Anybody know where I can buy language instruction CDs or download MP3s to learn Austrian German? Already I've been confused by terms such as "Janner" instead of "Januar" when looking up opera and concert schedules.

http://www.mygermanclass.com/

It's Jänner or Jaenner.
As is Germany, when it comes to regional dialects there is no Austrian German, there are only several dialects, from Tyrolean in the west, to Styrian in the east.
The Austrians speak Bavarian and Swabian dialects.

http://culturitalia.uibk.ac.at/hispa...n/image001.jpg

When you travel from Munich to Vienna, there's a gradual shift in pronunciation from town to town. It's easy to notice the huge dfferences between say a speaker from Landshut (lower Bavarian), Tölz (upper Bavarian) and Kufstein (Tyrolean).

It's still easy to differentiate between the upper Bavarian spoken east of Munich and the one south of Munich.

However, there are a few "special" words in Austria that have developed over the centuries of being a nation (of many different nationalities. You can learn those. That would give a lasting impression to your hosts

Id start with food items

Karfiol
Paradeiser
Marillen

What are these in high German?

http://www.mygermanclass.com/
Thanks for that link, thats really funny!
He will teach you "pdgin German" not real German ;-).

Austrian isn't always easy to understand but they are always great for a laugh.

OK, Logos, I'll answer your quiz.

Obers = Schlagrahm = whipped cream (not on your list but a very good word to know)

Marillen = Aprikosen = apricots

Karifol = Blumenkohl = cauliflower

Paradeiser = Tomate = Tomato

All with the help of http://rahm.ostarrichi.org/woerterli...ch=P&insert=no

Whoever suggested to you that it was a good idea to learn "Austrian German" probably was not your biggest fan. And whoever encourages you to go along with a silly idea like that probably just enjoys taking the mickey out of you.

If you want to be able to communicate with locals, learn ordinary German. Everyone understands it - and the Austrians speak it themselves. And more importantly they write in ordinary German, too. If you would ask an Austrian what language he or she speaks the probaility of him/her answering "Austrian" amounts to naught.

There will be local differences as to how they prononunce certain things, just as you will encounter local pronounciation differences in about any other country (including the US). They also have a few words that are not common in other areas of the German language area, but logos' 3 examples account for approx. 75% of them already, so you are almost there. And even having some different terms for the same thing isn't uncommon for different regions of Germany and the adjacent countries which speak the same language.

hsv, Learning basic German is essential for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. However, the Austrians use a lot of Austrian German on their menu cards, etc., so it's nice to know some of the differences between basic and Austrian German.

Thanks, schuler. Exactly my point - learning German is all it takes. If one doesn't understand a particular word, one can often grasp its meaning from the context. If not (like on a menu - and even on menues there arguably aren't that many peculiarities), one can ask.

And even the locals will do their best and try to speak their finest high German. . (If you're lucky)

hsv, nobody suggested it, but how would you know whether an idea is "silly" without knowing the circumstances? I don't foresee any opportunities to visit Germany any time in the near future but will be going to Vienna at least once, probably twice, within the next few months. That's certainly not enough time to learn/relearn enough of anything to converse with anyone, which is not my goal anyway (I'm sure I'll be understood in English). I just want to know enough to navigate through websites (the English translations are usually outdated and much less detailed than the German pages), read programs and menus, and use a few simple phrases during the trip. Why not learn to pronounce those phases the way I'll hear them during the trip(s)? Would it also be "silly" for a non-English speaker planning a trip to the US to choose a CD with American-English pronunciation, or for one visiting London to want to know the difference between a boot and a trunk?

On the set of German CDs I have, several different speakers pronounce the -ch ending very differently, but they don't specify who's from where. Two of them say "ich" with a -kh sound while another says it with with an -sh sound. It's details like this that I'm curious about.

Logos and schuler, thanks for the list of food terms-- that's fascinating.

Oh, and a former classmate's Austrian mother insisted that she spoke "Austrian".

>It's details like this
The pronunciation in the different Länder of Austria is almost as different as it is in Germany. Most of the Austrian speak Bavarian dialects among themselves. That's why there is no thing as "Austrian German", except for those special words that came into the language over the centuries.

In a way, Bavaria will always be part of Austria. ;-) (and vice versa).

<<in the different Länder of Austria>>

I'm only going to Vienna.

My understanding is that the "ich" would be pronounced somewhat differently depending on whether the speaker was from the north or the south.

I do speak German, though imperfectly, but I have not noticed huge differences between the areas of Germany in which I have lived or visited and Austria. I saw more differences in Switzerland.

My friend and I saw a sign outsite a restaurant: "D'Krone isch zue." Both German speakers, we were at first puzzled about the meaning. Then we realized that it meant that the restaurant, Die Krone, was closed.

On a drink bottle, we saw "eifach guet" instead of "einfach gut," as we eould have expected. Verrrrrry interrresting! To us, anyway.

I once heard a German woman speak dialect. I could occasionally catch the word "nicht," though she pronounced it "ni," but that was the only word I understood. The woman's daughter reminded her not to speak dialect, but after a short time, she reverted back to it. It was utterly incomprehensible.

Vienna has a very own dialect, still Bavarian (east-middle Bavarian), but VERY different from anywhere else in Austria. They even say "Guten Tag".

Maybe just look for an "Wolfgang Ambros" CD on the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lfCMQHau4w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xWI9zyivkE

Zwickts me, I glaub I dram.
Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming.

Pegontheroad, maybe <i>that's</i> what the Monty Python knight was trying to say?

<<They even say "Guten Tag">>

That's a relief-- easier to pronounce, and I wasn't looking forward to greeting Gott all morning.

hvs is probably a linguist. They bristle when people talk about Canadian French or Austrian German or Mexican Spanish, for example, because these are not bona fide languages. There is only one French, German, and Spanish - with many, many variations, for sure - but to a linguist "learning Austrian German" makes no sense. That's just my guess.