The German language is a West Germanic language spoken in central Europe. It is the official language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein, as well as one of the official languages of Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It has over 130 million speakers worldwide. It ranks among the languages with the most native speakers worldwide and is also widely studied as a foreign language.
As a written language, German is fairly uniform across countries. However, as a spoken language, it has many varieties, which are mainly divided into High German and Low German groups. The main difference between the two is in the sound system, especially the consonants. High German, spoken in the southern highlands of Germany, is the official written language.