Austro-Bavarian
Encyclopedia
Bavarian also Austro-Bavarian, is a major group of Upper German
varieties
spoken in the south east of the German language
area.
, who established a tribal duchy, which covered much of what is today Bavaria and some of Austria in the early Middle Ages
and was eventually subdued by Charlemagne
. However, they gradually migrated down the Danube
and into the Alps
to all those areas where Bavarian dialects are spoken. German linguists refer to this speech variety, a group of three East Upper German dialects, as Bairisch "Bavarian". They are divided into Oberpfälzisch (Upper Palatinian, i.e. North[ern] Bavarian), Donaubairisch (Danube or Danubian Bavarian, i.e. Central Bavarian) and Alpenbairisch (Alpine Bavarian, i.e. South[ern] Bavarian).
These areas had been provinces of the Roman Empire
, and the languages of the population were based on Latin, but this language was replaced by the Germanic dialects of the immigrants as the previous inhabitants were assimilated or forced out. This development contrasts with that in the provinces of Gallia and Hispania, where the Germanic languages of the conquerors of those territories were able to exert only a limited influence on the Romance dialects of the local populations.
In German, the very old word "Bairisch", referring to the language, is typically differentiated from the 19th-century term "Bayerisch", which refers to the state of Bavaria. Because of King Ludwig I
's passion for all things Hellenic
, the German name for Bavaria today is spelled "Bayern", using the Greek 'y', it also reflects the growth of Bavaria after the Congress of Vienna
into culturally non-Bavarian areas, e.g. Franconia and Swabia, and the attempts to integrate them into the newly formed kingdom. The language spoken there has retained its original Germanic spelling "Bairisch", using the Roman 'i'.
and lexicon. Examples of Latinate vocabulary include "Semmel" or "Semmi" (bread roll) from the Latin simila "wheat flour" and toponyms like Bregenz
("Brigantia"), Regensburg
("Castra Regina"), Passau
("Castra Batavia"), Wels
("Ovilava"), Linz
("Lentia"), Wien
("Vindobona").
code for the Bavarian language is "bar". It had no ISO 639-2
code of its own, but was classified under the "Germanic
(Other)" collective language code "gem". Genetically, Bavarian is part of the Upper German family along with Alemannic
(which includes Swabian
and Swiss German
), whereas Standard German
is part of the Middle German family, closer to Upper Saxon German
, which – linguistically – is a Thuringian dialect.
groups in Bavarian:
There are clearly noticeable differences within those three subgroups, which in Austria often coincide with the borders of the particular states. For example, each of the accents of Carinthia, Styria and Tyrol can be easily recognised. Also there is a marked difference between Eastern and Western Central Bavarian, roughly coinciding with the border between Austria and Bavaria. In addition, the Viennese dialect ("Schönbrunner Deutsch", with its melodic "singing" and the very bright "a") has some characteristics distinguishing it from all other dialects. In Vienna there are even minor, but recognizable, variations that are characteristic for distinct regions of the city.
However, the various Bavarian dialects are normally mutually intelligible, with the possible exception of some versions of Tyrolean.
, however, can read, write and understand standard German but may have very little opportunity to speak it, especially in rural areas. In those regions Standard German is restricted to use as the language of writing and the media. It is therefore often referred to as "Schriftdeutsch" (written German) rather than the usual term "Hochdeutsch
" (High German or Standard German).
There is no authoritative documented grammar or spelling system for Bavarian. As reading and writing in Bavarian is generally not taught at schools, almost all literate speakers of the language prefer to use Standard German for writing. Regional authors and literature may play a role in education as well but by and large standard German is the lingua franca.
, vocabularies, and a translation of the Bible
in Bavarian, there is no common orthographic standard. There is poetry written in various Bavarian dialects, and many pop songs use the language as well, especially ones belonging to the Austropop
wave of the 1970s and 1980s.
Although Bavarian as a spoken language is in daily use in its region, standard German, often with strong regional influence, is preferred in the mass media
.
On the use of Bavarian and standard German in Austria see Austrian German
.
). The use of the article is considered mandatory when using this linguistic variation. In addition there exists for almost every family (especially in little villages) a nickname different from their family name. It consists largely of their profession, names or profession of deceased inhabitants of their home or the site their home is located. This nickname is called "Hausname" (en: name of the house) and is seldom used to name the person but more to state where they come from, live in or to whom they are related.
Samples:
Upper German
Upper German is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy.-Family tree:Upper German can be generally classified as Alemannic or Austro-Bavarian...
varieties
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
spoken in the south east of the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
area.
History and origin
The Bavarian regiolect has its origins in the Germanic tribe known as the BavariiBavarii
The Bavarii were a Germanic tribe whose name emerged late in Teutonic tribal times. The full name originally was the Germanic *baio-warioz. This name has been handed down as Baiwaren, Baioaren, Bioras, latinised Bavarii, Baioarii. or Bavarii, Bavarians, Bajuwaren, Bajuvarii, Bajuwaren and Baiern....
, who established a tribal duchy, which covered much of what is today Bavaria and some of Austria in the early Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and was eventually subdued by Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
. However, they gradually migrated down the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and into the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
to all those areas where Bavarian dialects are spoken. German linguists refer to this speech variety, a group of three East Upper German dialects, as Bairisch "Bavarian". They are divided into Oberpfälzisch (Upper Palatinian, i.e. North[ern] Bavarian), Donaubairisch (Danube or Danubian Bavarian, i.e. Central Bavarian) and Alpenbairisch (Alpine Bavarian, i.e. South[ern] Bavarian).
These areas had been provinces of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, and the languages of the population were based on Latin, but this language was replaced by the Germanic dialects of the immigrants as the previous inhabitants were assimilated or forced out. This development contrasts with that in the provinces of Gallia and Hispania, where the Germanic languages of the conquerors of those territories were able to exert only a limited influence on the Romance dialects of the local populations.
In German, the very old word "Bairisch", referring to the language, is typically differentiated from the 19th-century term "Bayerisch", which refers to the state of Bavaria. Because of King Ludwig I
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
's passion for all things Hellenic
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, the German name for Bavaria today is spelled "Bayern", using the Greek 'y', it also reflects the growth of Bavaria after the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
into culturally non-Bavarian areas, e.g. Franconia and Swabia, and the attempts to integrate them into the newly formed kingdom. The language spoken there has retained its original Germanic spelling "Bairisch", using the Roman 'i'.
Latin influence
Because of its interaction with the Romance dialects of pre-Germanic inhabitants, some Latin language influence may be seen in Bavarian's morphologyMorphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and lexicon. Examples of Latinate vocabulary include "Semmel" or "Semmi" (bread roll) from the Latin simila "wheat flour" and toponyms like Bregenz
Bregenz
-Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....
("Brigantia"), Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
("Castra Regina"), Passau
Passau
Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....
("Castra Batavia"), Wels
Wels
Wels is the second largest city of the state of Upper Austria, located in the north of Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is not part of its surrounding Wels County , but a so-called Statutarstadt . However, Wels is the county seat of Wels-Land.- Geography :Wels is located in the...
("Ovilava"), Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
("Lentia"), Wien
Wien
Wien is the German language name for Vienna, the city and federal state in Austria.* Wien , in Vienna, Austria* Theater an der Wien, a theater in Vienna located at the former river WienWien may also refer to:...
("Vindobona").
Classification
The ISO 639-3ISO 639-3
ISO 639-3:2007, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages, is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages. It extends the ISO 639-2...
code for the Bavarian language is "bar". It had no ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2:1998, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code, is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for each language in this part of the standard are referred to as...
code of its own, but was classified under the "Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
(Other)" collective language code "gem". Genetically, Bavarian is part of the Upper German family along with Alemannic
Alemannic German
Alemannic is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. It is spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France and Italy...
(which includes Swabian
Swabian German
Swabian is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German. It is spoken in Swabia, a region which covers much of Germany's southwestern state Baden-Württemberg, including its capital Stuttgart, the rural area known as the Swabian Alb, and Bavaria...
and Swiss German
Swiss German
Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...
), whereas Standard German
Standard German
Standard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
is part of the Middle German family, closer to Upper Saxon German
Upper Saxon German
Upper Saxon is a Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German states of Saxony and Thuringia. Contrary to its name it is not a descendant of Old Saxon. The degree of accent varies from place to place within the states, with it being anywhere from a relatively mild accent in the...
, which – linguistically – is a Thuringian dialect.
Regions where Bavarian is spoken
- in BavariaBavariaBavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
:- in Upper Bavaria
- in Lower Bavaria
- in the Upper PalatinateUpper PalatinateThe Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
- in AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
:- in all parts of the country with the exception of the federal-state of VorarlbergVorarlbergVorarlberg is the westernmost federal-state of Austria. Although it is the second smallest in terms of area and population , it borders three countries: Germany , Switzerland and Liechtenstein...
and parts of the Reutte District in TirolTyrol (state)Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...
, where an AlemannicAlemannic GermanAlemannic is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. It is spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France and Italy...
dialect is spoken.
- in all parts of the country with the exception of the federal-state of Vorarlberg
- in SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
:- in the village of SamnaunSamnaunSamnaun is a municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:The valley was first used as a seasonal mountain pasture for the villages of Tschlin and Ramosch. By 1220 the first permanent farm houses are mentioned...
, in GraubündenGraubündenGraubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
.
- in the village of Samnaun
- in ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
:- in all of the province of South TyrolSouth TyrolSouth Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
and by small German speaking communities in Trento, Veneto (Cimbrian languageCimbrian languageCimbrian refers to any of several local Upper German varieties spoken in northeastern Italy. The speakers of the language are known as Zimbern....
) and Friuli.
- in all of the province of South Tyrol
- in HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
:- the city of SopronSopronIn 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...
(Ödenburg) is officially bi-lingual.
- the city of Sopron
Dialects
There are three main dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
groups in Bavarian:
- Northern Bavarian, also spoken in the Upper FranconiaUpper FranconiaUpper Franconia is a Regierungsbezirk of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern .With more than 200 independent breweries which brew...
n district of WunsiedelWunsiedelWunsiedel is the county town of the Upper Franconian district of Wunsiedel in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town became well known for its annual Luisenburg Festival and the Rudolf Hess Memorial March held by the Neo-Nazis here until 2005.- Geography :...
); - Central Bavarian (along the main rivers IsarIsarThe Isar is a river in Tyrol, Austria and Bavaria, Germany. Its source is in the Karwendel range of the Alps in Tyrol; it enters Germany near Mittenwald, and flows through Bad Tölz, Munich, and Landshut before reaching the Danube near Deggendorf. At 295 km in length, it is the fourth largest river...
and DanubeDanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, spoken in MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
(by 20% of the people), Upper BavariaUpper BavariaUpper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...
, Lower BavariaLower BavariaLower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.- Geography :Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions - Landshut and Donau-Wald. Recent election results mark it as the most conservative part of Germany, generally giving huge...
, southern Upper PalatinateUpper PalatinateThe Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
, the SwabiaSwabiaSwabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n district of Aichach-FriedbergAichach-FriedbergAichach-Friedberg is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Augsburg, Donau-Ries, Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, Pfaffenhofen, Dachau, Fürstenfeldbruck and Landsberg, as well as by the city of Augsburg....
, the northern parts of the State of SalzburgSalzburg (state)Salzburg is a state or Land of Austria with an area of 7,156 km2, located adjacent to the German border. It is also known as Salzburgerland, to distinguish it from its capital city, also named Salzburg...
, Upper AustriaUpper AustriaUpper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
, Lower AustriaLower AustriaLower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
, ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(see Viennese GermanViennese GermanViennese German is the city dialect spoken in Vienna, the capital of Austria and is counted among the Bavarian dialects. Even in Lower Austria, the state surrounding the city, many of its expressions are not used, while farther to the west they are often not even understood.- Linguistic...
) and the Northern BurgenlandBurgenlandBurgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
) - Southern Bavarian (in TyrolTyrol (state)Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...
, South TyrolSouth TyrolSouth Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
, CarinthiaCarinthia (state)Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
, StyriaStyria (state)Styria is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area it is the second largest of the nine Austrian federated states, covering 16,401 km². It borders Slovenia as well as the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. ...
, and the southern parts of Salzburg and Burgenland).
There are clearly noticeable differences within those three subgroups, which in Austria often coincide with the borders of the particular states. For example, each of the accents of Carinthia, Styria and Tyrol can be easily recognised. Also there is a marked difference between Eastern and Western Central Bavarian, roughly coinciding with the border between Austria and Bavaria. In addition, the Viennese dialect ("Schönbrunner Deutsch", with its melodic "singing" and the very bright "a") has some characteristics distinguishing it from all other dialects. In Vienna there are even minor, but recognizable, variations that are characteristic for distinct regions of the city.
However, the various Bavarian dialects are normally mutually intelligible, with the possible exception of some versions of Tyrolean.
Use
In contrast to many other varieties of German, Bavarian differs sufficiently from Standard German to make it difficult for native speakers to adopt standard pronunciation. All educated Bavarians and AustriansAustrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
, however, can read, write and understand standard German but may have very little opportunity to speak it, especially in rural areas. In those regions Standard German is restricted to use as the language of writing and the media. It is therefore often referred to as "Schriftdeutsch" (written German) rather than the usual term "Hochdeutsch
Hochdeutsch
Hochdeutsch is a German word which literally translates to "high German".It is commonly used with two meanings:* Linguistically and historically, it refers to the High German languages , or dialects , which developed in the Southern uplands and the Alps, for example, modern central and southern...
" (High German or Standard German).
School
Bavaria and Austria officially use Standard German as the primary medium of education. With the spread of universal education, the exposure of speakers of Bavarian to Standard German has been increasing, and many younger people, especially in the region's cities, and larger towns speak standard German with only a slight accent. This accent usually only exists in families where Bavarian is spoken regularly. If this is not the case, normally Standard German is being taught. In Austria, some parts of grammar and spelling are taught into Standard German lessons.There is no authoritative documented grammar or spelling system for Bavarian. As reading and writing in Bavarian is generally not taught at schools, almost all literate speakers of the language prefer to use Standard German for writing. Regional authors and literature may play a role in education as well but by and large standard German is the lingua franca.
Literature
Although there exist grammarsGrammars
Grammars: A Journal of Mathematical Research on Formal and Natural Languages is an academic journal devoted to the mathematical linguistics of formal and natural languages, published by Springer-Verlag.ISSN 1386-7393...
, vocabularies, and a translation of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in Bavarian, there is no common orthographic standard. There is poetry written in various Bavarian dialects, and many pop songs use the language as well, especially ones belonging to the Austropop
Austropop
Austropop is a musical movement, which started in Austria in the middle of the 1970s. However, Austropop is not much of a specific style, it is more a trademark of origin, because musicians of various styles, such as rock, Neue Deutsche Welle, New Folk and more recently perhaps Pop, are counted as...
wave of the 1970s and 1980s.
Although Bavarian as a spoken language is in daily use in its region, standard German, often with strong regional influence, is preferred in the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
.
On the use of Bavarian and standard German in Austria see Austrian German
Austrian German
Austrian German , or Austrian Standard German, is the national standard variety of the German language spoken in Austria and in the autonomous Province of South Tyrol...
.
Grammar
- Bavarian features case inflection in the article only. Nouns are not inflected for case, very few exceptions given.
- The simple pastPreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
tense is very rare in Bavarian, and has been retained with only a very few verbs, including 'to be' and 'to want'. In general, the perfect is used to express past time. - Moreover, Bavarian features verbal inflection for several moods, such as indicative, subjunctive, and imperativeImperativeImperative can mean:*Imperative mood, a grammatical mood expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions * A morphological item expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions...
. Along with Swiss German and Icelandic, it is one of few Germanic idioms to preserve mood inflection. Cf. the table below for inflection of the Bavarian verb måcha 'make; do':måcha indicative imperative subjunctive inverse subjunctive 1. Sg i måch — i måchad måchadi! 2. Sg (informal) du måchst måch! du måchast måchast! 3. Sg er måcht er måch! er måchad måchad! 1. Pl mia måchan* måchma! mia måchadn måchadma! 2. Pl eß måchts måchts! eß måchats måchats! 3. Pl se måchan(t) — se måchadn — 2. Sg (formal) Si måchan måchan’S! Si måchadn måchadn’S!
Society
Bavarians usually cultivate a large variety of nicknames for those who bear traditional Bavarian or German names like Josef, Theresa or Georg (becoming Sepp'l or more commonly Sepp, Resi and Schorsch respectively). Bavarians often refer to names with the family name coming first (like der Stoiber Ede instead of Edmund StoiberEdmund Stoiber
Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber is a German politician, former minister-president of the state of Bavaria and former chairman of the Christian Social Union...
). The use of the article is considered mandatory when using this linguistic variation. In addition there exists for almost every family (especially in little villages) a nickname different from their family name. It consists largely of their profession, names or profession of deceased inhabitants of their home or the site their home is located. This nickname is called "Hausname" (en: name of the house) and is seldom used to name the person but more to state where they come from, live in or to whom they are related.
Samples:
- Mohler (e.g. "Maler" - painter)
- Bachbauer (farmer who lives near a brook)
- Moosrees (Resi who lives near a brook)
- Schreiner (joiner)
Samples of Bavarian and Austrian
| S' Boarische is a Grubbm vô Dialektn im Sü(i)dn vôm daitschn Språchraum. | |
| Bavarian | S' Boarische is a Grubbm vo Dialekt im Sidn vom daitschn Språchraum. |
| Standard German | Das Bairische ist eine Gruppe von Dialekten im Süden des deutschen Sprachraumes. |
| English | Bavarian is a group of dialects in the south of the German speaking area. |
| Austrian | Serwas/Zers/D'Ehrè/Griaß Di, i bî da Pèda und kumm/kimm vô Minga/Minchn. |
|---|---|
| Bavarian | Serwus/Habèderè/Griaß Di/Grüß Gott, i bin/bî da Pèda und kumm/kimm vo Minga. |
| Standard German | Hallo/Servus/Grüß dich, ich heisse Peter und ich komme aus München. |
| English | Hello, I'm Peter and I come from Munich. |
| Austrian | D'Lisa/'s-Liasl håd se an Hàxn brochn/brocha. |
|---|---|
| Bavarian | As Liasal håd se an Hàxn/Hàx brocha. |
| Standard German | Lisa hat sich das Bein gebrochen. |
| English | Lisa has broken her leg. |
| Austrian | I hå/håb/hã/hò a Göid/Gòid gfundn. |
|---|---|
| Bavarian | I hå/håb a Gèid/Gòid/Göld gfundn/gfuna. |
| Standard German | Ich habe Geld gefunden. |
| English | I have found money. |
External links
- Ethnologue report for Bavarian
- Bavarian - English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - The Rosetta Edition