ScriptLookup

German

Deutsch
de 76M speakers

German (Deutsch) is a Indo-European language with approximately 76M speakers speakers. It is written using the Latin script. Its BCP 47 language code is de.

German (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union. It is the official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland (alongside French, Italian, and Romansh), Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg.

German is known for its complex grammar with four grammatical cases, three genders, and compound nouns that can form very long words. It is written with the Latin alphabet and traditionally includes three umlaut letters (ä, ö, ü) and the ligature ß. German has a strong tradition in science, philosophy, and classical music.

Writing Systems Used for German

Latin
Primary
Hello World
LTR Latn

Frequently Asked Questions

What alphabet or script does German use?
German is written using the Latin script (ISO 15924 code: Latn). Latin is written left-to-right.
What direction is German written?
German is written Left-to-right. Text runs from left to right, the same direction as most European languages.
How many people speak German?
German has approximately 76M speakers speakers worldwide. It is a member of the Indo-European language family.
What language family does German belong to?
German belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is written with the Latin script.
What is the language code for German?
The BCP 47 language code for German is "de". This code is used in software, web standards (the HTML lang attribute), and internationalization contexts.

Language Facts

BCP 47 Code
de
ISO 639-3
deu
Status
living
Speakers
76M speakers
Language Family
Indo-European
Scripts
1
Primary Script
Latin

Other Latin Languages

Acehnese Acoli Adangme Afar Afrikaans Aghem Akan Akoose Alabama Albanian Aleut Anii Ao Naga Aragonese Araona Arapaho Arawak Aromanian Arpitan Asturian

Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.