How Different Are Standard German and Bavarian???

Special thanks to Robbie for his Standard German samples, and Simon Bun and Robert Kalem for their help with Bavarian samples! And thanks to others for their suggestions, including Benedikt Peter.

Nobbi Lampe-Strang, AmateurTextualCriticism, Anjo Barnes, Auguste Fields, Bennett Seacrist, Brandon Gonzalez, Brian King, Clark Roth, Fiona de Visser, Georgy Eremin, Jacob Madsen, John Moffat, Karl-Erik Wångstedt, Kenny, Leon Jiang, Marcelo Loureiro, Matthew Etter, Michael Arbagi, Michael Cuomo, Paul Falstad, Rosalind Resnick, Ruben Sanchez Jr, Sebastian Langshaw, ShadowCrossZero, Victoria Goh, Vincent David, Yuko Sunda, 19jks94, Abdullah Al-Kazaz, Adam Powell, Adam Vanderpluym, Admir Soko, Alen, Alex Hanselka, Alexandre Smirnov, Ali Muhammed Alshehri, Alvin Quiñones, Andrew Woods, Anthony Peter Swallow, Aous Mansouri, Ashley Dierolf, Atsushi Yoshida, Avital Levant, Bart Atwood-Ebi, Bartosz Czarnotta, Ben, Benn M, Brent Warner, Brian Begnoche, Brian Morton, Bruce Stark, Chelsea Boudreau, Christian Langreiter, Christopher Lowell, David Eggleston, David LeCount, Debbie Levitt, Diane Young, DickyBoa, Dieter Raber, divad, Divadrax, Don Ross, Donald Tilley, Ed B, Edward Wilson, Eric Loewenthal, Erin Robinson Swink, Evolyzer, Fabio Martini, fatimahl, Fawad Quraishi, Grace Wagner, Greg Boyarko, Gregory Garecki, Guillermo Jimenez, Gus Polly, Hannes Egli, Harry Kek, Henri Saussure, Herr K, Ina Mwanda, Ivan Cristi, J Yang, Jack Jackson, Jaidyn Workman, Jakub Krajňanský, James and Amanda Soderling, James Lillis, JAMES ORR, Jay Bernard, Jens Aksel Takle, JESUS FERNANDO MIRANDA BARBOSA, Jim Wink, JK Nair, JL Bumgarner, joanna jansen, John Hyaduck, Justin Faist, Klaw117, Konrad, Kristian Erickson, Krzysztof Dobrzanski, Laura Morland, Lee Dedmon, Leo Coyne, Leo Barudi, Lincoln Hutton, Lorraine Inez Lil, Louize Kowalski, Luke Jensen, M.Aqeel Afzal, Mahmoud Hashemi, maiku, Margaret Langendorf, Maria Comninou, Mark, Mark Grigoleit, Mark Kemp, Markzipan, Maurice Chou, Merrick Bobb, Michael Regal, Mike Frysinger, Mohammed A. Abahussain, Mário Pegado, Naama Shang, Nicholas Gentry, Nicole Tovar, Oleksandr Ivanov, Oto Kohulák, Panot, Papp Roland, Patrick smith, Patriot Nurse, Paul Shutler, Pauline Pavon, Paulla Fetzek, Peter Andersson, Peter Nikitin, Peter Scollar, Pomax, Raymond Thomas, Renato Paroni de Castro, ReysDad, Robert Sheehan, Robert Williams, Roland Seuhs, Ron McKinnon, Ronald Brady, Saffo Papantonopoulou, Scott Russell, Sergio Pascalin, ShrrgDas, Sierra Rooney, Simon Blanchet, Simon G, Spartak Kagramanyan, Stefan Reichenberger, Steven Severance, Suzanne Jacobs, Theophagous, Thomas Chapel, veleum, Vinicius Marchezini, William MacKenzie, William O Beeman, yasmine jaafar, Yassine Ouarzazi, Yeshar Hadi, Éric Martin, Merrick Bob, Michael, 晶 羅.

Music: "Actually Like" by Twin Musicom.
Outro: "Devil Cut" by Coyote Hearing.

The following images are used under Creative Commons Sharealike 4.0 license:

Still images incorporating the above image in this video are available for use under the same CC Sharealike 4.0 license.

[Langfocus]

Hi everyone. I hope you like the video! There's a little mixup in one part of the video starting at 7:47. The word-for-word translation says that "heute" means "hot" and that "heiß" means today, but it's actually the other way around: "heute" means "today" and "heiß" means "hot".


Disclosure: If you upgrade to a paid course, Langfocus gets a small referral fee that helps support this channel.

[huawafabe]

I'm a Bavarian and once went to Berlin into a restaurant.
I forgot to speak standard german, and accidentally ordered in Bavarian.
The waitress asked "Do you speak English please?"

[Sleeping_Insomiac]

I once was hiking in Scotland when I was approached by two guys.
They asked, in the most germanic accent imaginable, where the nearest campsite was.
I asked "Are you german?". When they said they were, I said "Na, dann können wir ja auch Deutsch reden!" (Then we can talk german!)
They had such a thick Bavarian accent, I had to go back to English.

I am german.

[oddaardvark]

Kind of fun story: I learnt 'German' from my grandparents, who grew up in Austria, speaking Bavarian. I didn't know that that was totally different to Standard German, so I rocked up at my secondary school German class super confident. 11 year old me tried to impress the teacher by having a conversation with her in German, only for her not to have much of a clue what I was saying because I was speaking Bavarian. That sent my brain into a bit of a vortex for a while there.

[DeepWater-rmvo]

Bavarian here who grew up in rural Ireland. I once had German tourists pull over and ask me (In English) for directions (I was wearing my school uniform so they assumed I was local). They had a northern German licence plate so I figured they wouldn’t really understand Bavarian, so I gave them the directions in Bavarian. They said they were sorry but that they couldn’t speak Irish Gaelic. Won’t ever forget that.

[TheLumberjack]

I'm Austrian and my fiancé is Dutch, she says our dialect sounds like "farmer's german".
I find that description to be annoyingly accurate.

[Slash]

German: „Dieses Essen schmeckt mir außerordentlich gut!“
Bavarian: „Zum scheißn glangts.“

[phis]

As a south-tyriolian i can say that every village has his own dialect.

[berzerk]

As a native speaking bavarian i am really impressed by the accuracy of this video.
I searched something like this on YT because i wanted to describe a foreign friend these differences and this video did it better than i could explain it to him in english.

[Slash]

German: „In diesem Aspekt kann ich Ihnen in vollen Umfang zustimmen!“
Bavarian: „Scho.“

[xwolpertinger]

I give this the highest form of approval in Bavarian: "basst scho"

[dontrunlikethat]

Der Kollege der die hochdeutschen Wörter einspricht ist viel zu motiviert

[adriansroka]

I‘m a polish guy living in the deepest part of Bavaria called "Niederbayern" and I love when they say " Es ist mir Wurst" which exactly means "This is sausage for me" BUT they use this expression for "I don’t care 🤷🏼 or it doesn’t matter" .

[flokopter]

As an Upper Austrian I can say, it is sometimes very hard to understand people from every other state or even district in Austria. 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹

[rogerabc]

I studied german for 4 or 5 years and I find amazing that there are so many dialects and germans can speak both SG and their own dialect, changing from one to the other naturally. Living in a big country where everybody speaks the same language, that sounds amazing to me.

Once when I was in the train from Vienna to Venice, I couldn't understand what one family was speaking to one another and I felt so sad that I had spent so many years and money learning german and couldn't understand a word. Then a good soul told me that they were probably talking dialect. That saved my day.

Deutsch ist die Sprache, die ich als eine dritte Sprache ausgewählt habe zu lernen. Sehr stolz dass ich ein bisschen Deutsch kann.

[Shutterbeetle]

Thank you for this lovely video I just re-discovered!
I grew up in Bavaria, left at age 19. Spent the next 38 years living in English speaking countries (Australia, USA and Scotland), speaking VERY little German, and forgetting more and more of my mother-tonge!

I arrived back in Germany very recently (along with my Aussie husband), nervous about sounding like an idiot, because apparently, my Bavarian still sounds 100% flawless - nobody detects an accent. However, my language skills are still that of a very young person, (i.e. I'm not entirely familiar with many "adult" terms (such as regarding taxes, insurance, mortgage, health issues, etc etc etc), and on top of that, 38 years have changed the German language A LOT!!!! As a result, I must sometimes/often come across as a "local" moron :-(

I still understand nearly everything, and speak it well enough - especially Bavarian.

I am now re-disccovering my roots and upbringing. I have developed a new appreciation of my native dialect - it is so rich, so full of nuances, so much deeper, funnier, and richer than standard German! There is so much humour and amazing detail that can't come across in "Hochdeutsch". I feel blessed that I understand and speak this wonderful dialect!

Thank you very much for not poking fun at us "Bauernfünfer" (the "Preissn" like to portray us as simpletons), but to simply state differences without judgement.

[asmraxel]

As a bavarian/franconian speaker: More beer -> more dialekt.

[true_perplexeus]

Paul: Bavarian can be hard to understand

Swiss: Hold my cheese

[mursie]

As an Arabic native speaker, we have exactly the same dilemma as German, our dialects vary wildly, and we end up switching to Modern Standard Arabic to easily understand each other.

[melz]

I’m sorry but WHY is the standard German speaker so totally passive aggressive like someone dragged him out of bed at a Sunday morning and put him in front of a mic and said he doesn’t get coffee until he finishes this?