Most students of German tend to stick with Hochdeutsch, Standard High German. That is, they learn and practice the formal, standardized dialect of the language that is taught in schools and universities across Germany.
That is all fine and good – if you wish to study, work, or visit family in Germany, Hochdeutsch will serve you well. However, it’s a different story in Austria, where Austrian German reigns supreme.
But just how stark are the differences between the two? Some may say that Austrian German is nothing more than Hochdeutsch in a funny accent, while others will call it entirely unintelligible to a native German speaker. Those claims can’t all be true… or can they?
Let’s take a close look at the key differences between Austrian German and German to find out!
Austrian German vs German — How different are they?
1. Austrian exists along a spectrum of dialects
The first thing to understand about the differences between Austrian German and German is that, for the longest time, no clear linguistic, social, or political distinction existed between the two.
Germany and Austria as separate nations and countries with their own culture and history is a fairly new idea that emerged in the wake of World War One and the collapse of the Habsburg empire.
Until then, the varieties of German that were spoken in Austria were a loose group of dialects very much related to the equally loose group of dialects spoken all over Germany until standardization in the late 1800s.
Note that the word “dialect” here doesn’t really mean anything less than a “real language”. Rather, it just means that these are all vernacular languages without standardized writing systems or widespread use beyond a localized region.
2. Most of Austrian is very close to Bavarian
It’s not just the snowy landscapes and magical Alpine villages they share!
Because of this dialect spectrum that Austrian is a part of – a spectrum that existed with no effective borderline between Austria and Germany until 1918 – the languages of the extreme south of Germany and the extreme north of Austria are very alike.
This means that out of all German speakers, a Bavarian and an Austrian from Salzburg will have the easiest time understanding each other in their native language (unless, of course, everyone switches to Hochdeutsch).
This also means that many of the following differences between Austrian and German will also apply to Bavarian!
3. Many greetings and everyday words are different in Austrian
The first thing that trips up German language learners on a visit to Austria tends to be the use of synonymous terms for basic phrases that you won’t find in any Hochdeutsch textbooks.
For example, the way Austrians say hello is not Guten Tag, as you have probably studied, but rather GrĂĽĂź Gott (greet God), which is also common throughout some areas of Bavaria.
Many other basic vocab items are totally different in Austrian compared to German, especially those related to food. For example, where a potato in Hochdeutsch is Kartoffel, in Austrian it’s Erdapfel (literally “earth apple”, taken from French pomme de terre).
4. Austrian follows different pronunciation patterns
Another telltale sign that someone is speaking to you in Austrian and not in German is the way they pronounce words. In Austrian, longer vowels are much more common, and stress tends to be placed on different syllables than in the corresponding Standard German words.
Austrian makes only rare use of the soft ch sound prevalent in Hochdeutsch, and the letter g often becomes a k in pronunciation. Umlauts are also a bit more common – for instance in the word for the month January, which is Januar in German and Jänner in Austrian.
Many feel that these differences make Austrian sound more melodic, or song-like. What do you think?
5. Diminutives are much more common
Just like the Swiss and the Bavarians, Austrians also make much more widespread use of diminutive forms than what is considered normal in Hochdeutsch.
Cute-ifying things is just so fun, who could blame them?
However, Austrian diminutives are grammatically different from those of any other German language. Whereas Hochdeutsch uses the endings -chen or -lein for most words, Austrian has different ones like -erl and -l.
6. Austrian is based on different etymologies
Because of the centuries-long influence of the Austro-Hungarian empire (and even some levels of intercultural contact that occurred before), Austrian as opposed to German spoken in Germany features many words that derive from non-Germanic and even some non-Indo-European languages.
By contrast, apart from some Latin-based vocabulary that entered via Romance languages, German is almost purely Germanic.
A widespread example of an Austrian word that came from elsewhere is Bussi (a little kiss, like a smooch), which was brought over from the Hungarian puszi.
7. Differences in verb conjugation
The rules for conjugating verbs follow a slightly different logic in Austrian compared to German. In Hochdeutsch the way it is spoken in Germany, pretty much all verbs take haben (to have) as an auxiliary in some of the past forms.
For example: Ich habe gegessen can be “I ate” or “I have eaten”. Grammatically, it’s a near-perfect equivalent of the latter.
However, in Austrian, some verbs relating to motion (such as “walking” or “lying down”) take sein (to be) instead. This makes for phrases like Ich bin geschlafen for “I slept” instead of Ich habe geschlafen.
This is curiously similar to how it works in some Romance languages like Italian or French and sounds quite odd even to a native German ear.
8. Austrian and German use their prepositions differently
This is a particularly tough nut, especially for people like me who always struggle with the proper use of prepositions, no matter the language!
Austrian uses the same words as German to refer to the relationships in space between different elements of a sentence. So far, so good. Where they go down separate paths is in how they define those words.
For example, in German am is short for an dem (“at the”). However, in Austrian, am can be both an dem as well as auf dem (“on the”)! As you can imagine, this can cause a lot of confusion to the uninitiated.
Furthermore, some prepositions follow different rules in Austrian than in German. Whereas kids in Hamburg learn to read and write an der Schule (“at school”), youngsters in Linz do so in der Schule (“in school”).
9. Punctuation changes, too
Surprisingly, the way Austrians and Germans write differently doesn’t just stop at spelling. They also make use of different kinds of punctuation! For instance, in Austria it is considered correct to add a comma to separate the subject and object of a phrase (the so-called “dative comma”), whereas in German this would be superfluous.
Furthermore, Austrians generally use French-style double chevron quotes – « and » – as quotation marks, not the double comma-style ones that are universal in Germany.
Note, however, that unlike in French and Italian, the double chevrons (or guillemets, going by their French name which is also used in Austria) point towards the word or phrase they cover, not away from it.
So, instead of «French-style quote», you would write »Austrian-style quote«.
In the past, especially in literature, the guillemets used to be widely used throughout Germany as well. However, where they were common, they were actually typeset in the French manner, not “inverted” as they are nowadays seen in Austria!
10. Cultural differences affect Austrian and German
Despite their intimately shared history, Austria and Germany have ended up developing distinct cultures, with fairly large differences in common etiquette and mannerisms.
This affected their languages, too, of course! In most of Austria, politeness and formality are much more of an accepted virtue than in Germany, where people are expected to speak more directly.
There’s an old joke that Germans are incapable of prolonging an apology past the three words for “I am sorry”, Tut mir leid, whereas Austrians are incapable of shortening their apologies to less than three sentences!
Of course, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but there’s a kernel of truth to it.
This adds another layer to navigating the linguistic landscapes of Germany and Austria. Not only will you often feel the need to literally translate certain words and phrases, but some expressions will require entirely different thinking in the first place!
Conclusion
In the end, Austrian and German are both alike and different in the same ways as any other pair of languages: through culture, history, and natural evolution.
Most speakers of one of these languages will not have much trouble understanding the other passively in regular conversation. But if what you seek is a thorough, native-like command of either Austrian or German, you will definitely need a lot of serious practice and study. Start by finding useful resources for learning German here. Happy learning!
Key differences between Austrian German and German – Pin it!
This article is very interesting, I shall enjoy practicing my Austrian when I visit this August thank you for writing it in English!
I was interested that bussi for kiss came from Hungarian. The word “buss” in English is an old word for kiss.
Austrian native speaker here, came across this since a foreign friend of mine, who is learning the language right now sent it to me, and gotta say: Interesting article! However, I spotted 2 small mistakes, that I figured I could point out to avoid confusion when learning:
1. “However, in Austrian, some verbs relating to motion (such as “walking” or “lying down”) take sein (to be) instead. This makes for phrases like Ich bin geschlafen for “I slept” instead of Ich habe geschlafen.”
I have never heard ANYONE here in Austria say “Ich bin geschlafen” except for non-native speakers, as it’s grammatically incorrect. We use “Ich habe geschlafen” as well. But since the author was using “lying down” as an example, they might’ve confused it with the Austrian “Ich bin gelegen” vs the also correct but (at least in Austria) less used “Ich habe gelegen”.
2. “Furthermore, Austrians generally use French-style double chevron quotes – « and » – as quotation marks, not the double comma-style ones that are universal in Germany.”
Also untrue. As Austrians, we learn in school to use the same double comma quotation marks as our German colleagues. And they are also what’s GENERALLY used for quotations. Of course, books, be they scientific literature or works of fiction, may employ the French-style as well. In that case it’s usually used as a stylistic element though and is the exception rather than the rule. We GENERALLY use the double comma.