German German

I think it's fair to say that differences are somewhat like those between British and American English, maybe even a bit more pronounced. I'm a native German speaker from Germany and sometimes I do come across a word of Austrian German that is new to me. Many of them are food related There are a number of dictionaries and glossaries for Austrian German online, here are a few examples: http://german.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/Austrian.htm http://www.vokabeln.de/v3/vorschau/Oesterreichisch_Alltag.htm
http://www.ostarrichi.org/woerterbuch-0.html

I think it's a cross between an accent and a dialect, but most people speak what is called hoch Deutch if I remember right. When I was a student south of Stuttgart, the locals spoke Swaebisch. When they were talking amongst themselves it was hard to understand, but if they spoke to us directly, we could understand them. Near Munich, they speak Bayrish (spelling???). I think that are other dialects besides these two. But I don't think it matters to the tourist. Pam

An accent uses pretty much the same vocabulary and grammar and changes the pronunciation. A dialect does not only change pronunciation, you might also find different vocabulary and different grammar. A person from Stuttgart who speaks "schwaebisch" speaks the dialect. The same person could also speak "high German", and have a more or less pronounced accent betraying his birth place. Example: when giving the time this person would say in schwaebisch for for 6.15 pm "es ist viertel sieben" - it's a quarter seven. In high German he'd say "es ist viertel nach sechs" - it's a quarter past six. Btw the people in Saxony also use this different way of telling time in their dialect. In that respect, Austrian German is much more than an accent, it's really its own dialect. Some Austrians even argue that it's a different language. imho that's taking it a bit too far ...

As a woman in the Black Forest explained to me, every region in Germany has their own dialect (Schwabisch, Bayerisch, etc). When a child is growing up in his home town, he learns and uses the locale dialect. But when he goes to schools, then everything has to be in standard or "Schriftdeutsch" (written German). Almost every German knows Schriftdeutch, but unless he is speaking to someone who doesn't know the local dialect, he speaks in his dialect. When I first met my relatives in Baden, I could only understand them if they spoke directly to me. Later, as I could understand more German, I still couldn't understand my relatives unless they were speaking to me. Finally I asked my cousin if he was speaking "Hochdeutsch". He said "no, he was speaking their dialect. I said, "do you ever speak Hochdeutsch". He said, "only when you are here". BTW, the term Hochdeutsch (high German) has nothing to do with social class. Northern and Southern German dialect are quite distinct and are referred to as Hochdeutsch and Platdeutsch in reference to the geographical areas where they are spoken (high elevation or flat land). Martin Luther spoke a Hochdeutsch dialect and translated the Bible into it, and the printers picked it up for other books. His dialect became the standard, or written German. I think that all German speakers, recognizing that I don't speak their dialect, speak Schriftdeutsch with me. I have never had a problem understanding people from different geographical areas. I've spend a lot of time in Schwaben and Bayern, and some time in Austria and in Platdeutsch country.

After living in Frankfurt for almost 25 years, I do speak the local dialect as well as hoch Deutsch (have never heard the word schrift deutsch until this morning) and it is written differently as well as spoken differently. I even have a dictionary for it, they put on plays in Franfurterisch and you can even read Asterix and Obelisk in Hessisch. When people from Cologne are speaking Koelsch, I truly haven't a clue what they are saying. Swaebisch the same. Berlin, northern and eastern Germany is easier for me. Then we have lower Bavaria, where it is difficult for me to understand them and I have to ask them to repeat stuff for me. The German from Austria gets even more accented with even more dialect. There are of course many, many words that are common in Austria that may not even be known or commonly used in some parts of Germany. Just to give you an idea, here is a fun website that shows usage of common words in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I picked oranges for the example, which are commonly known as apfelsine in Bavaria, but orangen everyplace else. Hope you enjoy scrolling through the various words, though the website is all in German. For those of you who do read German, it is very interesting to learn about the differences and why. http://www.philhist.uni-augsburg.de/lehrstuehle/germanistik/sprachwissenschaft/ada/runde_2/f07a-b/ I quite liked the various words for pancakes too. http://www.philhist.uni-augsburg.de/lehrstuehle/germanistik/sprachwissenschaft/ada/runde_7/f01a/

Not only does Vienna have its own dialect (Wienerisch), but even within the city old-timers can tell what part of the city other old-timers are from. For example, Ottakring (16th district) is very working class and has its own spin on the dialect. Wienerisch has some different words from High German (Tomate = Paradieser) and its own unique accent. The Second link below is of a guy speaking Wienerisch at the local produce market, with translation into high German... (I confess that I still sometimes have trouble understanding real hard-core Wienerisch being spoken by an echter Wiener!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennese_German http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMu2xyfgf_c

I learned proper German (hoch Deutsch) in high school and college. Everyone understands hoch Deutsch. As Lee said, every region has a particular accent and locals speak the accent they grew up with. I find rural Austrian accents harder, but not impossible, to understand. I find myself first mentally translating it to proper German before "getting" what they're saying.

Hi Elaine, Your question deals with material taught in grad school when one is going after an advanced degree in German: History of the German Language. There is a standard German spoken by the Austrians, Swiss, and Germans, regardless of their regional dialect or accent. That's Hochdeutsch, which is what they will use on you if you address them in German. Then among themselves they will speak their own dialect, some of which have been mentioned above, such swäbisch, kölnisch, bayrisch, sächisch, hessisch and all the variations of Plattdeutsch. Plattdeutsch in Mecklenburg and Pomerania or Ostfriesland is going to different from that in the Niederrheingebiet (lower Rhine area), and presumably neither will understand kölnisch (spoken in Cologne). Definitely, there are distinct differences between the Austrian and German German, as pointed out above with the "Tomaten" example. The last two trips (this summer and last) I spent 80% of my total time, 3 months, in Germany and Austria, (just in Vienna), had planned for some days in southeastern Austria...but didn't get to that.... and you see marked differences on the use of words, if you pay attention to this sort of thing. For example, in the Ger. HBf. you see Reisebebedarf used for the grocery market, in Vienna it's called Reiseproviant. Numerous other vocabulary or grammatical examples you can see in the signs on differences. I always remember my first time in Vienna in 1971 when asking for the airmail sticker for postcards back here which in Austria had "Mit Flugpost" in contrast to the West German "Mit Luftpost." One more example not only on word differences but on words that don't even exist in Germany, which you see on Austrian menus, especially if you like their coffee....in Vienna they offer under coffee "melange". That coffee drink doesn't exist in Germany.

The first time I heard Schweizerdeutsch (before I knew much German), I thought I was listening to a Nordic language. My German has since improved immensely, but I can still barely understand the Swiss dialects. I'm also nearly fluent in Dutch, and there is a large difference between the dialects spoken in the Netherlands and Belgium. The standardized versions of each dialect are very mutually intelligible, but some of the regional variations are hard enough for native speakers to understand, much less people like me who speak it as a second language. I can barely understand Antwerpse, and West Vlamse (the dialect spoken in Brugge) may as well be Swahili to me.

Ha, Tom, don't you find though, that the Dutch can speak multiple languages and don't seem to let much linguistically speaking, at least, faze them. ; ) Pam

Well, here's the thing about that- if you watch Flemish TV, they will often use subtitles if someone is speaking in a particularly heavy regional dialect. On Dutch TV too, any Flemish speakers are usually subtitled, even though it's the same language.

I have to admit, I watched a really great Austrian movie a few weeks back and turned on the (high) German subtitles to be able to better follow the plot. Here is a link to the trailer on youtube. The first comment fits our discussion quite well ;-) Silentium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rieJem0OoiE