High German languages explained

High German
Region:German-speaking Europe, United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Colonia Tovar
Familycolor:Indo-European
Fam2:Germanic
Fam3:West Germanic
Fam4:Elbe and Weser–Rhine Germanic
Child1:Central German
Child2:Upper German
Glotto:high1289
Glottorefname:High German

The High German languages (German: hochdeutsche Mundarten, i.e. High German dialects), or simply High German (German: Hochdeutsch) – not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called "High German" – comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and Uerdingen isoglosses in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and eastern Belgium, as well as in neighbouring portions of France (Alsace and northern Lorraine), Italy (South Tyrol), the Czech Republic (Bohemia), and Poland (Upper Silesia). They are also spoken in diasporas in Romania, Russia, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Namibia.

High German is marked by the High German consonant shift, separating it from Low German (Low Saxon) and Low Franconian (including Dutch) within the continental West Germanic dialect continuum.

Classification

As a technical term, the "high" in High German is a geographical reference to the group of dialects that forms "High German" (i.e. "Highland" German), out of which developed Standard German, Yiddish and Luxembourgish. It refers to the Central Uplands (Mittelgebirge) and Alpine areas of central and southern Germany; it also includes Luxembourg, Austria, Liechtenstein, and most of Switzerland. This is opposed to Low German, which is spoken in the lowlands and along the flat sea coasts of the North German Plain.[1]

High German can be subdivided into Upper German (Oberdeutsch) and Central or Middle German (Mitteldeutsch, this includes Luxembourgish, which itself is now a standard language).[2]

High German varieties are distinguished from other West Germanic varieties in that they took part in the High German consonant shift to various degrees. To see this, compare the following:[3]

Standard High German Consonant shift
pan Pann Pfanne pronounced as /[p]/ to pronounced as /[p͡f]/
two twee zwei pronounced as /[t]/ to pronounced as /[t͡s]/
make maken machen pronounced as /[k]/ to pronounced as /[x]/
In the southernmost High Alemannic dialects, there is a further shift: Sack (like English/Low German "sack/Sack") is pronounced pronounced as /[z̥ak͡x]/ (pronounced as /[k]/ to pronounced as /[k͡x]/).

History

See also: Theodiscus. Old High German evolved from about 500 AD. Around 1200 the Swabian and East Franconian varieties of Middle High German became dominant as a court and poetry language (Minnesang) under the rule of the House of Hohenstaufen.

The term "High German" as spoken in central and southern Germany (Upper Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria) and Austria was first documented in the 15th century.

Gradually driving back Low German variants since the Early modern period, the Early New High German varieties, especially the East Central German of the Luther Bible, formed an important basis for the development of Standard German.[4]

Family

Divisions between subfamilies within Germanic are rarely precisely defined, because most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. In particular, there has never been an original "Proto-High German". For this and other reasons, the idea of representing the relationships between West Germanic language forms in a tree diagram at all is controversial among linguists. What follows should be used with care in the light of this caveat.

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Compare the definition of "high" in the Oxford English Dictionary (Concise Edition): "... situated far above ground, sealevel, etc; upper, inland, as ... High German".
  2. E.g.
    • Hermann Niebaum, Jürgen Macha, Einführung in die Dialektologie des Deutschen (series: Germanistische Arbeitshefte), 2nd ed., Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen, 2006, p. 220 [1st ed. 1999, 3rd ed. 2014]
    • Gabriele Graefen, Martina Liedke-Göbel, Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft: Deutsch als Erst-, Zweit- oder Fremdsprache, 3rd ed., 2020, p. 31.

    For the Middle High German time e.g.:

    • Howard Jones & Martin H. Jones, The Oxford Guide to Middle High German, Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 7
    • M. O'C. Walshe, A Middle High German reader with grammar, notes, and glossary, Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 3
  3. [Orrin W. Robinson (philologist)|Robinson, Orrin]
  4. Russ, Charles V.J. The German Language Today: A Linguistic Introduction. Routledge, 1994, p. 15f.