Old High German vs. Old Saxon: Do you REALLY know the Difference? 

In case anyone is wondering: Old Low German (OLG) and Old High German (OHG) are two different groupings. Basically, OLG is north and OHG is anything below the so-called Benrather Linie. What people do not understand is that the modern divisions we have today are completely screwed as far as looking at them as true dialects. Aside from Plaat and Bavarian, there really are no true dialects anymore. We can thank Martin Luther for that. When he translated the Bible into his dialect, this became the German standard because people wanted to read the Bible in German. Essentially, this is what replaced all the old true dialects. When we talk about a dialect in Niedersachsen now, for example, what we are actually referring to is High German / Hochdeutsch pronounced with a Niedersachsen/Lower Saxony accent. Also, the typical OHG texts we deal with are, e.g., aus dem Tatian, Muspilli, aus dem Abrogans, die Monsee Fragmente, anything from Isidor, Notker, Otfrid, etc.

Thanks for the informative video, Scott. I am a native speaker of Pfälzisch (Rhenish Franconian). I found quite a lot of insights why we talk how we talk. We obviously just did not do all the soundshifts, and I am proud of it somehow. We must make an effort to preserve the dialects. They are a window into our past and an important heritage.

As a Dutchman your channel is very interesting. I love History aspecially from the frissians, saxsons and Burgundy's. Cause hey thats the Dutch history.

Mein Herr Danke fur deine arbeit fur den Germanen.

Will you be doing a video on the song Nesso by Heilung? I read somewhere that it is in old Saxon. Thank you for your videos. They are very informative. I’m from the east of the Netherlands and I see a lot of overlap with all the old Saxon stuff

OHG /k/ would be unvoiced, but not likely aspirated. Same with /p/ in

Do you have any recommendations on resources for learning Old High German or Old Saxon (but especially Old Saxon). I got my hands on two old grammar books for OS but they are OLD, as in 100 years+. And even in the parts that I've read (not too far in yet) they already contradict each other to some extend... So I'd like something that's a bit more up to date with current scholarly consensus and maybe a bit more streamlined.

You are a real pride for USA because there are so few highly educated Americans like you .very fantastic video.

Isch Schwizerduitsch ed au a Dialegd vom Alamannische, und Tiroler a Dialegd vom Boarische, zmol se em Siâdlungsgebiat fo d Alamanne bzw. d Boare gschwätzt wore sin?

Ohh nooo you forgot us. You mention Dutch but not modern Saxon. Especially in the western dialects 'g' is still a fricative.

You realize ɣ as either a back velar voiced fricative, or a uvular voiced fricative. Was that the proto-Germanic realization? The aspirated palatovelar and labiovelar ǵʰ and gʷʰ generally merged into g right? So since one was fronted and the other wasn't, I wonder what the realization of the voiced velar fricative was. "Raspy" (back velar / uvular) or "smooth" (plain velar or front velar)

I understand more spoken than written for some reason. Especially when I know what it is that's being said. It's easier to relate the sounds of the word I guess.

Hi Scott, Uncle Wednesday here. As a (non-native) Dutch speaker, I am struck by the similarity of some Old Saxon words to modern Dutch. My main question at the moment, though, is how close was continental Old Saxon to the Saxon that was spoken in the south of England in the 8th and 9th Centuries?

8:35 you say the n disappears in all other germanic languages, but it stayed in dutch as well, i.e. ons, mond, gans, so how do you explain that?

Thank you for this explanation! However, I cringe whenever people say 'Dee changes to Tee' instead of saying the sound D changes to sound T. Dee's and Tee's are letters and letters are sometimes very different from the sounds they represent. Jackson Crawford makes the same logical error in his videos.

Is East Franconian the "standard schoolbook OHG" like the West Saxon dialect of OE from around 900-1000 CE is the "standard schoolbook OE?" Interesting stuff!

Danke. I just got Robinson's book on the connection between OE, OHG, old franconian, ON, Gothic, etc. It has finally dawned on me that Germany's dialects, even Pennsylvania dutch, is based on these old dialects. Do you know PA dutch? Papier becomes babier. Tür becomes Dier. Klein becomes glein. What causes that? Anyway I got my book and discovered on the same day. Coincidence!

U talk about the fact that the more southern you go the more high deutsch it gets. I think Limburg is the perfect example their a blend between Dutch and High German, having a different G and a lot of weurds sounding like high german. Its almost like dutch when a southern German speaks it.

What about old Frisian, Scott?

Nowadays in Franconia Brot is Brod.

The Dutch G is like we're throwing up hehe

So, is it the norm for a lot of general scholarship to call something OHG, when in fact it may be one of the other dialects?

why is modern german not a mix of both ? even Hessian dialects are very different to NHG

As a native low-Saxon speaker I feel highly ignored in this video. ;)

Dialekt foute naam. Betekend tweede tong val taal. Streek of oord taal de beste benaming

I thought gothic was extinct.

Jammer dat het Nederlands , ter zijde is gelegd.

Corn? Was not available in Europe until they brought it back from the Americas after 1493

Danish: fader [fað-er !] moder [mo(u)ð-er] broder [bro(u)ð-er] give have pund [poon*] tand [tan*] korn sove ( schlafen / sleep ) mage [magh-e] ( skomager = Schumacher / shoemaker ) bog [bough, a la "sigh"], but S bok os [us] Vanishing w before certain vowels: ord [or*] = Wort / word orm = worm under = Wunder / wonder ( + under = unter / under ) uge [oogh-e] = Woche / week ( S vecka ! ) ønske = Wünsch(en) / wish Odin = Woden / Wotan onsdag [ons-day(gh)] = Wednesday, from (Woden's day) ( "onsdag" is actually still pronounced [wons-dauw] in some of our West Danish (Jutish) dialects 😉 ). But normally w- corresponds to v- in Danish: vil = will vind = wind vild = wild vinde [vin*-ne] = win / wind (curl up ) vin [veen] = wine viv [veev] = ~ Weib / wife varm = warm vade = waden / wade vandre = wanderen / wander våd [voað] = wet vej [vigh] = Weg / way ( but væn ~ vain - ? ) vorte = wort vid(e) [veeð-e] = wide vride [vreeð-e] = writh vrede [vraið-e] = wrath væk(ke) = wake væve [vaiv-e] = weave vel = well / wohl velkommen = welcome / wilkommen ... And wh- in E corresponds to hv- in Danish, but just v- in Swedish: hvad [vað] = was / what ( S vad [vAd] ) hvor [vor] = wo / where ( S vär [vair] ) hvorfor = wherefore / why ( S värför; also "hvi" in older D. ! ) hvem = who / whom ( S vem; also "hvo" in older D. ! ) hvilke [vil-ke] = welche / whi(l)ch hvede = wheat hvid [veeð] = weiss / white hvalp = whelp hvine [veen-e ] = whine ...