture of Belgrade from the Ottomans in 1688, Serbs from
14319-532: The walls between the Burg bastion , the Löbel bastion and the Burg ravelin , creating gaps of about 12m in width. The Viennese tried to counter this by digging their own tunnels to intercept the depositing of large amounts of gunpowder in caverns. The Ottomans finally managed to occupy the Burg ravelin and the low wall in that area on 8 September. Anticipating a breach in the city walls, the remaining Viennese prepared to fight in
14448-514: The war as the Fourteenth Crusade launched against the Turks by the papacy. The French did not join the Holy League, as France had agreed to reviving an informal Franco-Ottoman alliance in 1673, in exchange for Louis XIV being recognized as a protector of Catholics in the Ottoman domains. Initially, Louis XIV took advantage of the start of the war to extend France's eastern borders in the War of
14577-548: The war, the Russian army organized the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 , which both ended in Russian defeats. Despite these setbacks, Russia launched the Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696, and after laying siege to Azov in 1695 successfully occupied the city in 1696. Capturing Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire, because of its interlocking control over Danubian (Black Sea to Western Europe) southern Europe, and
14706-543: 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
14835-579: 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
14964-429: 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
15093-530: 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
15222-621: Was deposed by the combined forces of Janissaries and Sekbans commanded by Osman Pasha . Mehmed was then imprisoned in Topkapı Palace . However, he was permitted to leave the Palace from time to time, as he died in Edirne Palace in 1693. He was buried in Turhan Sultan's tomb , near his mother's mosque in Constantinople . In 1691, a couple of years before his death, a plot was discovered in which
15351-485: 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
15480-413: Was executed, and Sultan Mehmed IV appointed the commander of Istanbul Straits, Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha , as the Grand Vizier's regent in Istanbul. Fazıl Mustafa made consultations with the leaders of the army that existed and the other leading Ottoman statesmen. After these, on 8 November 1687, it was decided to depose Sultan Mehmed IV and to enthrone his brother Suleiman II as the new Sultan. Mehmed
15609-534: Was initiated by Pope Innocent XI and encompassed the Holy Roman Empire (headed by the Habsburg monarchy), joined by the Venetian Republic and Poland in 1684 and the Tsardom of Russia in 1686. The Ottomans suffered three decisive defeats against the Holy Roman Empire after siege of Buda : the second Battle of Mohács in 1687, the Battle of Slankamen in 1691 and the Battle of Zenta a decade later, in 1697. On
15738-541: Was married. The empire celebrated it with Famous Edirne Festival to mark the occasion. Silahdar Findikli Mehmed Aga described Mehmed as a medium-sized, stocky, white-skinned, sun-burnt face, with a sparse beard, leaning forward from the waist up because he rides a lot. 1680 witnessed the only known stoning to death of a woman convicted of adultery in Ottoman Istanbul. The unnamed woman was stoned to death on Istanbul's Hippodrome after allegedly being caught alone with
15867-484: Was one last deadly blow. Less than three hours after the cavalry attack, the Christian forces had won the battle and saved Vienna. The first Christian officer who entered Vienna was Margrave Ludwig of Baden , at the head of his dragoons. Afterwards, Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar 's famous quotation Veni, vidi, vici in saying " Veni, vidi, Deus vicit " – "I came, I saw, God conquered". On September 11, 1697,
15996-633: Was suspected of supporting the rebels and plotting to poison the sultan and replace him with his younger half-brother, Suleiman . As a result, Mehmed agreed to sign his grandmother's death warrant in September 1651. The empire faced palace intrigues as well as uprisings in Anatolia, the defeat of the Ottoman navy by the Venetians outside the Dardanelles, and food shortages leading to riots in Constantinople. It
16125-455: Was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1648 to 1687. He came to the throne at the age of six after his father was overthrown in a coup. Mehmed went on to become the second-longest-reigning sultan in Ottoman history after Suleiman the Magnificent . While the initial and final years of his reign were characterized by military defeat and political instability, during his middle years he oversaw
16254-465: Was the worst conflagration Constantinople had experienced to date. It started in Eminönü and spread to most of the historic peninsula, burning much of the city. Even the minarets of Suleiman I's mosque burned. Two-thirds of Istanbul was turned to ash in the conflagration, and as many as forty thousand people were killed. Thousands died in the famine and plague which followed the fire. On 12 September 1683,
16383-455: Was then the most important town in the Peloponnese. The Venetian army, ca. 12,000 strong, landed around Nafplion between 30 July and August 4. Königsmarck immediately led an assault upon the hill of Palamidi , then unfortified, which overlooked the town. Despite the Venetians' success in capturing Palamidi, the arrival of a 7,000 strong Ottoman army under Ismail Pasha at Argos rendered their position difficult. The Venetians' initial assault against
16512-593: Was under Ottoman's rule since 1541. The second Battle of Mohács (1687) was a crushing defeat for the Sultan. The Turks were more successful on the Polish front and were able to retain Podolia during their battles with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Russia's involvement marked the first time the country formally joined an alliance of European powers. This was the beginning of a series of Russo-Turkish Wars ,
16641-418: Was under these circumstances that Mehmed's mother granted Köprülü Mehmed Pasha full executive powers as Grand Vizier. Köprülü took office on 14 September 1656. Mehmed IV presided over the Köprülü era , an exceptionally stable period of Ottoman history. Mehmed is known as Avcı , "the Hunter", as this outdoor exercise took up much of his time. Mehmed's reign is notable for a revival of Ottoman fortunes led by
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