The High German languages (in German, Hochdeutsch) are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France (Alsace and northern Lorraine), Italy and Poland. The language is also spoken diaspora in Romania (Transylvania), Russia, the United States, Argentina and Namibia.

"High" refers to the mountainous areas of central and southern Germany and the Alps, as opposed to Low German spoken along the flat sea coasts of the north. High German can be subdivided into Upper German and Central German (Oberdeutsch, Mitteldeutsch).

The German term Hochdeutsch is also used loosely, but not by linguists, to mean standard written German as opposed to dialect, because the standard language developed out of High rather than Low German. This is based on a misunderstanding, and the attempt to rationalize it by suggesting that "high" means "official" doesn't solve the problem. In English, "High German" has never been used to mean "Standard German".

History

High German as used in Southern Germany, Bavaria and Austria was an important basis for the development of standard German.

The historical forms of the language are Old High German and Middle High German.

Classification

High German are distinguished from other West Germanic varieties in that they took part in the High German consonant shift (c. AD 500). To see this, compare German Pfanne with English pan ([pf] to [p]), German zwei with English two ([ts] to [t]), German machen with English make ([x] to [k]). In the High Alemannic dialects, there is a further shift; Sack (like English "sack") is pronounced [z̥akx] ([k] to [kx]).

Family tree

Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. In particular, there has never been an original "Proto-High German". For this and other reasons, the idea of representing the relationships between West Germanic language forms in a tree diagram at all is controversial among linguists; what follows should be used with care in the light of this caveat.

• Central German (German: Mitteldeutsch)
• East Central German
• Berlin Brandenburgish (mostly in Berlin and Brandenburg)
• Thuringian Upper Saxon (mostly in Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony)
• German Lusatian (in Saxony and Brandenburg)
• Lower Silesian language (mostly in Lower Silesia, in Poland)
• Transylvanian Saxon (in Transylvania)
• West Central German
• Middle Franconian
• Ripuarian
• Moselle Franconian, including the Luxembourgish language
• Rhine Franconian
• Lorraine Franconian (France)
• Pfälzisch language
• Hessian dialect
• Transitional areas between Central German and Upper German
• East Franconian German
• South Franconian German
• Pennsylvania German (in the United States and Canada)
• Upper German (German: Oberdeutsch)
• Alemannic
• Swabian
• Low Alemannic (including one Swiss German dialect: Basel German)
• Alsatian language (but often also classified as within Low Alemannic)
• High Alemannic (including many Swiss German dialects)
• Highest Alemannic (including Swiss German dialects)
• Austro-Bavarian (On the use of dialects and Standard German in Austria, see Austrian language)
• Northern Austro-Bavarian (spoken in Upper Palatinate)
• Central Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Vienna — see Viennese language)
• Southern Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Tyrol, Carinthia and Styria)
• Cimbrian (northeastern Italy)
• Mócheno (Trentino, in Italy)
• Hutterite German (in Canada and the United States)
• Yiddish
• Western Yiddish (Germany, France)
• Eastern Yiddish
• Northeastern Yiddish (Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, northeastern Poland)
• Central Yiddish (Poland, Galicia)
• Southeastern Yiddish (Ukraine, Bessarabia, Romania)