Do the Germans have accents?

Question

Does someone from Berlin sound the same as someone from Munich?

Answer 1

Hello -

Germans definitely have different regional accents. Some are very distinct.

To answer to your specific question: The Berlin dialect is very different from the Bavarian one. Bavarians sound more like Austrians and someone from the North of Germany might even have difficulties to understand someone from the South (Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg). A bit like Scottish and Cockney in the English language.


Some regional accents are very distinct, i.e. Swabian, Bavarian, Hesse, Berlin and Saxons and almost every German would recognise them immediatelly.

Some regions also have special words that would not be understood outside the region. Example: Krombiere is a local dialect word from Swabia which means Kartoffel (=potato), I have never met a non-Swabian German who understood this word.

Another dialect which is only used up north, is "Platt" or "Plattdeutsch", it is very close to Dutch and almost a langauge in its own right. My grandmother knows how to speak it, and I do not understand a word when she does. Example: "dear times" (what times do we live in, roughly translated) in Plattdeutsch is "leev tieeet" (or something like that), High German would be "liebe Zeit".

Pure German is called "Hochdeutsch" (high German) which is a bit like the BBC's English, free of all regional dialects.
The Swiss also have a German speaking part, and Swiss German is very difficult to understand for the average Germans.


An example of different pronouncation within the German language is Stein (=stone).

- Swabians would pronounce it "shhhhtine" (very obvious "shhh") even when trying to speak High German, local dialct word would be "shhhtoi" which someone from Hamburg would not understand.

- Someone from Hamburg would pronounce the "st" like an English person "stine".

- Average Germans would just pronounce it with a subtle "shtine".

Their local dialects are sometimes reflected when Germans speak foreign languages. Swabian-German for example sounds less military, it is softer and has more of a melody, so when Swabians speak French or even English they have less problems.

Hope this helps a little.

Birgit

Answer 2

Yes, affirmative

There are not only various different accents but different dialects, wheras many German dialects can be seen as quite independant languages. It s not only the pronounciation or the use of certain words which vary, there also are a lot of endogenious words which are special to each region. Further more, there still are some dialects which don t have very much to do with the standard german and which mostly can t be understood by other Germans coming from a different region (like Gaelic in the UK), e.g. "Plattdeutsch" and "Altbayrisch".
You ve gotta bear in mind that Germany never really has been a unitarian nation but a more or less stable alliance of independent kingdoms, shires etc.

Answer 3

Yes they do, most of the time you can tell where somebody comes from by their accent.

There are also dialects which are so different from standard German and each other that they would be considered separate languages, if the regions were different states. And there are local/regional accents within the dialects!

Unlike in Britain however a regional accent is just that, regional, and has no bearing on perceived "class".

We have to have standard German to be able to understand each other, though I don't like the sound of "pure" standard German at all. Luckily it's largely confined to the media and the stage.

Answer 4

Many of the WWII movies made just after the war such as The Longest Day did have Germans speaking german with subtitles. This gave the film a very authentic feel. The same for Tora tora tora in which Japanese Naval personnel all spoke japanese with subtitles. A bigger problem, In my opinion, is the trend of recent Hollywood war movies to rewrite history to make the Americans appear to have taken part in actions that had nothing to do with them. Examples are U571 in which Jon Bon Jovi captures the enigma code machine from the Germans. In reality this was the British and Objective Burma in which Errol Flynn relieves Burma from Japanese occupation when in fact no americans were fighting in Burma at all.

Answer 5

A big yes. Much like everywhere else in the world where although people speak the same language they have very different accents.

...And those from Munich prefer to be known as Bavarians as opposed to Germans.

Answer 6

Of course they don't . And they don't always use quite the same language either. Bavarians are infamous for a dialect other Germans can't follow easily, and comics portraying a country bumpkin will often mimic the Swabian accent. Even France's two Germanic regions, Alsace and Lorraine have dialects that are Germanic, but distinct from standard German (and from each other).

Answer 7

Germans do definitely have accents not something that maybe a non-native speaker will notice so much. My mum is German and I lived there for 6 years and I learnt that. Its actually called a dialect. For example a person from east Germany would say something and some other people would straight away raise there eyebrows and have a look of distaste and say ''aussie'' (a nickname that they have for people from the east)because they can tell straight away where the person is from.

Answer 8

Coming from Germany I can verify that yes, uz Germanz do having ze accent. LOL. Seriously tho, yeah we do. Someone from Berlin will sound as different to someone from Munich as a Geordie will sound compared to a scouser. I always wondered if the Japanese have accents? That's a question worth asking. Don't ask me tho, I'm German.

Answer 9

Of course, accents are the differences in sound of regional dialects. In the same way that the UK has different accents from different areas so do Germans, and any other country.

Answer 10

Yes they do and no they don't.
That is they do have accents and people from Berlin don't sound like people from München.
They also have extremes, like Geordie. Around Hamburg they speak Platt-Deutsch (Flat German) which is almost Dutch.
And near Switzerland, Black Forest area they speak something approaching Swiss German.