Editing Standard German (section)

== Origins ==
Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region but as a [[written language]] developed over a process of several hundred years in which writers tried to write in a way that was understood in the largest area.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

[[Luther Bible|Martin Luther's translation of the Bible]] in 1522 (New Testament, Old Testament 1534) was an important development towards an early standardization of written German. Luther based his translation largely on the already developed language of the [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxon]] chancery, which was more widely understood than other dialects and as a [[Central German]] dialect, was felt to be "halfway" between the dialects of the north and south. Luther drew principally on [[East Central German]] dialects in his codification efforts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Havinga |first=Anna Dorothea |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110547047 |title=Invisibilising Austrian German: On the effect of linguistic prescriptions and educational reforms on writing practices in 18th-century Austria |date=2018-01-22 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-054704-7}}</ref>

Later in 1748, a grammar manual by [[Johann Christoph Gottsched]], ''Grundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst'', was key in the development of German writing and standardization of the language. Similarly to Luther, Gottsched based his manual on the Central German variant of the [[Upper Saxon German|Upper Saxon]] area.<ref>Dieter Kattenbusch: ''Zum Stand der Kodifizierung von Regional- und Minderheitensprachen''. In: Bruno Staib (Hrsg.): ''Linguista Romanica et indiana''. Gunter Narr, Tübingen, 2000, {{ISBN|3-8233-5855-3}}, p.211.</ref> Over the course of the mid-18th century and onward, a written standard then began to emerge and be widely accepted in German-speaking areas, thus ending the period of [[Early New High German]].

Until about 1800, Standard German was almost entirely a written variety. People in [[Northern Germany]] who spoke mainly [[Low German|Low Saxon dialects]], which were very different from Standard German, learned it more or less as a foreign language. However, the Northern pronunciation (of Standard German) later became considered standard{{sfn|König|1989|p=110}}{{sfn|von Polenz|1999|p=259}} and spread southward. In some regions such as around [[Hanover]], the local dialect has completely died out as spoken language but is preserved in dialect literature and scholarly descriptions.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

It can thus be argued that it is the spread of Standard German as a language taught at school that defines the German ''[[Sprachraum]]'', which was thus a political decision, rather than a direct consequence of [[dialect geography]]. That allowed areas with dialects with very little mutual intelligibility to participate in the same cultural sphere. Some linguists claim today that a [[One Standard German Axiom]] is a discipline-defining feature of [[Germanistik]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dollinger |first=Stefan |title=Routledge Handbook of Prescriptivism |publisher=Routledge |year=2023 |editor-last=Beal |editor-first=Joan C |location=Abingdon |pages=14–15 |chapter=Prescriptivism and national identity: sociohistorical constructionism, disciplinary bias, and Standard Austrian German |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/43948900}}</ref> Outside of Switzerland, Austria and South Tyrol, local dialects tend to be used mainly in informal situations or at home and in dialect literature.<ref name=":0" />