High German

a) High German may refer to the standard language called German, spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium (although in the German-speaking part of Switzerland High German is most often a written language rather than a spoken language).

b) High German in the strict linguistic sense refers to the Western Germanic dialects that took part in the second (High German) sound shifting, cf. English pan, but German Pfanne (before sound shifting: /p/ - afterwards /pf/), English two, German zwei /t/ - /ts/, English make - German machen /k/ - /x/. In some High German dialects - the High Alemannic dialects spoken in parts of Germany and Switzerland (see Swiss German) - there is even initial [X] and [k_X], which makes the second sound shifting complete. For example whereas the dialect of Basel has Khaffy [k_hAffi] (i.e. [k_h] as in Standard German and English), the dialect of Zurich has Kchafi [k_XAfi].