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German: Standard German
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German is a main language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein. It is ... spoken widely in Switzerland and parts of Namibia. German is also spoken as a regional language in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine, in the Italian province of South Tyrol (German: Südtirol, Italian: Alto Adige or "Sudtirolo"), in the country of Luxembourg, along side French and Luxembourgian and in a small part of eastern Belgium. Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is also generally spoken by many as a second language in much of Eastern Europe where small groups of German minorities can also be found in Poland, Hungary and Romania. This is due to the historical influence of Austria - the former Austrian Empire, and Germany over the region and the radical border changes after WWII. Furthermore, small isolated communities can be found in Russia, the Central Asian Republics, Australia, and in North and South America.
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The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics.
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Germany, a regional country, had a number of different dialogues; ... this regionalism did not completely separate the German language as German writers strove to write in a language which could be universally understood by all. Any standard was, however, a written standard; it wasn’t until 1800 that urban Northern Germany began to speak standard German. Those whose dialects greatly differed from the standard had to practically relearn German as another language.
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Standard German differs regionally, especially between German-speaking countries, especially in vocabulary, but ... in some instances of pronunciation and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language.
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In the Italian South Tyrol, Like in most of Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstien and southern Germany most people speak their local dialect but standard German is ... well known. The standard German spoken in South Tyrol is very similar to that of neighboring Austria and Bavaria.
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Prior to the 13th-14th centuries, German was largely unwritten. All official documents were written in Latin. However, in the 13th-14th centuries, German started to be used in most official documents. With Johannes Gutenberg's (circa 1400-1468) invention of the printing press, and Martin Luther's (1483-1546) translation of the Bible using a more colloquial language than previously in writing, there was, for the first time, a German text of common interest that spread rapidly all over Germany... communicating not only the contents but also a specific variety of the German language. This contributed to the creation of a standard written language that would be understood in throughout Germany.
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Standard German