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Indo-European
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Österreichisches Deutsch
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Austria, South Tyrol
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85 million
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Germanic
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West Germanic
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High German
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(''Österreichisches Deutsch'') is the national standard
Variety of the
German Language spoken in
Austria and
South Tyrol .
As German is a
Pluricentric Language , Austrian German is not a dialect, it is another standard
Variety in addition to the High German spoken in Germany. Much like the relationship between American and British English, Austrian German is simply another standard form of the German language. There is no standardized Austrian
Language but a variety of
High German Dialect s are spoken.
- Standard German , called ''"High German"'' (German: ''Standardsprache'' by philologists, but generally referred to as ''Hochdeutsch'') in Austria.
- Vorarlbergerisch , spoken in Vorarlberg , is an Alemannic dialect similar to Swiss German .
- All other dialects belong to the Austro-Bavarian group, which is a common language throughout much of the country and closely related to "Bayerisch" or Bavarian
Ordinarily, these dialects are considered to belong either to the
Central Austro-Bavarian or
Southern Austro-Bavarian subgroups, with the latter encompassing the languages of the
Tyrol (including
South Tyrol ),
Carinthia , and
Styria and the former including the dialects of
Vienna ,
Upper Austria , and
Lower Austria . As the dialect spoken in Vorarlberg is more closely related to
Swiss German than to other Austrian dialects, most Austrians have difficulty in understanding it.
While strong forms of the various dialects are not normally comprehensible to Northern
Germans , there is virtually no communication barrier to speakers from
Bavaria . The
Central Austro-Bavarian dialects are more intelligible to speakers of Standard German than the
Southern Austro-Bavarian dialects of
Tyrol .
Viennese , the Austro-Bavarian dialect of
Vienna , is most frequently used in
Germany for impersonations of the typical inhabitant of Austria. The people of
Graz , the capital of
Styria , speak yet another dialect which is not very Styrian and more easily understood by people from other parts of Austria than other Styrian dialects, for example from western
Styria .
Simple words in the various dialects are very similar, but pronunciation is distinct for each and, after listening to a few spoken words it may be possible for an Austrian to realise which dialect is being spoken. However, in regard to the dialects of the deeper valleys of the
Tyrol , other Tyroleans are often unable to understand them. Speakers from the different
States of Austria can easily be distinguished from each other by their particular accents (probably more so than Bavarians), those of
Carinthia ,
Styria ,
Vienna ,
Upper Austria , and the
Tyrol being very characteristic. Speakers from those regions, even those speaking
Standard German , can usually be easily identified by their accent, even by an untrained listener.
Several of the dialects have been influenced by contact with non-Germanic linguistic groups, such as the dialect of Carinthia, where in the past many speakers were bilingual with
Slovenian , and the dialect of Vienna, which has been influenced by immigration during the
Austro-Hungarian period, particularly from what is today the
Czech Republic . The dialects of
South Tyrol has been influenced by the
Italian Language , in particular with many
Loan Words .
Interestingly, the geographic borderlines between the different accents (
Isoglosses ) coincide strongly with the borders of the states and also with the border to
Bavaria , with Bavarians having a markedly different rhythm of speech in spite of the similarities in the language as such.
In Austria, as in the German speaking parts of Switzerland and in southern Germany, verbs that express a state tend to use ''sein'' as the
Auxiliary Verb in the
Perfect Tense , as well as verbs of movement. Verbs which fall into this category include ''sitzen'' (to sit), ''liegen'' (to lie) and in parts of Carinthia, ''schlafen'' (to sleep). Therefore the perfect tense of these verbs would be ''ich bin gesessen'', ''ich bin gelegen'' and ''ich bin geschlafen'' respectively. For some verbs which fall into this category, the use of ''sein'' as the auxiliary in the perfect can change to ''haben'' to avoid confusion between two verbs that would otherwise look the same in this tense, as in the case of ''stehen'' (to stand) and ''gestehen'' (to confess). In the perfect these would be ''ich bin gestanden'' and ''ich habe gestanden'' respectively.
There are many Austrian terms which differ from standard German. These include (January) rather than ''Januar'', '''Feber''' (February) rather than ''Februar'', '''heuer''' (this year) rather than ''dieses Jahr'' and a whole series of foods and vegetables such as: '''Erdäpfel''' (potatoes) German ''Kartoffeln'', '''Faschiertes''' (ground beef) German ''Hackfleisch'', '''Fisolen''' (green beans) German ''Gartenbohne'', '''Karfiol''' (cauliflower) German ''Blumenkohl'', '''Karotte''' (carrot) German ''Möhre'', '''Kohlsprossen''' (Brussels sprouts) German ''Rosenkohl'', '''Marillen''' (apricots) German ''Aprikosen'', '''Paradeiser''' (tomatoes) German ''Tomaten'', '''Palatschinke''' (pancakes) German ''Pfannkuchen'' and '''Topfen''' (cottage cheese) German ''Quark''.
With German being a
Pluricentric Language , Austrian dialects should not be confused with the variety of
Standard German spoken by most Austrians, which is distinct from that of
Germany or
Switzerland . Distinctions in vocabulary persist, for example, in
Culinary terms, where communication with Germans is frequently difficult, and
Administrative and
Legal language, which is due to Austria's exclusion from the development of a German
Nation-state in the late 19th century and its manifold particular traditions. A comprehensive collection of Austrian-German legal, administrative and economic terms is offered in: Markhardt, Heidemarie: Wörterbuch der österreichischen Rechts-, Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungsterminologie. Peter Lang, 2006.
When Austria became a member of the
European Union , the Austrian variety of the German language (limited to 23 agricultural terms) was “protected” in the so-called Protocol no. 10 (
1 ) regarding the use of specific Austrian terms of the German language in the framework of the European Union, which forms part of the Austrian EU accession treaty. Austrian German is the only variety of a pluricentric language recognised under international law / EU primary law. All facts concerning “Protocol no. 10” are documented in Markhardt, Heidemarie: ''Das österreichische Deutsch im Rahmen der EU'', Peter Lang, 2005.
- Ammon, Ulrich: ''Die deutsche Sprache in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz: Das Problem der nationalen Varietäten.'' de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1995.
- Ammon, Ulrich / Hans Bickel, Jakob Ebner u. a.: '' Variantenwörterbuch Des Deutschen . Die Standardsprache in Österreich, der Schweiz und Deutschland sowie in Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Ostbelgien und Südtirol.'' Berlin/New York 2004, ISBN 3-11-016574-0.
- Grzega, Joachim : „Deutschländisch und Österreichisches Deutsch: Mehr Unterschiede als nur in Wortschatz und Aussprache.“ In: Joachim Grzega: ''Sprachwissenschaft ohne Fachchinesisch.'' Shaker, Aachen 2001, S. 7-26. ISBN 3-8265-8826-6.
- Grzega, Joachim: “On the Description of National Varieties: Examples from (German and Austrian) German and (English and American) English.” In: Linguistik Online] 7 (2000).
- Grzega, Joachim: “Nonchalance als Merkmal des Österreichischen Deutsch.” In: ''Muttersprache'' 113 (2003): 242-254.
- Muhr, Rudolf / Schrodt, Richard: ''Österreichisches Deutsch und andere nationale Varietäten plurizentrischer Sprachen in Europa.'' Wien, 1997
- Muhr, Rudolf/Schrodt, Richard/Wiesinger, Peter (eds.): ''Österreichisches Deutsch: Linguistische, sozialpsychologische und sprachpolitische Aspekte einer nationalen Variante des Deutschen.'' Wien, 1995.
- Pohl, Heinz Dieter: „Österreichische Identität und österreichisches Deutsch“ aus dem ''„Kärntner Jahrbuch für Politik 1999“''
- Wiesinger, Peter: ''Die deutsche Sprache in Österreich. Eine Einführung'', In: Wiesinger (Hg.): ''Das österreichische Deutsch. Schriften zur deutschen Sprache. Band 12.'' (Wien, Köln, Graz, 1988, Verlag, Böhlau)
