Austrian for foreigners

Today's might be a little bit hard to understand. But we have to move forward to advanced lessons. Salzburg, Hochsommer, Mittagshitze ca. 38 ° C: Steht ein Mann in Badehose mitten an der Salzach, füllt einen Maßkrug mit wasser und will gerade zu trinken anfangen, als vom Ufer ein Salzburger zu ihm hinüberbrüllt: "He, Du, wos mochst'n Du do? Bist deppert? Du konnst doch net des dreckerte soizochwossa saufn. Do wirst doch kronk und griagst an sackrischen Duachfoi und schbeim muaßt a sicher drauf! Hund und Kotzn scheiß'n eini; do is ois mit Bakterien und Vir'n versaicht. Wenn's bled hergeht, muaßt sogoa gonz elendiglich dro voreggn." Der Mann an der Salzach schaute ihn an und fragte: "Wat ham se jesacht? Sprechen Sie kein Deutsch, Mann?" Darauf plärrt der Salzburger im perfekten Schriftdeutsch noch lauter: "Gaaanz langsam trinken, das Wasser ist seeehr kalt"

This time we really have a word again. And it is a great one, I still have to think of the impression on my wife's face as she heard it the first time. She was totally flabbergasted! The situation was the following: The dog was barking constantly and all my mother said was: "Der kau owa die Papn ah net hoidn!" And my wife said with this great impression on her face: "It should keep whaaat??" The word and where it came from, I have honestly not the slightest clue. It is used mostly used depreciative in "Hoit die Papen!" or, as our friends from the US would say: "Shut the f*ck up!" The long form of Papn it is Papalatur. As I don't know the roots of the word, I also have no idea what was first, but I can take an educated (you know, I am learned Austrian) guess: First Papen was used and then it was latinized to sound more educated. Just like pig-Latin is. Homework: Earlier today I told you to get up and enjoy nature. Maybe you should try to

Today, I (again) don't have a word. And I know what I am posting is not something that is just in Austria. Here it is called Löwenzahn and in English it is called dandelions. But I think this picture is so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you. Spring is just too great! Homework: Get up from that computer and get outside. Get some fresh air! Life is just too nice to be spent in front of that thing. Get outside and see how nice nature is.

Whenever you come to Salzburg, Austria, you should go to Hellbrunn . This is a castle just outside Salzburg and called "Lustschloß zu Salzburg". There are real funny, baroque water trick games and all is so nice kept. This is a perfect relaxing afternoon (when it is sunny).

I am going through my image library. And OK, this is not a word, but the beauty of Salzburg is just breathtaking!

No time no blog, I hope you forgive me for being kinda busy. Today we don't have a word but a phrase: " Langsam wochs ma zamm ". This phrase got much bigger use in the song of Wolfgang Ambros with the song with the same title. Wolfgang Ambros is very important as he is the author of the second Austrian national hymn " Schifoan " wochsn is the dialect word for the German wachsen and means growing or fostering. And this is what the whole song is about: Two people that had lots of problems but eventually came along with each other and growing together becoming one. However, it would not be Austria if it did not have a second meaning. In this case the totally opposite: "Glei wochs ma zamm!!" (the two exclamation marks are here on purpose, as you have to put some emphasis on it) and again it has quite some use, when you are physically fighting exactly the same thing happens, it looks like the people grew together. Homework : Did you even do your homework t

Today's word is not a word again. Today I just show you another breathtaking view over Salzburg (unfortunately I can't make this picture bigger in a way that it still looks good, so please feel free to click on it and use the magnifier in the picasa web-album. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused, if you send me an e-mail you get your money back. Hey! You didn't even pay something! :)

Today's word is a very important one. According to Langenscheidts Großes Schulwörterbuch it can be the corner of a sheet, the point of a bonnet, the end of a sausage; furthermore it can be meant geological than it is a promontory or a tongue and (of course sexually) it can be translated as penis. That's not all, there is still the verb zipfeln which is translated as be uneven. And this all is just from the good old Langenscheidts. I mean, I don't even have to write more about that. As I have been very lazy this lesson, I have to give you a very hard homework: Think of an English word with that many meanings! If you want to you can use the posing feature, if not it is OK too.

Today I don't have a word for your guys to learn. Today I just want to post a picture to show you how beautiful Austria is. The picture is the Dome of Salzburg and the lights are directed to the Hohensalzburg. Somehow it shows me how the people see god. No lesson, no homework, just enjoy If you are interested to see more pictures, that I have taken, have a look at iStockPhoto .

The winter season 2006/2007 will not go into history of being the one with lots of snow early. It is already January and there is still not a lot of snow. In downtown Salzburg there is nothing at all. My wife is questioning me already if there is any snow at all. So today's word is scheibaln oder schneiberln . How exactly pronounced depends on where you are from. But let's get to the explanation again: The German noun Schnee is snow. The verb schneien is to snow. And there is the soft spot of the Austrians to make things smaller, cuter, even verbs: and then schneien becomes schneiberln . Today's homework: If you can, please build a snow man.

Today's word has a little bit religious background, even though it does not seam so, again. We are talking about hadschen . This word comes from the Muslim Festival of Hajj (in German it is written Hadsch to match the pronunciation better). As the festival is about walking to Mecca (no matter how far it is) the Austrian word hadschen means to walk or in some cases limping.

I don't know who the author is, but I got this e-mailed today. I am sure this is an advanced lesson, but just keep reading my blog maybe one day you might understand texts like this. ÖSTERREICHISCHE MASSEINHEITEN Ich wage zu behaupten, dass es keine Sprache gibt, die so unverbindliche Maßeinheiten hervorgebracht hat, wie die Österreichische. Das Vage und Dehnbare in unseren internen Maßeinheiten scheint mir auch ein Indiz, ja eine Facette des österreichischen Wesens an sich zu sein. Schaun Sie: An der Aufforderung: "Noch ein Wengerl, ein Wengerl sitzen, ein Wengerl da zu bleiben, noch ein Wengerl lustig zu sein" finden wir gar nichts bemerkenswertes mehr, noch dazu wo sich dieses Wengerl auch ausreichend von "ein Wenig" herrührend erklären lässt. Dass ein Weg breit ist, wenn er lang ist, wundert auch keinen mehr: "Heast, wo woast denn? - Na des is a brader Weg!" Dass man endlos wartet und ewig nicht dran kommt, auch daran hat man sich gewöhn