German Language In Europe
The German language (both as an official language and as a minority language) is spoken in a number of countries and territories in West, Central and Eastern Europe (Deutscher Sprachraum). To cover this speech area they are often referred to as the German speaking countries, the German speaking area, or equivalently German-speaking Europe (the few overseas territories which speak German are not commonly included in the concept).
German is the main language of about 90–95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004).
The European countries with German-speaking majorities are Germany (95%, 78.3 million), Austria (89%, 7.4 million), Switzerland (65%, 4.6 million) ("D-A-CH"), Luxembourg (0.48 million) and Liechtenstein (0.03 million).
Read more about German Language In Europe: D-A-CH, Official Status, German Speaking Minorities Without Official Status, German As A Foreign Language
Famous quotes containing the words german language, german, language and/or europe:
“The German language “speaks Being,” while all the others merely “speak of Being.””
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
“Better extirpate the whole breed, root and branch. And this, unless the German people come to their senses, is what we propose to do.”
—Gertrude Atherton (1857–1948)
“The language I have learnt these forty years,
My native English, now I must forgo,
And now my tongue’s use is to me no more
Than an unstringèd viol or a harp.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)