Middle High German
| Middle High German | |
|---|---|
| diutsch, tiutsch | |
| Region | Central and southern Germany (south of the Benrath line), Austria and parts of Switzerland |
| Era | High Middle Ages |
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Indo-European
|
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Early forms
|
Old High German
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| ISO 639-6 | mdgr |
| Glottolog | midd1343 |
Middle High German is the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German. In some uses, the term covers a longer period, going up to 1500.
The Middle Low German and Middle Dutch areas in the North are not covered by MHG. While there is no standard MHG, the prestige of the Hohenstaufen court gave rise in the late 12th century to a supra-regional literary language (mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache) based on Swabian, an Alemannic dialect. However, the picture is complicated by the fact that modern editions of MHG texts have a tendency to use normalised spellings based on this variety (usually called "Classical MHG"), which make the written language appear more consistent than is actually the case in the manuscripts. It is uncertain whether the literary language reflected a supra-regional spoken language of the courts.
An important development in this period was the eastward expansion of German settlement beyond the Elbe-Saale line which marked the limit of Old High German. This process started in the 11th century, and all the East Central German dialects are a result of this expansion.
"Judeo-German", the precursor of the Yiddish language, is attested in the 13th–14th centuries as a variety of Middle High German written in Hebrew characters.
High Middle German texts are written in the Latin alphabet, in Gothic minuscules that evolved into the Fraktur typefaces of the Early Modern period.
Middle High German had no standardised spelling. Modern editions, however, generally standardise according to a set of conventions established by Karl Lachmann in the 19th century. There are several important features in this standardised orthography which are not characteristics of the original manuscripts:
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