Without autocorrect and other spelling aids, many would be lost. And you? Do you know how even the most difficult words are spelled?
The origin of German lies in the Proto-Indo-European language. The prehistory of the German language can be traced back to at least the 4th millennium BC, provided that its West Germanic, Proto-Germanic and Indo-European predecessors are taken into account. However, it is usually assumed that the history of the German language began in the middle of the 8th century, as the first surviving Old High German texts can be found here.
Today, the West Germanic language is used as a native language for around 90 to 105 million people worldwide and as a second or foreign language for another 80 million. In fact, German is the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.
The best-known reference work for questions about the spelling of words in the German language is the Duden. It was first published in 1880 by the German-Prussian high school teacher and philologist Konrad Duden. The work was published at the time under the name “Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language”.
In the following decades it became the basis for a uniform spelling. Since the spelling reform in 1996, it has been based on the “current official regulations” published by the “Council for German Spelling”.
In addition to the spelling Duden, other printed works have also been published in the past, such as a dictionary for medical terms, the Buchdruckerduden, the large dictionary of the German language, the German universal dictionary, the Duden computer science or the Duden family names.
