Reference Centre, Dictionnaires
Dictionary of German Words and Phrases
This list contains German words with their English translations. The words included here are those that one is likely to find in a genealogical or historical document or record. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a German-English dictionary.
German is spoken throughout Germany. However, several dialects can be heard such as in the province of Westphalia and in areas that border the Netherlands where the German language has taken on many characteristics of the Dutch language. German is also spoken in areas where there are large centres of German immigrants such as in Switzerland and Austria and in parts of Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Like most other languages, German spelling was not standardized in earlier centuries. Clerks, in their written records, spelled words based upon the way a word sounded and also in accordance with the level of their own understanding of language as gained through their education. Variations between the old-style and modern-style of spelling words are common. As well, local dialect often affected the spelling in genealogical records.
Furthermore, the German language uses the umlaut placed over the vowels a, o, and u (ä ö ü) to signify a change in the pronunciation of a word. More importantly, however, is the fact that, in strict alphabetical sequence, those same three letters, with umlaut, are alphabetized as if they were ae, oe and ue, respectively. Similarly, the ß is alphabetized as being a double 's', that is, 'ss'.
English has a number of words taken directly from German - kindergarten and poodle, sauerkraut, plunder and yodel. German speech varies considerably from place to place but two main speech regions can be identified: the 'Plattdeutsch' (flat or 'low' German) spoken in the flat northern plains and the 'Hochdeutsch' ('high' German) spoken in the higher or mountainous regions of central and southern Germany. All printed language, however, is based on 'high' German.