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129-577: The Gotthard Base Tunnel ( GBT ; German : Gotthard-Basistunnel , Italian : Galleria di base del San Gottardo , Romansh : Tunnel da basa dal Sogn Gottard ) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland . It opened in June 2016 and full service began the following December. With a route length of 57.09 km (35.5 mi), it is the world's longest railway and deepest traffic tunnel and

258-666: A bridle path . From 1842 onwards, a daily course by the Gotthard Post , a stagecoach drawn by five horses with ten seats, still took about 23 hours from Como to Flüelen . It would last until 1921. In 1882, with the inauguration of the Gotthard Railway Tunnel , the travel time between Altdorf and Biasca was reduced dramatically to only hours, though often accompanied with overnight stays in large Fin de siècle -hotels, for example in Biasca. In those days, it

387-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

516-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

645-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

774-462: A damaged lane-change gate, two high-speed switches and many other safety and operationally relevant parts. Freight trains were allowed to use the east tunnel from 23 August due to a temporary maintenance gate replacing the damaged one whilst passenger services remained rerouted. Freight capacity in the tunnel was gradually increased on weekdays, while passenger services saw expansion on weekends. In case of emergency, passengers would be evacuated through

903-645: A faster and flatter passage through the Swiss Alps . Similarly to Gruner's idea, the GBT cuts through the Gotthard Massif some 600 m (2,000 ft) below the older tunnel. On the historic track only the Gotthard Railway trains up to 1,300  t (2.9 × 10 ^   lb ) when using two locomotives or up to 1,500 t (3.3 × 10 ^  lb) with an additional bank engine at the end of

1032-792: A few kilometres the tunnel crosses the watershed between the Anterior Rhine and the Ticino, just north of Pizzo dell'Uomo (2,525 m (8,284 ft)). This point corresponds to the main chain of the Alps , and is the main drainage divide between the Rhine and the Po . For a few kilometres, the tunnel passes below two western tributaries of the Brenno in the Valle Santa Maria before crossing

1161-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

1290-532: A lane change gate in the tunnel were severely damaged. The gate is needed to separate the two tunnel tubes which is why the second tunnel could not initially be used to run trains. Experts from the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) were dispatched to the site to preserve and document evidence of the crash. Investigators found fragments of a wheel and signs of derailment several kilometers before

1419-721: A live relay carried a speech given by Transport Minister Doris Leuthard at the southern entrance in Bodio . The first journey carried hundreds of Swiss citizens who had won tickets in a draw, while the assembled guests in Erstfeld, including the Federal Council in corpore, heads of state and government from neighbouring countries and transport ministers from European countries, attended the opening show Sacre del Gottardo by Volker Hesse featuring 600 dancers, acrobats, singers and musicians celebrating Alpine culture and myths around

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1548-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

1677-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

1806-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

1935-605: A shift in transportation policy in September 1992 by accepting the NRLA proposal. A second law, the Alpine Protection Act of February 1994, requires a shift of as much tonnage as possible from truck transport to train transport. The goal of both the laws is to transport trucks, trailers and freight containers through Switzerland, from Basel to Chiasso , and beyond by rail to relieve the overused roads, and that of

2064-621: A stop inside the tunnel, to allow passengers to visit an exhibition inside the underground multifunction station in Sedrun which would normally be used in emergency only. During 2016, the GBT was tested extensively before its integration into the regular schedule on 11 December. On 5 December, the Swiss Federal Railways were granted permission from the Federal Transport Office to use the new base line. While

2193-401: Is 250 km/h (155 mph) through the GBT, the maximal authorized speed has been reduced to 230 km/h (145 mph) for ecological and economical reasons, while the operating speed of passenger trains is restricted to 200 km/h (125 mph) in order to accommodate the freight traffic, with the possibility to accelerate up to 230 km/h (145 mph) in case of delay. At opening

2322-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

2451-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

2580-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

2709-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

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2838-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

2967-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

3096-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

3225-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

3354-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

3483-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

3612-761: Is part of the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA) project, which also includes the Ceneri Base Tunnel further south (opened on 3 September 2020) and the Lötschberg Base Tunnel on the other main north–south axis. It is referred to as a " base tunnel " since it bypasses most of the existing vertex line, the Gotthard railway line , a winding mountain route opened in 1882 across the Saint-Gotthard Massif , which

3741-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

3870-526: Is planned to be served by 2021. There also have been talks of using that of Biasca. The travel between Altdorf and Biasca would last less than 25 minutes. Since the 13th century, the 2,106 m-high (6,909 ft) Gotthard Pass has been an important trade route from northern to southern Europe. Control of its access routes led to the birth of the Swiss Confederacy . The Gotthard Pass is located halfway between Lake Lucerne and Lake Maggiore . It

3999-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

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4128-444: Is the longest railway tunnel in the world , with a geodetic distance of 55.782 km (34.7 mi) between the two portals. It is also the first flat route through the Alps or any other major mountain range, with a maximum elevation of 549 m (1,801 ft) above sea level, corresponding to that of Bern . It is the deepest railway tunnel in the world, with a maximum depth of 2,450 m (8,040 ft), comparable to that of

4257-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

4386-403: Is the shortest link between the navigable Rhine and the Po . Before modern transport, the traverse of the pass took days, and snow makes it a challenge in winter. Quite late, compared to other current top-importance routes through the Alps (e.g. Simplon , San Bernardino , Brenner , Mont Cenis ), namely in 1830, the first Saint-Gotthard Pass road was established after centuries-long usage of

4515-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

4644-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

4773-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

4902-879: The Battle of Ticinus , the first battle of the Second Punic War fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and the Romans under Publius Cornelius Scipio in November 218 BC. In the Middle Ages Pavia (first capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards and then of the kingdom of Italy ) was, thanks to the waters of the Ticino, a fundamental hub for communications and trade between Venice and

5031-809: The Chrüzlistock (2,709 m or 8,888 ft) and the Piz Vatgira (2,983 m or 9,787 ft, near the Lukmanier Pass ). While the cantons of Uri and Ticino are part of the German- and Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland respectively, the Surselva is mainly Romansh -speaking. The Alps strongly influence the European climate – and that of Switzerland in particular – and there can be substantially different weather conditions at each end of

5160-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

5289-480: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

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5418-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

5547-577: The Gotthard in particular, by using intermodal freight transport and rolling highways (where the entire truck is transported). The GBT substantially contributes to the requirements of both laws and enables a direct flat route from the ports of the North Sea (notably Rotterdam) to those of the Mediterranean Sea (notably Genoa), via the Rhine corridor. Although the technical maximum speed

5676-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

5805-687: The Lago di Lugano and flows in Luino into Lago Maggiore. The Toce drains many valleys to the northwest of Lago Maggiore and joins the lake near Feriolo . It surpasses the Ticino in average discharge volume and contains the highest peak of the catchment area of the Ticino river system, the Grenzgipfel (4617 m (15148 ft)) in the Monte Rosa massif. In Sesto Calende the river, now called Fiume Ticino, exits Lake Maggiore and meanders southwards, passing

5934-591: The Milano-Malpensa Airport in the east. Now slowly turning to the southeast, the river circumvents Milano at a distance of about 20 kilometres (12 mi) in the east. Shortly before it converges with the Po in the south of Milano, it passes Pavia on its northern shore. The legendary Gallic leader Bellovesus was said to have defeated the Etruscans here in circa 600 BC. Ticino was the location of

6063-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

6192-402: The Parco naturale lombardo della Valle del Ticino , a Nature reserve included by UNESCO in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves . The name may have meant "the runner," from Proto-Indo-European *tekʷ-ino-s, from *tekʷ- (“to run, flow”). The Ticino arises from the many torrents that drain the mountain flanks on the eastern side of Nufenen Pass in the upper Val Bedretto . From here,

6321-428: The Po valley . Furthermore, still in Pavia, there was the only brick bridge ( ponte Coperto ) which until the 19th century crossed the Ticino from Lake Maggiore to the Po. A wooden bridge was built by the Visconti in Vigevano in the early fourteenth century, but it was set on fire by the Pavia fleet in 1315, rebuilt by Luchino Visconti , it was destroyed again by the Pavia in 1356 and never rebuilt. The Ticino

6450-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

6579-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

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6708-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

6837-448: The Valle Mesolcina . The Valle Mesolcina (and the Val Calanca ) belongs geographically and culturally to the Ticino, but politically it is part of the canton of the Grisons . This part of the river valley between Biasca and Bellinzona is called the Riviera . The river is dammed after Bellinzona. Now the Ticino turns almost westwards and flows through the perfectly flat Piano di Magadino , an important cultivation and nature reserve area

6966-416: The Walliser German , the population of Ticino speaks Italian . Subsequently, the Ticino becomes a mountain brook flowing straight down the valley to the hamlet of All'Acqua or All'Acqua Ospizio at 1,614 m (5,295 ft), named for the hospice for travellers located there near the previous end of a drivable road in former centuries. Currently, it is a base for skiing and hiking. Further down eastwards

7095-427: The deepest mines on Earth. Without ventilation, the temperature inside the mountain reaches 46 °C (115 °F). Like the two other tunnels passing below the Gotthard, the Gotthard Base Tunnel connects two Alpine valleys across the Saint-Gotthard Massif : the Urner Reusstal in the canton of Uri , in which flows the river Reuss , and the Valle Leventina , the largest valley in the canton of Ticino , in which

7224-443: The incidents section. The realization of the GBT, as the centrepiece of the NRLA , is also a prototypical example of direct democracy in Switzerland. In order to accomplish this mega-project the political institutions also had to overcome many parliamentary sessions and several major popular votes , including the following: The safety requirements on the rolling stock are similar to those of other long Swiss tunnels, including

7353-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

7482-441: The 100,000th transit. Around two-thirds of the passages were freight trains and the remaining quota were passenger trains, both national and international. The number of projected trains per day was 180–260 freight trains and 50 (65 from 2020) passenger trains. After the opening of the tunnel there was an increase in passengers crossing the trans-alpine line, with 2.3 million passengers in the first 8 months, an increase of 30% over

7611-465: The Amsteg section, two in the Sedrun section, and three each in the southernmost Faido and Bodio sections. In 2016, several events, including festivities and special exhibitions, were held around the Gotthard, culminating in the inaugurations in early June, dubbed Gottardo 2016 . Public institutions joined the celebrations: Swiss Post issued a special stamp commemorating the Gotthard Base Tunnel, and Swissmint issued gold and silver coins dedicated to

7740-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

7869-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

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7998-461: The GBT reduced travel times for trans-Alpine train journeys by about 40 minutes, and by one hour when the adjacent Zimmerberg and Ceneri Base Tunnels were completed. This is viewed as a revolution, especially in the isolated region of Ticino, which is separated from the rest of the country by the Alps and the Gotthard. The two stations of Bellinzona and Lugano (respectively named "Gate of Ticino" and "Terrace of Ticino") were entirely renovated for

8127-446: The GBT, described by the Ticinese architect Mario Botta : "The light changes at the Gotthard: that of the Mediterranean Sea is not the same as that of the continent, that of the central lands, that of Europe far away from the sea." On average, the temperature is about 3 °C (5 °F) higher on the south side than the north side, but on some days, temperature differences are well over 10 °C (18 °F). The north portal lies in

8256-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

8385-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

8514-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

8643-417: The Glarus Alps, which is the watershed between the Reuss and the Anterior Rhine, is crossed below the Chrüzlistock , the crest having an elevation of about 2,700 m (8,900 ft) at this point. From the crest and border, the tunnel runs parallel to the small valley of the river Strem (Val Strem) before passing below Sedrun and the Anterior Rhine. From the bottom of the valley, the tunnel proceeds towards

8772-418: The Gotthard . On the following weekend, popular festivities and special exhibitions, attended by more than 100,000 visitors, were held. From 2 August to 27 November 2016, the Swiss Federal Railways ran a special train service through the tunnel called "Gottardino" which was open to the public. It was a once-daily service from Flüelen railway station to Biasca railway station and in reverse. The trains made

8901-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

9030-757: The Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

9159-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

9288-490: The NRLA project in a 1992 referendum , the first preparatory and exploratory work began in 1996. Construction began in November 1999 at Amsteg . Drilling operations were completed in March 2011. Completed in 2016, the final cost was reported to be CHF 12.2 billion ( US$ 12 billion). The Gotthard Base Tunnel, with a length of 57.09 km (35.5 mi) and a total of 151.84 km (94.3 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages,

9417-616: The Passo della Novena and after some ten hairpins down about 500 m (1,600 ft) in altitude on its western side and then through the Ägenental in northeasten direction ultimately leading to the Obergoms , the upper half of the valley of the uppermost part the Rhône course. While the lower part of the Valais speaks French , the upper part speaks its particular Highest Alemannic dialect,

9546-733: The Tremola. In winter, however, due to the snow, cars could only cross the Gotthard on the train. Transit time was further dramatically reduced with the opening of the Gotthard Road Tunnel and the finalization of the northern part of A2 motorway through the Urner Reusstal (in close proximity to the railway), with many additional tunnels (then leading from Basel to the Gotthard Road Tunnel), in 1980. With

9675-519: The ability for the emergency brake to be overridden. On 10th August 2023, a freight train heading north derailed inside the tunnel causing it to be shut. Trains scheduled to use the tunnel were either cancelled or redirected via the "panorama route" which added around one to two hours to journeys. Since the alternate route was unable to accommodate bi-level equipment, passenger capacity was reduced by around two thirds. According to an SBB press conference, around 8km of tracks, 20,000 concrete sleepers and

9804-415: The auto tunnel, in 1980, traffic increased more than tenfold. The existing tunnel was at its capacity by 2013. A second tunnel will be built next to the first, following a national referendum. Construction started in 2021 and is scheduled to finish in 2027. As early as 1947, engineer Eduard Gruner imagined a two-story base tunnel from Amsteg to Biasca, both rail and road, with a stop at Sedrun, to provide

9933-646: The base tunnel is used for InterCity trains ( ICN ) and EuroCity trains ( EC ), the vertex line remains in use for regional trains. Since 2019, the Gotthard axis is served by the Stadler EC250 (Giruno) high-speed train and future flagship of the SBB fleet. From the Amsteg portal, guided tours are organised inside the Gotthard Base Tunnel complex. A window allows visitors to watch the trains running in

10062-465: The base tunnel level. A proposal to construct a functioning railway station, called Porta Alpina (from Romansh , "Alpine Gate"), at this site was evaluated, but the project was put on hold in 2007 and definitively cancelled by the federal authorities in 2012 as uneconomical. The final breakthrough in the east tube occurred on 15 October 2010 at 14:17 +02:00. The final breakthrough in the west tube occurred on 23 March 2011 at 12:20. On 30 August 2013,

10191-459: The breakage has not yet been determined. External influence or fatigue fracture are possible explanations. The wheel fragments will be subjected to metallurgical analysis to determine the cause. Despite the broken wheel, the wagon was dragged by the train for several kilometers. At the switching point of the multi-functional station, where trains can switch between the two tubes of the tunnel, the wagon derailed, pulling more than 20 following wagons off

10320-601: The canton's floor near Bodio at around 320 m (1050 ft). Shortly after, at Biasca (286 m (938 ft)), the river is joined by its first major tributary, the Brenno which flows from Passo del Lucomagno through the Valle di Blenio . Before the Ticino passes west of the canton's capital, Bellinzona , the river converges with its second larger left tributary, the Moesa , originating below the Passo del San Bernardino and flowing through

10449-516: The cantons of Valais and Ticino right below the Nufenen Pass , is fed by the glaciers of the Alps and later flows through Lake Maggiore , which traverses the border to Italy . The Ticino joins the Po a few kilometres downstream (along the Ticino) from Pavia . It is about 248 kilometres (154 mi) long. The stretch of river between Lake Maggiore and the confluence in the Po is included in

10578-458: The competitiveness of the railway line. Passenger speed was also increased on the railway line with the use of tilting trains, notably the ICN , although maximum speed remaining far lower than on a modern straight high-speed line. Both modern motorway and historic railway rely on heavy rockfall and avalanche protection equipments and are exposed to harsh weather condition in winter. After the opening of

10707-726: The completion in 1986 of the A2 motorway in the Valle Leventina , the main valley leading from Airolo down to Bellinzona , and the surmounting of the Monte Ceneri between Bellinzona and Lugano in 1983, finally a continuous motorway was established from the northern border of Switzerland in Basel to the southern border in Chiasso , or the shortest motorway route from North-German Hamburg as far as South-Italian Sicily , bringing down

10836-454: The crash site. At the Faido station, they discovered a pile of derailed wagons. The STSB's mission is to determine the causes of accidents to ensure or improve safety, rather than to assign guilt or responsibility. The STSB believes that the derailment was likely caused by a broken wheel tread inside the tunnel. All fragments of the wheel were found, consisting of several large pieces. The cause of

10965-453: The danger of fatal road crashes involving trucks, and reduces the environmental damage caused by heavy trucks. The tunnel also provides a faster connection between the canton of Ticino and the rest of Switzerland, as well as between northern and southern Europe, cutting the Basel / Zürich – Lugano – Milan journey time for passenger trains by one hour (and from Lucerne to Bellinzona by 45 minutes). After 64 percent of Swiss voters accepted

11094-535: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

11223-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

11352-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

11481-474: The first flat, low-level route through the Alps. It lies at the heart of the Gotthard axis and constitutes the third tunnel connecting the cantons of Uri and Ticino , after the Gotthard Tunnel and the Gotthard Road Tunnel . The GBT consists of a large complex with, at its core, two single-track tunnels connecting Erstfeld (Uri) with Bodio (Ticino) and passing below Sedrun ( Grisons ). It

11610-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

11739-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

11868-466: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Ticino (river) It is one of the four major rivers taking their source in the Gotthard region, along with the Rhône , Reuss and Rhine . The river rises in the Val Bedretto in Switzerland at the frontier between

11997-546: The last range, west of the Passo Predèlp (about 2,500 m (8,200 ft)) and east of Faido . It then follows the eastern slopes of the large Valle Leventina , the valley of the Ticino, for about 18 km (11 mi) to the south portal at Bodio , at an elevation of 312 m (1,024 ft), just 3 km (1.9 mi) before Biasca , where the Brenno converges with the Ticino. The closest railway stations to

12126-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

12255-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

12384-715: The north of the municipality of Erstfeld at an elevation of 460 m (1,510 ft), east of the Reuss. There, the tunnel penetrates the western slopes of the Bälmeten and Chli Windgällen (although only marginally) before passing below the valley of the Chärstelenbach, a creek in the Maderanertal . From there, the tunnel runs parallel to the small valley of Etzli, below the Witenalpstock . The main crest of

12513-638: The opening of the GBT, among other improvements. As of 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the longest railway tunnel in the world . It is the third Swiss tunnel to bear this title, after the Gotthard Tunnel (15 km or 9.3 mi, 1882) and the Simplon Tunnel (19.8 km or 12.3 mi, 1905). It is the third tunnel built under the Gotthard, after the Gotthard Tunnel and the Gotthard Road Tunnel. AlpTransit Gotthard AG

12642-575: The opening. On 31 May 2016, a day before the inauguration, the nine people who died during construction were commemorated in a ceremony at the north portal in Erstfeld that was led by a Catholic vicar general , a vicar of the Evangelical-Reformed Church of Uri , a Jewish rabbi, and a Muslim imam. A bronze memorial plaque with their names — four coming from Germany, three from Italy, and one from each of South Africa and Austria –

12771-426: The other tunnel tube. Following the reopening of the undamaged northern third of the western tube, additional freight and passenger services were scheduled to use the tunnel, with a full reopening and a return to normal service commencing on 2nd September 2024. Since the opening date on 1 June 2016, between 130 and 160 trains on an average working day operated through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which in March 2019 marked

12900-504: The portals are Altdorf and Biasca . The first regularly served railway stations on the base line (as of 2016/17) are those of Arth-Goldau ( Schwyz ), a railway node with links to Lucerne and Zürich , and Bellinzona (the "Gate of Ticino"), with links to Locarno , Luino and Lugano (via the Monte Ceneri Rail Tunnel ). The journey from Arth-Goldau to Bellinzona takes not more than an hour. The station of Altdorf

13029-484: The previous year. In August 2017, an average of 10,400 people crossed the tunnel daily. Train services from Italy to Switzerland through the line are expected to become faster from 2020, with the opening of the Ceneri Base Tunnel , with an expected further increase in passenger numbers. There are plans for a train service between Zürich and Milan with a journey time of 2:45 hours, down from 3:50 hours. 67,000 tonnes (150 million pounds) on 120 trains passed through

13158-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

13287-587: The river Ticino flows. Unlike most other tunnels, the Gotthard Base Tunnel passes under several distinct mountain massifs, two of them being major subranges of the Alps, the Glarus Alps and the Saint-Gotthard Massif , with the valley of the Anterior Rhine , the Surselva in the canton of Graubünden , between them. The tunnel passes under these two ranges more than 2,000 m (6,562 ft) below

13416-604: The river flows to the north-east through the Val Bedretto to Airolo (1,127 metres (3,698 ft)) where the south ramp of the St Gotthard Pass and south portals of both the Gotthard Railway Tunnel and the Gotthard Road Tunnel are located. Then it turns slowly to the southeast while entering the Valle Leventina . In the Leventina, the Ticino flows through three terrain steps separated by two narrow gorges ( Gola di Monte Piottino and Biaschina ) and finally reaches

13545-782: The river generated itself by its own sediments over ten thousands of years, before it enters the Lago Maggiore at the lowest point of Switzerland at 193 metres (633 ft). Only about the first sixth of the lake lies in Switzerland. Four major tributaries join the Ticino in Lago Maggiore. The Verzasca and the Maggia enter the lake in Switzerland in Tenero and in Locarno/ Ascona , respectively. The Tresa drains

13674-698: The same name. Until the beginning of the 20th century the Valaisinne Gries Glacier was still flowing over the Corno Pass into the Val Corno! Both spring areas converges about where the hairpins of the eastern pass road begins to circumvent about 700 m (2,300 ft) in altitude. Through the passes and over the Nufenenstock runs the border between the cantons of Valais and Ticino . A paved road constructed in 1964 goes over

13803-521: The small villages of Ronco at 1,476 m (4,843 ft) and finally Bedretto (1,402 m (4,600 ft)) and Villa Bedretto appear. Below Bedretto the Ri di Cristallina, "Cristallina stream", a right tributary from the Val Torta, joins the Ticino at Ossasco, and further down the valley, Fontana is the lowest village in Val Bedretto. The entire area is laced with hiking trails and mountain huts. The valley

13932-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

14061-551: The summit of the pass, comporting notably the Schöllenen ravine and the Tremola , had countless hairpin turns and serpentine curves, dropping 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in altitude. It posed a huge challenge for automobiles of those days. From 1953 onwards, the pass road was sequentially improved and expanded at several sections along the Gotthard route, finally ending in 1977 with the opening of an expressway fully circumventing

14190-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

14319-414: The tracks. The tunnel's repair work was extensive. Originally expected to be completed by the end of 2023, it was announced in November 2023 that the repairs would not be finished before September 2024, with the tunnel operating at reduced capacity until then. This was due to repairs requiring a complete replacement of seven kilometers of rails, including 20,000 sleeper blocks and their concrete foundations,

14448-419: The train are able to pass through the narrow mountain valleys and through spiral tunnels climbing up to the portals of the old tunnel at a height of 1,151 m (3,776 ft) above sea level. Since the GBT is in full service, standard freight trains of up to 3,600 t (7.9 × 10 ^  lb) are able to pass this natural barrier. Because of ever-increasing international truck traffic, Swiss voters chose

14577-655: The tunnel each day during the first half year of operation. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and

14706-412: The tunnel was entirely traversed for the first time from Bodio to Erstfeld in six hours, by diesel train, buses and by foot. On 16 December 2013, the operational test phase started on a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) stretch in the southern section of the west tube between Faido and Bodio. Its purpose was to test the infrastructure and any ancillary systems. On 31 October 2014, the railway track installation

14835-501: The tunnel. On 10 August 2023, a freight train derailed while traveling through the tunnel, causing extensive damage to the tunnel infrastructure. The incident occurred near the multi-functional station of Faido, in the canton of Ticino. No one was injured, and no hazardous materials were released. The derailment caused significant damage to the tunnel, prompting its closure to both passenger and freight traffic. The tunnel returned to normal service on 2 September 2024. See more information in

14964-468: The tunnels in the two multifunction stations at Sedrun and Faido . These stations house ventilation equipment and technical infrastructure and serve as emergency stops and evacuation routes. Access to the Sedrun station site is by a level access tunnel 1 km (0.6 mi) long from the valley floor near Sedrun. At the end of the access tunnel, two vertical shafts lead 800 m (2,625 ft) down to

15093-542: The valley is fairly straight until it approaches the pass, where the nine hairpin turns start. The Ticino originates on both sides, north and south, of the Nufenenstock: A smaller tributary originates from a small mountain lake south of the Nufenenstock and north of the Piccolo Corno Gries (2,928 m (9,606 ft)) below the Passo del Corno at 2,484 m (8,150 ft) in the short valley of

15222-516: The valley of the Rein da Nalps (Val Nalps) and passes east of Lai da Nalps , before crossing the Gannaretsch range below the western summit of Piz Vatgira (2,981 m (9,780 ft)). This is the deepest point of the tunnel, with a rock layer of 2,450 m (8,040 ft) above it. The tunnel then passes below the valley of the Rein da Medel (Val Medel) and west of Lai da Sontga Maria . After

15351-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

15480-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

15609-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

15738-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

15867-539: Was completed. A gold sleeper on the very last part of the track was installed during the event to mark this milestone of progress. On 1 October 2015, following permission by the Federal Office of Transport, the first tests on the entire length of the GBT were performed, with steadily increasing speed. On 8 November, a train reached the top speed of 275 km/h (171 mph). The contracts were awarded in sections: Nine workers died during construction; one in

15996-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

16125-839: Was in the territory of the Duchy of Milan during much of the later medieval and early modern period, although its upper portion as far as Bellinzona in 1500 and as far as the shores of Lago Maggiore in 1513, fell to the Old Swiss Confederacy as a result of the Swiss campaigns in the Italian Wars . Val Bedretto, a narrow alpine valley named after the village of Bedretto , culminates in Nufenen Pass , ( Italian : Passo della Novena , German : Nufenen Pass ), at 2,478 m (8,130 ft) located between Pizzo Gallina (north, 3,060 m (10,040 ft)) and Nufenenstock (south, 2,865 m (9,400 ft)). The road up

16254-570: Was operating at its capacity before the opening of the GBT. The new base tunnel establishes a direct route usable by high-speed rail and heavy freight trains . The main purpose of the Gotthard Base Tunnel is to increase local transport capacity through the Alpine barrier, especially for freight on the Rotterdam–Basel–Genoa corridor, and more specifically to shift freight volumes from trucks to freight trains. This both significantly reduces

16383-456: Was responsible for construction. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) . To cut construction time in half, four access tunnels were built so that construction could start at four different sites simultaneously: Erstfeld, Amsteg, Sedrun, and Faido. A fifth at Bodio was added later. The two tunnels are joined approximately every 325 m (1,066 ft) by connecting galleries. Trains can move between

16512-433: Was still an adventure and it was only affordable to the rich. Electrification of the railway line in 1922 significantly reduced travel time again. Refilling water boilers of steam locomotives was no longer necessary. There were also the technical advantages of electrical engines and future technical improvements. From 1924, car transport on trains through the railway tunnel began. The road between Göschenen and Airolo over

16641-510: Was unveiled by AlpTransit Gotthard AG CEO Renzo Simoni. A Catholic shrine to Saint Barbara , the patron of miners, stands inside the tunnel as a memorial. The tunnel was officially inaugurated on 1 June 2016. At the northern entrance in Erstfeld, President of the Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann spoke of a "giant step for Switzerland but equally for our neighbours and the rest of the continent", while

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