Old High German is the earliest recorded form of the modern German language, and was spoken from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century. Old High German was influenced strongly by Latin in vocabulary. English and other West Germanic languages differ from Modern Standard German partly because High German underwent the second or High German sound shift.

The literature of this period is represented for instance by the Hildebrandslied, passages from two Gospel harmonies, the Heliand (an epic poem whose theme is the life of Christ and which is the oldest complete work of German literature, although it is in Low German not High German), the Evangelienbuch des Ottfried von Weißenburg, and the Ludwigslied.

Typical for the Old High German Language are the vowel endings, as in Latin.

Abrogans is believed to be the oldest book in the German language, from the 8th century, it is a Latin-German word list in Old High German.