62
votes
Low German, Upper German, Bavarian ... Where are these dialects spoken?
When you talk about geographic borders of dialects, you talk about isoglosses.
What is an isogloss?
An isogloss is a geographic boundary between two linguistic features. One famous example of such an ...
- 126k
35
votes
"es" ("it") for a woman
Below is a map from the Atlas der deutschen Alltagssprache1 that shows how article forms for females are distributed. As you can see, neutral article forms (yellow and pink dots) are common in western ...
- 22.9k
29
votes
Accepted
Reading a Swiss newspaper as a German learner
Yes, you will. Not only in the Swiss dialects, but also in written Swiss standard German (as used in the press), word and expression usage can differ so significantly that even a native German speaker ...
- 2,075
28
votes
Accepted
'spazieren' - walking in a silly and affected manner?
I think that comment you cite is just wrong in the claim
"spazieren" on the other hand can mean you are walking in a silly and affected manner, and it is usually used in a situation which appears ...
- 17.4k
27
votes
Accepted
Help translating the old German word hewrigenn
Hewrig/heurig (akk: heurigen) means "of the current year" or also "new", "young" (also here). This is still in use in Austria, for example for new wine or new potatoes. ...
- 28.2k
26
votes
Accepted
At what age do the speakers of Bavarian learn Standard German?
How I learned Standard German in the 1970's
I was born in 1965 in Graz, the capital city of Styria (Steiermark, one of the nine states of the federal republic of Austria) (Wikipedia-Artikl iwa'd ...
- 126k
25
votes
Accepted
"es" ("it") for a woman
I am from a region where it is normal to refer to a woman with the pronoun "es" (Region of Kaiserslautern). After joining university I was asked that question by some people not familiar ...
- 366
22
votes
Accepted
Apart from "berlinern", do any other German dialects have a corresponding verb?
Das gibt es auch bei anderen Dialekten:
Der Schwabe schwäbelt.
Der Sachse sächselt.
- 11.5k
21
votes
Accepted
Dialect of a story from the "Koch-Buch für die Deutschen in Amerika" (1897)
This sounds clearly Swabian - a few indicators are
Metzelsupp (used in Southern German dialects),
S' Kürbsamärtes Hansjörg (common way of naming, i.e. genitive of family name followed by first name ...
- 24.2k
18
votes
Reading a Swiss newspaper as a German learner
You will encounter vocabulary that isn't widely understood in Germany or Austria. But it's the same the other way.
German speakers have to live with that. The worst thing which could happen is that ...
- 64.6k
18
votes
Accepted
Austrian: What is the phrase that sounds like "Da die so" and "da ma' so" in the context "it's completed/ we're all done"?
What you hear as "Da die so" is in fact
Tat i so = Täte ich so
Or with some more words:
Des tat i a so = Das täte ich auch so
It means:
This is how I would do it.
What you hear as &...
- 126k
16
votes
Accepted
What could the old German (or maybe Bayrish?) word gestu:ep mean?
According to the DWDS I tend to powdered spice ("gepülvertes gewürz") in the context with the mentioned cookbook. The spelling deviates somewhat with the search term with gestüpp. ...
- 2,547
14
votes
Accepted
In welchem Sprachraum sind die Worte "Möhle", "möhlen" und "möhlig" verbreitet?
Gemäss dem Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache handelt es sich um ein umgangssprachliches mecklenburgisches Wort mit der Bedeutung ‘kramen, wühlen, herumsuchen’, vgl. „mölen“, Wörterbuch der ...
- 7,275
14
votes
Accepted
Gab es einen deutschen "posh accent"?
Ich nehme die Aussprache des Professor Crey ebenso wahr wie der Fragesteller. Kurze Recherche aus eigenem Interesse ergibt, dass das Phänomen auch schon in der Literatur diskutiert wurde.
Zimmermann ...
- 7,758
13
votes
Accepted
In which regions or dialects is the Schmetterling called "Buttervogel"?
Summary
I find evidence for use of the term Bottervögel in East Frisian Low German and less certainly in the Low German of Braunschweig, Buxtehude and Solling in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). ...
- 6,812
13
votes
Accepted
How do they say "ich" in Bavaria(n)?
Atlas der Deutschen Altagssprache is right. The most common form for "ich" is "i" in Bavaria.
Nobody from Bavaria says “isch” for “ich”. The rule
ch is pronounced sch
does not ...
- 3,337
12
votes
Accepted
»Schau ma mal« in Norddeutschland
It's mal sehen, often shortened to masehn.
Wirste heute noch fertich? — Masehn.
Wirst du heute noch fertig? — Mal sehen.
Are you going to finish (your work) today? — Let's see.
Da kannstamasehn, ...
- 64.6k
12
votes
Accepted
Ist "Kiez" Berliner Regionalsprache?
Ich zitiere aus dem deutschen Wikipediaartikel:
Kiez bezeichnet vor allem in Berlin einen überschaubaren Wohnbereich
(beispielsweise einen Stadtteil), oft mit weitgehend vom Krieg
verschonten ...
- 8,555
12
votes
Accepted
Are there places in Germany where Standard German completely replaced local dialects?
Yes, in large parts of Northern Germany (also well south of Hanover), people nowadays can
neither consciously switch between standard German and a local dialect (although they frequently do so ...
- 9,187
12
votes
Reading a Swiss newspaper as a German learner
Reading a Swiss or Austrian newspaper will increase the likelihood of encountering constructions that may be rejected by Germans as not conforming to the standard.
For instance, note the position of ...
- 27.3k
12
votes
〈ü〉 vs 〈ue〉 in German, particularly names
In short: No. Umlauts and their vocal transcriptions arent exactly identical (just have a look at the German word "Quelle" and it's obvious).
Names are always names. And the holder decides ...
- 66.4k
11
votes
Is there some relative to Dutch word "kijken" in German?
The German for kijken is
kucken
sometimes (especially in the South) also written like
gucken
Both is standard German, and you can find both forms registered in Der Duden (most authoritative ...
- 31.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Is the Schwäbisch German dialect used more than regular standard Hochdeutsch in Baden-Württemberg?
This question can't exactly be answered with yes or no.
First of all there's a common misconception between Swabian dialect and Swabian accent*. Swabian dialect is really rare nowadays, especially ...
- 2,353
11
votes
'spazieren' - walking in a silly and affected manner?
In your example with the peacock (Pfau) one would rather use stolzieren - this is the word that has the meaning of "walking in a silly and affected manner" like you asked for.
A word somewhat in ...
- 7,301
11
votes
Relativsatz mit dialektaler/umgs. Wortfolge oder eigenständiger Satz?
I. Allgemeines; Relativsatz oder Hauptsatz?
Es gibt Sachen, die kann man nicht verstehen.
Gärtner (2001) führt für Sätze wie den fettgedruckten die Bezeichnung integrierte Verbzweitsätze (IV2-...
- 7,758
11
votes
At what age do the speakers of Bavarian learn Standard German?
Disclaimer: I'm from the only part of Austria where we don't speak a Bavarian dialect but an Alemannic dialect. It is the same everywhere where strong dialects are spoken, though.
In most areas of ...
- 3,337
11
votes
Accepted
Etwas leinwand finden
Es heißt nicht »leinwand« sondern »leiwand« (ohne n) und ist ein Adjektiv, wird also kleingeschrieben: Eintrag auf Wiktionary. Das Wort kann in Wien (und nur dort) als Synonym für »toll, super, spitze«...
- 126k
10
votes
What colloquialisms can be used to refer to a friend?
The German slang equivalent for "What's up" is "Was geht?". While there is no direct translation for "homeboy", "Alter", "Digger" or even "Bro" come very close in my opinion and are commonly used in ...
- 2,205
10
votes
Accepted
What is göddertrobbe?
Schobbe is Hessian for Schoppen which means pint. Schobbe is also a synonym for the Äppelwoi, the Hessian apple wine.
Göddertrobbe is Hessian dialect and would be called Göttertropfen in standard ...
- 17.4k
9
votes
Is Low German dialect still used in Germany?
The low German dialects, collectively often termed Plattdeutsch, have been declining for quite a few centuries but they never became fully extinct. This had to do with the perception of dialect ...
- 38.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible