Viennese German

Features typical of Viennese German include:

• Monophthongization: Compared to Standard German and to other Bavarian dialects, diphthongs are often monophthongized, somewhat as some Southern US accents turn oil into o-ol.
  For example:
  • Standard German heiß – Bavarian hoaß – Viennese haaß [haːs]
  • Standard German weiß – Viennese wääß [væːs]
  • Standard German Haus – Viennese Håås [hɒːs]
• It is typical to lengthen vowels somewhat, often at the end of a sentence. For example: Heeaasd, i bin do ned bleeed, wooos waaasn ii, wea des woooa (Standard German Hörst du, ich bin doch nicht blöd, was weiß denn ich, wer das war): "Listen, I'm not stupid; what do I know, who it was?"
• The "Meidlinger L", i.e. /l/ pronounced with velarization [ɫ] found in the working class dialect, which reflects the Czech pronunciation.
• Inserting vowels into consonant clusters (epenthesis): Likewise depending on the social class, a speaker, every now and then, may insert a vowel [ɐ] between two following consonants. That usually results in an additional syllable, which "intensifies" the word and usually has a negative feeling to it.
  Examples:
  • Standard German Verschwinde! – Viennese Vaschwind! – intensified Vaschawind!
  • Standard German Verbrecher! – Viennese Vabrecha! – intensified Vabarecha!
  • Standard German abgebrannt – Viennese oobrennt – intensified oobarennt
  • Standard German Geradeaus! – Viennese Groodaus! – intensified Garoodaus!

The following Viennese German characteristics are also found in other Bavarian dialects:

• Consonant tenseness: Voiceless fortis consonants /p, t, k/ become lenis [b̥, d̥, ɡ̊]. The [k], however, usually remains fortis when it follows a vowel.
• Vocalization of /l/ within a word after a vowel,
  e.g. also → oeso [ˈɔe̯so], Soldat → Soedot [sɔe̯ˈdɔːt], fehlen → föhn [fœːn], Kälte → Köödn [ˈkøːd̥n̩]
• Vocalization of /l/ at the end of a word, after a vowel,
  e.g. schnell → schnöö [ʃnœː], viel → vüü [fʏː]
• Unrounding front vowels after coronal consonants,
  e.g. Glück [ˈɡlʏk] → Glick [ˈɡlɪk], schön [ˈʃøːn] → schee [ˈʃẽː]
• Rounding unrounded vowels before /l/ (which may have been elided by now),
  e.g. schneller → schnöller [ˈʃnœlɐ], vielleicht → vülleicht [fʏˈlæːçt], wild → wüüd [vyːd̥]

There are not many grammatical differences from other Bavarian dialects, but the following are typical:

• The avoidance of the genitive case
• The use of the preposition ohne (without) with the dative case instead of the accusative case
• The replacement of "ihn" or "ihm" with "eam", for instance: "Hast du ihn gesehen?" ("Have you seen him?") would be "Host eam gsehn?" in Viennese
• The replacement of "wir" with "mia"

The dialect is distinct mostly in its vocabulary.

Vocabulary displays particular characteristics. Viennese retains many Middle High German and sometimes even Old High German roots. Furthermore, it integrated many expressions from other languages, particularly from other parts of the former Habsburg Monarchy, as Vienna served as a melting pot for its constituent populations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Because transcription of Viennese has not been standardised, the rendering of pronunciation here is incomplete:

• from Old High German:
  • Zähnd (Standard German Zähne, English teeth, from zand)
  • Hemad (Hemd, = English shirt, from hemidi)
• from Middle High German:
  • Greißler (=small grocer, from griuzel – diminutive of Gruz =grain)
  • Baaz (=slimy mass, from batzen=being sticky)
  • si ohgfrettn (=to struggle, from vretten)
• from Hebrew and Yiddish:
  • Masl (=luck, from masol)
  • Hawara (=friend, companion, from chaver)
  • Gannef (=crook, from ganav)
  • Beisl (=bar, pub, from bajser)
• from Czech:
  • Motschga (=unappetizing mush, from močka=residue in a pipe or a piss or from omáčka=Sauce, Soup)
  • Pfrnak (=(big) nose, from frňák)
  • Lepschi (Auf Lepschi gehen = to go out or to amuse oneself, from lepší=better)
• from Hungarian:
  • Maschekseitn (=the other side, from a másik)
  • Gattihosn (=long underpants, from gatya = trousers)
• from Italian:
  • Gspusi (=girlfriend, from sposa)
  • Gstanzl (=Stanza of a humorous song, from stanza)
  • Gusta (=appetite for something, from gusto)
• from French:
  • Trottoa (=sidewalk, from trottoir)
  • Lawua (=washbowl, from lavoir)
  • Loschie (from logis)
• from Arabic:
  • Hadscha (=a long path, from Hajj)

In Viennese, the following pragmatics peculiarities are found quite often:

• Frequent ironic speech that is marked neither through intonation nor through gestures. In most cases, sarcasm must be identified through its context. Especially for foreigners, it is a source of misunderstandings. Such ironic speech is common in the Viennese sense of humour, which is better known as Wiener Schmäh.
• Understatement uses recognisable diminutive suffixes, such as -l or -erl, as in Kaffeetscherl or Plauscherl.