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In this paper we investigate the properties of Old High German relative clauses. A striking fact is that the finite verb in these constructions can precede or follow its object(s). We survey different possible factors proposed in the literature that could determine the VO/OV order, such as presence of a relative particle, definiteness of the antecedent, specificity of the referent, and type of the relative clause (restrictive or appositive). Our investigation based on a corpus of non-translated texts reveals that the only factor that has statistically significant influence on word order is the type of the relative clause. 1. INTRODUCTION. The literature on German relative clauses is very extensive and, in particular, a large amount of scientific work has been written on the historical development of these constructions (not only on German but also on other Germanic languages).1 In this paper, we want to focus on some of the properties of the relative clauses we observe in Old High German.2 Even though we will not discuss all the different types of relativ