Can speakers of different German dialects understand each other?

Question

I know there are different dialects in Germany, Austrians have their way of speaking and so do the Swiss Germans. And I know there are German-speaking communities in other parts of Europe. Can they communicate with each other easily?

Answer 1

I'm a Canadian and have been living in Germany for about 10 years, I have had a very hard time learning the German language because of all the different dialects hear. When I first arrived here in '97 with my (then future wife) wife, who was born and raised in Sachsen-Anhalt (Sachsen dialect), in München we decided to sight see a little. Once we were in the city centre we started walking and exploring until our ride showed up (9 hours). Anyway...about 4 hours later we figured it was time to head back to the train station but didn't remember the way. I said to my wife to ask directions. We stopped a guy wearing a three piece suit and she asked him how to get to the train station. He started explaining and pointing, when he was done she came back and I asked 'So which way do we go?', she replied 'I have no idea, I didn't understand a word'

It's just not different areas of Germany that have different dialects, you could almost say that every town has a different dialect. When I started learning to speak German I was living in Schwäbisch country, so that's the dialect I was learning. When I started working, I worked for a guy who lived in Bavaria and spoke Franken. My next job was also in Bavaria and I counted at least four different dialects within the company. So hear it is in a nutshell: me - English, wife - Sachsen, wife's children Hochdeutsch, die Oma - Sachsen, but a different dialect, work - 4 different dialects of Bavarian, wife's father - Saarlandisch.

So if you want to learn German...do yourself a favour and learn Hochdeutsch...some people make look at you funny, but 99 % of the people learn Hochdeutsch in school, except in Schwäbisch Hall where they teach in Schwäbisch.

Answer 2

They can communicate with each other, because they all will have learned standard German in school if nowhere else. However I would say that many of the different "dialects" are not themselves mutually comprehensible. I put quotes around "dialects" because the differences among them are actually greater than the differences among, for example, the Scandinavian "languages". It is NOT simply a different accent.

Many Swiss Germans consider High German a foreign language, and one they don't necessarily enjoy speaking. Germans who move to Switzerland take a while to get used to the Swiss dialect, and are very disinclined to speak it.

My own Swiss German is frightfully limited, but I did manage to make myself misunderstood ordering a beer in Cologne. I used the usual word here (in Zurich)--which I admit I pronounce wrong but come on, how many things could I be asking for?--and the waiter said "Do you speak English?"

Then I heard a speech about (not in) the Cologne dialect, Kolsch and didn't understand a word. (My standard German is also pretty weak.)

Answer 3

Sometimes not. While studying at a German university, I actually saw one of my professors, from north Germany, almost get punched out by a Swiss man who was speaking the very unusual Swiss German dialect, when my prof said he could not understand the guy and asked him to switch to English or French. Not only are many of the words pronounced VERY differently, there are quite a few words that are commonly used in one dialect and completely unknown in others. (For example, the greeting "Moin moin!", common in northern Lower Saxony, is almost never heard outside of that region.)

It's really a lot like the English language, if you think about it. People who learn "the Queen's English" in Britain often have a really hard time understanding American southerners, and vice versa. Think about how hard you have had to try to understand some accents: Australian, Canadian, New York, or whatever is least familiar to you. You can get it eventually, most of the time, but it can sometimes take some work to understand an unfamiliar dialect. It's that way for Germans, too.

Answer 4

Dialects Of German

Answer 5

German Dialects

Answer 6

I'm a native speaker, have a BA and an MA in German and there is NO WAY that anybody can convince me or most language experts that he/she can understand all different German dialects. If you ever go to South-Eastern Bavaria, go to some off-the track farm and unless you come from that region you will have a problem.
The same goes for certain dialects in Switzerland, East-Germany and Austria.
There is no such thing as spoken "High German", which is just an idealised version of properly written German. Nobody speaks that way and if somebody should, you know exactly that he/she is not a native speaker.


BUT, most (certainly not all) German-speaking people can communicate with each other on a basic level - albeit it's easier for me to communicate with someone in South-Eastern Bavaria than with someone in Kinshasa.


drshorty: your statement ("By definition...") is wrong, plain and simple. It contradicts all scientific definitions of dialects.

Answer 7

Usually, but sometimes only with great difficulty. German dialects are not the same as southern and Yankee accents in the US. They can be very different, bordering on being different languages. This is why Germany has one language (high German) that virtually everybody in the country speaks.

Answer 8

All. That's the definition of a dialect. You can understand each other. See, SWISS is a dialect. Each city has its own ACCENT. Kinda like English.

Answer 9

By definition, speakers of dialects of the same language can understand each other.

However, some of our understanding is based on our opinion of the person who's talking. If we don't like the person, we might not want to understand him/her. Therefore, you will find some German speakers who understand and some who don't, depending on how they feel about the person they are talking to.

Answer 10

Yes, it's a little tougher for the Swiss and hochdeutsch, but it's possible.