Writing system German alphabet | ISO 639-1 de | |
Native to Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Netherlands, Language family Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
German
New High German Early forms Old High German
Middle High German
Early New High German Official language in Austria, European Union, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, co-official language of Namibia until 1990. | ||
New High German (NHG) is the term used for the most recent period in the history of the German language. It is a translation of the German Neuhochdeutsch (Nhd). It includes all of the modern High German dialects since the Baroque period, but is often used as a synonym for Standard German.
The German term was originally coined in 1848 by Jacob Grimm for the period from 1500 to the present day, following on from Middle High German (Mittelhochdeutsch). However, Wilhelm Scherer redefined it as the period from 1650, introducing a new term Frühneuhochdeutsch (Early New High German) for the period 1350-1650, and this is the most widely adopted periodisation of German. In this sense, the beginning of New High German is marked by the "first German novel", Grimmelshausen's Simplicius Simplicissimus.
The New High German period is characterised by the codification of German grammar and the development of a standard language in both writing and speech. Unlike earlier periods, there have been few major changes in phonology or morphology. Rather, the standard language has selected particular features and these choices have then exerted an influence on individual German dialects.