Old High German
- noun
- Specialized
:
alto alemán antiguo
- Scholars study Old High German to gain insights into the evolution of the German language.
Examples
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Many ancient texts were written in Old High German, reflecting the beliefs and traditions of its speakers.
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Do you know the old High German?
Fiction book (1995) -
The Gothic word vargs (warg in Old High German, warc in Middle High German, verag in Anglo-Saxon) stands for murderer, strangler, outlaw, and evil spirit.
Blog text (20) -
The Old High German language was spoken before 1200 and is crucial for understanding early Germanic cultures.
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'old' and 'German' can infer this refers to an earlier form of German, but 'High' here is a technical dialectal/historical label (not 'above normal') so the precise sense 'earliest stage of the High German language' is not fully predictable. The term maps onto established linguistic labels across languages, yet the specialized meaning of 'High' makes the expression only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Old High German comes from two simple ideas: Old means 'an earlier form' and High points to the hills and mountains in the south where people spoke it long ago. So Old High German is the early form of the German language that people in the southern highlands used before about 1200.
