Austrian for foreigners

As it is Christmas, todays entry will be a little bit christmassy: We are talking about Rumkugeln it seams some people like my pictures, I did a Google image search for rumkugeln, and look at these two pictures, it came up with on the first page:



and:



and on the second page, the search engine came up with:





OK, I admit, these pictures don't seam to have something in common (a sweet, a cat and a drunk) but by the end of the day we are talking about Austrian, don't we? :)


So, lets start with the Wortstamm again: Rum is rum and the best in the world is still made by the Angostura distillery located on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. And a Kugel is a ball or a sphere. So far, so clear, everybody expected that we have some Christmas-Cookies for this time.

But now to the cat: what does it do? It is rolling around on the ground and happy, that life is so nice. And there is the point: rum is not only rum, no it is as well the short form of herum or in English around. Furthermore, Kugeln i…

I am getting comments and/or that Austrian is a sexist language, as most of the explained words here make women bad, please let me assure you, that this is not the case. This whole blog just got created to make a log which funny Austrian words we encounter while my wife is learning German. And really: It is not making women bad, is it?

OK, today's word will be Schachtel, which is a box. And Schachtel is used for... a woman. Often used in conjunction as alte Schachtel which makes a not too smart elderly woman, and often complaining uselessly about something.

As people might now think about the use of this Blog again here we have yet another Homework: Next time you are at the cashier in the super market you don't have much time as your lunch break is soon over and there is this elderly lady in front of you that needs about forever to put her few things on the conveyor belt and is totally baffled that she has to pay and does this with all the small coins she has in her purse, has…

Today we are (again) talking about something to eat. I hope that you guys out there reading my blog are not getting upset or think that all we ever do is eat.

We are talking about Blunzn today. The proper German would be something like Blutwurst or in English blood sausage. For easier understanding two pictures:







As you see it is something quite red and fatty.

The Austrian word for fatty is fett and it is pronounced the same way as the English fat. And the word we explain first is: Blunzn-fett this is an adjective and used for people who are quite drunk. Just a little bit more than having a Damenspitzerl we will explain that too, just wait and keep on checking and coming back.

The other use is: Blunzn or blede Blunzn and very often used for women in a not to charming way. If you look at the pictures a little longer and try to match them faces you will see that the face of a person can get that way, if the person is quite upset. And women always upset about everything tend to get this f…

OK, first of all, a picture of a Semmel:

As you can see a Semmel is a bread roll. But look a little bit longer at the picture, does it not look like the hair color of a blonde? As this is exactly how it is used in Austria as well, as a not too smart woman with blond hair.

A famous use is in the song of Rainhard Fendrich called Blond.

OK, everybody knows that Bier is beer. But there is something deeper about that. What exactly? This comes only out when used in a context. If you say in Austria for example: Des is sei' Bier you could mean that somebody just came to your table and you want to advise him that the beer located there is somebody's own. However, you can use it for a matter of fact as well, then you want to express that this is somebody's business and you don't want to interfere with it.

This is slippers even though the Germans translate it with Pantoffeln or Hausschuhe. So there the problems would start if you use that in Germany. But it gets better -- or at least more confusing: If somebody talks a lot you may advise him to hold his/her slipper, in Austrian this would be: "Hoid in Schlapfm" and this would be translated back to English into: Shut up.

This is a person, but a no-good. Even though hader comes from hadern and means something like "to quarrel with" and a lump is a rag or tatter

This is a deer. But again it could be used for a person that can be described as not the brightest star in the universe.

Remember the line: So a Hirsch!

Okay, lots of Germans, if not all don’t know what that is and there are few to none unable to pronounce it properly. So let’s start with the interesting Wortstamm: G’frast comes from fressen; in German there are two words for eating: essen and fressen; essen is used for humans, fressen for animals, or, humans, if they eat like animals. And G’frast is the noun the person eating too much. Sackerl is the small form of Sack, yes again, a small form not the first one and for sure not the last one. J So, now we have a word that is a person that is eating like a pig connected with a small bag. Not the nicest thing to call somebody, isn’t it? But it is so old and often used that it is not bad anymore, if you call somebody that the person will take it funny.

Both of this can be cars. Let’s start again with the Wortstamm: A Fadl is a piglet. A Kistn is a box. A Fadlkistn is a box used to transport small pigs from one place to the other A Sau is a Pig. A Kübel is a bucket. A Saukübel is a bucket used to throw old stuff in that should be given the pigs to eat the next time they get fed. And still both can be cars. A Fadlkistn is a not too new car where everything is buffering and rattling, just imagine a quickly hammered together wooden box full with lively little pigs, if the car makes the same kind of noises you can definitely talk about a Fadlkistn.

A picture of a Saukübel from the good ol' times:

This is a waffle filled with chocolate, but, it can be used for pretty girls as well, then mostly in the connection “A fesche Schnittn” – but please take care if using! The person talked about could not take it as the compliment it is intended as.

This is originally a pumpkin. But it could be used for the head, especially if oversized or a stupid person. The Wortstamm of this word is unknown to me, if somebody knows, please tell me.