Austrian German is the standardized variety of German written and spoken in Austria and in South Tyrol, distinguished from other national standards of German chiefly at the levels of vocabulary, some grammar and pronunciation rather than by a separate grammar of its own. It coexists with the everyday Bavarian and Alemannic dialects that remain the vernacular of informal speech across most of the country, with the standard variety reserved for media, education, administration and other formal contexts. Its vocabulary includes items unfamiliar to speakers of German German, such as Janner for January and Erdapfel for potato, and its grammar favors sein over haben as the perfect auxiliary for verbs describing a state, as in ich bin gesessen, I have been sitting.
Facts
RegionAustria and South Tyrol in northern Italy 1 Speaker Communityused by Austrians in formal registers such as media, education and government, while Bavarian and Alemannic dialects remain the everyday spoken vernacular in informal settings 1 Distinguishing Featuresdistinctive vocabulary such as Janner for January and Erdapfel for potato where Standard German uses Kartoffel; use of sein rather than haben as the perfect-tense auxiliary for verbs of state or position, as in ich bin gesessen; regional pronunciation shaped by the underlying Bavarian and Alemannic dialects 1 Classification
Variety Kind Connections
Descends From
Source Wikipedia: Austrian German
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Austrian German
Wikimedia FoundationOpening section
Austrian German is the variety of Standard German written and spoken in Austria and South Tyrol.
Variety kind, Austrian German entity page
Austrian German is the standardized variety of German written and spoken in Austria and in South Tyrol, distinguished from other national standards of German chiefly at the levels of vocabulary, some grammar and pronunciation rather than by a separate grammar of its own.
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