It has been heavily influenced by Romance, particularly French. This can be seen in the phonology (vowel length is no longer really operable, there are more open syllables, initial /h/ has been lost) and the syntax (questions are no longer formed by verb inversion; genitive relations are formed exclusively with fon). However, there are a few archaisms not found in standard German, like the consistent dative singular marker in -e [ə] and differentiation of the 1pl (usually in -em /-əm/) and 3pl (in -en /-ən/).
Quick phonology overview
OHG is reconstructed with /i i: e e: ɛ a a: o o: u u: iŭ iĕ iŏ oŭ uŏ/ in the vowels.
In open initial syllables:
-Generally speaking non-initial short vowels go to schwa; non-initial long vowels shorten. In initial syllables, *ĭ *e: merged as /e/ <ee> and *ĕ gives /ɛ/ <e>. /o o: u u:/ yield /ɔ o u y/ <o oo u ü>. /a/ yields /a/, but /a:/ fronted and merged with falling *ɛ to give /æ/ <ä>. <e> is schwa.
-Diphthongs /iŭ iŏ/ both give /ɛw/ <èu>; /iĕ/ and /i:/ merged as /i/, usually written <ie>. /ei/ does not change; under Dutch influence the resulting diphthong is written <ij>. /oŭ uŏ/ give /aŭ/ <au> (e.g. fautz 'foot').
In closed syllables, the same as in open, but *ĭ gives /ɪ/ <i>, not /e/, and *ŭ gives /o/.
Umlaut is operable; *o(:) gives /œ/ and *u(:) gives /y/. /a/ becomes /ɛ/; /aŭ/ becomes /ɛw/. <z> is /z/.
The OHG consonant shift skips *p word-initially; it becomes /f/ word-internally (so 'horse' is pèret).
...
/h/ drops under Romance influence. Coda /l/ becomes /w/, dropping after *u *o and otherwise giving a diphthong /aŭ/ or /ɛŭ/. Unstressed syllables turn to schwa or (if originally long) shorten. The High German Consonant shift is operable; original *ts does not turn to /s/ in words like futz 'foot'. Schwas do not usually drop (with some exceptions), so the indicative and subjunctive are usually identical, even more so than in standard German: 'he takes' is nemet, not nemt. Before a consonant and after a vowel, /s/ usually turns to /h/, then this /h/ merges with old /x/ and drops, laxing a preceding vowel, which (as in French) is marked with a circumflex.
Before a consonant, nasals drop, lowering high vowels; this is one of the biggest changes in Juran. Because the preterite marker -t- of strong verbs is separated from the root by a schwa, this does not affect verbal conjugation (usually), though a small number of verbs, generally common ones, have irregularly-syncopated pasts; the most salient example is kènen 'know', past kète.
*g has merged with *x as /x/, written <g>. Original /ng/ gives /k/ after nasal-droppage, so the cognate of German eng 'narrow' is èk. *w is /v/ and written <v>. OHH *sk is preserved, but with /s/-dropping after vowels.
/r/ is /r~ɾ/.
Nouns
Three cases: nominative, accusative, dative. Three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. Two numbers: masculine and feminine.
| sg | pl | |
| nominative | der man | dee män |
| accusative | den man | dee män |
| dative | dem mane | den mänem |
| sg | pl | |
| nominative | dèu frauve | dèu frauven |
| accusative | die frauve | dèu frauven |
| dative | der frauve | den frauvem |
The neuter nominative/accusative singular article is da before initial consonants and a clitic tz' before vowels: da broot 'the bread', da flijk 'the meat' tz'ij 'the egg'. A vowel-initial word that originally had an initial *h gets da: da üs 'the house'.
| sg | pl | |
| nom/acc | da üs | dèu üze |
| dative | dem üze | den üzem |