The German Language: A Journey Through its History and Dialects

Code: SPRINTZOE
I couldn't have made this video without the help of my German friends: @Kate and @Shamless. Thank you for your help!

00:00 Intro
01:35 Proto-Germanic
02:30 Old High German
04:05 Middle High German
05:29 Early New High German
09:13 New High German
12:03 Modern Standard German
13:36 German dialects

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How to learn German? Resources, methods, and study plan

[fatdadable]

My deep respect for delving that deep into the complex origins of my language. One has to have more than just general interest in languages, but also love for a country and its history. Vielen, vielen Dank ❤

[sophie_wonie]

Es ist so lustig und süß wie du Deutsch redest. Respekt an dich so viele Sprachen zu sprechen.❤✨Liebe Grüße 😊

[williamhehemann]

It's always exciting to see when you have released a new video! This one was very interesting and inspires me to make learning German a priority. When it comes to the way you put these videos together, I am seriously astounded by the attention to detail in your editing - the music, the photos and graphics, the organization are all incredible!

[Rainerjgs]

Was für eine sympathische, charmante und hoch gebildete junge Frau, die uns - oft so selbstvergessenen Deutschen - mit enormem Hintergrundwissen und ansteckender Begeisterung die Entwickelung und den hohen Wert unserer Muttersprache erklärt, dessen sich die meisten unserer Mitbürger kaum bewußt sind!

[jorggodeke]

Low German, also called Low Saxon, is not just a German dialect, it is an independent language. You may recognize it as a bridge to English on one hand and on the other hand to the Northgemanic languages spoken in Scandinavia. That is why it was very easy for me, born and raised in Northern Germany, being familiar with the Low Saxon idiom, to learn Swedish in my youth.
Greetings from Northern Germany!

[marcdietmann]

Und deshalb ist deutsch auch eine schwere Sprache. Sie reifte solange und schließt soviele Dialekte mit ein, unglaublich.🖤
Sehr gutes Video👍🏻
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland 🇩🇪✌🏻

[LuggageLife]

Zoe, I'm absolutely LOVING these language/culture history videos! It's so interesting learning about how languages are born and how they evolve through time. I can't wait to see more of these. Diese Videos sind sehr gut gemacht und von hoher Qualität. 👌🏻 😊 🇩🇪

[-betul-]

I'm from Turkey, your videos help me a lot in my language learning journey, I hope you get rewarded for your efforts and expand your channel.

[emanuelbrugger]

Interessant zu wissen wie sich die eigene Muttersprache entwickelte.
Mir als Schweizer fällt es einfacher die regionalen deutschen Dialekte zu verstehen, aber je weiter nördlich resp. nordwestlich desto schwieriger wird’s. Auch die länderspezifischen Unterschiede einzelner Begriffe ist interessant, z.B. engl. cream heisst in D Sahne, in CH Rahm und in A Obers.
In der Schweiz benutzen wir vermehrt französische Lehnwörter, Bürgersteig ist Trottoir und Geldbörse ist Portemonnaie.
PS: kleiner Verbesserungsvorschlag: bei den eingeblendeten Karten 2-3 Sek. länger anzeigen lassen.
Danke

[xKejt]

As someone who learns German, I appreciate this video so much and the work you’ve put into making it! Thank you so much! It truly felt like a compact lecture about the history of the language and wow it was so interesting. Honestly, I’d love to watch this type of a video about other languages that you speak. It’s so incredibly interesting to see how the languages were progressing, how historical events influenced them and how they ended up the way they are today. Once again, thank you! 🌼

[ThePerfectRed]

In the state of Bavaria, we have 4 main dialects that, when spoken very heavily, cannot be understood by people from the other parts: Franconian (Fränkisch), Swabian (Schwäbisch), Upper Palatinate (Oberpfälzerisch) and the actual Bavarian dialect. In my vocational school that comprised students from the entire Bavarian state we would sometimes collect words from our home regions, like as an example for the last bit of a bread loaf. We would often come up with ten or more completely different words.

[Matahalii]

Sorry, but at 13:37 where the dialects are presented, Low German appears, which is NOT a variation of the High German branch and does not fit into the explenations from before. Its development is parallel to High German and was mostly independentfrom it since about 700 - 800 AD. It was not effected by the High German consonant shift and that is what sets it strictly apart from High German. In some ways it has more in common with modern English than modern High German. Even today you can find families speaking clear Low German, but the trend goes more towards High German in the last 100 years, resulting in a complex situation in these regions today. You will find a complete spectrum from Low German - mixed - High German in daily life. Older people which do not completely understand High German still exist, but will die out.

[TheTuubster]

A little suggestion: Sometimes the bumping on your desk is recorded by the microphone and is heard like a deep rumble during playback on HiFi systems. These are low frequencies, around 30 to 20Hz. You can use a low/high pass filter on the audio recording to remove these bumping sounds, by only letting frequencies pass through above 20 to 30Hz.

[DED]

I respect you very much.. to cover the "place" with the flag of Germany.. you respect all the cultures that watch you 👏👏

[martinstubs]

One small note: In 1901, there was a profound spelling reform of the standard German language that also standardized spelling across all German speaking regions for the first time.

[delightedmaryam]

This is actually so informative, Zoe. ممنون عزیزم

[ernestorevollar]

This video was truly wonderful, informative and engaging. I'm studying German by the way, I always enjoy my language learning process but my comprehension of German is extremely low, I sometimes get overwhelmed by its really complicated vocabulary, lexicon and so on. It's a unique, beautiful and logical language that requires a lot of time, energy and determination to get familiar with it. I'm pretty used to English and Spanish and it will definitely be the same with German and any other language I'm planning to learn.

[ilkercalskan]

Hello. I am from Turkey. The information you provide about languages is very helpful. I am currently trying to improve my English and learn Korean at the same time.I would love to be a multilingual person like you, but learning a language is a very difficult and challenging way But I still want to continue this journey.I wish languages such as english, german, spanish, italian were more similar to my mother tongue. That would be easier for me.

[miriamk.]

Thank you for this portrait of my mother tongue, German. As always, it was very interesting and I learned some new facts. Like many fellow Germans, I speak Standard German (Hochdeutsch) and a local dialect, which in my case is Bavarian. 🙂

[peterl]

I was brought up with low German or Plattdeutsch. It makes Dutch very easy to understand because it is very similar. The reason why it’s dying out is largely because in the 1970s and 1980s parents were told that their children may not learn proper high German if they spoke low German at home. This is now known to be completely false but it reduced the number of native speakers substantially. When I grew up I
Knew people who struggled with high German but they were all old even back then.