There are 105 million native speakers of the German language in Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Germany. German is categorised as a Western Germanic Language, along with Dutch and English. It is one of the major languages of the world. In fact, some people believe that German will become the most-used language on the Internet in the future. The fact that there are so many German speakers across the globe means that there are many and varied uses for German translation services. German translators may be required to work with official documents for government organisations, with publishers on translation of books and other texts as well as on smaller projects for individuals, who may need birth certificates or personal letters translated to or from German.
Swiss German is a variety of German, used by around four million people residing in Switzerland. This branch of the German language rarely appears in novels, personal letters, diaries, or newspapers. Other regional German dialects, or Mundarten, also seldom appear in publications and when they do, it’s mostly in comic books and folk literature. These dialects tend to be mainly used in spoken German,
In written translations, Hochdeutsch, or High German, is used. It emerged as the standard language in the 16th century. Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible initiated the standardisation. The lexicon dictionary he used became the pattern for German translators nowadays.