What Language Did Mozart Speak? (Answered!)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most prolific and famous composers to have ever lived. He was born in Austria in 1756 and continued to live there for the majority of his life up until his death in 1791. As such, he spoke German as his native language.

The German language can be traced back to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family tree.

Around 76 million people currently speak German as their native language with another 85 million claiming it as an L2 or second language.

These figures make it the twelfth most spoken language in the world.

German is spoke as the national language in six different countries and is known as a pluricentric language.

Pluricentric Languages are those with several interacting codified standard forms yet one is dominant over the others.

Here the German Standard is dominant whereas the lesser-known versions are Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German.

In This Article

How Many Languages Did Mozart Speak?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to an upper-class family and as such would have been expected to learn multiple different languages in his education.

He was a polyglot and was able to speak a total of 5 different languages. German, English, Latin, Italian and French.

What Language Did Mozart Write In?

Mozart wrote his operas in multiple languages.

Beginning at the age of 10, he composed his first opera, Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots in German.

At 11, he wrote Apollo et Hyacinthus in Latin and at the age of 12 he composed his first Italian opera, La finta semplice.

In total, Mozart wrote 22 separate operas.

1 was written in Latin. Despite it being his native language, Mozart only wrote 7 in German and the other 14 were written in Italian.

The full breakdown is as seen below:

Year	Language	Title
1767	German	Die Schuligkeit des ersten Gebots
1767	Latin	Apollo et Hyacinthus
1768	German	Bastien und Bastienne
1768	Italian	La finta semplice
1770	Italian	Mitridate, re di Ponto
1771	Italian	Ascanio in Alba
1772	Italian	Il sogno di Scipione
1772	Italian	Lucio Silla
1775	Italian	La finta giardiniera
1775	Italian	Il re pastore
1779	German	Thamos, König in Ägypten
1780	German	Zaide
1781	Italian	Idomeneo, re di Creta
1782	German	Die Entführung aus dem Serail
1783	Italian	L’oca del Cairo
1784	Italian	Lo sposo deluso
1786	German	Der Schauspieldirektor
1786	Italian	Le nozze di Figaro
1787	Italian	Don Giovanni
1790	Italian	Cosi fan tutte
1791	Italian	La clemenza di Tito
1791	German	Die Zauberflöte

What German Words are Used in the English Language?

It might surprise people to know that although German seems worlds apart from English in terms of sound and structure, the two are closely related.

Both are West Germanic languages, and we actually use a number of German words in everyday speech.

Dogs like Rottweilers and Dachshunds are both of German origin as is Schnauzer, whose name comes from Schnauzen, meaning “to growl”.

Noodle comes from Nudel and even the term gummy bears comes from Gummibärchen which were first made by German company, Haribo.

Beyond dogs and food, words like wanderlust, poltergeist and doppelgänger all find their roots in German.

How Many Dialects of German Are There?

Linguists have estimated there may be as many as 250 dialects of German spoken.

The reason for the variety can be found by tracing the history of the language back to Germanic tribes who would each have had their own unique way of communicating with one another.

8 of these dialects, in particular, stand out:

The most commonly spoken dialect is High German, also known as Hochdeutsch or Standard German, which originates from Southern Germany.

Low German, or Plattdeutch, comes from Northern German and the Netherlands. Swiss German, or Schwiizerdütsch, is the Swiss dialect of German that can be difficult even for German speakers of other regions to understand.

Baverian German (Bayerisch) is the dialect of German spoke in Baveria in the southeastern part of the country.

Austrian Germany (Österreichisches Deutsch) is, obviously, the dialect spoken in Austria. Then there are the Upper Saxon (Sächsisch) and Berlin (Berlinerisch) dialects.

The final important dialect to know about is Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch.

Surprisingly, the language isn’t Dutch at all, but was actually created by German immigrants in America.

How Many Letters are There in the German Alphabet?

Surprisingly, for such a simple question, there is no simple answer.

Depending on who is being asked, the answer could be 26, 29 or 30.

There are 26 ‘main’ letters in the German alphabet, A through Z just like the English alphabet, with the vowels being A, E, I, O and U.

Here is where it gets interesting. There are four bonus letters in German.

Three of these are umlauts (Ä, Ö and Ü), which may or may not be counted as individual letters, and the other is a ligature (ß).

However, in Switzerland and Lichtenstein, they do not recognise the ligature and instead write it as ss.

Is German Hard to Learn?

Despite the complications with dialects and the alphabet, German isn’t that difficult a language to learn.

The language is extremely logical with many rules.

Once these rules have been learned, there are very few exceptions.

As mentioned, English and German are cousins and while it doesn’t seem like there is much overlap between the two when listening to them, there are similarities.

Words like der Wasser (water), das Buch (book) and schwimmen (to swim) are just a few easily translatable words.

And with no shortage of German speakers in the world, there will always be someone to practice with!

Is German an Endangered Language?

German is one of the most spoken languages in the world today and there is no danger of it going extinct anytime soon.

However, that doesn’t mean that other languages in Germany aren’t in danger of extinction.

Both the North Frisian and Saterlandic languages are categorised as Severely Endangered by UNESCO.

Mozart was born in Austria and spoke German as his native tongue. He also spoke Italian, Latin, English and French.

When composing operas, he wrote in Latin, Italian and German.

There are around 250 dialects of German spoken today and the language has given English many words such as Rottweiler, gummy bear and noodle.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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