I'm curious. What exactly does "Ja, an Dreck!" mean in the Viennese dialect?

Question

This line is actually from a comic terzett by Mozart. I am a big Mozart fan and also interested in linguistics and dialects. In fact I am thinking of getting a minor in the German language. If you would like to see "Ja, an Dreck" in it's entire context it can be found at the bottom of the page if you follow this link:http://www.mozartforum.com/VB_forum/showthread.php?t=1557&highlight=bandel+terzett
I realize there is a translation there and it says, "Yes, I've got it up to here with $hit!" But, the reason I ask is because I have seen so many translations of this one line! I've seen what you'd think it means in standard German, "Yes, in the mess (or dirt)," but I also remember somewhere along the line reading that it actually means "***** it" in the Viennese dialect. Is this true?

Starz- "Ja, AN Dreck" not "Ja, ein Dreck." :-P

Answer 1

In this context it means "no, of course not" or "no, not at all" "what are you thinking". Or maybe a sarcastic "sure I do".

"AN Dreck" means literally "A (PIECE OF) dirt/****"

A: Do you have it?
B: Yes, a piece of ****./No, of course not (duh!) or No, I f. uckin don't.

So, in German it has two meanings at the same time, which cannot be translated into English. I think the rendering "I have it up till here" is quite good, because it preserves the wordplay with "to have".

Answer 2

This is one of those phrases it's a bit hard to figure out without knowing what it's an answer to. A couple of hints:

"Ja" means "yes", but also stands for "oh well" or "so be it" or many other such things.

"an Dreck" is Viennese dialect for "einen Dreck", and the grammar of that suggests that it is a partial sentence responding to something. For example, if you asked, "what do you see over there?", a Viennese might say "an Dreck", meaning "a mess".

While the literal meaning of "Dreck" is dirt or mess, it is used for a variety of bad things such as bad luck and bad consumer goods (a lemon of a car might be a "Dreck"). I would not equate it to the "f" word -- Austrians don't use sex-related terms for ordinary swearing.

My best guess about this one is that someone asked something like "what have we got here?" and the answer was "a big mess" (or stronger words to that effect).

Answer 3

yes, Dreck means: dirt, filth...
Well a german person would use it in connection with:
Das geht dich einen Dreck an...which would mean:
Mind your own business....in the english language

That's the only thing that came to my mind when I read your question because " ja ein Dreck" ....it does mean something but it is incomplete , and translated word for word in englisch is simply: Yes a dirt

I know..I know the german language is very confusing at times... aber ich hoffe ich konnte Dir mit meiner Antwort ein wenig helfen?

Answer 4

Dreck means translated dirt
in that context it means - no, I don't have it

"einen Dreck haben" means to have nothing
"das geht dich einen Dreck an" that is none of your business
so "Dreck" stands for the value of it which is zero
THe expression is very common here in Austria

Answer 5

What Does Dreck Mean