Austrian-German

Skippy   Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:33 pm GMT
I may be going to Austria next summer and I was wondering how difficult it would be for me to understand the Austrians if I attempt to speak German with them... I managed to get around Berlin OK, but I'm intimidated by Vienna because of this...

Thanks!
oleole   Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:01 pm GMT
so far i know Austrian German differs from German in Germany due to dialects they have and accent. Austrian accent sounds soft and in some regions it has many words taken from French, so there won't be such a great missunderstanding that you expect.
J.C.   Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:13 pm GMT
Hey Skippy!!
I haven't met many Austrians but I got the impression that the main difference might be that they pronounce (At least people from Vienna) "ei" like "ei" and not like "ai" in hochdeutsch. Also, they pronounce an aspirated"h" in the middle of the sentence. I remember I went with these friends to watch a TUG OF WAR festival in Okinawa and my friends called it "ZEILZIEHEN" pronounced as "tzail tziehen". I also remembered that they used the word "paladinken" for pancake, which I think is hungarian. I can't remember more than this but I didn't have any problem talking to Austrians. That applied also to Swiss people when they're not speaking in Schweitzer deutsch!!

Tschüß!!
Guest   Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:38 pm GMT
Auf Wiederschauen instead of Auf Wiedersehen.
Guest   Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:16 pm GMT
Do Austrians in general know German also?
Guest   Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:03 am GMT
austriac is like bavarian german, very similar, and the germans dont like the astriac accent. lol
Skippy   Mon Jun 16, 2008 3:08 am GMT
I read that Germans find the Swiss accent "cute." Is that true? lol sorry if that offends any Swiss folks out there... I honestly read that somewhere...
J.C.   Mon Jun 16, 2008 3:42 am GMT
I found this video about the differences between hochdeutsch und Austrian German:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=hcAKP3cpRiM&feature=related

「I read that Germans find the Swiss accent "cute."」

I agree that it is "cute", however ich verstehe nix!!!hehe

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=pq9vOQSiHXc&feature=related

Have fun!!
Guest   Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:47 pm GMT
guest   Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:06 pm GMT
<<Auf Wiederschauen instead of Auf Wiedersehen. >>

also "[Auf] Wiederschön"

"Uf[f] (i.e. "Auf") Wiederluege" for Swiss
Guest   Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:48 pm GMT
Grüß Gott!
Guest   Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:26 am GMT
Austrians and German Swiss speak proper German known as Schriftdeutsch.
greg   Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:51 am GMT
Oh la la, c'est une discussion de l'allemand. Brennus, svp supprimir cette abomination.

Est-ce que je peut etre moderateur comme toi? je peux te donner un reference de Langcafe ou je suis un administrateur avec Andre.

merci de ton ami, greg
Brennus *   Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:57 am GMT
F•ck off greg you poncy frog
Shocked   Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:09 pm GMT
Brennus,

That's not very polite for a moderator!