Austrian German

Austrian German(German:Österreichisches Deutsch),Austrian Standard German(ASG),Standard Austrian German(Österreichisches Standarddeutsch),Austrian High German(Österreichisches Hochdeutsch), or simply justAustrian(Österreichisch), is the variety ofStandard Germanwritten and spoken inAustriaandSouth Tyrol. It has the highestsociolinguistic prestigelocally, as it is the variation used in the media and for other formal situations. In less formal situations, Austrians useBavarianandAlemannic dialects, which are traditionally spoken but rarely written in Austria. It has been standardized with the publishing of theÖsterreichisches Wörterbuchin 1951.
Austrian German has its beginning in the mid-18th century, when EmpressMaria Theresaand her sonJoseph IIintroducedcompulsory schoolingin 1774, and several reforms of administration in their multilingualHabsburg Empire. At the time, the written standard wasOberdeutsche Schreibsprache(Upper Germanwritten language), which was highly influenced by theBavarianandAlemannic dialectsof Austria. Another option was to create a new standard based on the Southern German dialects, as proposed by the linguistJohann Siegmund Popowitsch. Instead they decided for pragmatic reasons to adopt the already-standardizedchancellerylanguage ofSaxony(Sächsische KanzleispracheorMeißner Kanzleideutsch), which was based on the administrative language of the non-Austrian area ofMeißenandDresden.
Austria High German (Hochdeutsch in Österreich, not to be confused with the Bavarian Austria German dialects) has the same geographic origin as theSwiss High German(Schweizer Hochdeutsch, not to be confused with the AlemannicSwiss Germandialects).
The process of introducing the new written standard was led byJoseph von Sonnenfels.
Since 1951, the standardized form of Austrian German for official governmental use and in schools has been defined by theÖsterreichisches Wörterbuch("Austrian Dictionary"), published originally at the behest of the AustrianFederal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture(in the 1950s the "Unterrichtsministerium", under minister Felix Hurdes) with Verlag Jugend & Volk, then by the Österreichischer Bundesverlag.
The German language is apolycentric languageand Austrian German is one of itsstandardized forms. The official Austrian dictionary,Österreichisches Wörterbuch,prescribesspelling rules that define the official language.
Austrian delegates participated in the international working group that drafted theGerman spelling reformof 1996 and several conferences leading up to the reform were hosted in Vienna at the invitation of the Austrian federal government. Austria adopted it as a signatory, along with Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, of an international memorandum of understanding (Wiener Absichtserklärung) signed in Vienna in 1996.
Theeszettor "sharp s" (ß) is used in Austria, as in Germany but not in Switzerland.
Distinctions in vocabulary persist, for example, inculinaryterms, for which communication with Germans is frequently difficult, andadministrativeandlegallanguage  because of Austria's exclusion from the development of a Germannation-statein the late 19th century and its manifold particular traditions. A comprehensive collection of Austrian-German legal, administrative and economic terms is offered inMarkhardt, Heidemarie: Wörterbuch der österreichischen Rechts-, Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungsterminologie(Peter Lang, 2006).
Because of German'spluricentricnature, German dialects in Austria should not be confused with the variety of Standard Austrian German spoken by most Austrians, which is distinct from that ofGermanyorSwitzerland. In the field of German dialectology, the notion of Standard Austrian German has been both debated and defended by German linguists since the 1970s. AOne Standard German Axiom, effectively preventing the development of newer standards of German, has recently been offered as a characteristic of the field but has not been taken up.
Until 1918, the spoken standard in Austria was theSchönbrunner Deutsch, a sociolect spoken by the imperialHabsburg familyand the nobility ofAustria-Hungary. The sociolect, a variety of Standard German, is influenced byViennese Germanand other Austro-Bavarian dialects spoken in eastern Austria but is slightlynasalized.
For many years, Austria had a special form of the language for official government documents that is known asÖsterreichische Kanzleisprache, or "Austrian chancellerylanguage". It is a very traditional form of the language, probably derived from medievaldeedsand documents, and has a very complex structure and vocabulary generally reserved for such documents. For most speakers (even native speakers), this form of the language is generally difficult to understand, as it contains many highly specialised terms for diplomatic, internal, official, and military matters. There are no regional variations because the special written form has been used mainly by a government that has now for centuries been based in Vienna.
Österreichische Kanzleispracheis now used less and less because of various administrative reforms that reduced the number of traditional civil servants (Beamte). As a result, Standard Austrian German is replacing it in government and administrative texts.
When Austria became a member of theEuropean Union, 23 food-related terms were listed in itsaccessionagreement as having the same legal status as the equivalent terms used in Germany,for example, the words for "potato", "tomato", and "Brussels sprouts".(Examples in "Vocabulary")
Austrian German is the only variety of apluricentric languagerecognized under international law or EU primary law.
InAustria, as in theGerman-speaking parts of Switzerlandand insouthern Germany, verbs that express a state tend to useseinas theauxiliary verbin theperfect, as well as verbs of movement.Verbswhich fall into this category includesitzen(to sit),liegen(to lie) and, in parts ofStyriaandCarinthia,schlafen(to sleep). Therefore, the perfect of these verbs would beich bin gesessen,ich bin gelegenandich bin geschlafen, respectively.
In Germany, the wordsstehen(to stand) andgestehen(to confess) are identical in the present perfect:habe gestanden. The Austrian variant avoids that potential ambiguity (bin gestandenfromstehen, "to stand"; andhabe gestandenfromgestehen, "to confess":"der Verbrecher ist vor dem Richter gestanden und hat gestanden").
In addition, thepreterite(simple past) is very rarely used in Austria, especially in thespoken language, with the exception of somemodal verbs(ich sollte,ich wollte).
There are many official terms that differ in Austrian German from their usage in most parts ofGermany. Words used in Austria areJänner(January) rather thanJanuar,Feber(seldom, February) along withFebruar,heuer(this year) along withdieses Jahr,Stiege(stairs) along withTreppen,Rauchfang(chimney) instead ofSchornstein, many administrative, legal and political terms, and many food terms, including the following:
There are, however, somefalse friendsbetween the two regional varieties:
In addition to the standard variety, in everyday life most Austrians speak one of a number ofUpper German dialects.
While strong forms of the various dialects are not fullymutually intelligibletonorthern Germans, communication is much easier inBavaria, especially rural areas, where the Bavarian dialect still predominates as the mother tongue. TheCentral Austro-Bavariandialects are more intelligible to speakers ofStandard Germanthan theSouthern Austro-Bavariandialects ofTyrol.
Viennese, the Austro-Bavarian dialect ofVienna, is seen for many in Germany as quintessentially Austrian. The people ofGraz, the capital ofStyria, 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 whichdialectis 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 differentprovinces of Austriacan easily be distinguished from each other by their particular accents (probably more so than Bavarians), those ofCarinthia, 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 (and, in the southeastern portions of the state, many still are even today) withSlovene, and the dialect of Vienna, which has been influenced by immigration during theAustro-Hungarianperiod, particularly from what is today theCzech Republic. The German dialects ofSouth Tyrolhave been influenced by localRomance languages, particularly noticeable with the manyloanwordsfromItalianandLadin.
The geographic borderlines between the different accents (isoglosses) coincide strongly with the borders of the states and also with the border with Bavaria, with Bavarians having a markedly different rhythm of speech in spite of the linguistic similarities.