It belongs to the Germanic group of languages. A distinctive feature of the German language is the capitalisation of all nouns. It played a key role in the formation of several other languages (e.g. Yiddish). Standard German is based on the spoken language of Thuringia and Upper Saxony. It is an official language in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. In German, exceptionally long words are often encountered; these usually make a cluster of different words forming an entirety. Along with the ‘umlaut’ (ä, ö, ü), the German language also has a unique letter ß called ‘Eszett’.
