Austrian for foreigners

This should be a humorous guide for people learning or trying to understand the German spoken in Austria. And there are lots of problems, like Austrians make everything small in their language. And with some words they got so used to the small form, that they don’t even have a normal form for it anymore, like Eutzerl, there is no such thing as a Eutz.

Viennese German vs. German German

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April 07, 2020

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Oida!

May 06, 2014

Today's word is as great as the English “ isn`t it ”. Something that you can easily append to every sentence. However, as we are taking Austrian, so the word must be better, mustn’t it? You can use Oida for everything and this repeatedly! A construct like “ Oida, wos wüst Oida ” is perfectly fine. Originally, Oida would translate to something like old man. However, in no way the person addressed needs to be old (I would even say the opposite is true) or male - remember we Austrians are politically very correct, especially colloquially. So words that imply that they are only male can be applied to females as well. A fine piece of art was produced by the guys from Trackshittaz who made a great song with the mind enriching title “Oida Taunz!” Please have a look at it yourself here: By the way, the Trackshittaz were Austria’s nomination for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song " Woki mit deim Popo " (the title of the Song would translate to “Shake your...

Servus

March 12, 2017

As you know, Austrians are very friendly people. Part of being friendly is to have manners. Having manners includes that you greet. You also know, that Austrians are super-efficient. As such, they have multi-purpose words: You can use the same word in multiple situations. One of these words is Servus. The word comes from the Latin servant of slave. According to Wikipedia "The phrase is an ellipsis of a Latin expression servus humillimus, domine spectabilis , meaning "[your] most humble servant, [my] noble lord." No subservience is implied in its modern use, which has the force of "at your service." Servus is the origin of the word serf ." - But that sounds very complicated. Servus is great, because you can use it to say Hi when you meet somebody. You can use it when you cheers with somebody. You can use it to say Good Bye. Or to put it with the words of the late and great Peter Alexander: Every city has their own parting words; in Paris you ...

Langsam wochs ma zamm

March 25, 2007

No time no blog, I hope you forgive me for being kinda busy. Today we don't have a word but a phrase: " Langsam wochs ma zamm ". This phrase got much bigger use in the song of Wolfgang Ambros with the song with the same title. Wolfgang Ambros is very important as he is the author of the second Austrian national hymn " Schifoan " wochsn is the dialect word for the German wachsen and means growing or fostering. And this is what the whole song is about: Two people that had lots of problems but eventually came along with each other and growing together becoming one. However, it would not be Austria if it did not have a second meaning. In this case the totally opposite: "Glei wochs ma zamm!!" (the two exclamation marks are here on purpose, as you have to put some emphasis on it) and again it has quite some use, when you are physically fighting exactly the same thing happens, it looks like the people grew together. Homework : Did you even do your homework t...