Old High German

Old High German, any of the West Germanic dialects spoken in the highlands of southern Germany, Switzerland, and Austria until the end of the 11th century. High German differs most noticeably from the other West Germanic languages in its shift of the p, t, and k sounds to ff, ss, and hh, respectively, after vowels and to pf, tz, and, in Upper German, kh under most other conditions.

In addition to Alemannic (Swiss German) and Bavarian, which were the Upper German dialects of Old High German, a number of Franconian (Frankish) dialects also existed. Among them were East Franconian and Rhenish Franconian, spoken just north of the Upper German area, and the Central Franconian dialects, spoken along the Moselle and Rhine rivers to the northern borders of the High German speech area.

Important literary works in Old High German include Otfrid’s 9th-century poem Evangelienbuch (“Book of the Gospels”) in the South Rhenish Franconian dialect and the fragmentary 9th-century eschatological poem Muspilli in the Bavarian dialect. The Hildebrandslied (“Song of Hildebrand”) fragment from the 8th century is written in an Upper German dialect but also includes Old Saxon elements. The language of Middle High German literature was descended mostly from Upper German dialects, while modern standard High German is descended mostly from the East Franconian dialect.