Contents:

1. Grammar and Spelling
2. Punctuation
3. Measurements and Abbreviations
4. Hyphenation
5. Miscellaneous Peculiarities
6. Geographic Distribution
7. Character Set

General note on Austrian German and German:

Austrian German adheres to the grammatical system of the German standard language and only differs in minor points, e.g. in some cases of plural formation.

Furthermore, in some cases, prepositions are used differently.

The auxiliary of the perfect is a form of “sein” (to be) in Austrian German for all verbs that describe a body posture as opposed to the use of the auxiliary “haben” in standard German.

Since the language reform of 1996, differences in spelling have mostly been adjusted and are now negligible.

Austrian standard language as used by the general public as the officially recognized and mostly standardized language, is a regional variety of German as spoken in Germany. This standard language is used and understood throughout the German-speaking region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

Therefore all rules of standard German as to grammar and spelling, punctuation, measurements and abbreviations and hyphenation, client specific points, miscellaneous features and geography are applicable in the same way as they are to standard German.

When compound words are used, they are sometimes formed in a slightly different way than in standard German, e.g. an “-s-“ is included to connect the words, e.g. ‘Zugsverkehr’ (train traffic). In standard German, this would be ‘Zugverkehr’ without the “-s-“.

Another feature of word formation (only in colloquial Austrian German) is the diminutive form “-erl” that differs from standard German usage (diminutive form “-chen”).

There are a wide range of idioms that are specific to Austrian German. Most of these are, again, a feature of colloquial language. However, the use of these phrases and idioms should be handled with care when translating for a target audience, since they are often not appreciated if not adjusted to the region e.g. the colloquial German phrase for ‘I don’t care’ – “Das juckt mich nicht die Bohne” would cause amusement or even slight contempt, when used in Austria. Austrians would say “Das ist mir Wurscht”, a phrase that causes amusement among German speakers in Germany.

In addition, usage in specific situations may differ, e.g in Austria a university degree is included in the name e.g. “Magister/Magistra” (abbreviated : “Mag.” and added before the name itself).

Section One - Grammar and Spelling

1. Gender: Three genders to be aware of - masculine (der), feminine (die) and neuter (das). Articles, pronouns and some word endings (mostly only when in the plural) have to be declined according to the case they are in. The definite article is der, die das (see above), the indefinite article ein (m + n) and eine (f).

2. Cases: Four cases exist - nominative, accusative, genitive and dative.

3. Spelling: All nouns in German begin with a capital letter.

The polite form of address (including possessive pronoun) also begins with a capital letter, i.e. Sie, Ihr.

The 'new' German rules can be most easily recognised by the diminished use of the ß in words where it used to be preceded by a short vowel i.e. daß becoming dass etc. (In Switzerland, the ß is not used at all, however, as before). Other reforms include the use of commas; the tolerance of the same 3 letters appearing in a row (i.e. Schifffahrt is correct); the germanisation of 'ph, th, rh' into 'f, t, r' (i.e. foto instead of photo etc.) and the spelling of compound verbs and participles as one word or two separate words (e.g. so genannt instead of sogenannt).

In upper case, ß is never used, but always written SS, even following the 'old' rules.

Plural: there is no foolproof way of identifying the plural form of nouns, as it is dependent on the gender and case of the word. However, the most common plural endings are '-e' or '-en'.

Section Two – Punctuation

1. Commas: Punctuation is very important to the grammar of Austrian German, particularly where commas are concerned. As a general rule, there is a comma before (and after) every subordinate clause introduced by a conjunction or a relative pronoun). Though the rules for setting commas have become somewhat more relaxed with the grammar reform, they should still be treated with caution.

2. Full stops: No full stops after headings/sub-heads/bullet points.

3. Speech marks: Austrian German uses mostly „...“ or «...» (in printed texts), although it is not now uncommon to see the same speech marks in use as in English.

When the sentence within speech marks ends with a full stop, the speech marks are after the full stop: Sie sagte: „Ich komme morgen.” But if the main verb is after the cited phrase, the comma separating it is after the speech mark: „Ich komme morgen”, sagte sie.

When the phrase within the speech marks ends with a ! or ?, the speech marks are set as follows:

4. Apostrophes: The apostrophe is set when a letter is left out (i.e. mostly in reported speech – e.g. mir reicht’s instead of mir reicht es) or to define the genitive case in words that end in s, x or z. Hannes’ Geburtstag, Karl Marx’ Philosophie.

5. Colons, semi-colons and ellipsis: Basically used the same way as in English, with the first two not being as frequently used as in English sentences.

6. Capitalisation: This is a wide field and should be handled in accordance with the Duden. In headings etc. capitalisation does not differ from the rules for other sentences.

Section Three - Measurements and Abbreviations

1. Measurement: It is now a legal requirement that all measurements be written only in metric in Austrian German texts, although there are some exceptions: pipes/tubes, threads, computer monitors, computer disks which are given in Zoll (= inch).

Paper sizes: The form A0/E is American. In Austrian German, the letter following the initial size (i.e. 'E' in this case) is omitted, and DIN inserted before: DIN A0

Use a decimal comma.

Numbers above 999: Use either a space or a dot to separate groups of thousands.

SWISS GERMAN uses apostrophes (instead of commas) to separate groups of thousands.

Currency: There are various correct ways of writing Austrian German currency: 5,00 €; 5,- €; € 5 (the latter is used mostly in financial documents or presentations where the focus is on figures). The same with other symbols: US$ 50; £ 23,50 but 3 Millionen Dollar, 300.000 Pfund. The international 3-letter code, e.g. GBP is only used by banks and similar institutions.

Time: Tends towards the 24hr system, and should use the format either 6.30 [Uhr] or 6:30 [Uhr].

Date: Two formats - either 20. Februar 2004 or 20.02.2004

A space is generally left between numbers and their measurement abbreviations, i.e. 21,5 kg (but see the two points below).

% symbol: As in English, preceded by a space unless it is being used in an adjectival position, i.e. eine 10%ige Erhöhung [a 10% increase].

°C: A space, i.e. 3 °C (technical use) or 3° C (general use)

It is not uncommon to see figures adjacent to letters: 4teilig (4-part); 10fach (tenfold); ½-, ¼-und ¾zöllig (a half, a quarter and three-quarters of an inch).

2. Abbreviations:

N/a = na (nicht anwendbar)
No. = Nr.
e.g. = z.B. i.e. = d.h.
Q&A = F&A
WxLxHxD = B x L x H x T
1st/2nd/3rd/4th = 1. / 2. / 3. / 4.
Herr (Hr.) (Mr.) / Frau (Fr.) (Ms/Mrs.) / Fraulein (Frl.) (Ms/Miss)
Sehr geehrter Herr (name) / Sehr geehrte Frau (name)
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren (only way of salutation without using a name)
m (for metre)
cm (for centimetre)
g (for gram)
km (for kilometre)
Days of the week: Mo., Di., Mi., Do., Fr., Sa., So.
Months: Jan., Febr., März, Apr., Mai, Juni, Juli, Aug., Sept., Okt., Nov., Dez. Seasons: Frühling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter (not normally abbreviated in German)

Section Four – Hyphenation

Austrian German hyphenation follows strict rules - please consult the latest "Duden" for correct hyphenation. The general rule is that compound nouns are spelt without a hyphen unless it consists of more the two or three nouns or one of the nouns is of foreign origin.

Austrian German sometimes uses a hyphen to connect one or two nouns to a compound noun in a list of words which have the second part of the final compound noun as a common element i.e. Groß- und Kleinschreibung [where Groß- represents Großschreibung]. The use of the hyphen is the equivalent of writing 'upper and lower case writing' instead of 'upper case writing and lower case writing'.

Short (N) dashes are used in sentences.

Section Five – Miscellaneous Peculiarities

There is a regional vocabulary that is the main feature of Austrian German.
However it is hardly noticeable in written texts or formal documents. Regional vocabulary is concentrated in colloquial language, i.e. slang and dialect and specific areas of everyday or “household” language, such as food, for example. For these items different words are used.
Some words are used throughout the German-speaking region, but have a different or additional meaning in Austrian German.

Pronunciation - this might be the most distinctive feature, since the difference between speakers of Austrian German and German in Germany becomes evident through pronunciation. Consonants are pronounced less clearly, suffixes are “swallowed”, different stress is applied to some words, in general there is a more noticeable sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables which is a major characteristic of the Austrian pronunciation.

Section Six – Geographic Distribution

Language Family: Indo-European.

98% of the population of Austria speak German, which is the official and national language. Slovenian (regional) is the other national language. 93% of non-nationals include Croatians, Slovenes, Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks.

Source: The World Factbook: Field Listing - Language. Central Intelligence Agency. Available from:
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2098.html (accessed 2 March 2004).

(Adapted from: Österreichisches Wörterbuch, öbv&hpt, Verlag Jugend und Volk, Wien).