Maybe this has already been settled and I'm just behind reading my messages, but what Sabine said matches up with what my GF told me when I was litttle. He said High German was the "official" language, of the authorities and educated and that not everyone in his day could read/even speak it well (he was b. in the 1880s). Low German was the common man's language. I had the idea High German was written as well as spoken, but Low German was only verbal. I realize now I don't know which one he used for the little bit of German he taught me--"guten/goot morgan", "sprechen sie Duetsch", "ein, swei, threi, fier," etc. (Not sure I spelled these right!) Born in the US, Grandpa's father was from Baden and his mother from Bavaria, and the little Texas community he grew up in spoke German. His father encouraged him to learn English because he was an American, but he didn't use it regularly until he went out on his own at about age 18. Lisa Stark