Talk:German language

Article Checklist for "German language"

Workgroup category or categories	Linguistics Workgroup [Categories OK]
Article status	Stub: no more than a few sentences
Underlinked article?	No
Basic cleanup done?	Yes
Checklist last edited by	John Stephenson 21:20, 8 May 2007 (CDT)

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German as Hochdeutsch?

I think the first sentence ("German language is, perhaps first and foremost, the common dialect taught in German and Austrian schools, business, and government, and which is taught in other countries as "German" — the dialect called Hochdeutsch (High German)") is confusing. It seems to me that we should start by saying that 'German' is a whole bunch of dialects, then quickly emphasise things common to German linguistic culture, such as Hochdeutsch and spelling reform. Otherwise I think it adds to the 'German equals Hochdeutsch' myth. John Stephenson 02:29, 15 May 2007 (CDT)

You have a point that something needs to change. I decided to replace "dialect" on the first line with "language" due to the previous long bicker that led to German_dialects to be split off from this page. The first time anyone sees "dialect" on this page, I would like them to click on German_dialects which goes into all of the stuff that I personally would have preferred to cover right herein this article. See the talk page of German dialect for more info :-) Pat Palmer 13:04, 15 May 2007 (CDT)