Vorarlbergerisch

I am going to dedicate this opening entry to Vorarlberg and their dialect (Vorarlbergerisch). Vorarlberg is the westernmost Bundesland (region) in Austria, bordering Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein.

I had the chance to visit this beautiful region back in 2010 and I was able to learn some peculiarities about its dialect thanks to the locals I spent my time with, whose help I really appreciate.

Vorarlbergerisch is not comparable to the rest of Austrian dialects, closer to standard German, because it stems from Alemannisch, group of dialects which also comprises Schwitza Dytch -Schweizer Deutsch or Swiss German, spoken by around 60℅ of the Swiss- and other dialects in southern Germany (Baden-Würtemberg), to cite but a few. Alemannisch differs from High German (Hochdeutsch) when it comes to spelling or pronunciation, so it is hardly understandable even for German-speaking natives. The variations of each dialect from town to town could be deemed as an aggravating factor, to the extent that locals in e.g. Götzis and Lustenau (Vorarlberg) might not understand each other.

The grammatical singularities of Vorarlbergisch might lead to mistakes when writing German. Although High German is indeed taught at schools and texts in the press are written in Hochdeutsch, the Vorarlberger always speak in their dialect, so they do not mind speaking High German or English equally, as neither of these are their common way of speaking.

Some characteristics of Vorarlbergerisch

· ei -> i     e.g. bei -> bi , weißt -> wisst, but Ei -> Ei.

  au -> u e.g. Haus -> Hus, auf -> uf, aus -> us.

  a -> o     e.g. Strasse -> Stross, Strafe -> Strof

· gesprochen -> gesprocht

  Ich weiss nicht -> i waas net (similar to Wienerisch, the dialect in Vienna)

  Deutsch -> Dytch

  Mich, mein -> mi

  ich auch --> i o

  man kann -> ma ka

  Setzt dich! -> Hock ahe!
  gewesen -> gsi

  Wie bitte? -> hä?
  Fenster oder Tür -> Loch

· g'hörig -> a versatile expression, e.g. used to answer "gut" to the question Wia hea schas? -> Wie geht's dir?
· They use od'r? at the end of many sentences, not meaning exactly the same as "oder?" in Hochdeutsch.

· One remarkable feature is the usage of diminutives for almost every noun. However, it is not formed with -chen like in High German, but rather with -le. For instance:

  · Land -> Ländle (colloquial way of naming Vorarlberg)
  · Laden -> Lädele
  · Stiege -> Stiagele
· The Vorarlberger always address a person using "Du" (informal "you" in High German) and never with "Sie" (formal German address of "you"). Nevertheless this does not have to do with lack of politeness. 

· Double negatives: Incorrect in Hochdeutsch, but allowed in Vorarlbergerisch. For instance, the sentence: "Ich habe nicht keine Chancen" is wrong in Standard German.
·  The "r" sound is articulated differently than in High German.

 · Relative clauses: instead of using "der, das, die..." as relative pronouns to link clauses just like in Hochdeutsch, they use wo or was.