89-397: The Odenwald Railway ( German : Odenwaldbahn ) is a mainly single-tracked main line from Darmstadt and Hanau to Eberbach on the River Neckar , which crosses the Odenwald mountains in the German states of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg . Since 1882 the route has been operated throughout as a standard gauge line and since 2005 has been worked by diesel multiples owned by
178-465: 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
267-402: 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
356-612: 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
445-600: A central control panel at Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach station. At several stations ( Darmstadt Ost , Ober-Ramstadt, Reinheim, Wiebelsbach, Groß-Umstadt) access to the trains were improved with new platforms. In Darmstadt Nord , a new track connection was built allowing a direct journey to Frankfurt over the Main-Neckar Railway and a new station was opened at the new campus of the Technical University of Darmstadt , called Darmstadt TU-Lichtwiese . In
534-559: 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
623-651: A length of 173 m and two 60 m long viaducts over the Rindengrund and the kurze Tal ("short valley") are the most impressive viaducts. The line has three tunnels: the 240-metre-long Engelberg tunnel at Reinheim, the 1,205 m long tunnel near Frau-Nauses, both 8 m wide in preparation for a second track, and the Krähberg tunnel with a length of 3,100 m. At the top of the Mümling valley the line has its maximum grade of 1:70 and its smallest curve radius of 300 m. The railway
712-458: 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
801-696: 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
890-467: A result of bottlenecks especially during peak hours, passenger growth on the new direct services has been low. Therefore, in 2007, four more Itino sets were ordered. These were approved for service in February 2010 and have increased the fleet to 26 sets. The following Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund services are operated: Since the timetable change on 11 December 2005, direct services are able to run from
979-483: 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
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#17327877400451068-717: 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 the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
1157-601: 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
1246-612: 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
1335-558: 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
1424-478: 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
1513-430: 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
1602-535: 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
1691-611: 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
1780-565: 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
1869-435: 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
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#17327877400451958-597: 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
2047-401: 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
2136-514: Is still used on some lines. In Germany Eilzug trains were middle-distance trains that usually ran between two conurbations and only stopped at important railway stations . In several public transport systems, there are also metropolitan railways ( Stadtbahn , US: rapid transit) where trains on some routes run as Eilzüge , stopping at fewer stations. The successor to the Eilzug in Germany today
2225-525: 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
2314-586: Is the Regional-Express train. The term Eilzug was introduced first in Bavaria in 1902, and later in Prussia in 1907 and Saxony in 1908, for express trains with no supplementary fare, and which as a rule were formed of older compartment coaches . From about 1919 they only ran with second and third class passenger classes . From 7 October 1928 a supplement had to be paid for Eilzüge , which
2403-906: Is the closest comparable service to the Eilzug . That said, the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG) runs Eilzüge on several lines. For example, they work the Alb Valley Railway , the Hardt Railway , the Kraichgau Railway and the Murg Valley Railway as S-Bahn Eilzug services of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn network and pass many stations there without stopping. In addition, the AVG also operates several trains (comparable to
2492-578: 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
2581-485: 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
2670-689: 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
2759-462: The Regionalbahnen ) on the route from Karlsruhe Central - Bundenthal-Rumbach (May to October) as Eilzug services. These use diesel railcars . Austria had an Eilzug category until 9 December 2006. Austrian Eilzüge usually only had second class coaches. Eilzug trains with first class seats, which also handled long-distance services, were called Sprinters . Since 10 December 2006
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2848-639: 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
2937-537: 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
3026-417: 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
3115-522: 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
3204-746: 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
3293-666: 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
3382-625: The Pfungstadt Railway . The line for its whole length is listed as a historic landmark under the Hessian Monument Protection Act. Its whole length of 120 km, especially its southern part, is very scenic: between Erbach and Eberbach it runs across a mountain range with many engineering structures. The Himbächel viaduct with a total length of 250 m and a maximum height of 40 m and the Haintal viaduct with
3471-644: The Rhine-Main Railway in Babenhausen. The Hessian Ludwig Railway received a concession from the Grand Duchy of Hesse to build the 31 km southern section of the line through the Grand Duchy of Baden on 3 August 1875; the Baden section of the line was authorised by a treaty between the two grand duchies that had been signed on 3 August 1874. Because the line had to overcome the topography over
3560-676: 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
3649-550: 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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3738-513: 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
3827-658: The VIAS private railway company. The line is timetable no. KBS 641. To distinguish it from the Odenwald Railway in Baden from Heidelberg to Würzburg it is also known as the Hessian Odenwald Railway ( Hessische Odenwaldbahn ) and occasionally as the Mümling Railway ( Mümlingbahn ), because it follows the valley of the same name from Beerfelden Hetzbach to Höchst im Odenwald . During
3916-469: 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
4005-635: The 1860s there were many years of controversy over the route. Darmstadt, the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hesse-Darmstadt) supported a route through the Gersprenz valley through Reinheim , Brensbach , Hollerbach and the Kinzig and the Mümling valleys. Frankfurt instead supported route through Dieburg . As a compromise, the route as later built was chosen. It runs from Eberbach through
4094-510: The 56 km route between Darmstadt and Erbach took 1 hour and 17 minutes in 1982; in 2004 they took 1 hour and 10 minutes, which corresponded to an average speed of 48 km/h. Around 2005 was the infrastructure of the Odenwald Railway was upgraded at considerable cost. The line speed was increased in some places from 90 to 120 km/h and the predominant semaphore signals were replaced by colour light signals controlled from
4183-723: 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
4272-748: 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
4361-417: 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
4450-399: 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
4539-623: 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
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#17327877400454628-547: 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
4717-644: 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
4806-408: 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
4895-469: The Odenwald Railway on the new rail link north of Darmstadt to Frankfurt. This service is operated hourly from Erbach to Frankfurt, via Frankfurt Central Station , Offenbach Central Station , Hanau Central Station and then on to Erbach (and vice versa), with a short stop and reversal in Frankfurt Central Station. Some of these trains travel in the peak with three sets coupled. The journey from Erbach to Frankfurt via Darmstadt now take about 88 minutes. When
4984-513: The Odenwald Railway operable along its entire length. Originally, it had been planned to complete the line in 1879, coinciding with the opening of the Neckar Valley Railway from Neckargemünd to the Jagst river, but due to the stretched financial situation of the Hessian Ludwig Railway Company, this schedule could not be met. Passenger trains took two hours to run over the 56 km route between Darmstadt and Erbach in 1871. A number of additions and connections to different lines were connected to
5073-465: The Odenwald Railway over the years: From 1925 the Odenwald Railway was served by local services as well as three “hedgerow expresses” ( Heckeneilzug ), from Frankfurt via Hanau, Erbach and Eberbach, connecting with Stuttgart and during some timetable periods in the 1980s even corridor express ( D-Zug ) trains. These changed from electric to diesel locomotives originally in Heilbronn and later in Eberbach. The travel time between Frankfurt and Stuttgart
5162-487: The Odenwald via Wiebelbach-Heubach, where it branches, with one branch running to Babenhausen and Hanau Central Station ( Hauptbahnhof ) and the other branch to Reinheim and Darmstadt. This meant that traffic from the Odenwald ran to Darmstadt rather than bypassing it. The Hessian Ludwig Railway ( Hessische Ludwigsbahn ) received the concession for the Odenwald Railway in the summer of 1868 and financed its construction by raising public debt of over 4 million thalers . It
5251-706: The beginning of the 1990s, class 628 diesel multiple units were increasingly operated on the line, while the remaining locomotive-hauled trains, which had been hauled by class 212 diesel locomotives, was gradually replaced by class 216 hauled trains. In the late nineties, these were replaced first by class 215 locomotives, which after a short time were transferred to other regions, and then by class 218 locomotives. The locomotive-hauled trains often ran as push-pull trains . Deutsche Bahn abandoned freight services in 2001. Through passenger services between Frankfurt and Stuttgart were terminated in December 2004 when Baden-Württemberg refused to support them. Passenger trains on
5340-567: The busy local services in built-up areas. Several of these trains have been called StadtExpress trains since 1995. The DB's expresses ( D-Züge ), which attracted a supplementary fare until 1982, ran on some sections as Eilzug trains. For example, nos. D 895 and D 564 from Saarbrücken to Munich , which ran via the South Palatinate railway ( Südpfalzbahn ) and were classified from Karlsruhe as an Eilzug service. The international express Donaukurier (the Danube Courier ), D 222, from Vienna ran from Cologne to Dortmund as an Eilzug in
5429-399: The course of modernisation at the timetable change of December 2005, some station names were changed to reflect changes in place names as a result of the municipal reform in Hesse in 1974: The local transport plan for 2011-2016 includes new stations in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district and new stations in Groß-Umstadt are also being considering. Since the timetable change on 11 December 2005,
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#17327877400455518-430: 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
5607-404: 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
5696-406: The early 1980s. Many Eilzüge , that were formed from D-Zug coaches ran from 1982 onwards in the D-Zug category, but without supplementary fares. As a result of the reclassification of services following the foundation of Deutsche Bahn , the Eilzug was gradually abandoned to 1995 and replaced by other train services. There is no direct successor to the Eilzug ; today, the Regional-Express
5785-435: 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
5874-435: 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,
5963-417: 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
6052-454: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Heckeneilzug An Eilzug (plural: Eilzüge ) is a type of passenger train which runs regionally, and does not stop at all stations; it is similar to a modern regional express train, 'fast stopping train' or 'semi-fast train'. The term has largely been superseded, but
6141-402: 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
6230-423: 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
6319-433: The passenger services on the Odenwald Railway have been operated by the VIAS company, using two-carriage Bombardier Itino DMUs, which are owned by Fahrzeugmanagement Region Frankfurt RheinMain GmbH (fahma). The platform length of 120 metres on the line restricts services to a maximum of three sets coupled together. However, the originally tendered 22 sets are not enough to provide sufficient capacity on all services. So as
6408-462: 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
6497-546: 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,
6586-454: The terms Eilzug and Sprinter have been dropped in favour of Regional-Express . The term Eilzug (in western Switzerland semi-direct ) was used for the category of train in between express trains and ordinary passenger or stopping trains (which stopped at every station). That meant it could be used for fast passenger trains, as well as express services with numerous stops and which partly ran on branch lines. Many ' Eilzüge disappeared on
6675-500: 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
6764-406: The trains run through Babenhausen there are interchanges on the Rhine-Main Railway to Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg . Since the timetable change of 2005, connections on Sundays and public holidays are no longer matched, causing longer waiting times. There are currently no freight operations on the Odenwald Railway. Since December 2011, some services running to Darmstadt continue to Pfungstadt on
6853-655: The watershed between the Main and Neckar, many engineering structures were required between Erbach and Eberbach, including the Himbächel Viaduct and the Krähberg Tunnel, as well as gradients of 1 in 70. On 1 March 1882, the 23 km long Erbach–Hetzbach section running through the Krähberg Tunnel was opened. On 27 May, this was followed by the opening of the last section from Eberbach to Hetzbach, first for passenger traffic and five days later for freight, making
6942-608: 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
7031-652: 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
7120-495: Was 3.5 hours and between Frankfurt and Erbach about 85 minutes. In the 1970s, the Odenwald Railway began large scale closures. Zeilhard, Richen, Etzen-Gesäß, Schönnen, Ebersberg and Gaimühle stations were closed and Hetzbach, Kailbach, Klein-Umstadt and Langstadt stations were rebuilt as halts ( Haltepunkten , that is they now had all sets of points removed). In the 30 kilometres between Erbach and Eberbach there are now no junctions. The branch lines were partly closed: At times, it
7209-429: 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
7298-688: Was a tourist attraction from the beginning. It was travelled over by the Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse and his wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom , accompanied by the Count of Erbach-Schönberg and their guest, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn , a brother of the Duchess, in early 1872, on the way to Lauterbach. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
7387-547: 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
7476-581: Was constructed as a single-track main-line railway of standard gauge , crossing the Odenwald in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg . In September 1868, construction began on the 1,205 m long tunnel near Frau-Nauses between Wiebelbach and Höchst im Odenwald in the Mümling valley. This cost the life of eleven people and was finished at the Christmas of 1870. In Darmstadt, work began on 1 February 1869 and progressed quickly towards Reinheim. The line
7565-492: 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
7654-475: Was even considered abandoning the mountainous line between Erbach and Eberbach completely. This did not happen, however, and the services began stopping at Kailbach and Schöllenbach stations again from 1994, after they had been closed in 1977. After the Second World War, class 65 steam locomotive were used on almost all trains. They were used because their technical characteristics (tensile strength)
7743-501: Was opened to Ober-Ramstadt on 28 December 1870, to Reinheim on 15 May 1871 and to Wiebelbach-Heubach two months later. On 23 December 1871 the section to Erbach was opened, having been delayed by a collapse in the Frau-Nauses tunnel. The branch line between Hanau and Wiebelbach-Heubach was opened between Babenhausen and Wiebelbach-Heubach in two sections in 1870 and between Hanau and Babenhausen in 1882. The Odenwald Railway crosses
7832-737: Was usually half the express train fare. During the 1930s specific coaches or Eilzugwagen were designed and built for them. They were built in various classes until the 1950s. From 1952 there were also the so-called Städteschnellzüge ('city express trains') that were supplement-free. Later the DB scrapped the Eilzug supplement completely; the DR followed suit in 1991. In the 1960s the concept widened. There were Eilzug trains that worked branch lines and had distinct long-distance duties - known in everyday speech as Heckeneilzug (hedgerow Eilzug ) – and so-called Bezirkseilzüge (district Eilzüge ), which handled
7921-516: Was very suitable for the Odenwald line. Passengers trains were mostly composed of three-axle carriages rebuilt from compartmentised carriages. Freight trains were often hauled by class 50 locomotives; in some cases freight traffic was carried between Hanau and Wiebelbach in railbus sets. All locomotives were based in Darmstadt. In 1970, steam operations ended on the Odenwald line and train services were hauled by diesel locomotives of class 212 . At
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