Languages and Nationalities?

I'm a beginner, so please forgive me if my questions are stupid.

I'm using a german textbook which uses the following terms.

ドイツ語 - German
フランス語 - French
アメリカ語 - American English

...and so on.

I saw in a Dictionary that all this languages/nations can be written in kanji.

独語、仏語 and 米語

Does it matter which form is used?
Because if it doesn't, I'd obviously prefer the kanji form.

Is it possible to write 独人 instead of ドイツ人 or would that be wrong?

Yofukashi said:

I'm a beginner, so please forgive me if my questions are stupid.
I'm using a german textbook which uses the following terms.
ドイツ語 - German
フランス語 - French
アメリカ語 - American English
...and so on.
I saw in a Dictionary that all this languages/nations can be written in kanji.
独語、仏語 and 米語
Does it matter which form is used?

Click to expand...

No, you can use either form, it is just like whether you use "German language" or "German".
Those shorten form is mainly used for certain (maybe most popular) languages, i.e. 英語、米語、仏語、独語.
There are several other countries which can be written with just one kanji, such as 伊、西、葡、中、露, but normally longer form is used for them.

Yofukashi said:

Because if it doesn't, I'd obviously prefer the kanji form.
Is it possible to write 独人 instead of ドイツ人 or would that be wrong?

Click to expand...

No, at least it is not common. "German people" is written as ドイツ人 or 独逸人,
though the latter is rare these days. Two exceptions I can think of now are 英国人/イギリス人 and 米国人/アメリカ人.

Thank you very much!!!