Dialects / Dialekte

I didn't realize that I was signing up for a two-for-one deal on language learning when we came to Salzburg. German is German, right? Not so. Within the German language are dialects which aren't just different accents, but complete variations of a language distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

Usually dialects are just a spoken language, the speakers of dialect writing in standard form. A Swiss German newspaper, for example, is virtually indistinguishable from an Austrian newspaper, the writing looking like standard German. But the Swiss German dialect is so strong that Swiss movies and news available in Austria and Germany need to have subtitles so the audience can understand them.

The same is true for the Salzburg dialect, at least for me. The dialect here is strong, and people speak it first and foremost, switching to standard German (which they can do) as a last resort. I suppose I should feel good when a store cashier speaks to me in dialect because it means I must blend right in. But, I think it would be handy if people walked around with little teleprompters on their chests that translated what they said from the Salzburg dialect to standard German. Some examples...

The other day at Hofer a little old lady in front of me handed over a 100 Euro note for her 9 Euro and change bill (A 100 Euro note does not raise eyebrows or ruffle feathers here the way a $100 bill might. In fact, paying for anything with 50 or 100 Euro notes is very common). As the cashier counted out change, she switched into dialect: "Fünfks, zwanks, zwanks..." dropping the end off each number and adding a -ks sound instead of saying fünfzig for fifty and zwanzig for twenty. If you don't know what's happening, but you know your numbers in German, you might think you're going crazy.

One day we were speaking to another mother in the coat area of Nikolas' kindergarten. The conversation was in standard German, and I was following most of what was being said. A teacher was nearby changing her shoes (The kids and the teachers had different shoes for inside and for outside, thus keeping the classrooms so much cleaner). She wasn't eavesdropping, but commented on something the mother had said. Suddenly the two of them switched into dialect, babbling back and forth to one another in a language that, truly, sounded like babble.

At tennis, Herr Reiter usually speaks to the kids in a mixture of standard German and dialect. Just when I think I'm following a set of instructions, he switches into mild dialect, for which I am learning the code in little drips and drabs. Herr Reiter can also switch into tief dialekt (deep dialect) when he wants to. Usually this is when he's talking to his peers as he was yesterday, the pair of instructors discussing an issue in a language that sounded like the Swedish Chef on the Muppets.

As I said, dialects are not usually a written language (one of the factors that makes it a dialect and not an official language), but the political cartoonist for the Salzburger Nachrichten likes to throw dialect into his cartoons every once in a while. This is an old one, from Christmas time, but is great at showing the utter diversion that Salzburg dialect takes from standard German. In the cartoon, the reporter asks the woman what she thinks of the current recession (there's been a recession here for a very long time). Obviously busy shopping, she replies that she has no time for him saying, "I'm sorry, but for the recession, I have no time at this moment." Look at this comparison of dialect (above) to standard (below):

Tuat ma leid, oba für die hob i' im Moment absolut ka Zeit!

Tut mir leid, aber für die habe ich im Moment absolut keine Zeit!

Learning German in Salzburg is ganz anders (entirely something else). Presumably I'll be better off for it at the end!