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Press Release
"Hendl"or "Güggeli" - Dictionary
of national and regional variants of standard German
Innsbruck/Vienna (Austrian Science Fund) – There is not one single
German language – Austrians use different linguistic expressions
to those used by Swiss or German people. This is not only true of dialect,
but also applies to High German. There are many linguistic variants, even
within the individual countries. Even the High German of the Vorarlberg
Province is significantly different to High German spoken in Vienna. Since
1997, Hans Moser and his team from the Institute for German Language,
Literature and Literary Criticism at the University of Innsbruck have
been working on a trilateral project with the universities of Duisburg
and Basle, recording the many variants within the German language. With
the support of the Austrian Science Fund, they are compiling the first
dictionary of national and regional variants of the standard German language.
More than 240,000 lemmas have already been entered into the project
database. Approximately 10,000 of these will be included in the dictionary
which is due to be published in Autumn 2002. Each word is explained, its
national and regional distribution is given, together with its variants,
and a sentence which clearly illustrates the meaning is quoted as an example
of usage. “The interesting thing about our project is that, for the
first time, we are researching the unique Austrian linguistic variations
within all fields, ranging from law, administration, politics, economics
and education to sport, culinary art and everyday culture etc. and, at
the same time, we are determining the extent to which these expressions
overlap with their Federal German and Swiss equivalents,” explains
Moser. A typical dictionary entry for "roast chicken" is as
follows (A: Austria, CH: Switzerland, D:
Germany; südost: south-east; ohne südost: not south-east; neue
Bundesländer: new Federal German States):
Brathendl A D-südost das; -s, -n: -> BRATHUHN A D, -> HENDL
A D-südost, -> GÜGGELI CH, -> MISTKRATZERLI CH, ->
POULET CH, -> BRATHÄHNCHEN D (ohne südost), -> BROILER
D (neue Bundesländer), -> HÄHNCHEN D (ohne südost) -
the national and
regional distribution is followed by a German definition and quotations
from German, Austrian and Swiss books or newspapers as examples of usage.
How are the variations discovered? – Each of the three project
centres (Basle, Duisburg, Innsbruck) sends a large number of carefully
selected texts (novels, newspapers, reference books, crime novels, cookery
books, forms etc.) to the project centres in the other two countries,
where the project team members read the material and
mark everything which to them is unusual. The “search process”
is therefore always carried out by the project team members in the other
two countries. However, the description and evaluation process is performed
in the country of origin, where all variants are checked and stored in
a database. “We have therefore acquired a solid basic stock of linguistic
material which we are now substantiating through targeted Internet research,
consultation with experts and discussion amongst
colleagues,” explains Moser. The dictionary, which will soon be commercially
available, constitutes a practical reference work for interpreters, editors,
journalists, writers and German teachers, as
well as providing a solid basis for all future research into variation
within the German language. Moreover, it should also help to refute the
view, which is still prevalent, that national variants are, at best, stylistically
inferior equivalents, rather than linguistic material of equal status,
thereby helping to raise the profile of both Austrian and Swiss German.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hans Moser
University of Innsbruck
Institute for German Language, Literature and Literary Criticism
Tel.: 0512 507 2000
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