Editing German language (section)

==History==

See Also [[History of German]]

[[image:AlthochdeutscheSprachräume962 Box.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The Germanic-speaking area of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] around 962.]]

===Origins===
The history of the language begins with the [[High German consonant shift]] during the [[migration period]], separating [[Old High German]] dialects from  [[Old Saxon]]. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered [[Elder Futhark]] inscriptions, especially in [[Alemannic German|Alemannic]], from the 6th century AD; the earliest glosses (''[[Abrogans]]'') date to the 8th; and the oldest coherent texts (the ''[[Hildebrandslied]]'', the ''[[Muspilli]]'' and the [[Merseburg Incantations]]) to the 9th century. [[Old Saxon]] at this time belongs to the [[Ingvaeonic|North Sea Germanic]] cultural sphere, and [[Low German|Low Saxon]] should fall under German rather than [[Anglo-Frisian]] influence during the [[Holy Roman Empire]].

As Germany was divided into many different [[States of Germany|states]], the only force working for a unification or [[standard language|standardization]] of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area.

===Modern German===
When [[Martin Luther]] translated the [[Bible]] (the [[New Testament]] in 1522 and the [[Old Testament]], published in parts and completed in 1534), he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (''sächsische Kanzleisprache''), also known as ''Meißner-Deutsch'' (German from the city of [[Meissen]]). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of [[Middle High German]] (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany, which already at that time began to lose the [[genitive case]] and the [[preterit]]). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. [[Roman Catholics]] rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (''gemeines Deutsch'') — which, however, only differed from "Protestant German" in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of [[Early New High German]].
[[File:Austria Hungary ethnic.svg|thumb|Ethno-linguistic map of [[Austria–Hungary]], 1910.]]
[[File:Historical German linguistical area.PNG|thumb|German language and ethnicity in central Europe, 1929.]]
Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban [[northern Germany]], who spoke dialects very different from [[Standard German]], learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as closely to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern [[German phonology|German pronunciation]] to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of Standard German varies from region to region.

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-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a [[merchant]], an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as [[Prague]] (German: ''Prag'') and [[Budapest]] ([[Buda]], German: ''Ofen''), were gradually [[Germanization|Germanized]] in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as [[Bratislava]] (German: ''Pressburg''), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as [[Milan]] (German: ''Mailand'') remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, [[Zagreb]] (German: ''Agram''), and [[Ljubljana]] (German: ''Laibach''), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages.

In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in its written form while the ''Deutsche Bühnensprache'' (literally, German [[stage (theatre)|stage]] language) had already established rules for German three years earlier, which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation.

Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German (often called ''Hochdeutsch'' in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken.

The first dictionary of the [[Brothers Grimm]], the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the ''[[Duden Handbook]]''. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the [[German spelling reform of 1996]] was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period during which the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See [[German spelling reform of 1996]] for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform, with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it.

===Reform of 1996 and beyond===
The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy and considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (Bundesländer) would not accept it ([[North Rhine-Westphalia|North Rhine Westphalia]] and [[Bavaria]]). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court, which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule—everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the coming school year. In 2007, some traditional spellings were finally invalidated. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, such as ''dass'' and ''muss''. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using ''daß'' and ''muß''.
The cause of the controversy evolved around the question of whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth.