Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
Name	Old High German
Region	southern Germany (south of the Benrath line), parts of Austria and Switzerland, Southern Bohemia, Sporadic communities in Eastern Gaul
Extinct	developed into Middle High German from the 11th century
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam2	Germanic
Fam3	West Germanic
Iso2	goh
Iso3	goh
Notice	IPA }}

The term Old High German (OHG, German: '''', German abbr. ''Ahd.'') refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of Old High German proper to 750 for this reason. There are, however, a number of Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the 6th century (notably the Pforzen buckle), as well as single words and many names found in Latin texts predating the 8th century.

Characteristics

The main difference between Old High German and the West Germanic dialects from which it developed is that it underwent the Second Sound Shift or High German consonant shift. This is generally dated very approximately to the late 5th and early 6th centuries—hence dating its start to around 500. The result of this sound change is that the consonantal system of German remains different from all other West Germanic languages, including English and Low German. Grammatically, however, Old High German remained very similar to Old English, Old Dutch, and Old Saxon.

By the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had all been reduced to "e". Since these vowels were part of the grammatical endings in the nouns and verbs, their loss led to radical simplification of the inflectional grammar of German. For these reasons, 1050 is seen as the start of the Middle High German period, though in fact there are almost no texts in German for the next hundred years.

Examples of vowel reduction in unstressed syllables: {| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" |     Old High German ||     Middle High German ||     English |----- |     '''' ||     '''' ||     ''to make, to do'' |----- |     '''' ||     '''' ||     ''days'' |----- |     '''' ||     '''' ||     ''to the'' |} (The Modern German forms of these words are broadly the same as in Middle High German.)

Dialects

There was no standard or supra-regional variety of Old High German—every text is written in a particular dialect, or in some cases a mixture of dialects. Broadly speaking, the main dialect divisions of Old High German seem to have been similar to those of later periods—they are based on established territorial groupings and the effects of the Second Sound Shift, which have remained influential until the present day. But because the direct evidence for Old High German consists solely of manuscripts produced in a few major ecclesiastical centres, there is no isogloss information of the sort on which modern dialect maps are based. For this reason the dialects may be termed monastery dialects.

The main dialects, with their bishoprics and monasteries:

Central German

* Middle Franconian: Trier, Echternach, Cologne

* Rhine Franconian: Lorsch, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Frankfurt

* South Rhine Franconian: Weissenburg im Elsaß

* East Franconian: Fulda, Bamberg, Würzburg

* Thuringian: (no texts)

* West Franconian: conjectural dialect of the Franks in Northern Gaul

Upper German

* Alemannic: Murbach, Reichenau, Sankt Gallen. Strasbourg

* Bavarian: Freising, Passau, Regensburg, Augsburg, Ebersberg, Wessobrunn, Tegernsee, Salzburg, Mondsee

* Langobardic: (fragmentary, classification as OHG uncertain)

There are some important differences between the geographical spread of the Old High German dialects and that of Modern German:

no German dialects were spoken east of the Rivers Elbe and Saale—in the Old High German period this area was occupied by Slavic peoples since the Völkerwanderung and was not settled by German speakers until the late 10th and the early 11th century

the Langobardic dialect of the Lombards who invaded Northern Italy in the 6th century is assumed to have been an Upper German dialect, though little evidence of it remains apart from names and individual words in Latin texts, and a few inscriptions

the Old Frankish language is a special case among the old West Germanic languages. The Frankish tribes built their empire at the same time as the High German consonant shift took place. This meant that the dialects of Frankish in the north of their empire, the Low Countries, did not shift, while the dialects in the south did. The dialects in the south are part of Old High German; the ones in the north are part of Old Dutch (Low Franconian).

Phonology

The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of the East Franconian dialect in the 9th century. This is the dialect of the monastery of Fulda, and specifically of the Old High German ''Tatian''. Dictionaries and grammars of OHG often use the spellings of the Tatian as a substitute for genuine standardised spellings, and these have the advantage of being recognizably close to the Middle High German forms of words, particularly with respect to the consonants.

Vowels

Short and long vowels

Old High German had five phonemic long vowels and six phonemic short vowels. Both occurred in stressed and unstressed syllables.

	! colspan="2"	! colspan="2"	! colspan="2"
Short vowel>short	Long vowel>long	! short	! long	! short	! long
Close vowel>close	''''	''''		''''	''''
Mid vowel>mid	'''', ''''	''''		''''	''''
Open vowel>open		''''	''''

Notes: # All back vowels likely had front-vowel allophones as a result of Umlaut. The front-vowel allophones likely became full phonemes in Middle High German. In the Old High German period, there existed (possibly a mid-close vowel) from the Umlaut of and but it probably wasn't phonemicized until the end of the period. Manuscripts occasionally distinguish two sounds. Generally, modern grammars and dictionaries use ‹ë› for the mid vowel and ‹e› for the mid-close vowel. # The short high and mid vowels may have been articulated lower than their long counterparts as in Modern German. This cannot be established from written sources. # Short vowels followed later by long vowels tended to be reduced to ‹e› in unstressed syllables. The ‹e› may have represented or schwa . # Vowel length was indicated in the manuscripts inconsistently (though not in modern handbooks). A macron was generally used to indicate a long vowel.

Old High German diphthongs are indicated by the digraphs ‹ei›, ‹ie›, ‹io›, ‹iu›, ‹ou›, ‹uo›.

Consonants

	bilabial consonant>Bilabial	labiodental consonant>Labiodental	dental consonant>Dental	alveolar consonant>Alveolar	postalveolar consonant>Postalveolar	!palatal consonant	Glottal
	'''' ''''			'''' ''''		'''' ''''
	''''			''''
	''''			''''		''''
		'''' ,	''''	'''' ,		''''	''''
Approximant	''''				''''
				'''', ''''

# There is wide variation in the consonant systems of the Old High German dialects arising mainly from the differing extent to which they are affected by the High German Sound Shift. Precise information about the articulation of consonants is impossible to establish. #In the plosive and fricative series, where there are two consonants in a cell, the first is fortis the second lenis. The voicing of lenis consonants varied between dialects. #Old High German distinguished long and short consonants. Double-consonant spellings don't indicate a preceding short vowel as in Modern German but true consonant gemination. Double consonants found in Old High German include ''pp, bb, tt, dd, ck'' (for ), ''gg, ff, ss, hh, zz, mm, nn, ll, rr.'' # changes to in all dialects during the 9th century. The status in the Old High German ''Tatian'' (c. 830), reflected in modern Old High German dictionaries and glossaries, is that ''th'' is found in initial position, ''d'' in other positions. # It is not clear whether Old High German had already acquired a palatized allophone following front vowels as in Modern German. #A curly-tailed ''z'' (''ȥ'') is sometimes used in modern grammars and dictionaries to indicate the dental fricative which arose from Common Germanic ''t'' in the High German consonant shift, to distinguish it from the dental affricate, represented as ''z''. This distinction has no counterpart in the original manuscripts, except in the OHG ''Isidor'', which uses ''tz'' for the affricate. # The original Germanic fricative ''s'' was in writing usually clearly distinguished from the younger fricative ''z'' that evolved from the High German consonant shift - the sounds of these two graphs seem not to have merged before the 13th century. Now seeing that ''s'' later came to be pronounced /ʃ/ before other consonants (as in ''Stein'' /ʃtaɪn/, ''Speer'' /ʃpeːɐ/, ''Schmerz'' /ʃmɛrts/ (original ''smerz'') or the southwestern pronunciation of words like ''Ast'' /aʃt/) it seems safe to assume that the actual pronunciation of Germanic ''s'' was somewhere between [s] and [ʃ], most likely about [ɕ], in all Old High German up to late Middle High German. A word like ''swaz'', "whatever", would thus never have been [swas] but rather [ɕwas], later (13th century) [ʃwas], [ʃvas].

Morphology

Nouns

Verbs

The following is a sample paradigm of a strong verb, nëman "to take".

colspan="2"				! Optative	! Imperative
Present	! 1st sing	nimu	nëme	--
	2nd sing	nimis (-ist)	nëmēs (-ēst)	nim
	3rd sing	nimit	nëme	--
	1st plur	nëmemēs (-ēn)	nëmemēs (-ēn)	nëmamēs, -emēs (-ēn)
	2nd plur	nëmet	nëmēt	nëmet
	3rd plur	nëmant	nëmēn	--
rowspan="6">Past	! 1st sing	nam	nāmi	--
2nd sing	nāmi	nāmīs (-īst)	--
3rd sing	nam	nāmi	--
1st plur	nāmumēs (-un)	nāmīmēs (-īn)	--
2nd plur	nāmut	nāmīt	--
3rd plur	nāmun	nāmīn	--
Infinitive
Gerund: Genitive
Gerund: Dative
Present Participle
Past Participle

History

The Franks conquered Northern Gaul as far south as the Loire; the linguistic boundary later stabilised approximately along the course of the Maas and Moselle, with Frankish speakers further west being romanised.

With Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombards in 776, nearly all continental Germanic speaking peoples had been incorporated into the Frankish Empire, thus also bringing all continental West Germanic speakers under Frankish rule. However, since the language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to any development of a supra-regional variety of Frankish nor a standardized Old High German.

Old High German literacy is a product of the monasteries, notably at St. Gallen, Reichenau and Fulda. Its origins lie in the establishment of the German church by Boniface in the mid 8th century, and it was further encouraged during the Carolingian Renaissance in the 9th. The dedication to the preservation of Old High German epic poetry among the scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance was significantly greater than could be suspected from the meagre survivals we have today (less than 200 lines in total between the ''Lay of Hildebrand'' and the ''Muspilli''). Einhard tells how Charlemagne himself ordered that the epic lays should be collected for posterity. It was the neglect or religious zeal of later generations that led to the loss of these records. Thus, it was Charlemagne's weak successor, Louis the Pious, who destroyed his father's collection of epic poetry on account of its pagan content .

Hrabanus Maurus, a student of Alcuin's and abbot at Fulda from 822, was an important advocate of the cultivation of German literacy. Among his students were Walafrid Strabo and Otfrid of Weissenburg. Notker Labeo (d. 1022) towards the end of the Old High German period was among the greatest stylists in the language, and developed a systematic orthography.

Texts

The early part of the period saw considerable missionary activity, and by 800 the whole of the Frankish Empire had, in principle, been Christianized. All the manuscripts which contain Old High German texts were written in ecclesiastical scriptoria by scribes whose main task was writing in Latin rather than German. Consequently, the majority of Old High German texts are religious in nature and show strong influence of ecclesiastical Latin on the vocabulary. In fact, most surviving prose texts are translations of Latin originals. Even secular works such as the Hildebrandslied are often preserved only because they were written on spare sheets in religious codices.

The earliest Old High German text is generally taken to be the Abrogans, a Latin-Old High German glossary variously dated between 750 and 780, probably from Reichenau. The 8th century Merseburg Incantations are the only remnant of pre-Christian German literature. The earliest texts not dependent on Latin originals would seem to be the Hildebrandslied and the Wessobrunn Prayer, both recorded in manuscripts of the early 9th century, though the texts are assumed to derive from earlier copies.

The Bavarian ''Muspilli'' is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Other important works are the ''Evangelienbuch'' (Gospel harmony) of Otfrid von Weissenburg, the short but splendid ''Ludwigslied'' and the 9th century ''Georgslied''. The boundary to Early Middle High German (from ca. 1050) is not clear-cut. The most impressive example of EMHG literature is the ''Annolied''.

Samples

The Lord's Prayer is given in four Old High German dialects below. Because these are translations of a liturgical text, they are best not regarded as examples of idiomatic language, but they do show dialect variation very clearly.

{| cellpadding="5" |----- ! Alemannic, 8th century ! South Rhine Franconian, 9th century ! East Franconian, c. 830 ! Bavarian, early 9th century |----- ! ''The St Gall Paternoster'' ! ''Weissenburg Catechism'' ! Old High German ''Tatian'' ! Freisinger Paternoster |----- | | | | |} Source: Braune/Ebbinghaus, ''Althochdeutsches Lesebuch'', 17th edn (Niemeyer, 1994)

See also

Middle High German

Medieval German Literature

Notes

References

''Althochdeutches Lesebuch'', ed. W.Braune, K.Helm, E.A.Ebbinghaus, 17th edn, Tübingen 1994. ISBN 3-484-10707-3

J. Knight Bostock, ''A Handbook on Old High German Literature'', 2nd edn, revised by K.C.King and D.R.McLintock, Oxford 1976. ISBN 0-19-815392-9

R.E.Keller, ''The German Language'', London 1978. ISBN 0-571-11159-9

''Lexikon der Germanistischen Linguistik'', ed. Hans Peter Althaus, Helmut Henne, Herbert Ernst Weigand, 2nd revised edition, Tübingen 1980. ISBN 3-484-10396-5

S.Sonderegger, ''Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur'', de Gruyter 1974 ISBN 3-11-004559-1

C.J.Wells, ''German. A Linguistic History to 1945'', Oxford 1987. ISBN 0-19-815809-2

External links

Joseph Wright, ''An Old High German Primer'' (1906)

Althochdeutsche Texte im Internet (8.–10. Jahrhundert) - links to a range of online texts

Modern English-Old High German dictionary

Category:German dialects Category:Languages of Germany

ar:الألمانية العليا القديمة als:Althochdeutsch ang:Eald Hēah Þēodisc bar:Oidhochdeitsch ca:Alt alemany antic da:Oldhøjtysk de:Althochdeutsch es:Alto alemán antiguo eo:Malnovaltgermana lingvo fr:Vieux haut-allemand fy:Aldheechdútsk gl:Antigo alto alemán hr:Starovisokonjemački jezik id:Bahasa Jerman Hulu Kuno it:Alto tedesco antico la:Lingua Theodisca alta antiqua hu:Ófelnémet nyelv mk:Стар високогермански јазик nl:Oudhoogduits ja:古高ドイツ語 no:Gammelhøytysk nds:Ooldhoochdüütsch pl:Język staro-wysoko-niemiecki pt:Alto alemão antigo ru:Древневерхненемецкий язык sr:Stari visokonemački jezik sh:Stari visokonemački jezik tr:Eski Yüksek Almanca zh:古高地德語

:''"Hochdeutsch" or "High German" is also used in the sense of Standard German.''

Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
{{infobox language family |name	High German |regionpredominantly central and southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, northern and central Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Alsace and South Tyrol |familycolorIndo-European |fam1Indo-European |fam2Germanic |fam3West Germanic |child1''Yiddish'' |child2Central German dialects |child3High Franconian dialects |child4Upper German dialects }}

[[Image:Europe germanic-languages 2.PNG|240px|thumb|right|West Germanic languages North Germanic languages ]]

The High German languages (in German, ''Hochdeutsche Sprachen'') or the High German dialects (''Hochdeutsche Mundarten/Dialekte'') are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighboring portions of Belgium and the Netherlands (Ripuarian dialects in southeast Limburg), France (Alsace and northern Lorraine), Italy, and Poland. The language is also spoken in diaspora in Romania (''Transylvania''), Russia, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Namibia.

As a technical term, the "high" in High German is a geographical reference to the group of dialects that forms "High German" (in the broader sense), out of which developed standard High German (in the narrower sense), Yiddish and Luxembourgish. It refers to the upland and mountainous areas of central and southern Germany, it also includes Luxembourg, Austria, Liechtenstein and most of Switzerland. This is opposed to Low German, which is spoken on the lowlands and along the flat sea coasts of the north. High German in this broader sense can be subdivided into Upper German (''Oberdeutsch'', this includes the Austrian and Swiss German dialects), Central German (''Mitteldeutsch'', this includes Luxembourgish, which is now a standardized language), and High Franconian which is a transitional dialect between the two.

History

The High German dialects as used in central and southern Germany (Saxony, Bavaria) and Austria were an important basis for the development of standard German.

The historical forms of the language are Old High German and Middle High German.

Classification

High German (in the broader sense) is distinguished from other West Germanic varieties in that it took part in the High German consonant shift (c. AD 500). To see this, compare English/Low Saxon ''pan/Pann'' with German ''Pfanne'' ( to ), English/Low Saxon ''two/twee'' with German ''zwei'' ( to ), English/Low Saxon ''make/maken'' with German ''machen'' ( to ). In the High Alemannic dialects, there is a further shift; ''Sack'' (like English/Low Saxon "sack/Sack") is pronounced ( to ).

Family tree

Note that divisions between subfamilies within Germanic are rarely precisely defined, as most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. In particular, there has never been an original "Proto-High German". For this and other reasons, the idea of representing the relationships between West Germanic language forms in a tree diagram at all is controversial among linguists. What follows should be used with care in the light of this caveat.

Central German (German: ''Mitteldeutsch'')

* East Central German

* Standard German

** Lausitzisch-Neumärkisch

** Upper Saxon

** North Upper Saxon

** Thuringian Dialect

** Silesian German (mostly in Lower Silesia, in Poland)

** High Prussian

* Transylvanian Saxon (in Transylvania)

* West Central German

** ''Central Franconian

*** Ripuarian

*** Moselle Franconian, including the Luxembourgish language

** ''Rhine Franconian''

*** Lorraine Franconian (France)

*** Pfälzisch language

*** Hunsrückisch

****Riograndenser Hunsrückisch (in Southern Brazil)

** Central Hessian (Hessian)

** East Hessian (Hessian)

** North Hessian (Hessian)

Transitional areas between ''Central German'' and ''Upper German''

* High Franconian

**East Franconian German

**South Franconian German

Pennsylvania German (in the United States and Canada)

Upper German (German: ''Oberdeutsch'')

* Alemannic

** Swabian

** Low Alemannic (including one Swiss German dialect: Basel German)

** Alsatian language (but often also classified as within Low Alemannic)

** Central Alemannic

** High Alemannic (including many Swiss German dialects)

** Highest Alemannic (including Swiss German dialects)

* Austro-Bavarian (''On the use of dialects and Standard German in Austria, see Austrian language'')

**Northern Austro-Bavarian (spoken in Upper Palatinate)

**Central Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Vienna — ''see'' Viennese language)

**Southern Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Tirol, Carinthia and Styria)

** Cimbrian (northeastern Italy)

** Mócheno (Trentino, in Italy)

** Hutterite German (in Canada and the United States)

Yiddish

*Western Yiddish (Germany, France)

*Eastern Yiddish

**Northeastern Yiddish (Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, northeastern Poland)

**Central Yiddish (Poland, Galicia)

**Southeastern Yiddish (Ukraine, Bessarabia, Romania)

Texas German, a dialect spoken by descendants of immigrants who settled in the Texas Hill Country region in the mid-19th century.

References

Category:German dialects Category:West Germanic languages

af:Hoogduitse tale bg:Горногермански езици ca:Alt alemany de:Hochdeutsche Dialekte fr:Haut allemand fy:Heechdútske talen hr:Gornjonjemački jezici it:Lingua alto-tedesca la:Dialecti Theodiscae altae lt:Aukštutinės vokiečių kalbos hu:Felnémet nyelvek nl:Hoogduits no:Høytysk nds:Hoochdüütsch pl:Język wysokoniemiecki pt:Alto-alemão sv:Högtyska ug:ئېگىزلىك گېرمان تىلى vi:Các ngôn ngữ Thượng Đức zh:高地德语

Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
Name	Germanic
Region	In northern, western and central Europe, Anglo-America, Oceania, southern Africa
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam1	Indo-European
Protoname	Proto-Germanic
Child1	North Germanic
Child2	West Germanic
Child3	East Germanic (extinct)
Iso2	gem
Iso5	gem
Lingua	52- (phylozone)
Map	Germanic languages.svg
Mapcaption	}}

The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic (also known as Common Germanic), which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic peoples moving south from northern Europe in the 2nd century BC, to settle in north-central Europe.

The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English and German, with approximately 300–400 million and over 100 million native speakers respectively. The group includes other major languages, such as Dutch with 23 million and Afrikaans with over 6 million native speakers; and the North Germanic languages including Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese with a combined total of about 20 million speakers. The SIL ''Ethnologue'' lists 53 different Germanic languages.

Characteristics

Germanic languages possess several unique features, such as the following: # The leveling of the Indo-European verbal system of tense and aspect into the present tense and the past tense (also called the preterite) # A large class of verbs that use a dental suffix (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation (Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense; these are called the Germanic weak verbs; the remaining verbs with vowel ablaut are the Germanic strong verbs # The use of so-called strong and weak adjectives: different sets of inflectional endings for adjectives depending on the definiteness of the noun phrase (modern English adjectives do not inflect at all, except for the comparative and superlative; this was not the case in Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on the type of their preceding determiner) # The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law (which continued in German in a second shift known as the High German consonant shift) # Some words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families but with variants that appear in almost all Germanic languages; ''see Germanic substrate hypothesis'' # The sound change known as Verner's Law, which left a trace of Indo-European accent variations in voicing variations in fricatives # The shifting of word stress onto word stems and later onto the first syllable of the word (though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what is added to them)

Germanic languages differ from each other to a greater degree than do some other language families such as the Romance or Slavic languages. Roughly speaking, Germanic languages differ in how conservative or how progressive each language is with respect to an overall trend toward analyticity. Some, such as Icelandic, and to a lesser extent, German, have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology inherited from the Proto-Indo-European language. Others, such as English, Swedish, and Afrikaans, have moved toward a largely analytic type.

Another characteristic of Germanic languages is ''verb second'' (V2) word order, which is quite uncommon cross-linguistically. This feature was not inherited from Proto-Germanic, but was probably already present in latent form, and may have begun with auxiliary verbs that were treated as sentence clitics, which were generally placed second. The later parallel innovation of V2 word order in the individual languages may have been a result of the loss of noun declension, which tended to 'fix' word order into its most common form. It is now shared by all modern Germanic languages except modern English which has more or less replaced the earlier V2 structure with fixed ''Subject–verb–object'' word order.

Writing

The earliest evidence of Germanic languages comes from names recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus (especially from his work ''Germania''), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the 2nd century BC on the Negau helmet. From roughly the 2nd century AD, certain speakers of early Germanic varieties developed the Elder Futhark, an early form of the Runic alphabet. Early runic inscriptions also are largely limited to personal names, and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language was written in the Gothic alphabet developed by Bishop Ulfilas for his translation of the Bible in the 4th century. Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in addition to their native Germanic varieties began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters. However, throughout the Viking Age, Runic alphabets remained in common use in Scandinavia. In addition to the standard Latin alphabet, many Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including umlauts, the ß (''Eszett''), IJ, Ø, Æ, Å, Ä, Ü, Ö, Ð, , and the Latinized runes Þ and . In print, German used to be prevalently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher) up until the 1940s (though see Antiqua–Fraktur dispute), whereas ''Kurrent'' and since the early 20th century ''Sütterlin'' was used for German handwriting.

History

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by subjection to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These probably took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe from ca. 500 BC, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo European suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age.

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups: West, East, and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify.

The 6th-century Lombardic language, for instance, may be a variety originally either Northern or Eastern, before being assimilated by West Germanic as the Lombards settled at the Elbe. The Western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture, the Eastern group may be derived from the 1st-century variety of Gotland (see Old Gutnish), leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the Northern group. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old Frankish (5th century), Old High German (scattered words and sentences 6th century, coherent texts 9th century) and Old English (coherent texts 10th century). North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse, until it evolves into Old Norse by about 800.

Longer runic inscriptions survive from the 8th and 9th centuries (Eggjum stone, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the 12th century (Íslendingabók), and some skaldic poetry held to date back to as early as the 9th century.

[[Image:Europe germanic-languages 2.PNG|300px|thumb|right|West Germanic languages North Germanic languages ]]

By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make inter-comprehensibility difficult. The linguistic contact of the Viking settlers of the Danelaw with the Anglo-Saxons left traces in the English language, and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of Old English grammar that resulted in Middle English from the 12th century.

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths, and Vandals became linguistically assimilated by their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century.

During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxon, with graded intermediate Central German varieties. By Early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to Northern Low Saxon in the North and, although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties had completed the second sound shift, while the northern varieties remained unaffected by the consonant shift.

The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, with the peninsular languages largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.

==Classification== Note that divisions between and among subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent varieties being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.

Diachronic

The table below shows the succession of the significant historical stages of each language (vertically), and their approximate groupings in subfamilies (horizontally). Horizontal sequence within each group does not imply a measure of greater or lesser similarity.

Contemporary

All living Germanic languages belong either to the West Germanic or to the North Germanic branch. The West Germanic group is the larger by far, further subdivided into Anglo-Frisian on one hand, and Continental West Germanic on the other. Anglo-Frisian notably includes English and all its variants, while Continental West Germanic includes German (standard register and dialects) as well as Dutch (standard register and dialects).

West Germanic languages

* High German languages (includes Standard German and its dialects)

** Central German

*** East Central German

*** West Central German

**** Luxembourgish

**** Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)

** Upper German

***High Franconian

*** Alemannic German

*** Austro-Bavarian German

**** Mócheno language

**** Cimbrian language

**** Hutterite German

** Yiddish

* Low Franconian

** Dutch and its dialects

** Afrikaans (a separate standard language)

* Low German

** West Low German

** East Low German

*** Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German)

* Anglo-Frisian

** Frisian group

** English group

*** English and its dialects

*** Lowland Scots

*** Yola (extinct)

North Germanic

* West Scandinavian

** Norwegian (of Western branch origin, but heavily influenced by the Eastern branch)

** Icelandic

** Faroese

** Greenlandic Norse (extinct)

** Norn (extinct)

* East Scandinavian

** Danish

** Swedish

* Gutnish

Common linguistic features

Phonology

The oldest Germanic languages all share a number of features, assumed to be inherited from Proto-Germanic. Phonologically, this includes the important sound changes known as Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, which introduced a large number of fricatives; late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had only one, /s/.

The main vowel developments are the merging (in most circumstances) of long and short /a/ and /o/, producing short /a/ and long /ō/. This likewise affected the diphthongs, with PIE /ai/ and /oi/ merging into /ai/, and PIE /au/ and /ou/ merging into /au/. PIE /ei/ developed into long /ī/. PIE long /ē/ developed into a vowel denoted as /ē₁/ (often assumed to be phonetically ), while a new, fairly uncommon long vowel /ē₂/ developed in varied and not completely understood circumstances. Proto-Germanic had no front rounded vowels, although all Germanic languages except for Gothic subsequently developed them through the process of i-umlaut.

Proto-Germanic developed a strong stress accent on the first syllable of the root (although remnants of the original free PIE accent are visible due to Verner's Law, which was sensitive to this accent). This caused a steady erosion of vowels in unstressed syllables. In Proto-Germanic this had progressed only to the point that absolutely final short vowels (other than /i/ and /u/) were lost and absolutely final long vowels were shortened, but all of the early literary languages show a more advanced state of vowel loss. This ultimately resulted in some languages (e.g. modern English) in the loss of practically all vowels following the main stress, and the consequent rise of a very large number of monosyllabic words.

Morphology

The oldest Germanic languages have the typical complex inflected morphology of old Indo-European languages, with four or five noun cases; verbs marked for person, number, tense and mood; multiple noun and verb classes; few or no articles; and rather free word order. The old Germanic languages are famous for having only two tenses (present and past), with three PIE past-tense aspects (imperfect, aorist, and perfect/stative) merged into one and no new tenses (future, pluperfect, etc.) developing. There were three moods: indicative, subjunctive (developed from the PIE optative mood) and imperative. Gothic verbs had a number of archaic features inherited from PIE that were lost in the other Germanic languages with few traces, including dual endings, an inflected passive voice (derived from the PIE mediopassive voice), and a class of verbs with reduplication in the past tense (derived from the PIE perfect). The complex tense system of modern English (e.g. ''In three months, the house will still be being built'' or ''If you had not acted so stupidly, we would never have been caught'') is almost entirely due to subsequent developments (although paralleled in many of the other Germanic languages).

Among the other innovations in Proto-Germanic (hence common to all Germanic languages) are the preterite present verbs, a special set of verbs whose present tense looks like the past tense of other verbs and which is the origin of most modal verbs in English; a past-tense ending (in the so-called "weak verbs", marked with ''-ed'' in English) that appears variously as /d/ or /t/, often assumed to be derived from the verb "to do"; and two separate sets of adjective endings, originally corresponding to a distinction between indefinite semantics ("a man", with a combination of PIE adjective and pronoun endings) and definite semantics ("the man", with endings derived from PIE ''n''-stem nouns). The two sets of adjective endings were lost in English in the late Middle English period but are still preserved (as a distinction between "strong" and "weak" endings) in most other Germanic languages.

Linguistic developments

The subgroupings of the Germanic languages are defined by shared innovations. It is important to distinguish innovations from cases of linguistic conservatism. That is, if two languages in a family share a characteristic that is not observed in a third language, that is evidence of common ancestry of the two languages ''only if'' the characteristic is an innovation compared to the family's proto-language.

The following innovations are common to the Northwest Germanic languages (all but Gothic):

The lowering of /u/ to /o/ in initial syllables before /a/ in the following syllable ("a-Umlaut", traditionally called ''Brechung'')

"Labial umlaut" in unstressed medial syllables (the conversion of /a/ to /u/ and /ō/ to /ū/ before /m/, or /u/ in the following syllable) The conversion of /ē₁/ into /ā/ (vs. Gothic /ē/) in initial syllables

The raising of final /ō/ to /u/ (Gothic lowers it to /a/)

The monophthongisation of /ai/ and /au/ to /ǣ/ and /ō/ in non-initial syllables (however, evidence for the development of /au/ in medial syllables is lacking)

The development of an intensified demonstrative ending in /s/ (reflected in English "this" compared to "the")

The use of /ē₂/ in the preterite of Class VII strong verbs in North and West Germanic, while Gothic uses reduplication (e.g. Gothic ''haihait''; ON, OE ''hēt'', preterite of the Gmc verb ''*haitan'' "to be called") as part of a comprehensive reformation of the Gmc Class VII from a reduplicating to a new ablaut pattern, which presumably started in verbs beginning with vowel or /h/ (a development which continues the general trend of de-reduplication in Gmc); there are forms (such as OE dial. ''heht'' instead of ''hēt'') which retain traces of reduplication even in West and North Germanic

The following innovations are also common to the Northwest Germanic languages, but represent areal changes:

Proto-Germanic /z/ > /r/ (e.g. Gothic ''dius''; ON ''dȳr'', OHG ''tior'', OE ''dēor'', "wild animal"); note that this is not present in Proto-Norse and must be ordered after West Germanic loss of final /z/

Germanic umlaut

The following innovations are common to the West Germanic languages:

Loss of final /z/ (except in short monosyllables)

Change of voiced dental fricative /ð/ to stop /d/

Change of voiceless dental fricative /þ/ to stop /d/ after /l/ (except when /þ/ is word-final)

West Germanic gemination of consonants, except ''r'', before /j/ in short-stemmed words (gemination of /p/, /t/, /k/ and /h/ is also observed before liquids), but not if /j/ (or a liquid) is vocalised (becomes syllabic) word-finally

The simplification of /ngw/ to /ng/

A particular type of ''umlaut'' /e-u-i/ > /i-u-i/

Loss of /j/ before /i/ and /w/ before /u/ in endings

The change of /b/ or /g/ to /w/ before nasal consonant

Changes to the 2nd person singular past-tense: Replacement of the past-singular stem vowel with the past-plural stem vowel, and substitution of the ending ''-t'' with ''-i''

Short forms (''*stān, stēn'', ''*gān, gēn'') of the verbs for "stand" and "go"; but note that Crimean Gothic also has ''gēn''

The development of a gerund

The following innovations are common to the Ingvaeonic subgroup of the West Germanic languages:

The so-called Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, which (e.g.) converted ''*munþ'' "mouth" (cf. Old High German ''mund'') into ''*mūþ'' (cf. Old English ''mūþ'').

The loss of the Germanic reflexive pronoun

The reduction of the three Germanic verbal plural forms into one form ending in ''-þ''

The development of Class III weak verbs into a relic class consisting of four verbs (''*sagjan'' "to say", ''*hugjan'' "to think", ''*habjan'' "to have", ''*libjan'' "to live")

The split of the Class II weak verb ending ''*-ō-'' into ''*-ō-/-ōja-''

Development of a plural ending *-ōs in a-stem nouns (note, Gothic also has ''-ōs'', but this is an independent development, caused by terminal devoicing of ''*-ōz''; Old Frisian has ''-ar'', which is thought to be a late borrowing from Danish)

Merger of the accusative and dative in first and second person pronouns (also shared by Old Low Franconian)

Possibly, the monophthongization of Germanic ''*ai'' to ''ē/ā'' (this may represent independent changes in Old Saxon and Anglo-Frisian)

The following innovations are common to the Anglo-Frisian subgroup of the Ingvaeonic languages:

Raising of nasalized ''a, ā'' into ''o, ō''

Anglo-Frisian brightening: Fronting of non-nasal ''a, ā'' to ''æ,ǣ'' when not followed by ''n'' or ''m''

Metathesis of ''CrV'' into ''CVr'', where ''C'' represents any consonant and ''V'' any vowel

Monophthongization of ''ai'' into ''ā''

==Vocabulary comparison== Several of the terms in the table below have had semantic drift. For example, the form ''Sterben'' and other terms for ''die'' are cognates with the English word ''starve''. There is also at least one example of a common borrowing from a non-Germanic source (''ounce'' and its cognates from Latin). {|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%" |- !width="75"|English ! Scots ! West Frisian ! Afrikaans ! Dutch ! Dutch (Limburgish) ! Low German ! Low German (Groningen) ! Middle German (Luxemburgish) ! German ! Gothic ! Icelandic ! Faroese ! Swedish ! Danish ! Norwegian (Bokmål) ! Norwegian (Nynorsk) |- |apple || aiple || apel || appel || appel || appel || Appel || Abbel || Apel || Apfel || aplus || epli || epli || äpple || æble || eple || eple |- |board || buird || board || bord || bord || bórdj/telleur || Boord || Bred || Briet || Brett || baúrd || borð || borð || bräde || bord || brett || brett |- |beech || beech || boeke || beuk || beuk || beuk || Boeoek / Böök || Beukenboom || Bich || Buche || bōka/-bagms || beyki || bók(artræ) || bok || bøg || bok || bok / bøk |- |book || beuk || boek || boek || boek || book || Book || Bouk || Buch || Buch || bōka || bók || bók || bok || bog || bok || bok |- |breast || breest ||boarst || bors || borst || boors || Bost || Bôrst || Broscht || Brust || brusts || brjóst || bróst / bringa || bröst || bryst || bryst || bryst |- |brown || broun || brún || bruin || bruin || broen || bruun || broen || brong || braun || bruns || brúnn || brúnur || brun || brun || brun || brun |- |day || day || dei || dag || dag || daag || Dag || Dag || Do || Tag || dags || dagur || dagur || dag || dag || dag || dag |- |dead || deid || dea || dood || dood || doed || doot || dood || dout || tot || dauþs || dauður || deyður || död || død || død || daud |- |die (starve) || dee || stjerre || sterf || sterven || stèrve || starven / döen || staarven || stierwen || sterben || diwan || deyja || doyggja || dö || dø || dø || døy / starva |- |enough || eneuch || genôch || genoeg || genoeg || genóg || noog || genog || genuch || genug || ganōhs || nóg || nóg/nógmikið || nog || nok || nok || nok |- |finger || finger || finger || vinger || vinger || veenger || Finger || Vinger || Fanger || Finger || figgrs || fingur || fingur || finger || finger || finger || finger |- |give || gie || jaan || gee || geven || geve || geven || geven || ginn || geben || giban || gefa || geva || ge / giva || give || gi || gje(va) |- |glass || gless || glês || glas || glas || glaas || Glas || Glas || Glas || Glas || – || glas || glas || glas || glas || glass || glas |- |gold || gowd || goud || goud || goud || goud / góldj || Gold || Gold || – || Gold || gulþ || gull || gull || guld / gull || guld || gull || gull |- |good || guid || gód || goed || goed || good || goot || goud || gutt || gut || gōþ(is) || góð(ur) / gott || góð(ur) / gott || god || god || god || god |- |hand || haund || hân || hand || hand || hand || Hand || Haand || Hand || Hand || handus || hönd || hond || hand || hånd || hånd || hand |- |head || heid || holle || hoof / kop || hoofd / kop || kop || Kopp || Heufd / Kop || Kopp || Haupt / Kopf || háubiþ || höfuð || høvd / høvur || huvud || hoved || hode || hovud |- |high || heich || heech || hoog || hoog || hoeg || hoog || hoog / höch || héich || hoch || háuh || hár || høg / ur || hög || høj || høy / høg || høg |- |home || hame || hiem || heim / tuis || heem, heim / thuis || thoes || Tohuus || Thoes || Heem || Heim || háimōþ || heim || heim || hem || hjem || hjem / heim || heim |- |hook / crook || heuk || hoek || haak || haak || haok || Haak || Hoak || Krop / Kramp || Haken || kramppa || haki / krókur || krókur / ongul || hake / krok || hage / krog || hake / krok || hake / krok |- |house || hoose || hûs || huis || huis || hoes || Huus || Hoes || Haus || Haus || hūs || hús || hús || hus || hus || hus || hus |- |many || mony || mannich / mennich || baie / menige || menig || minnig || Mennig || Ìnde || – || manch || manags || margir || mangir / nógvir || många || mange || mange || mange |- |moon || muin || moanne || maan || maan || maon || Maan || Moan || Mound || Mond || mēna || máni / tungl || máni || måne || måne || måne || måne |- |night || nicht || nacht || nag || nacht || nach || Nach / Nacht || Nacht || Nuecht || Nacht || nótt || nótt || nátt || natt || nat || natt || natt |- |no (nay) || nae || nee || nee || nee(n) || nei || nee || nee / nai || nee(n) || nee / nein / nö || nē || nei || nei || nej / nä || nej / næ || nei || nei |- |old (but: elder, eldest) || auld || âld || oud || oud || aajt (''old'') / gammel (''decayed'') || oolt / gammelig || old / olleg || aalt || alt || sineigs || gamall (but: eldri, elstur) / aldinn || gamal (but: eldri, elstur)|| gammal (but: äldre, äldst)|| gammel (but: ældre, ældst) || gammel (but: eldre, eldst) || gam(m)al (but: eldre, eldst) |- |one || ane || ien || een || een || ein || een || aine || een || eins || áins || einn || ein || en || en || en || ein |- |ounce || unce || ûns || ons || ons || óns || Ons || Onze || – || Unze || unkja || únsa || únsa || uns || unse || unse || unse / unsa |- |snow || snaw || snie || sneeu || sneeuw || sjnie || Snee || Snij / Snèj || Schlue || Schnee || snáiws || snjór || kavi / snjógvur || snö || sne || snø || snø |- |stone || stane || stien || steen || steen || stein || Steen || Stain || Steen || Stein || stáins || steinn || steinur || sten || sten || stein || stein |- |that || that || dat || daardie / dit || dat / die || dat / tot || dat / dit || dat / dij || dat || das || þata || það || tað || det || det || det || det |- |two / twain || twa || twa || twee || twee || twie || twee || twij / twèje || zoo / zwou / zwéin || zwei/zwo || twái || tveir / tvær / tvö || tveir / tvey / tvær / tvá || två || to || to || to |- |who || wha || wa || wie || wie || wee || wokeen || wel || wien || wer || Ƕas / hwas || hver || hvør || vem || hvem || hvem || kven |- |worm || wirm || wjirm || wurm || worm || weurm || Worm || Wörm || Wuerm || Wurm || maþa || maðkur / ormur || maðkur / ormur || mask / orm  || orm || makk / mark / orm   || makk/mark/orm |- !width="75"|English ! Scots ! West Frisian ! Afrikaans ! Dutch ! Dutch (Limburgish) ! Low German ! Low German (Groningen) ! Middle German (Luxemburgish) ! German ! Gothic ! Icelandic ! Faroese ! Swedish ! Danish ! Norwegian (Bokmål) ! Norwegian (Nynorsk) |}

See also

Germanic verb and its various subordinated articles

Language families and languages

Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages

List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents

Germanisation and Anglicisation

Germanic name

Germanic placenames

German name

German placename etymology

Isogloss

Germanic substrate hypothesis

Notes

External links

Germanic Lexicon Project

'Hover & Hear' pronunciations of the same Germanic words in dozens of Germanic languages and 'dialects', including English accents, and compare instantaneously side by side

''Bibliographie der Schreibsprachen'': Bibliography of medieval written forms of High and Low German and Dutch

Ethnologue Report for Germanic

Swadesh lists of Germanic basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)

Todays geographical extension, Worldmap on the German Wiki

Languages Category:Indo-European languages

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Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
name	John Farnham
alt	Statue of a male standing with a microphone in left hand at his opened mouth and pointing with right forefinger. Statue is on a block of stone with cursive lettering, John Farnham, in front of feet. Background includes a tiled area, wide footpath, trees and buildings.
background	solo_singer
birth name	John Peter Farnham
Siblings	Jean, Jaquiline, Steven
alias	Johnny Farnham
born	July 01, 1949Dagenham, England
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano
genre	Pop rock, AOR, adult contemporary, pop
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
years active	1964–current
label	Columbia, EMI, RCA, Axis, Wheatley, BMG, Gotham
associated acts	The Mavericks, Strings Unlimited, Little River Band, Brian Cadd
website	Official website
notable instruments	Acoustic guitar, piano }}

John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham (born 1 July 1949), is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band during 1982–1985. In September 1986 his solo single, "You're the Voice" peaked at No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. The associated album, ''Whispering Jack'', held the No. 1 position for a total of 25 weeks, and is the highest-selling album in Australian history. Both the single and the album had Top Ten success internationally including No. 1 in Sweden.

Domestically he has remained one of Australia's best-known performers with a career spanning over 40 years, and he is the only Australian artist to have a number one record in five consecutive decades (echoing Sir Cliff Richard in the UK) with singles: "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" in 1967, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" in 1969/1970, and "Age of Reason" in 1988; and albums: ''Age of Reason'', ''Chain Reaction'' in 1990, ''Then Again...'' in 1993, ''Anthology 1: Greatest Hits 1986-1997'' in 1997, ''33⅓'' in 2000 and ''The Last Time'' in 2002.

Farnham has been recognised by honours and awards including 1987 Australian of the Year, 1996 Order of Australia, and 19 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards including his 2003 induction into the Hall of Fame. From 1969 he was voted by ''TV Week'' readers as the 'King of Pop' for five consecutive years. Aside from his recording career, Farnham performed on stage with lead roles in Australian productions of ''Charlie Girl'', ''Pippin'' and 1992's ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. He starred in his own TV series and specials including ''It's Magic'' and ''Bobby Dazzler'' and as a guest on numerous other popular shows such as ''Countdown'' and ''Hey Hey It's Saturday''. Australian rock historian, Ian McFarlane described him as "the most successful solo artist in the history of Australian rock and pop [...] Farnham has retained an affable sense of humour and a simple, unpretentious 'everyman' charm which also makes him one of the most respected celebrities in Australian entertainment history."

Early life

John Peter Farnham was born in Dagenham, England, on 1 July 1949, to John Farnham Snr and Rose Pemberton. His sisters are Jean and Jaquiline (Jackie), and his younger brother is Steven. Farnham spent his first ten years in England before his family immigrated to Australia in 1959 to live in Melbourne, Victoria. He attended school at Yarraman State School, Lyndale Primary School and Lyndale High School. During school holidays Farnham worked with a plumber and soon he began a plumbing apprenticeship and left school, in 1967 he took two years leave from his plumbing job to pursue his music career.

1964–1967: The Mavericks to Strings Unlimited

Johnny Farnham performed with local band The Mavericks on weekends, while still attending school, from 1964. The band had a five song repertoire. In late 1965 he was asked to join Strings Unlimited as a singer and they had a regular booking at a local hotel. In 1966, after making the state finals of the Hoadleys Battle of the Sounds, they recorded a three-track demo tape with Farnham on vocals, Stewart Male on lead guitar, Barry Roy on rhythm guitar, Mike Foenander on keyboards and Peter Foggie on drums. On 29 April 1967, Strings Unlimited performed as a backing band for pop singer Bev Harrell in Cohuna. Harrell's boyfriend/manager, Darryl Sambell, was impressed with Farnham's vocals and offered to become his manager. Initially performing in Sambell's home town of Adelaide, Farnham recorded an advertising jingle "Susan Jones" for TAA (Trans Australian Airlines) and was offered a solo record contract with EMI.

1967–1979: Teen pop idol

Farnham's first commercially successful recording was a novelty song entitled "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)", Sambell had disliked it as the lyrics were so persistent. However, EMI's in house producer, David MacKay, insisted and so the single was released in November 1967. The B-side, "In My Room" was written by Farnham. By arrangement with Sambell, Melbourne radio DJ Stan Rofe pretended that he disliked "Sadie" before playing it. Rofe continued the ploy on TV's ''Uptight'' and viewers responded with calls to play the song. It hit #1 on the Australian singles charts in January 1968 and remained there for 6 weeks. Selling 180,000 copies in Australia, "Sadie" was the highest selling single by an Australian artist of the decade. Rofe was also a writer for ''Go-Set'', a teen-oriented pop magazine, another writer for the magazine, Ian "Molly" Meldrum, praised Farnham's efforts. ''Go-Set'' ran a pop poll to determine the 'King of Pop' which was first won by Normie Rowe for 1967–1968. Farnham's 1968 singles were "Underneath the Arches" and "I Don't Want to Love You", each peaked at #6. In 1969, Farnham released his album ''Everybody Oughta Sing a Song'' which peaked at #12 on the Australian albums charts. His next single was a cover of Harry Nilsson's "One"; Farnham's version peaked at #4. When television guide, ''TV Week'' sponsored the 'King of Pop' awards, readers would forward their votes from coupons, Farnham won the most popular male award and was crowned 'King of Pop' five consecutive times from 1969–1973. He recorded a cover of the B J Thomas hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" which became his second #1 hit in December 1969 and remained at top spot for seven weeks into January 1970.

Farnham's next album, ''Looking Through a Tear'', was released in July 1970 and peaked at #11. "Comic Conversations", his single from October, peaked at #10. During 1971, Farnham teamed with Allison Durbin, who had been chosen as 'Most Popular Female Performer' at the 'King of Pop' awards for 1969–1971. They released an album ''Together'' in September and a single "Baby, Without You" in November, both peaked into the top 30 of their respective charts. As well as his singing career, Farnham performed in stage musicals starting with ''Dick Whittington and His Cat'' in 1971 and on television variety shows either as a guest performer or as a host. At 22, Farnham was appointed 'King of Moomba' in 1972 with Melbourne paper, ''The Sun'', describing him as a "likeable English migrant" who is "King of Pop, King of Kids and today Johnny Farnham was King of Moomba."

Another stage musical for Farnham was ''Charlie Girl'' in 1971. Jillian Billman was one of the dancers, and Farnham married her on 18 April 1973. Meldrum announced their wedding plans in ''Go-Set'' but Sambell denied the early reports, and, despite being best man at the wedding, was against Billman marrying Farnham. The clean-cut pop star had made several more albums and singles, but by the mid-1970s his recording career had begun to dwindle and he turned more to stage musicals and television. Farnham and 'Queen of Pop' for 1972–1973, Colleen Hewett, combined on the 1973–1974 stage musical, ''Pippin'', and its associated show album released in 1974. Also in 1974, Farnham and Hewett were co-hosts of ''It's Magic'', a children's TV series on Channel Ten. He became familiar to viewers of ''Countdown'' when hosting its first colour transmission in early 1975 and introducing Skyhooks' performance of "Horror Movie".

Relations with Sambell became strained and in January 1976 they announced their split. Farnham first turned to Kenn Brodziak, producer of ''Pippin'', for his management during 1976–1978 and then to Danny Finley, Hewett's then husband, from 1978. Farnham starred in a situation comedy series ''Bobby Dazzler'' as the title character during 1977–1978, and narrated documentaries including ''Survival with Johnny Farnham''. Farnham was in financial trouble with unpaid taxes and the collapse of a restaurant venture with Hewett and Finley. Farnham's singing career was now confined to the cabaret circuit and stage musicals, in 1979 he changed his stage name to John Farnham.

1980–1985: Little River Band era

Farnham had met Glenn Wheatley, who was bass guitarist of 1960s rock group The Masters Apprentices, when both acts were managed by Sambell. Wheatley was now managing Little River Band (LRB) and in 1980 Farnham signed with Wheatley. They decided his comeback single would be a reworking of The Beatles' "Help!", which was produced by LRB's Graeham Goble, it peaked at #8. Farnham was utilising a more adult contemporary pop style and the associated album, ''Uncovered'', also produced by Goble, peaked at #20. The B-side of "Help" was another of Farnham's songwriting efforts "Jillie's Song", co-written with Goble. In recording the album, Farnham's studio band were guitarist Tommy Emmanuel (ex-Southern Star Band), keyboardist Mal Logan (ex-Renée Geyer Band, LRB), drummer Derek Pellicci (LRB) and bass guitarist Barry Sullivan (ex-Chain). They became his tour band until Logan and Pellicci returned to their LRB commitments and were replaced by Sam McNally and David Jones respectively. In 1980, Farnham also appeared in a TV series, ''Farnham and Byrne'' with former ''Young Talent Time'' teen star and 'Queen of Pop' Debra Byrne. Three other solo singles followed in 1981 but none charted into the Top 50.

In February 1982, after Glenn Shorrock had departed Little River Band, Farnham became their lead vocalist with recommendations by Goble and Wheatley. Farnham had initially resisted the idea of joining LRB but Wheatley convinced him that Shorrock approved of the replacement. This continued Farnham's move away from cabaret and into rock music. As Little River Band was a successful band prior to Farnham joining, it was a surprise that they found little initial success.

With Farnham, Little River Band recorded three studio albums, which had modest success – not enough to pay back the advances the record company had provided. The first studio album, ''The Net'', was already written and Farnham had no say in the songs, he just had to record his lead vocals. In the US, charting albums with Farnham's vocals, were ''Greatest Hits'' (1982), ''The Net'' (1983) and ''Playing to Win'' (1984) on ''Billboard'' Pop Albums chart/''Billboard'' 200. While charting singles were, "The Other Guy", "We Two", "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind" and "Playing to Win". Farnham's biggest Australian hits with LRB were the 1982 single "Down on the Border" which peaked at #7 and ''The Net'' which peaked at #11 on the albums charts in 1983.

During this time, Farnham started supplying vocal tracks for films including, ''Savage Streets'' (1984), ''The Slugger's Wife'' (1985), and ''Fletch'' (1985); he later continued with ''Rad'' (1986) and ''Voyage of the Rock Aliens'' (1987). "Justice for One" was co-written by Farnham, for ''Savage Streets'' and it was released as a solo single.

Little River Band recorded a concert in Melbourne that aired in the United States on HBO. The concert video was only one hour long, and it highlighted some of the songs from ''The Net'' as well as reworked versions of Little River Band classics such as "Cool Change" and "Reminiscing". "Please Don't Ask Me", a song written by Goble, and a non-Top 50 single for Farnham almost three years previously, was played during the "Australian Themed" opening of the show. Despite positive Australian and US reviews and responses, this performance has not yet been released on VHS or DVD.

In an interview with Channel Seven, Farnham stated, "I'll be better off leaving, rather than putting myself under pressure that I've created." Through this matter, it became apparent to the band that Farnham was intending on leaving and ''Playing to Win'''s lead single "Playing to Win", a song believed by all to be the band's return to success, then started having authorship disputes. According to Farnham:

As a result, Farnham's relationship with the band was further sullied. To date, the royalties for the song are meticulously divided with different shares to each of the song's contributors, including Goble, Farnham, Stephen Housden, David Hirschfelder and Wayne Nelson. By late 1985, LRB were in conflict again and Farnham left. In mid-1986, Little River Band released the third studio album, ''No Reins'', but Farnham was already pursuing his solo career.

1986–1997: Peak solo years

"You're the Voice" and ''Whispering Jack''

Farnham had started collecting a songlist for a future solo album while still in Little River Band, he finished his vocals for their album, ''No Reins'', and left in late 1985. Farnham's first solo performances since 1981 were live shows with the John Farnham Band consisting of Brett Garsed on lead guitar, Sam See on guitar and Derek Pellicci, formerly of Little River Band, on drums. In early 1986, sound engineer Ross Fraser suggested to Farnham's manager Glenn Wheatley that it was time to start working on the solo album. Wheatley searched vainly for a producer and record label willing to work with Farnham, Fraser took on the producer role and Wheatley provided financial support after mortgaging his house.

Whilst visiting a jazz club in the US, Farnham was mistakenly introduced as Jack Phantom, and when he subsequently provided a running commentary for a local pool game he named himself Whispering Jack Phantom after the ''Pot Black'' commentator 'Whispering' Ted Lowe. Farnham's work for the album, ''Whispering Jack'', included expanding his songlist with Fraser's advice. "A Touch of Paradise" was written by Gulliver Smith and Mondo Rock's Ross Wilson, while "Pressure Down" was provided by Harry Bogdanovs. Two weeks before the album was due to be recorded a demo tape arrived from London with similar material as "Pressure Down", Farnham and Fraser listened to the demo of "You're the Voice" and knew they had found a once-in-a-lifetime song. Another song on offer was "We Built This City" but Farnham knocked it back, it was later recorded by US band Starship.

Initially, public interest in the re-branded former teen-idol was difficult to cultivate, and radio stations refused to play Farnham's album. Things however started to change after Sydney radio station 2Day FM played its first single, "You're the Voice", which was released in September 1986. Henceforth, radio stations began receiving requests for the song. Its television debut was on ''Hey Hey Its Saturday'' with Skyhook's Greg Macainsh providing bass guitar. "You're the Voice," peaked at #1 in Sweden and Australia, as well as being a Top Ten hit in some European countries: #3 in Switzerland, #6 in the UK, and #6 in Austria. The song was written by Andy Qunta (ex-Icehouse), Keith Reid (Procol Harum), Maggie Ryder and Chris Thompson (ex-Manfred Mann's Earth Band).

''Whispering Jack'', released in October, became the highest-selling album by an Australian act in Australia, at the time, and peaked at number one on the Australian Album Charts for a total of 25 weeks. As of 2006, it was 24× platinum indicating sales of over 1.68 million units in Australia alone. The album was released internationally on RCA/BMG and peaked at #1 in Sweden, #3 in Austria, and Top 20 in Norway. In August 1988 it returned to the Australian Top Ten. Other charting Australian singles were December's "Pressure Down", which peaked at #4, March 1987's "Touch of Paradise" and October's "Reasons".

After the success of the album, Farnham followed with Jack's Back Tour, an initial itinerary of eleven performances was thought to be enough considering they were up against tours by Michael Jackson and Billy Joel, but after high ticket sales, it was extended by eight more shows and use of larger venues. At that time, Jack's Back Tour was the highest grossing tour by an Australian act. John Farnham Band now consisted of Garsed on lead guitar, David Hirschfelder on keyboards (ex-Little River Band), Macainsh on bass and Angus Burchill on drums. Farnham won six of the inaugural 1987 Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Awards for 'Album of the Year', 'Single of the Year', 'Highest Selling Album', 'Highest Selling Single', 'Best Male Artist' and 'Best Adult Contemporary Album'. On 19 July 1987, TV series ''Countdown'' broadcast its last show, the 1986 ''Countdown'' Music and Video Awards with Farnham winning the 'Best Album Award' for ''Whispering Jack''.

In 1988, Australia's Bicentennial Year, Farnham was named 1987 Australian of the Year, although he was not yet naturalised – a hastily organised swearing-in occurred before the honour was bestowed. He was chosen due to: "his outstanding contribution to the Australian music industry over 20 years."

''Age of Reason'' and ''Chain Reaction''

Farnham's July 1988 single, "Age of Reason", which peaked at #1 on the ARIA singles charts, was written by Johanna Pigott and Dragon members Todd Hunter and his brother Marc Hunter. The album, ''Age of Reason'', produced by Ross Fraser, debuted at #1 in August and stayed on top for eight weeks. It was the highest selling album in Australia from 1988, and, as of 1997, it was 8× platinum indicating sales of over 0.56 million units. Renewed interest in ''Whispering Jack'' returned it to the Top Ten in August, nearly two years after its initial release. As of December 2008, "Age of Reason" remains Farnham's last #1 Australian single. Other charting singles from this album were, "Two Strong Hearts" which peaked at #6 and "Beyond the Call". ''Age of Reason'' had international success peaking at #4 in Sweden, and #9 in Norway.

At the 1988 ARIA Awards, Farnham won 'Best Male Artist', 'Best Adult Contemporary Album' for "Touch of Paradise", and the 'Outstanding Achievement Award'. In March 1989, Farnham was in Moscow, USSR to promote Greenpeace album ''Rainbow Warriors'', as part of an international ensemble including David Byrne (Talking Heads), Peter Gabriel, Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) and The Edge (U2). Farnham found time to record a duet with Dannielle Gaha, "Communication", which peaked at #13 in August 1989. It was recorded as part promotion for the Australian governments program to control the drug epidemic happening in the mid 80's entitled "The Drug Offensive". The Drug Offensive logo can be seen attached to a television camera in the video clip made to promote the song.

''Chain Reaction'' produced by Fraser, was released in October 1990, and also debuted at #1 on the Australian album charts, it provided three Top Ten hit singles, "Chain Reaction" in August, "That's Freedom" in September and "Burn for You" in December. Unlike the previous two albums, where most songs were written by outside writers, ''Chain Reaction'' saw Farnham write nine of its twelve tracks with Fraser and keyboardist/musical director David Hirschfelder (ex-Little River Band). The sound was less electronic and more acoustic, it became the biggest selling album in Australia for 1990, and was #1 on the ARIA End of Year album chart. At the 1991 ARIA Awards, Farnham won 'Best Male Artist', 'Song of the Year' for "Burn for You", and 'Highest Selling Album' for ''Chain Reaction''.

''Full House'' to ''Anthology''

Farnham's live album, released in November 1991, was ''Full House'', produced by Ross Fraser and Farnham, which peaked at #2 on the ARIA album charts. It contained concert material recorded from May 1987 to October 1990. "Please Don't Ask" was released as a single, which peaked into the top 30. At #1 on the ARIA album charts was Jimmy Barnes' album, ''Soul Deep'', it included a duet with Farnham, "When Something is Wrong with My Baby", which peaked at #3 on the singles charts.

In August 1992, Farnham joined the Australian production of Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical, ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' in the title role of Jesus. Fellow cast members included, Angry Anderson as Herod, Kate Ceberano as Mary Magdalene, Russell Morris as Simon Zealotes, Jon Stevens as Judas and John Waters as Pontius Pilate The stage soundtrack, ''Jesus Christ Superstar The Album'' provided the single, "Everything's Alright" by Ceberano, Farnham and Stevens, which peaked at #6 in September. Farnham released his next studio album, ''Then Again...'' in October 1993, produced by Fraser and Farnham, which peaked at #1. Of its four singles only, "Seemed Like a Good Idea (At the Time)" reached the top 20. The album won 'Highest Selling Album' at the ARIA Awards in 1994.

On Australia Day, 26 January 1996, Farnham was made an Officer of the Order of Australia, "''In recognition of service to the Australian music industry and to charitable and community organisations, particularly those relating to youth''" His single, "Have a Little Faith (In Us)", in March peaked at #3, the associated album, ''Romeo's Heart'', produced by Fraser, was released in June and peaked at #2. It won the 'Best Adult Contemporary Album' at the ARIA Awards in 1996. Farnham collaborated with vocal group Human Nature to record "Every Time You Cry" which peaked at #3 on the singles charts in October 1997. Also in 1997 he released a series of three compilation albums, ''Anthology 1: Greatest Hits 1986-1997'', ''Anthology 2: Classic Hits 1967-1985 (Recorded Live)'' and ''Anthology 3: Rarities'' which all peaked in the top 20, with ''Anthology 1'' reaching #1.

1998–current: Later years

''The Main Event'' with Olivia Newton-John & Anthony Warlow

For The Main Event Tour during October–December 1998, Farnham performed with Olivia Newton-John and Anthony Warlow. The album ''Highlights from The Main Event'' peaked at #1 in December, sold 4× platinum, and won 'Highest Selling Album' at the 1999 ARIA Awards. ''The Main Event'' concert was broadcast on national TV and released on video.

During April–May 1999, Farnham undertook the I Can't Believe He's 50 Tour, supported by Merril Bainbridge, Kate Ceberano, Human Nature, James Reyne, Ross Wilson, and Nana-Zhami containing his son, Robert Farnham. ''Live at the Regent'', recorded on 1 July 1999 (Farnham's 50th birthday), was released in September and peaked at #7. On 21 December, Farnham performed a set for the Tour Of Duty concert in Dili for the Australian troops serving with InterFET and East Timorese people. The concert also included James Blundell, Dili Allstars, Gina Jeffreys, The Living End, Kylie Minogue, Doc Neeson and the RMC Band. Tour Of Duty was the first of Farnham's concerts to be webcast.

For the 2000 Summer Olympics, Farnham and Newton-John performed "Dare to Dream", during the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony. Broadcast of the ceremony was viewed by an estimated 3.5 billion people around the world. Farnham appeared as himself in the final episode of the Australian television series ''The Games'' (2000).

''The Last Time'' to Tom Jones

On 1 January 2001, Farnham was awarded a Centenary Medal, "For outstanding service to Australian music", as part of Australia's celebration of a centenary of federation. In 2002, Farnham announced his decision to retire from full-scale national tours after his The Last Time Tour – he would still perform in concerts and record – which commenced on 6 November 2002 and finished on 15 June 2003. In conjunction with the tour, ''The Last Time'' was released in October 2002, it peaked at #1 and achieved 3× platinum sales. The Last Time Tour was a countrywide concert tour, taking a circus-style tent to smaller towns and filling large entertainment venues in capital cities, it became the biggest grossing tour in Australian history.

During July 2003, Farnham worked with Queen to produce a new version of "We Will Rock You" for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, released on his greatest hits album, "One Voice". Media reports of Queen asking Farnham to join the band were subsequently denied by both Queen's Brian May and Farnham. Farnham was inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame on 21 October with a performance of "You're the Voice". Farnham also won 'Best Adult Contemporary Album' for ''The Last Time''. 2002 Hall of Fame inductee was Olivia Newton-John whilst in 2004 Little River Band was inducted.

Combining with singer Tom Jones, Farnham undertook the Together in Concert series during 2004 with ten shows in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Duets started with "That Driving Beat" and "Mama Told Me Not to Come", solos from Farnham were "One", "Pressure Down", "That's Freedom", "Heart's on Fire", "Playing to Win", "Every Time You Cry", "Man of the Hour", "Age of Reason" and "Burn for You". The pair did five duets to close the show – Sam and Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming", Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness", Ray Charles' "What'd I Say", Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" and AC/DC's anthem, "Long Way to the Top". The DVD release, ''Together in Concert – John Farnham & Tom Jones'', debuted at No 1. Farnham made an appearance during the 2005 Melbourne Music Festival, raising funds for rebuilding after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake at the Tsunami Benefit Concert.

''I Remember When I Was Young''

''I Remember When I Was Young: Songs from The Great Australian Songbook'' was released in November 2005 – it contains 13 covers of hits, written and performed by Australian artists – which peaked at #2 on the ARIA albums charts.

In February 2006, Farnham performed four shows at the Sydney Opera House, with the Sydney Symphony, followed by shows at the Victorian Arts Centre's Hamer Hall, Melbourne. These shows were sponsored by Dairy Farmers and a percentage of revenue received from the 'I Remember When I was Young' concerts went to the Dairy Farmers 'Creating Greener Pastures' program to help farmers and their communities. A 2006 DVD of Farnham entitled ''John Farnham with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra'' was released, it debuted at #2 on the ARIA DVD charts and then peaked at #1.

John Farnham Band members () are Angus Burchall on drums, Bob Coassin on trumpet, Lachlan Davidson on saxophone, Lisa Edwards on backing vocals, Lindsay Field on backing vocals, Stuart Fraser on guitar, Dannielle Gaha on backing vocals, Brett Garsed on guitar, Chong Lim on keyboards/musical director, Jordan Murray on trombone, Craig Newman on bass guitar, and Steve Williams on harmonica and saxophone.

From 18 February, Farnham embarked on a small Australian tour with Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks for a series of live shows. Both artists had equal billing but unlike the Tom Jones shows, they did not sing together but rather individually. The same backup singers from the tour, however, were used by Stevie Nicks and John.

On 26 March, Farnham sang at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony, in Melbourne starting with his hit "Age of Reason", followed by "I Remember When I Was Young" from his most recent studio album, "Playing to Win" from his Little River Band days, and finished with his anthem song, "You're the Voice".

The twentieth anniversary of ''Whispering Jack'' in 2006 was marked by an 'enhanced' commemorative re-release of the CD plus a DVD featuring an edited version of the tour that accompanied the album (the full concert was originally released on VHS in 1987). The original album was the first CD made in Australia and, as of June 2008, remains the highest selling album in Australia by an Australian act.

"Live By Demand" tour and ''Jack'' album

On 27 May 2009, Farnham announced a new concert tour for September and October, "John Farnham – Live By Demand".

A new studio album ''Jack'' was released by Sony BMG on 15 October 2010. The album contains 11 tracks and is Farnham's first studio album in over 5 years. ''Jack'' features covers of compositions by Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield and Percy Sledge.

The release of ''Jack'' coincides with a run of indoor and outdoor performances, under the title of "John Farnham Live!", throughout October and November 2010.

On 8 June 2011 it was announced that Farnham intends embarking on a nation-wide tour of Australia throughout October and November 2011 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of his globally successful ''Whispering Jack'' album.

In addition to this, a 25th anniversary edition of the ''Whispering Jack'' album is expected to be released by Sony BMG with a bonus acoustic hits disc.

Personal life

Farnham married Jillian Billman, a dancer he met when performing the stage musical ''Charlie Girl'', on 18 April 1973. They have two sons, Robert Farnham and James Farnham.

Discography

''Sadie'' (1968)

''Everybody Oughta Sing a Song'' (1968)

''Looking Through a Tear'' (1970)

''Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham'' (1970)

''Johnny'' (1971)

''Together'' (1971)

''Johnny Farnham Sings the Shows'' (1972)

''Hits Magic & Rock 'N Roll'' (1973)

''Johnny Farnham Sings Hits from the Movies'' (1974)

''J.P. Farnham Sings'' (1975)

''Uncovered'' (1980)

''Whispering Jack'' (1986)

''Age of Reason'' (1988)

''Chain Reaction'' (1990)

''Then Again...'' (1993)

''Romeo's Heart'' (1996)

''33⅓'' (2000)

''The Last Time'' (2002)

''I Remember When I Was Young: Songs from the Great Australian Songbook'' (2005)

''Jack'' (2010)

Charities

Save The Children Fund

CARE Australia

The Prince's Trust

Victorian Association for Deserted Children

Dairy Farmers Association

Gympie Rural Aid Appeal

Starlight Children's Foundation

Make A Wish Foundation

Breast Cancer Foundation

Parkinson's Disease Association

AIDS Trust

Variety Clubs of Australia

Boxing Day Tsunami Appeal (Melbourne)

Awards and nominations

Farnham has won and been nominated for numerous Australian music and entertainment awards. These include 19 ARIA Awards from 49 nominations and induction into the Hall of Fame, ''Countdown'' Music and Video Awards, Mo Awards and ''TV Week'' magazine's King of Pop Awards and their Logie Awards.

References

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;Specific

External links

John Farnham at the National Film and Sound Archive

John Farnham in AusStage

Category:Australian people of English descent Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:English male singers Category:English pop singers Category:English television actors Category:Australian culture Category:ARIA Award winners Category:ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian of the Year Award winners Category:Australian pop singers Category:Australian television actors Category:Little River Band members Category:Officers of the Order of Australia Category:Naturalised citizens of Australia Category:People from Dagenham Category:People from Essex Category:English expatriates in Australia Category:Recipients of the Centenary Medal

da:John Farnham de:John Farnham es:John Farnham fr:John Farnham it:John Farnham nl:John Farnham ja:ジョン・ファーナム no:John Farnham (sanger) pl:John Farnham pt:John Farnham fi:John Farnham sv:John Farnham

Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
Name	Connie Talbot
Background	solo_singer
Born	November 20, 2000
Origin	Streetly, Aldridge, West Midlands, England, UK
Instrument	Vocals
Years active	2007–present
Genre	Pop
Occupation	Singer
Label	Rainbow Recording Company
Website	connietalbot.com }}

Connie Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English child singer from Streetly, Aldridge, in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands. She rose to fame in 2007 when she reached the final of the television talent show ''Britain's Got Talent'', where she was runner-up to Paul Potts. Talbot was supposed to sign with Sony BMG but the label pulled out of the deal due to her age.

Talbot signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album ''Over the Rainbow'' in the UK on 26 November 2007. The album was re-released 18 June 2008 with a new track listing, and the first single from the album, a cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds", was released on 10 June.

Despite its negative critical reception, ''Over the Rainbow'' has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries. Since the initial album release, Talbot has performed publicly and on television in Europe, the U.S. and across Asia, where her music had gained recognition through YouTube. Her second album, ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'', was released on 24 November 2008; her third, ''Holiday Magic'', was released in late 2009. On top of her musical career, Talbot continues to attend primary school and lives in Streetly with her family.

History

''Britain's Got Talent'' and Sony BMG

Talbot initially auditioned for the first series of television reality show ''Britain's Got Talent'' for fun, but her confidence increased when Simon Cowell, whom she is said to have idolised, described her as "pure magic" and said that he would make her earn "£1 million-plus this year". The judges expected a "joke" performance and she had never taken singing lessons, but Talbot's initial performance received international press coverage. She reached the final round after winning her semi-final with a live performance of "Ben" by Michael Jackson. On the night of the final, she sang ''The Wizard of Oz'''s "Over the Rainbow", but lost to Paul Potts as a result of the call-in vote. Talbot and Potts had been joint favourites to win the series. According to journalist and ''Britain's Got Talent'' judge Piers Morgan, Talbot's performances resulted in many children, including Faryl Smith, auditioning for the second series of the show. After his victory, Series 2 winner George Sampson spoke of his participation in the first series, where he was knocked out before the live shows, saying "I don't think I had any shot of winning last year ... When you look at the standard of Paul Potts and Connie Talbot. Paul Potts is out of this league, and Connie is out of this league – I wasn't good enough." Talbot voted for Sampson, saying "I liked his dancing – he was good on the lamppost".

Cowell had preliminarily agreed to sign Talbot with his own record label, Sony BMG. After recording two songs in London with Talbot ("Over the Rainbow" and "Smile"), the label pulled out of the deal. Talbot's mother, Sharon, said she was told that her daughter "...was too young to be their sort of artist", adding "We have been told to look for a company which looks after children." In a statement, the label said "there was some deliberation over the possibility of recording with Connie ... However, the decision not to proceed was made with the best intentions for Connie, taking into consideration her age and that it would not be right to do so at this time." Cowell himself said that "when the time is right, [he would] be delighted to see if [they could] make it work". The Talbot family decided to search for another label, saying "while [Talbot] loves what she's doing it would be cruel to stop her. Fame and money will never matter."

''Over the Rainbow''

In October 2007 Talbot signed with the Rainbow Recording Company for a six-figure deal. Rainbow Recording Company, an offshoot of record label Rhythm Riders made specifically for Talbot, was due to release Talbot's first album on 26 November 2007. It was later reported that the album was named ''Over the Rainbow'', and the first single, "Over the Rainbow"/"White Christmas", would be released on 3 December 2007. Experts predicted that she had a good chance of getting the Christmas number one, but the single was cancelled in favour of an album-first release. Before the album was released, there was much speculation about Talbot and the album, with music experts describing her as potentially being "the next Charlotte Church". The team behind the album consisted of John Arnison, who also managed Gabrielle and Billy Ocean, and Marc Marot, former managing director of Island Records. It was produced and mixed by Simon Hill and Rob May. Arnison revealed that he and his team "are not going to give [Talbot] singing lessons – we don't need to", and said that when he met Talbot, he was "blown away". A schedule was worked out allowing Talbot to continue with her normal school activities while recording the album in her aunt Vicky's spare bedroom, which her mother described as "a better solution [than Sony BMG offered] which has not robbed her of her childhood". Although Arnison claimed he did not "want to put her through the promotional grind which most artists go through because she is too young", plans were made for an appearance on daytime television programme ''This Morning'', as well as an appearance on ''Children in Need'' on 16 November 2007. The album was released on 26 November 2007 and Talbot's mother said that "All the family is really excited, but Connie is quite blase about it." The album was certified gold in early December, with Talbot being presented a gold disc by Phillip Schofield on ''This Morning''. Initially, 50,000 copies of the album were pressed, but an additional 120,000 had to be made after the album sold out in days.

In late 2007, public appearances by Talbot included headlining the Great Bridge Christmas and Winter Festival, which local police threatened to cancel unless crowds clamouring to reach the tent in which Talbot was performing could be brought under control. At the event, on 7 December 2007, Talbot said "I love it here, it’s brilliant, really fun", but had to be ushered off-stage by the police. Talbot performed publicly in Walsall's HMV store, and in Birmingham's Centenary Square. TV appearances included GMTV and Channel 5 news, both on 26 November 2007. According to her mother, Talbot has received offers for film roles. Sharon said "[Talbot]'s been sent a script, I haven't had a good look at it yet but it's really exciting ... Connie's a singer, not an actress, so we'll see what happens. It's completely up to her whether or not she wants to do it. I can't believe it, though."

Sharon Mawer of Allmusic praised ''Over the Rainbow'' by saying "She can sing, for a seven year old, and most of the notes (if not all of them) are in the right order and sung to the right pitch; the timing is fine too". However, she criticised the album, saying "there's no feeling, no emotion, no realisation of what each song is about; they're just pretty little songs", giving the album 2/5. Nick Levine, of Digital Spy, said in a review of the album that Talbot had a "sweet, pure voice", but that there is "no nuance or depth to her performance". However, he said that "There's something inherently wrong about awarding a star rating to a seven-year-old", and that "the decidedly adult concept of musical merit should have nothing to do with [her music]", awarding the album 2/5.

The album was rereleased on 16 June 2008, but was available for pre-order in May, with three new tracks to replace its Christmas-themed songs. The first single from the album, "Three Little Birds", was released in June 2008, and a video for the song was shot in Jamaica. In April and May 2008, Talbot toured Asia to promote ''Over the Rainbow''. Asian press attributed her success to her videos on YouTube, with the ''Sun.Star'' mentioning that her most viewed video had been watched over 14 million times, and ''The Straits Times'' saying that videos of Talbot's performances have been watched over 30 million times. The tour made stops in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, and Talbot and her family returned to England in late May. Following the tour, it was reported that the album had reached number one on the charts in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as reaching number three in Singapore. After the tour, Talbot travelled to Poland, where she performed on television.

It was also revealed that ''Over the Rainbow'' was due for release in America in September, resulting in attention from American press sources including Fox Business Network and MarketWatch. The U.S. version was eventually released on 14 October, with Talbot appearing on American television shows including ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' to publicise the release.

In August 2008, it was announced that Talbot had signed a contract with Data Design Interactive for production of a video game on the Wii console. The game was to feature 15 songs from ''Over the Rainbow'', allowing players to sing along with a computer-generated image of Talbot or against other players in a karaoke mode. Talbot rerecorded the album for the game. The game was scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, and is called ''Connie Talbot: Over the Rainbow''. The game hasn't been released yet as of 2011, citing copyright issues on the songs used for it.

''Christmas Album'' and ''Holiday Magic''

In November 2008, it was announced that Talbot had produced a series of new songs for an album. Recorded in her bedroom studio, ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'' was released on 24 November. It is a Christmas themed album, featuring, according to Talbot's official website, "a mix of classics and modern Christmas tunes". News was also released of a one-off Christmas special to be shown on ITV1 in the days leading up to Christmas, featuring footage of Talbot's journey to America and a "secret concert" at her primary school. The documentary, ''Christmas with Connie'', was shown on ITV Central on 18 December. Talbot appeared at Walsall's HMV branch shortly after the release of her ''Christmas Album'' to sign copies and meet fans. She then embarked on a promotional tour making stops around the world, which included a performance at Ewha Womans University in Korea, and a performance on the A Heart for Children television charity gala in Berlin, Germany. She returned home in mid December, to have "a quiet family Christmas". There are plans for a promotional trip to the U.S. in 2009.

''Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'' was difficult to obtain in Britain after the distributor, Pinnacle Entertainment, went into administration. Talbot's mother, Sharon, was quoted as saying "We don't really know what's going to happen at the moment ... We think they'll probably wait and promote the album later this year. It's a shame, but they can still get the album in Asia and the US." Reviewing the album for ''FemaleFirst'' magazine, Ruth Harrison gave it 4/5, saying that Talbot has "a great voice when it comes to swing, but lets us down in parts".

In April 2009, Talbot again travelled to the U.S. in order to publicise her new single, a cover of "I Will Always Love You". The single was released in the U.S. on 7 April, along with a newly recorded "You Raise Me Up". Talbot then travelled to the U.S. on 30 April, and returned on 2 May. Appearances included a performance on ''Good Day New York'' on Fox Broadcasting Company's WNYW. The single peaked at number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Singles Sales.

Talbot's third album, ''Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic'', was released on 20 October 2009 in the United States and on 30 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The United States album is dedicated to the Toys for Tots campaign, of which Talbot has been named the child ambassador. In a statement, Bill Grein, Vice President of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, said-

Personal life

Talbot lives in Streetly, in the West Midlands, and currently attends a state primary school. She lives with her mother, Sharon, her father Gavin, a self-employed property maintenance engineer, her brother Josh, and her sister, Mollie. Talbot sang "Over the Rainbow", her signature song, at her grandmother's funeral, because she and her grandmother had enjoyed watching ''The Wizard of Oz'' together. Talbot drew confidence in ''Britain's Got Talent'' from the belief that her grandmother was watching, and vowed to win the show in her memory. Despite Talbot speaking positively of the effects of her fame, her parents spoke of a darker side, including having to change their phone number and hire a bodyguard for their daughter.

Discography

Albums

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center; ! rowspan=2| Year ! rowspan=2| Album ! colspan=8| Peak chart positions ! rowspan=2| Sales ! rowspan=2| Certifications |- style=font-size:smaller; ! width=25| UK ! width=25| HON ! width=25| SIN ! width=25| KOR ! width=25| TAI ! width=25| U.S. Heat ! width=25| U.S. Kid ! width=25| U.S. Indie |- | 2007 | align=left| ''Over the Rainbow''

Released: 26 November 2007

Labels: Rainbow Recording Company

| 35 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 43 | align=left|

UK: 100,000+ (rated gold by BPI)

South Korea: 30,000+ Worldwide: 250,000+ | align=left|

UK: Gold

Taiwan: Platinum Hong Kong: Platinum Korea: Double platinum |- | 2008 | align=left| ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Album''

Released: 24 November 2008

Labels: Rainbow Recording Company

| – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |- | 2009 | align=left| ''Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic''

Released: 20 October 2009

Labels: AAO Music

| – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |}

Singles

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center; ! rowspan=2| Year ! rowspan=2| Single ! colspan=2| Peak chart positions ! rowspan=2| Album |- style=font-size:smaller; ! width=30| UKIndie ! width=30| U.S.HSS |- | 2008 | align=left| "Three Little Birds" | 3 | 1 | rowspan=2| ''Over The Rainbow'' |- | 2009 |align=left| "I Will Always Love You" | – | 4 |}

References

External links

Official website

Official channel on YouTube (Former)

[ Connie Talbot] at Allmusic

Connie Talbot on MySpace

Category:2000 births Category:Living people Category:English child singers Category:English female singers Category:Britain's Got Talent contestants Category:People from Aldridge Category:English pop singers

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