Correct greeting in Austria ( Vienna)?

We always say use: Grüß Gott.

Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, Guten Abend also work.

Don't worry too much about it. You'll hear others greet each other and just follow suit.

Paul

Not worried, just like to get it right. My German is good enough I am generally greeted as someone visiting from another area in Germany when I enter a store or restaurant, at least until the conversation has proceeded past a few sentences. Then comes the question on how I learned to speak German, which often leads to more conversation.

I kind of enjoy that reception and want it to continue.

OK. We've never been to Vienna, but in Salzburg area, Innsbruck area, etc. we've always used Grüß Gott.

Paul

Maybe they were trying to give a phonetic spelling. Some english-speakers might read it as an "ss" sound as in grass, without the slight buzzing Z sound.

Hi,

Everywhere you go in Vienna regardless of the establishment, be it a post office, hotel reception, museum, dept store, restaurant, etc, etc, you'll be greeted with "Grüß Gott." That's a certainty. And you respond likewise. Now, if you say "Guten Tag" as I catch myself half the time saying, they could think, "Der redet wie ein Piefke."

It is a typo. It should be Gruess Gott, as you have noted.

Thanks everyone. That is what I thought, but it seems strange the typo or misspelling would slip by the proofreaders. Maybe no one uses those any more. Or maybe they just blame autocorrect like I do when my iPad makes weird changes.

I am looking forward to Vienna. We have a home exchange arranged so we will be there for a week or so, next September (2017). I will start a thread later on suggestions for active things to do --- and where to find the best Schnitzel. And I better figure out how to order coffee for my husband---he likes a "flat white" so what would the equivalent be in Wein coffee houses?

Another distinctive Austrian greeting is "Servus!" (pronounced the way it looks).

A good way to learn about Austrian coffee is to go to a branch of the Aida chain. They have menus that give diagrams of every type of coffee, showing the total portion size and the proportions of coffee/water/milk/cream/flavour.

So in the article they talk about a Wiener Melange ( coffee drink). What is that --or is it just another mistake? I do not drink coffee, but I try to facilitate my husband's taste in coffee when we travel. In Italy it is easy---cappuccino. In lots of apartments and hotel rooms it is also easy, as they provide a Nespressso machine. But I just wonder what they call the equivalent of a cappuccino or the slightly different Flat White in Vienna?

I found this on a coffee site:

Weiner Melange is the most popular coffee beverage in Vienna, Austria and surrounding. It's preparation and look is in my humble opinion exactly the same as Cappuccino. You use an espresso shot, create some milk foam, add the hot milk together with the milk foam on top. Some will sprinkle some cocoa or cinnamon powder on top.
However, Melange is not always made with espresso. Sometimes they use brewed coffee.

Hope this helps!!

I suspect that coffee denominations may have regional variants. I always ask a Verlängerter (long brewed coffee), the request is always understood in Tirol and Salzburg lands but may draw blank stares elsewhere.

Yes, regional variants. For example, I have never heard of a Flat White, or heard anyone order such around here.

I've never heard anything but Gruß Gott, but then I've never been in Vienna.

That might be someone's attempt at phonetic spelling of the word Grußes, which, according to my Langenscheit dictionary is the possessive (genitiv), singular form of Gruß. Thus Grußes Gott would be God's greeting.

In German, the 'ß' is a hard 's' sound, like in glass, but the single 's' sounds like our 'z' (and the German 'z' is pronounced "ts").

So, I think Grußes is actually more correct grammatically, but then Gruß Gott is an idiom.

Emily, there is no umlaut over the 'u' in Gruß. But then it's not a long (gespannt) 'u', either.

Melange, by the way, mean blend. Hence, Vienna Blend. Wiener, incidently, means "from Vienna or Wien". Our wieners got their name because they were Vienna style sausages - Wienerwurst.

Lee, pretty sure I am correct with Grüß Gott = Gruess Gott. I have lived here for nearly 9 years.

Emily is right. I lived there only one year. About greetings: In Vienna they don't say Auf wiedersehen or just wiedersehen but wiederschon and many other words are pronounced differently than in Germany around Berlin.

As pointed out above, (correctly), the Viennese greeting of Servus is also used and is appropriate. That I have heard. In the early 1970s there was an Austrian music cassette prior to the introduction of CDs called "Servus Wien"

Stan--- a " Flat White" originated in Australia ( I think) but has recently been taken up by Starbucks, so now is pretty widespread. As I understand it, it is milk and espresso, but the milk is less foamy than a cappuccino.

Lee--- it is true that the masculine singular noun Gruss does not have an umlaut. The plural (Grüße) and dative form (Grüßen) do have umlauts. But the Grüß in Grüß Gott is not a noun; it is a verb. The meaning is " (May) God greet (you)." The regular verb Grüßen has an umlaut in every conjugated form.

I am not good enough at grammar to know what tense this " May . .. " form is, so I looked it up. The second person imperative (du form) is written "Grüß(e)* ", meaning the e is optional or variable. The * says "only in colloquial linguistic use."

Www.verbformen.net

So that is what we have here---with an umlaut.

In my experience here, Servus would be used with someone you are familiar with. I greet my neighbors this way, for example.

Agree, Emily. Although in the mountains, Servus is much more common, even among strangers.
Unless you are at the summit. Then it's berg heil. :-)

I will not use Servus, as my understanding is that is quite familiar.

When I was in Bavaria some years ago with my hiking club, there was a guy in the group who wanted me to teach him some basic greetings, please and thank you, etc. in German. As an atheist he resisted the idea of saying " Grüß Gott" but managed to say "Great Scott!" In such a way as to be passably close (he dropped the t entirely and slurred the Gr(ew) over to Scott.

Interesting thread. Grüß Gott was we said Schwaben when I was a student in a small village south of Stuttgart. I remember being told at the same time that the Austrians used it as well. The funny part is that Grüß Gott still rolls off my tongue more easily than Guten Tag, Morgan or Abend.

Pam

Pam ---- was that "small village south of Stuttgart" by any chance Beutelsbach?