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In Switzerland, they like to test your Swiss-German pronunciation with: Küchekästli
pronounced: Kuechekaschtlie make sure it sounds like you are getting ready to spit. |
It's "Hirsch heißt mein Vater", the goal is to pronouce it correctly (meaning "My dad's name is Hirsch"), and avoid saying "Here sh..s my dad".
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Actually, since you are traveling to Austria - - this is NOT shown on any of the Fodors pages - - you should be aware of...
Grüß Gott (or Gruess Gott) - - I think a vaguely literal translation would be "God's greetings" - - and used at all hours of the day as Hello, especially in a hotel, restuanrant or shop - - fairly specific to Austria and (maybe) less commonly in conversation, or at least as far as I can tell... but ubiquitous, especially among younger people in chat rooms and maybe other communications... <b>Tschussi</b> - - which is (I think) a bit of an all-purpose... "Bye" or "Kiss-kiss" or "Ciao" equivalent. Sometimes said with "Bis bald" (literally "Until soon"... or, in other words "See you soon" - - again, I think). Principally Austria-speak, I believe, but maybe also simply "jungSprache"... |
>Grüß Gott (or Gruess Gott)...fairly specific to Austria
Austria, Bavaria and B-Württemberg >Tschussi Tschüss comes from northern Germany and made it's way south down to Austria. Tschau (Ciao) is also used widely everywhere. Not Austria specific or Jugendsprache. |
I am told by an Austrian friend that "servuss" is a more common greeting than "groess Gut"...sort of the equivalent of "Hi!" Pronounced sehr voos, I think.
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"Grüß Gott" is formal, while "Servus" is informal and "typically" Austrian. You can also use it as a form of saying goodbye in Bavaria.
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Formal or not - - it seems that anyone entering shops is likely to hear it aplenty... and I never ever got any odd looks returning the greeting.
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Rex is "spot on" Those phrases are the most widely heard in Austria. I also hear some of my ife's cousins say " "SUPER" when describing something great! I get a kick out of that! I love the Austrian accent...much 'sweeter' than the harder German accent. Just one man's opinion...do not mean to start any flames here!
JOHN |
>Austrian accent
Same thing as in Germany, there's no typical "Austrian" accent as there's no typical German accent it's all about regional accents. So in Vienna it's different from Tyrol, Styria and so on. But southern is generally not as "hard" as northern. But you should ask some northerners about this ;-) |
LGBooker, I hope you've been taking good notes.
"Zwischen zweiundzwanzig schwankenden Zwetschgenzweigen schweben zweiundzwanzig zwitschernde Schwalben. Zehn Ziegen ziehen zehn Zentner Zement zum Zahnarzt, zum zementieren zerbrochener Zähne" INDEED! I'm sure that will help you find the restroom or get you on the right train. |
Now give us an English translation ;-) ;-)
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Don't know "Zwetschgenzweigen" but..
....between twenty-two varying Zwetschgenzweigen float twenty-two twittering swallows. Ten goats draw ten hundredweights cement to the dentist, to cement broken teeth |
Actually, I believe all this helps a great deal in learning to pronounce the different types of "S"'s correctly. "s" is just like the English "s", but "z" and "ss" are different. And "z" doesn't have an equivalent in the English language, I think.
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O.K i'm trying now :-)
In between twenty-two moving plumtree branches, twenty-two twittering swallows are floating. Ten goats draw 500 kilos of cement to the dentist, to fix (cement) broken teeth. |
Not a haiku, exactly, but it's rather poetic:
Among twenty-two Waving plum branches Hover twenty-two Twittering swallows. |
My favourite German word at the moment is "Drottel" - it's very effective when you shout it at other drivers.
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