Old High German

Old High German is the earliest recorded historical stage of development of those central and southern dialects of German that participated in the Second or High German Consonant Shift and which came to form the basis for Modern Standard High German. This period stretches from ca. AD 750 until ca. 1100 and is demarcated at the beginning by the onset of literacy and at the end by the further gradual development of the language into Middle High German, usually marked by the loss of full final vowels.