Comments | deutsche_kultur: German Dialects

breakingthrunow in deutsche_kultur

German Dialects

Sep 17, 2007 09:13

GERMAN DIALECTS - Not always Hochdeutsch
Adapted from: "Atlas zur deutschen Sprache" by Werner König - 1994 - dvt, Munich

Students of German who step off a plane in Austria, Germany, or Switzerland can be in for a bit of a shock if they don't know anything about dialects. Although standard German -- Hochdeutsch -- is commonly used, there may come a ( Read more... )

breakingthrunow, regions, dialects, language

Comments 72

6relax September 17 2007, 16:34:13 UTC

crepes is a french form of pfannkuchen, kann mann bei uns ueberall kaufen, hab' ich selbst in paris auch gesehen... apropo, sehr lecker... ))

scottygirliwish September 17 2007, 16:46:20 UTC

I could totally go for some right now. I'm sooooo hungry!!

6relax September 17 2007, 16:58:56 UTC

baby, can i buy u one? ))
there are crepes with nutella or konfitüre and crepes with cheese and schinken... mmmmmmm, lecker... ))

scottygirliwish September 18 2007, 01:32:38 UTC

heck yeah! Ahhh someday when I'm in Germany again. ;)

(The comment has been removed)

breakingthrunow September 17 2007, 22:56:46 UTC

I've heard someone from South Hesse call it that - "Schna-ge", hehe - in my area of Lower Saxony a Schnacke is the big insect with long legs too, some older people also seem to call it "Schuster".

merlinsdaughter September 20 2007, 01:06:53 UTC

I'm from upper Bavaria and we call 'em Schnacke, or im my region it's a Schnak.

A Mugge or Muecke is a Fliege (fly), at least where I'm from

moonlightgryph September 17 2007, 16:49:20 UTC

My time spent in Germany was mostly in Bavaria. When I first arrived, with my one year of high school German, I was totally lost when it came to language. All of the people I stayed with were kind enough to try to speak Hochdeutsch to/around me so I would catch on a bit more. To this day, though, I pronounce a fair amount of my german with a touch of their Bavarian accent/dialect.

breakingthrunow September 17 2007, 22:58:50 UTC

I bet that was weird at first. But then, even Germans from other areas often have trouble with Bavarian, so no wonder. :)

oronoda September 17 2007, 17:09:53 UTC

When I first arrived here in Germany, I had to take a German culture/language class. Our teacher taught us a lot about dialects. Like where I am, the way Ich is said is "Ish" or if I wanted to say I would like, it would sound like this, "Ish moshte..." opposed to "Ich mochte..." Apparantly in Berlin, they say Ich as "Ick" (I dunno since I have yet to go to Berlin).

If I ever teach English in a foreign country, I will teach about the different English dialects. I learned in college the Hochdeutsch and when I came here, I had a hard time understanding through the different dialects. XD

akiko September 17 2007, 18:57:34 UTC

The dialect map is really fascinating. I have one from the class I mention (below a bit) at home. In Berlin, it's 'ik mache', but outside berlin and north a bit, it's 'ik ma-ke.' I studied in Hessen, so ich, Asche, and Becher all have the same sound.

merlinsdaughter September 20 2007, 01:10:05 UTC

It always drove me crazy as a youngun when I heard people say "Stuhl" instead of "Schtuhl". It's written correctly as Stuhl, but I wasn't used to hear the dialect (Hamburg area), calling a Stuhl a Stuhl not a Schtuhl. Does this post make any sense?

akiko September 20 2007, 02:20:22 UTC

It does! A lot of the northeastern German dialects are a lot like English. And it drives me crazy to hear people speaking Dutch, because I feel like I should understand them but I can't.

Thread 7

carbonphoenix September 17 2007, 17:13:32 UTC

I am going to Germany next Spring, and I will be traveling all over. The prospects of other dialects scare the crap out of me!

feanna September 17 2007, 17:34:09 UTC

Everybody in Germany has to speak "Hochdeutsch" in school. (This is in some cases quite different for the children in regions that have strong dialects, in some cases even as if they have classes in a foreign language and there have been calls to change some aspects, but for now everybody has to.)
That way everybody you meat understands and speaks Hochdeutsch although there might be slight pronounciation differences. People will also gladly make an effort to speak more clearly for you.

(There has also very recently been a thread here about how most German people speak English, so you don't need to be scared at all.)

smarriveurr September 17 2007, 18:04:41 UTC

I'll tell you one thing that terrified the other exchange students who flew over with me - they heard announcements in the airport, and on the train, and couldn't understand what the announcements were saying. There were immediate recriminations and fears and "Oh my God, I don't understand German ( ... )