Yes, this is German or at least a kind of German. It’s Bavarian/Austrian dialect for: “Eine halbe Mass Bier, bitte” or a half-liter of beer, the standard serving measure in a restaurant.
Courses are taught on it, books have been written about it, north Germans make fun of it, but one thing’s for sure: there is a dialect of German called Bairisch-österreichisch that stretches from around mid-Bavaria well into central, southern, and western Austria that was once just considered the way that people from this area spoke.
If the Bible had been translated into Bairisch-österreichish instead of Martin Luther’s dialect, the former might have become the official or standard dialect of German. It has it’s own grammar, pronunciation, and word order.
Although there is correlation between level of education and propensity to speak this dialect, you can still find well-educated people in a café who are slinging Bairisch-österreichisch back and forth. There are levels of dialect. Referred to as Soziolekt, there is a level of dialect spoken with like speakers that conveys a comfortability. Friends will often fall into dialect rather than speak standard German. But typically when meeting people for the first time in a professional or even social situation, people try to maintain a standard language without trying to disguise themselves as northern Germans.
For the most part, when Americans speak German to Austrians, the natives will usually try to keep their language in a standard form so that Americans can follow along. Otherwise, deciphering Bairisch-österreichisch can be a frustrating experience.
“Luckily,” my family from Regensburg all spoke and speak today Bairisch. Regensburg and Salzburg dialects aren’t carbon copies of one another, but they’re close enough to make understanding Salzburgers easier.
Still, there are, just like with American and British English (truck=lorry), differences in terminology. A Kartoffel (potato) is an Erdapfel in Austria. Hausschuhe (slippers) are Pantoffeln. Hefe (yeast) is Germ. Kasse (check-out counter) is Kassa.
There are major differences in pronunciation between standard German and Bairisch-österreichisch. Here’s a list of words and phrases and their differences with standard German on the left and Bairisch-österreichisch on the right:
Stein (stone): schtine vs. schto-ah
gut (good): goot vs. guat
fahren (to travel): fah-ren vs. foo-ahn
Salzburg: Salts-boorg vs. Soyts-buag
Regensburg: Ray-gens-boorg vs. Rayng-schpuag
As the name suggests, the Bairisch-österreichisch dialect crosses borders. Bavaria, the southeastern most German state, and Upper Austria and Salzburg District have, over the centuries, belonged to one another so that the people come from one major language stem.
So the next time you’re speaking to a dialect speaker and you don’t follow what they’re saying, just say, “Eee vah-schtay dee nate!”
Depending on how well you speak dialect, they may say back to you in standard German: Ich verstehe dich nicht!
In both cases, they mean, “I don’t understand you!"
