Middle High German Translator

About Middle High German

Middle High German was spoken in much of southern and central Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland during the High Middle Ages. It belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family and represents a historical stage between Old High German and Early New High German. It had no native speakers in the modern sense today; in its own period, it was used by a few million people. Texts were written in the Latin alphabet, with spelling that varied widely by region and manuscript tradition.

A distinctive feature of Middle High German is its rich inflectional system, with grammatical case marking on nouns, articles, and adjectives that was more extensive than in modern standard German. It is especially known as the language of courtly literature, including the Nibelungenlied and works by poets such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Hartmann von Aue. Because manuscripts often preserve regional forms, Middle High German is also important for studying the historical development of German dialects.