德语在现今世界上约 3— 4千种语言中可算是“大语种” ,按使用人数计算排在世界第十二位 ,为近一亿人的母语。然而 ,人们也许并不知道 ,德语从古日耳曼语到发展成为今天统一的标准语言经历了一个极为曲折、漫长的过程。这主要是因为德意志历史上长期处于封建割据状态 ,政治上 German in the world today, about 3-4 languages ​​can be considered “big languages”, by number of users in the world ranks the twelfth, the language of nearly 100 million people. However, one may not be aware that German has experienced an extremely tortuous and lengthy process of developing from the Old Germanic language to the standard language of today’s unity. This is mainly because of the long history of Germany in the feudal separatist state, politically