Can German Speaking Countries Understand Each Other? (Germany, Swiss, Austria)

Can the German Speaking countires Understand Each Other?

Lets put this on the test!

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[ThomasEntner]

The Austrian girl comes (like myself) from Vorarlberg, a quiet small area in the west of Austria. Our language has almost nothing to do with the rest of Austria (it has big similarities with Swiss German), therefore it was not a good example. People from Vienna would have a hard time to understand us, so we usually (try to) speak standard German when talking to people from other areas

[patrickmeier]

As a Swiss I also noticed that the Austrian girl didn’t speak the more common Austrian accent we are used to. But I found it extremely interesting to hear her Vorarlberg dialect, it is so close to Swiss German but still different, very fascinating! Thank you for that! Keep up the great work!

[felixniederhauser]

As a Swiss who has lived in all 3 countries for a longer time, I also know that even people within each country have difficulties understanding each other. Example: Germans from the south like Bavaria and/or Baden Wuertemberg will suffer to understand a real Berlin dialect and are completely lost when it comes to Frisian Plaat spoken in Hamburg. Even the Ohnsorg Theater (Hamburg) is using subtitles within Germany. In Austria, Vooralberg differs much from Tyrolian and Carinthia (Kaernten), and most Austrians not living in Vienna, would have a hard time understanding a proper Viennese dialect which is spiked with Slavic words. Then Switzerland again, there is not just "one" Swiss German dialect. However, there are a number of different Alemannic dialects, including Bernese German (Berndeutsch) or Basel German (Baseldeutsch), Zürich German (Zürichdeutsch), and Walser German (Walliserdeutsch), which all belong to the group of Swiss German dialects. I was born in Zurich, but due to my Grandmother, I am also able to speak a really deep Berndeutsch from the Bernese upper mountain region. There are words someone from Zurich or other parts of Switzerland would not understand. NB: I am 73, traveled/worked in 120+ countries, and speak 15 languages, hence, I love languages and even speak several Croatian dialects as I worked/lived there for 10 years.

[Junakase]

These 3 are so cute together. They had me smiling the entire video.
As a German, I can also confirm that it's possible to understand what the other two were saying, but you really have to concentrate very hard on every word they are saying. However, I could imagine that someone from Bavaria would have an easier time understanding them. On the other hand, there are also many local German dialects that they would probably have more difficulty to understand.

[thestralix]

How much German speakers understand each other really depends on where they're located and which local variety of German they speak.
I'm Bavarian so it's in the same dialect group as Austrian and Swiss German is a distant cousin, so we understand each other.
I think that's why the German girl had some issues sometimes 'cause she's a Preiß.

[lejlav__]

I think it’s funny how they chose an Austrian person with a specific accent, in cities like vienna where I come from, we basically talk like the germans with just a few different words that we use 😅 & the viennese dialect she talked about is actually not used that much any more 🙌🏻

[RiaLucia]

Fascinating! I’m from the US and studied standard German for years in school, and I definitely could hear the difference. When she spoke standard German after hearing Austrian and Swiss, it suddenly sounded so clear and easy to follow by comparison.

[axewizard]

I'm french and I studied German for more than 10 years I did understand fully standard German but not a single word from Switzerland or Austria 😲 first time I hear the comparaison excellent video !

[judith.froeschl]

As an austrian I had more difficulties understanding the austrian than I had understanding the swiss. But to be fair, dialekts from vorarlberg are very different from the rest of austria, so it's a bad example. But it's really hard to generalize, because the dialekts change very quickly and a lot even within small areas sometimes.

[yasminesteinbauer]

Can we please stop describing German as sharp and aggressive? Just because (thanks to Hitler) this prejudice exists and people are subject to an expectation bias, doesn't make it true. From a linguistic point of view, it is truer for Dutch than for German, for example. And you never hear anyone say that about Dutch. One of the Asian girls in another video couldn't even tell German and French apart.

[farakouh]

As an Austrian, I think Swiss and German Languages are both Amazing.
I think all Languages are great, specially when you learn the language and start to communicate with other.

Thanks to making such as Video.🙏

[kuldianFF]

I'm swedish and I've never studied the german language in my life but somehow I understood close to everything the german was saying and most of what the swiss was saying. I struggled to understand the austrian a bit more but still followed along pretty well. I always knew swedish was pretty similar to german but I never imagined I would understand so much, which I think is awesome.

[blenderpanzi]

She's from that one tiny part of Austria that is dialect wise closer to Switzerland than to Bavaria. So I, who is from the other end of Austria and likes to talk in his dialect (yes, dialect, not just accent), sometime had to concentrate to understand. Means the Bavarian dialect group was missing. :D

[Freezee]

As a swiss, I‘m impressed that the Austrian dialect she‘s speaking, from the Vorarlberg region, is so close to swiss german. We‘re usually used different austrian dialects :)

[Andrei.Alinei]

This video thought me that I need to forget about all the german I thought I knew, and speak english on my upcoming trip to Vienna. Thank you!

[davidkochendorfer]

Actually there are 36 german dialects and not only 3 german speaking countries.

[intreoo]

I'm not a German speaker, but the sheer diversity of German dialects and accents never fails to fascinate me. German is in its own little world, and it's fascinating to me how different each dialect is while also remaining mutually intelligible. I truly admire how Germany, Switzerland, and Austria have preserved their various unique dialects; something that other countries such as France have regrettably suppressed. I'd love to study the different dialects of German one day; it's just so fascinating to me that a person from Bavaria and a person from Rhineland-Palatinate can speak entirely different tongues whilst being in the same country.

[karinbauer]

It would have been good to know the region the German girl comes from in Germany. Southern Germans would understand much more of the Swiss/Alemanic and Austrian dialects.

[ladyelisa_]

Aaaah wia mega! Do trifft ma eifach a Dornbirnare i eura Videos 😁 Wia schööö

[AndrewKendall]

Would be interesting to add a Bavarian German in the mix, too. But yes, very fascinating. And it's always interesting to find the very subtle or distant overlap with Scandinavian, too.