Excerpt from A Practical Grammar of the German Language

The language, of which this grammar contains the practical rules, is frequently designated by the name of the High German. This epithet was originally applied to the language in order to distinguish it from the Low German, which comprehends all those dialects that are spoken in the level countries of the north of Germany. But as the language which is called the High German, diners from the dialects of the south of Germany, as well as from those of the north, this name is now applied exclusively to that general language, which is spoken and written by all wellbred Germans. Accordingly it is more properly called the German language, without any other epithet.

Among the various dialects which have existed and still exist in different parts of Germany, there is a characteristic difference between those of upper and of lower Germany. The dialects of the north of Germany are in general softer than those of the south, and the vowels are more protracted, while the southern dialects are characterized by greater variety and energy. In all these various dialects we discover the distinct traces of one common and original language, of which each dialect may be considered a more or less perfect copy. But of the time when this original language may have been used as the common instrument of speech by the whole German race, we have as little knowledge, as of the primeval history of the nation itself. If we examine the history of Germany, and particularly the remaining documents of its language from the fourth century to the fifteenth, we find that at different periods one of the various dialects was more than the other employed for literary productions.

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