Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are typically seen as the three German-speaking countries, although Liechtenstein is also entirely German-speaking, and German-speaking communities can be found in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, and even scattered throughout the Americas, largely in Amish or Mennonite communities. But while it’s all classified as “German,” the German these communities use differs often to the point of mutual unintelligibility. Even the three core German-speaking nations—Germany, Austria, and Switzerland—all exhibit substantially different versions of the language, which is what brings us to Austrian German.
Austrian German is the official language of the Central European nation of Austria, nestled in the southeast of Germany, bordering the latter’s influential state of Bavaria. This means it’s used in government, media, and education in Austria, tying all 9 million or so Austrians together. Austrian German is also the official dialect of German used as the majority language in Italy’s autonomous South Tyrol region. While Austrians tend to speak variants of Bavarian or Alemannic dialects at home or in less formal situations, the default vernacular for anything more formal is Austrian German, which enjoys a high level of prestige within the country.
While just about every translation agency offers German translation, it’s less common to find a dedicated team for Austrian German—but that’s exactly what you’ll find here at TranslationServices.com! Get in touch today for a free quote for our Austrian German translation services.
An exploration of the differences between Austrian German and German from Germany
Though technically classified as dialects of the same language, Austrian German and the standardized variant of the language in Germany exhibit an abundance of differences. For starters, the pronunciation can differ substantially, with Austrian German pronunciation more similar to Bavarian. But the words themselves can also be entirely different, with Austrian German employing different terminology for “January” and “February” (German Januar and Februar vs. Austrian Jänner and Feber, respectively) and a new word for “this year” (German dieses Jahr vs. Austrian heuer). A number of other lexical differences can be found particularly in words related to politics and food.
The differences even extend into grammar, with the usage of verbs in Austrian German featuring key differences from the German in Germany. For example, Austrian German applies the limited auxiliary sein (“to be”) to a wider selection of verbs than Germany’s German—in Germany, generally only verbs of movement take sein, while in Austria, this tendency is extended to verbs that express a state.
Whatever your Austrian German translation project is, we can help.
We want to position ourselves as your go-to translation expert for all your Austrian German translation needs—whether you need translation services into or from Austrian German. We achieve this thanks to our passionate and hard-working team of native-speaking Austrian German translators, who perform every translation with the utmost care. Our translators hail from all corners of Austria and South Tyrol and are specialized in a range of areas, allowing them to cater their translation services to businesspeople, academics, creatives, and more.
Our Austrian German translators are here for the CEO who needs flowing translations of their marketing collateral and extra-precise translations of legal agreements to expand the reach of their business, whether that means taking operations outside of Austria or opening a new branch in the Central European nation. We’re here for the academic who wants to publish their ground-breaking new study in an esteemed international journal, and for the scholar who needs translations of their questionnaire to interview locals in Austria. And we’re here for the content creators in Austria and elsewhere who want to spread their loves of labor to wider audiences, whether that means internationalizing or localizing for Austria. For everyone, our Austrian German translators are here.
Send us a message today telling us what you need for your Austrian German translation project. Let’s get started!