High German

American  

noun

1. the group of West Germanic languages that in a.d. c400–c500 underwent the second consonant shift described by Grimm's law. HG, H.G.

2. German.

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High German British  

noun

1.  HG.  the standard German language, historically developed from the form of West Germanic spoken in S Germany See also German Low German

2. any of the German dialects of S Germany, Austria, or Switzerland

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Etymology

Origin of High German

First recorded in 1700–10

Compare meaning

How does high-german compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• High German vs. Low German

Example Sentences

And that seems to be Kafka's intention, as the German word he uses for Gregor's new form, "Ungeziefer," suggests a bug, a vermin and, in Old High German, an unclean animal unfit for sacrifice.

From Salon

Language: Everyone is taught “High German” in school, but Austrians speak their own dialect, and various regions within the country have their own parochial words and phrases.

From Washington Post

She noted that while places like German Switzerland also practice diglossia, the use of two languages, the difference is that both Swiss German and High German are living, spoken languages.

From The New Yorker

The manuscript has been cast, for instance, as a Middle High German hygiene manual written in 'mirror writing' — the technique used by Leonardo da Vinci — and as a herbal manuscript in the Aztec language Nahuatl.

From Nature

But works like Mozart’s Requiem or Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” with its sections in Middle High German, sprang from the same cultural soil that gave birth to their texts.

From New York Times