German refers to a collection of dialects used in Germany and surrounding countries. German dialects are generally divided into Low German and High German. (Some linguists argue that Low German should not be considered part of the German language.)
**High German**
High German refers to the German dialects spoken in southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. "High" refers to the Alps and the nearby mountainous regions of southern Germany.
It is worth noting that many people in China often confuse High German with Standard German, but these are two completely different concepts. The German term for High German is *Oberdeutsch*, where *Ober* means "high" or "upper," referring to the Alps and the nearby southern German mountainous regions. On the other hand, the German term for Standard German is *Hochdeutsch*. While *hoch* also means "high," in this context it signifies "noble" or "elevated" rather than a geographical concept. *Hochdeutsch* specifically refers to Standard German in the German language. Standard German pronunciation is based on the dialect spoken in central Germany (around Hanover), and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland use the same German orthography.
**Low German**
Low German (usually divided into three major systems):
- **East Low German**: Includes East and West Prussian German spoken in regions such as Berlin and Mecklenburg, which belong to East Low German.
- **Low Saxon**: For example, the Mennonite Low German (*Plautdietsch*) spoken by German-descended communities in Kansas, North America, as well as in Bremen, Düsseldorf, and most cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and parts of provinces in southeastern Netherlands.
- **Low Franconian**: Includes Dutch and Flemish in Belgium (which, though differing in vocabulary, has corresponding words with identical pronunciations as Dutch), as well as Limburgish in the Netherlands. In essence, Dutch is also a form of Low German, but due to political factors, it is classified separately as Dutch. Linguists generally consider Low German to be a group of independent languages rather than dialects of German. Over the past century, Low German has been significantly impacted by Standard German. Today, Low German is still widely used in northern Germany. Low German retains some of the more primitive elements of the Germanic languages and shares more similarities with Dutch and Old English than with the various High German dialects. The pronunciation of Low German dialects is usually softer, with more long vowels and *e:* sounds.