Old High German Literature (Twayne's World Authors Series, Twas 688)

The term "Old High German" belongs primarily to the study of language, not of literature. It is applied to the earliest stage of the German language, as found in written documents from the middle of the eighth century to the middle of the eleventh, when a series of major changes give rise to the quite distinct second stage of German, which we call Middle High German. Even "Old High German" does not refer to a unified language, but rather to a group of dialects, sometimes markedly different from on another, but sharing certain linguistic features not found in other languages.