Oudhoogduits

Oudhoogduits, or Old High German (OHG), is the earliest well-attested stage of the German language. It was spoken roughly from the 6th to the 11th centuries in the highland and upland areas of what is now southern and central Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland. OHG marks the first codified phase of the High German dialects and lies between Proto-Germanic and Middle High German.

OHG is especially notable for the High German consonant shift, a set of sound changes that distinguishes High German varieties from other West Germanic languages such as Old Saxon and Old Dutch. This phonological development, along with shifts in the vowel system, gives OHG its distinctive early Germanic phonology and helps explain the later evolution into Standard German.

The corpus of OHG is relatively small but includes several important texts. Among the most significant are the Abrogans, a Latin–OHG glossary of medical and general terms; the Hildebrandslied, the oldest preserved OHG poem; and Otfrid of Weissenburg’s Evangelienbuch, a major prose work from the 9th century. These works, written in the Latin alphabet, provide crucial data for language reconstruction and historical linguistics.

Grammatically, OHG retained a four-case noun system (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), three grammatical genders, and a system of strong and weak verbs. The language exhibited early umlaut in plural formations and relatively flexible word order, shaped by its inflectional morphology more than fixed syntax.

OHG gradually transitioned to Early Middle High German, with major changes occurring toward the end of the first millennium. It is considered the immediate ancestor of Middle High German and, ultimately, of Modern Standard German and many contemporary German dialects.