German language in Germany and Austria.

Sandro   Wed May 27, 2009 5:06 pm GMT
What is the difference between german language spoken in Germany and spoken in Austria ? and Switzerland ? Is it the same german ? do they have some special feature ?

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blanc   Wed May 27, 2009 5:15 pm GMT
of course it's not the same german.

it is german, but there are some features that differ from country to country.

The vocabulary is different, and the pronunciation, above all, in Switzerland.
Kaeops   Wed May 27, 2009 6:03 pm GMT
Gudrun   Wed May 27, 2009 6:52 pm GMT
Swiss German sounds almost like Dutch.
sp   Wed May 27, 2009 9:32 pm GMT
sounds like it yes, but is much further away from it than even the Standard German in Deutschland.
Commonaswhole   Wed May 27, 2009 9:48 pm GMT
More interesting are the differences between Bavarian German and Austrian German.
nothing new   Thu May 28, 2009 7:23 am GMT
There is Standard Austrian German, Allemanish Austrian German (Vorarlberg),Bavarian Austrian German (rest Austria).
English or French has many varieties too-American English,British English, French of France, Belgian French,Canadian French.
Portuguese is European,Brazilian,Caboverdean and so on.
Common sense   Thu May 28, 2009 7:44 am GMT
They are different, duh!

Most languages in the world have dialects and variations.

Does your native language have only one variation that sounds the same everywhere it is spoken?
I bet it doesn't.
Sandro   Thu May 28, 2009 3:51 pm GMT
OK, so what is the difference between german language spoken in Germany and spoken in Austria ?
I want examples because like Servus vs Auf wiedersehen .
Exekutive   Thu May 28, 2009 4:14 pm GMT
German - Austrian German:

Januar - Jänner
Februar - Feber
Geldautomat - Bankomat
Kühlschrank - Eiskasten :-)

Here you can find many more:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Österreichisches_Deutsch#Wichtigste_Beispiele
d   Thu May 28, 2009 4:49 pm GMT
The difference is much greater than between say, South African English and Scots.
fraz   Fri May 29, 2009 11:18 am GMT
Interesting how spoken English has moved increasingly towards standardisation over the last 100 years yet heavy regional dialects - almost to the point of mutual intelligibility - are alive and well in German, which like English is a major language whose native speakers tend to be very well educated.
fraz   Fri May 29, 2009 11:19 am GMT
Sorry, I meant to say unintelligibilty in the previous post.
Kaeops   Fri May 29, 2009 12:02 pm GMT
Interesting how spoken English has moved increasingly towards standardisation over the last 100 years yet heavy regional dialects - almost to the point of mutual intelligibility - are alive and well in German, which like English is a major language whose native speakers tend to be very well educated.

////
1. dialects in England may be disappearing but
2. the heavy accents are as strong as ever

Most foreigners (including many Americans) have trouble understanding people with heavy accents, this includes most low class and middle class accents from Central and Northern England (but Cockney is not easy eather: Whatcha cluck! LOL).

Only 3 % of English people use RP, while
75% of Americans use accents very close to General American

English government should promote standard pronunciation more efficiently, to level down those heavy accents...
Kaeops   Fri May 29, 2009 12:06 pm GMT
I understand better people speaking German with the Viennese accent than people speaking English with Scouse, Geordie, Brummie or Bristol accents (Vicky Pollard is impossible to understand)...

In France, Germany and Spain the standard pronunciation is encouraged, while in UK everyone can speak the way they please, meaning: they like not being understood by people outside their village/suburb.