althochdeutschen

Althochdeutsch, or Old High German, refers to the earliest stage of the German language in its written and documentary record. It is usually dated from around the 6th to the early 11th century, with the oldest substantial texts surviving from the 8th century. The form of German spoken at the time varied by region and later gave rise to Middle High German and, ultimately, Modern Standard German.

Geographically, Althochdeutsch was spoken in the southern and central German-speaking areas of the Frankish Empire, including present-day southern Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland and northern Italy. It comprises several regional dialects, notably Alemannic in the southwest and Bavarian in the southeast, along with Franconian varieties in central regions.

The Old High German corpus is relatively small but important. Key texts include the Abrogans, a bilingual Latin–Old High German glossary from the 8th–9th centuries; the Hildebrandslied, a late 9th-century fragment; and Otfrid of Weissenburg’s Evangelienbuch (late 9th century), a substantial verse gospel. Other religious, legal, and poetic writings, such as the Merseburg Charms, also survive. These works reveal a language transitioning from a largely inflected, synthetic structure toward the developing traits that would characterize Middle High German.

Linguistically, Althochdeutsch shows the early stages of the High German consonant shift that distinguishes High German varieties from other West Germanic languages. Morphology was highly inflected, with four cases, three genders, and strong and weak noun declensions, alongside robust verb conjugations and early use of auxiliary constructions.

Althochdeutsch laid the groundwork for Middle High German and contributed to the development of Modern German, offering crucial insights into early Germanic phonology, morphology, and dialect geography.