Austro-Bavarian

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Austro-Bavarian
Boarisch
Spoken in: Bavaria (Germany), Austria, Bolzano-Bozen (Italy)
Total speakers: 12 million
Language family: Indo-European
 Germanic
  West Germanic
   High German
    Upper German
     Austro-Bavarian
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: bar 
Location map of Austro-Bavarian
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Austro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. Like standard German, Austro-Bavarian is a High German language, but they are not the same language. However, Austro-Bavarian and Standard German have influenced each other and the vast majority of Austro-Bavarian speakers speak Standard German as well.

Austro-Bavarian is also used to refer to the dialect group which includes the Austro-Bavarian dialect discussed here, as well as the Cimbrian, Hutterite German, and Mócheno dialects of German.

Contents

[edit] History and origin

The Austro-Bavarian language has its origins in the Germanic tribe known as the Bavarii, 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 Austro-Bavarian dialects are spoken.

In German, there is usually a difference made between "bairisch" (referring to the language) and "bayerisch" (referring to the state of Bavaria and used in the name of BMW). Because of King Ludwig I's passion for everything Hellenic, the German name for Bavaria today is spelled "Bayern", while the language spoken there has retained its original spelling "Bairisch"—note the I versus the "Hellenic" Y.

[edit] Classification

The SIL code for Bavarian language is BAR. It has no ISO 639 code of its own, but is 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 Saxon.

[edit] Regions where Austro-Bavarian is spoken

[edit] Subgroups

There are three main dialect groups in Austro-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 Austro-Bavarian, roughly coinciding with the border between Austria and Bavaria. In addition, the Viennese dialect has some characteristics distinguishing it from all other dialects.

However, the various Austro-Bavarian dialects are normally mutually intelligible, with the possible exception of some versions of Tyrolean.

[edit] Use

All Bavarians and Austrians can read, write and understand Standard German but, as a phenomenon, many people, especially in rural areas, have little opportunity to speak it at all. In those regions, Standard German is the "written language" (often even referred to as "Schriftdeutsch" (written German) instead of "Hochdeutsch" (Standard German)) while Bavarian is the commonly (and in very many cases only) spoken language. Note that students have to write Standard German at school. Since many students come from other parts of Germany and therefore speak other dialects, most younger people in Munich and Vienna speak Standard German with, if at all, only a slight Bavarian accent.

Although there exist grammars, vocabularies, and a translation of the Bible, there is no common standard for how to write the language. There is poetry written in various Austro-Bavarian dialects, and many pop songs use the language as well, especially ones belonging to the Austropop wave of the 1970s and 1980s.

Although Austro-Bavarian as a spoken language is in daily use in its region, Standard German is preferred in the mass media. However, especially in Austria, the variety of Standard German used in the media and in education is strongly influenced by Austro-Bavarian.

On the use of Austro-Bavarian and Standard German in Austria see Austrian German.

There exist only very few forms of the simple past in Austro-Bavarian (e.g. i war = I was; i wuit = I wanted), most of the verbs are used only in the perfect when a past tense is required.

Bavarians usually cultivate a large variety of nicknames for those who bear traditional Bavarian or German names like Joseph, Theresa or Edmund (becoming Sepp'l or more common Sepp, Resi and Ede respectively). Note that Bavarians often refer to names with the family name coming first (like Stoiber Ede instead of Edmund Stoiber).

It is sometimes difficult for a foreigner, including non-Bavarian Germans, to distinguish between an Austrian and a Bavarian by language.

[edit] Written Bavarian and Austrian

Austrian S' Boarische is a Grubbm vô Dialektn im Sü(i)dn vôm daitschn Språchraum.
Bavarian S' Boarische is a Grubbm vo Dialekte im Sidn vom daitschn Språchraum.
German Das Bairische ist eine Gruppe von Dialekten im Süden des deutschen Sprachraumes.
English Bavarian is a group of dialects spoken in the south of the German speaking area.
Austrian Serwas/Griaß Di, i bî da Pèda und kumm/kimm vô Minga.
Bavarian Serwus/Habèderè/Griaß Di, i bin/bî da Pèda und kumm/kimm vo Minga.
German Hallo, ich bin Peter und ich komme aus München.
English Hi, I'm Peter and I'm from Munich.
Austrian D'Lisa/'s-Liasl håd se an Hàxn brochn/brocha.
Bavarian As Liasal håd se an Hàxn/Hàx brocha.
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.
German Ich habe Geld gefunden.
English I have found money.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Austro-Bavarian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia