Language History
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The beginnings
German belongs to the family of Indo-European languages. The Slavic and Celtic languages are other members of the same family. They share the same origin. Towards the end of the 2nd millenium BC a relatively homogenous culture emerged and spread from the south of Scandinavia to the north of Germany. The language of the community was Germanic. Due to the migration of peoples Germanic was divided into several language branches: West Germanic, North Germanic and East Germanic. Today's High German originates from the West Germanic dialects.
Today the following languages belong to the Germanic language families: German, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and English (Derivative languages: Afrikaans, Frisian, Yiddish)
Historical epochs of the German language
The development of German is presented in four epochs:
Old High German, approx. 750 to 1050
Middle High German, approx. 1050 to 1350
Early New High German, 1350 to 1650
New High German, from approx. 1650
Old High German
The oldest written records in German are called Old High German. The Old High German was not a standardized language, but integrated ancient Frankish, Alemannic and Bavarian records of the 8th - 11th century.
In the early Middle Ages there were only the languages of the single tribes. From about 800AD on an independent religious literature developed. The origin of poetic works like the heroic epic Hildebrandslied and other records date from the same period. Germany as such did not exist at that time. Instead there were various prinicpalities where local dialects were spoken. This lack of a unified state hindered the development of a standardized language. Prior to the 10th century the various Germanic tribes (Frisians, Alemannians, Bavarians, Franconians and Saxons) lived side by side.
Middle High German
The writing system which was used from the middle of the 11th century, is called Middle High German. Due to traders and merchants an early bourgeoisie emerged in the towns. The increase in trade made it necessary to develop standards for a national written language: urban offices and schools were founded. As a consequence of the Crusades (from 1096) foreign cultures and languages have been encountered with. Noblemen and knights became conscious of their national identity. This included also a courtly literature in their mother tongue. The written records date from the genre of heroic epics (e.g. the Nibelungenlied, about 1200). Many works of courtly poetry were written in the mid 13th century. These texts had a standardizing effect on the German language, because the poets and minstrels like Hartmann von der Aue (about 1165-1215), Walther von der Vogelweide (about 1170-1230) or Wolfram von Eschenbach (about 1170-1220), had to be able to perform comprehensibly in all parts of Germany.
