German in Different Languages: 84 names for the German language
German is Deutsch to its speakers but allemand in French, tedesco in Italian, niemiecki in Polish, saksa in Finnish and ドイツ語 (doitsugo) in Japanese: few languages disagree as much about one name, and the tables collect it in 84 languages and 16 writing systems.
Why German has so many names
The German word Deutsch goes back to Old High German diutisc, “of the people”.1 Neighbouring peoples did not take that word over. Each met the Germans through a different tribe, region or impression and named the language accordingly, so the names below fall into half a dozen unrelated families. ISO 639 gives German two three-letter codes, ger and deu, plus de.2
German in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
49 rows. Languages with the same spelling share a row; German itself appears with the long-s form Deutſch. Uzbek and Tajik have two names each, both listed.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of German | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English · eng | German | |
| Afrikaans, Dutch · afr, nld | Duits | |
| Danish, Norwegian · dan, nor | tysk | |
| Estonian, Finnish · est, fin | saksa | |
| Galician, Spanish · glg, spa | alemán | |
| Indonesian, Malay · ind, msa | bahasa Jerman | |
| Azerbaijani (Latin) · aze | almanca | |
| Bosnian (Latin) · bos | njemački | |
| Breton · bre | alamaneg | |
| Catalan · cat | alemany | |
| Czech · ces | němčina | |
| Welsh · cym | Almaeneg | |
| German · deu | Deutsch / Deutſch | |
| Esperanto · epo | germana | |
| Basque · eus | alemanera | |
| Faroese · fao | týskt | |
| French · fra | allemand | |
| West Frisian · fry | Dútsk | |
| Scottish Gaelic · gla | Gearmailtis | |
| Irish · gle | Gearmáinis | |
| Guarani · grn | alemañañe'ẽ | |
| Croatian · hrv | njemački | |
| Hungarian · hun | német | |
| Interlingua · ina | germano | |
| Icelandic · isl | þýska | |
| Italian · ita | tedesco | |
| Latin · lat | germanice | |
| Latvian · lav | vācu | |
| Lithuanian · lit | vokiečių | |
| Maltese · mlt | Ġermaniż | |
| Polish · pol | niemiecki | |
| Portuguese · por | alemão | |
| Romanian · ron | germană | |
| Slovak · slk | nemčina | |
| Slovene · slv | nemščina | |
| Somali · som | jarmal | |
| Albanian · sqi | gjermanishte | |
| Swahili · swa | kijerumani | |
| Swedish · swe | tyska | |
| Tagalog · tgl | Aleman | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | nemesçe | |
| Turkish · tur | Almanca | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | nemischa, olmoncha | |
| Vietnamese · vie | tiếng Đức | |
| Volapük · vol | Deutänapük | |
| Xhosa · xho | isi-German | |
| Zulu · zul | isiJalimani | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Latin) · ckb | aḻmanî | |
| Uyghur (Latin) · uig | némische |
German in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Tibetan, Indic and East Asian scripts
35 rows, each with a romanisation where the source has one. Arabic-script names, Hebrew and Yiddish run right to left.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of German | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | алманҹа | |
| Bosnian (Cyrillic) · bos | њемачки | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | немесче | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | немисча, олмонча | |
| Belarusian · bel | нямецкая | njameckaja |
| Bulgarian · bul | немски | nemski |
| Kyrgyz · kir | немисче | nemisče |
| Macedonian · mkd | германски | germanski |
| Mongolian · mon | герман | german |
| Russian · rus | немецкий | nemeckij |
| Serbian · srp | немачки | nemački |
| Tajik (Cyrillic) · tgk | олмонӣ, немисӣ | olmonī, nemisī |
| Tajik (Arabic script) · tgk | آلمانی, نیمیسی | ôlmônī, nemīsī |
| Ukrainian · ukr | німецька | nimec'ka |
| Arabic · ara | الألمانيّة | al-almānīyâ |
| Persian · fas | آلمانی | ālmānī |
| Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) · ckb | ئاڵمانی | |
| Sindhi · snd | جرمن | jarman |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | نېمىسچه | |
| Urdu · urd | جرمن | jarman |
| Amharic, Tigrinya · amh, tir | ጀርመን | järmän |
| Hebrew · heb | גרמנית | germanīt |
| Yiddish · yid | דײַטש | daytš |
| Greek · ell | γερμανικά | germaniká |
| Armenian · hye | գերմաներեն | germaneren |
| Georgian · kat | გერმანული | germanuli |
| Marathi, Nepali · mar, nep | जर्मन | dzarman |
| Hindi · hin | जर्मन | jarman |
| Tamil · tam | ஜெர்மன் | jermaṉ |
| Chinese · zho | 德语 / 德文 | déyǔ / déwén |
| Japanese · jpn | ドイツ語 | doitsugo |
| Korean · kor | 독일어 | dogileo |
| Dzongkha · dzo | ཇཱར་མཱན | jār.mān |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาเยอรมัน | pʰāsāyə̄nmân |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາເຢຍລະມັນ | pʰāsāyiyalamân |
Six roots for the name of German
Sort the rows by origin and six groups appear.1
Of the people
From diutisc come Dutch and Afrikaans Duits, Danish and Norwegian tysk, Swedish tyska, Icelandic þýska and Italian tedesco. Japanese ドイツ語 (doitsugo) and Yiddish דײַטש (daytš) sound close to the German word too.
The Alemanni
French allemand, Spanish alemán, Portuguese alemão, Catalan alemany, Welsh Almaeneg, Turkish Almanca and Arabic الألمانيّة (al-almānīyâ) are named after the Alemanni, a tribe on the upper Rhine. Persian آلمانی (ālmānī) follows the same line.
Latin Germania
English German, Romanian germană, Esperanto germana, Maltese Ġermaniż and Greek γερμανικά (germaniká) go back to the Roman name Germania; Hindi जर्मन (jarman) has the same form.
The mute ones
The Slavic languages use a word from němьcь, “mute”, for people whose speech could not be understood: niemiecki, němčina, немецкий (nemeckij), німецька (nimec'ka). Hungarian német took the word from Slavic.
Saxons and a Baltic puzzle
Finnish and Estonian saksa name the Saxons. Latvian vācu and Lithuanian vokiečių share a Baltic root whose origin is still unclear.
Questions about the name of German
Why is German called allemand in French?
French named the language after the Alemanni, a Germanic tribe on the upper Rhine. Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish and Arabic follow the same pattern.
Why do Slavic languages call German niemiecki or nemecký?
The word comes from Slavic němьcь, “mute”, a name for foreigners whose language the Slavs did not understand.
What are the language codes for German?
de in ISO 639-1; ger (bibliographic) and deu (terminology) in ISO 639-2; deu in ISO 639-3.
- 1Wikipedia, “Names for the German language” and “Names of Germany” (Old High German diutisc “of the people”; the Alemanni; Latin Germania; Slavic němьcь “mute”; the Saxons; the Baltic root of unclear origin), checked 28 October 2026. ↑
- 2ISO 639-2 Registration Authority (Library of Congress), Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages, checked 28 October 2026. German: ger (bibliographic) and deu (terminology) in ISO 639-2, de in ISO 639-1. ↑