"Old German" redirects here. For other uses, see Old German (disambiguation).
Earliest stage of the German language
Old High German
Althochdeutsch
Region
Central Europe
Era
Early Middle Ages
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Old High German
Writing system
Runic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2
goh
ISO 639-3
goh
Glottolog
oldh1241
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Old High German (OHG; German: Althochdeutsch (Ahdt., Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous West Germanic dialects that had undergone the set of consonantal changes called the Second Sound Shift.
At the start of this period, dialect areas reflected the territories of largely independent tribal kingdoms, but by 788 the conquests of Charlemagne had brought all OHG dialect areas into a single polity. The period also saw the development of a stable linguistic border between German and Gallo-Romance, later French.
Old High German largely preserved the synthetic inflectional system inherited from its ancestral Germanic forms. The eventual disruption of these patterns, which led to the more analytic grammar, are generally considered to mark the transition to Middle High German.
First page of the St. Gall Codex Abrogans (Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 911), the earliest text in Old High German
Surviving Old High German texts were all composed in monastic scriptoria, so the overwhelming majority of them are religious in nature or, when secular, belong to the Latinate literary culture of Christianity. The earliest instances, which date to the latter half of the 8th century, are glosses—notes added to margins or between lines that provide translation of the (Latin) text or other aid to the reader.
OldHighGerman (OHG; German: Althochdeutsch (Ahdt., Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from...
The HighGerman languages (German: hochdeutsche Mundarten, i.e. HighGerman dialects), or simply HighGerman (Hochdeutsch) – not to be confused with Standard...
OldHighGerman literature refers to literature written in OldHighGerman, from the earliest texts in the 8th century to the middle of the 11th century...
OldHighGerman is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A...
and 1350, developing from OldHighGerman and into Early New HighGerman. HighGerman is defined as those varieties of German which were affected by the...
Modern German gradually developed from the OldHighGerman which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during the Early Middle Ages. German is the second-most...
earliest written records in HighGerman were produced in the 8th century. From Proto-Germanic, the resulting language, OldHighGerman (henceforth, OHG), can...
German language begins in the Early Middle Ages with the HighGerman consonant shift. OldHighGerman, Middle HighGerman, and Early New HighGerman span...
The discovery of an OldHighGerman lullaby (Althochdeutsches Schlummerlied) was announced in 1859 by Georg Zappert (1806–1859) of Vienna, a private scholar...
Frankish, Langobardic, Middle Dutch, Middle HighGerman, Middle Low German, Old English, OldHighGerman, Old Norse, Old Swedish, English, and finally, words...
advanced stage in Middle Dutch. Old Dutch reflects an intermediate form between Old Saxon and OldHighGerman. Like OldHighGerman, it preserved the three different...
Old Saxon (German: altsächsische Sprache), also known as Old Low German (German: altniederdeutsche Sprache), was a Germanic language and the earliest...
Medieval German literature refers to the literature of Medieval Germany. It can be subdivided into two main periods: OldHighGerman literature (750–1050)...
cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse Miðgarðr; Old English Middangeard, Old Saxon Middilgard, OldHighGerman Mittilagart, and Gothic Midjun-gards;...
Germanic HighGerman languages (includes Standard German and its dialects) Upper German Alemannic German (includes Alsatian and Swiss German) Bavarian...
the monastery in Lorsch, Germany, famous for the Lorsch Codex. Despite being a Christian prayer written in OldHighGerman, it has remarkable similarities...
area (Sprachraum). In the OldHighGerman time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle HighGerman time, East Franconian and...
literature OldHighGerman literature (750–1050) Middle HighGerman literature (1050–1350) Late medieval / Renaissance (1350–1500) Early Modern German literature...
New HighGerman (NHG; German: Neuhochdeutsch (Nhdt., Nhd.)) is the term used for the most recent period in the history of the German language, starting...
short OldHighGerman Merseburg Incantations. However, pagan mythological elements were preserved in later literature, notably in Middle HighGerman epic...
Standard HighGerman (SHG), less precisely Standard German or HighGerman (German: Standardhochdeutsch, Standarddeutsch, Hochdeutsch or, in Switzerland...
Early New HighGerman (ENHG) is a term for the period in the history of the German language generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period...
Low German has not undergone the HighGerman consonant shift, as opposed to Standard HighGerman, which is based on HighGerman dialects. Low German evolved...
Mensch (Yiddish: מענטש, mentsh, from Middle HighGerman Mensch, from OldHighGerman mennisco; akin to Old English human being, man) means "a person of...
German origin. It comes from the German personal name Seibert, which was formed from OldHighGerman sigu/Old Saxon *sigi, meaning victory, and Old High...
(shoemaker), derived from Middle HighGerman Schuochwürhte Vogel, house name ("bird") Friedrich, forename composed of OldHighGerman fridu ("peace") and rîhhi...
Germanic HighGerman languages OldHighGerman† & Middle HighGerman† Upper GermanHigh Franconian East Franconian German South Franconian German Alemannic...
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