Basics on the History of the German Language

Origin of Germanic Language

The Germanic languages departed from the other Indo-European languages by a shift in sounds called the First Germanic Sound Shift, and by other distinguishing features as well.

The language we now call German departed from the other Germanic languages (mainly English, Dutch, Scandinavian and the now extinct Gothic) by a shift in sounds called the Second Germanic Sound Shift.

The Second Sound Shift divides Germany into a smaller Northern part (without the sound shift) and a larger Central and Southern part (with the sound shift)

The border between the two regions approximates a line passing through Cologne (Köln) and Berlin, but there is a more or less fuzzy region of more than a hundred kilometers width south of that line where the language underwent the Second Sound Shift only partially.

Since the part of Germany where there was no Second Sound Shift are the North German Lowlands, their language is called Low German as distinct from High German. Dutch and Flemish, the official languages of the Netherlands and the Northern half of Belgium, are closely related to the Low German languages of Germany's North.

The official German language has undergone a number of changes in history. The main phases are called Old High German (Althochdeutsch, AHD), Middle High German (Mittelhochdeutsch, MHD), and New High German (Neuhochdeutsch, NHD). Old High German was spoken until the 10th or 11th century. New High German had developed out of MHD at the end of the Middle Ages (~1400’s).