German is a very common language all over the world. German is one of the three languages that people learn the most, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It is also one of the ten languages that people speak the most around the world. It is the second most spoken foreign language in the European Union. German is also one of the agreed-upon official languages of the EU. It is also one of the three working languages used by the European Commission, along with English and French.
German is also thought of as a language with many points of view, like English and French. Because this language is used in so many different ways, it would make sense to think that someone who knows German could go to any part of Germany and be able to communicate with ease. This is not even close to the truth, though. In reality, German is spoken in a large part of the country in many different ways (and even in other countries).
The different kinds of German don't make sense to each other. This means that people who only know one of the different German dialects and not the common German language will not be able to understand each other.
How did these dialects develop? Each dialect has developed its own set of words that aren't the same as the words used in standard German. This makes it hard to understand in places where the dialect isn't spoken or where a different dialect is used.
In places where German is spoken, there is something called a "dialect continuum." Normal situations make it easy to understand the dialect of a neighbouring region, even if it is very different from the dialect of the region right next to it.
Low German is spoken in the northern part of Germany. It is thought to be mutually understandable, but people in other parts of the country still don't understand it. Of the other German dialects, the ones spoken in Switzerland, Southern Bavaria, Austria, and the West Bank of the Rhine are notoriously hard to understand by people from other parts of Germany. On the other hand, people in other parts of the country think that the so-called Central and Eastern German dialects are easier to understand.
Low Germanic dialects are those in which the High German consonant shift did not change the sounds. There are two subgroups of the Low Germanic language: Low Franconian and Low German.
There are two subgroups of High Germanic dialects: Central German and Upper German. Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Hessian, Thuringian, South Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, and Upper Saxon are all types of Central German. Alemannic, Swabian, East Franconian, Alsatian, and Austro-Bavarian are all Upper German dialects. Some parts of Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and some parts of Switzerland and Italy where German is spoken also use Upper German dialects.
