Travelling around Austria with a Local #007 - 15 phrases to survive your trip to Austria - part 1
Hi and welcome to my blog Travelling Around Austria with a Local!
I'm Theodora from Austria. Together with friends from abroad, I'm exploring my home country - and I talk about its beauty and its curiosities. In my seventh post I will teach you 15 important phrases you will probably need if you spend some time in Austria.
Austria is about the size of South Carolina or roughly a third the size of the UK. However, the dialects couldn't be more diverse and very often, Viennese people won't understand people from the westernmost part of Austria unless they make an effort to speak Standard German. Since I grew up in the east - not far away from Vienna - I will therefore teach you some phrases you might find useful in Vienna.
Meeting the locals
1) Grüß Gott!
Pronunciation: [Groos gott!]
Literal translation: Greet God!
Actual meaning: It's a greeting used by everyone - atheists and religious people alike. And it's one of the dead giveaways that you're either an Austrian or a Bavarian. Germans (except for Bavarians) never say, "Grüß Gott" (unless, of course, they have lived in Austria for a while and got used to it).
2) Oida
Pronunciation: [Oy-duh]
Literal translation: Old guy
Actual meaning: The actual meaning varies greatly, depending on the situation and on the way you say it. Meanings include (but are not limited to):
- I'm pleasantly surprised.
- I'm confused.
- I'm pissed off.
- What the hell?
- Ow, that hurts!
- Buddy / dude
Here's a YouTube video explaining Oida and giving further examples:
3) Oachkatzlschwoaf
Pronunciation: [Oakh-cats-l-shore-f]
Literal meaning: Squirrel's tail.
Actual meaning: Squirrel's tail. This word is probably hardest to pronounce - and therefore, most foreigners will be taught how to say it at some point. We think it's funny / cute if you get it wrong. Going on a trip to Austria soon? Be prepared! Learn how to say it from this little girl called Lisa on YouTube:
This joke illustrates the use of Oachkatzlschwoaf fairly accurately:
A UFO lands on planet Earth. A delegation of humans arrives to greet the aliens.
The American says, "Welcome to Earth!"
The German asks, "Will you show us your advanced technology?"
The Austrians says, "LOL brilliant - say 'Oachkatzlschwoaf'!"
(To be quite honest, if aliens exist and they happen to land in Austria, this is likely to happen. However, my fellow Austrians would also drink a good bottle of wine or some beer and socialise with them - and they'd generally just be a bit "leiwand" - which takes us to number 4.)
Socialising
4) Leiwand!
Pronunciation: [Lie-want]
Literal translation: None.
Meaning: Awesome. Make sure you only use this word in Vienna or the area around it. Much like Oachkatzlschwoaf is a dead giveaway that you're Austrian or Bavarian, only Viennese people say, "leiwand" - and they are not always particularly popular with the rest of Austria.
5) Ur-
Pronunciation: [Oor]
Literal translation: None.
Meaning: This is a prefix, that Viennese and Lower Austrian people attach to virtually any adjective to avoid saying "very" (or "sehr" in German). Something can be "urcool" (see "leiwand"), "urfad" (totally boring), "uroasch" ("quite unpleasant" - for further information on "oasch", keep reading this post ;-)), etc.
6) Oida, host an Tschick?
Pronunciation: [Oy-duh, host an chick?]
Literal translation: Old guy, do you have a cigarette?
Meaning: Can you spare a cigarette, mate? (I had to include this. Austrians love their cigarettes.)
7) Mei Bier is ned deppad.
Pronunciation: [My beer is ned depp-art.]
Literal translation: My beer is not stupid.
Meaning: Precisely that: My beer is not stupid.
Want to learn how to say it? Watch this YouTube video - it's a catchphrase from what might easily be the most iconic Austrian TV show of all time - Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter ("A real Viennese will not go under"). I briefly mentioned it in my New Year's Eve post.
Having a good rant
Okay, so this might be the longest section, as Austrians love to complain - about the weather, about their health, about the behaviour of people around them - just about any topic is fine. We do it with such a passion that we even have a verb for it: "raunzen". It cannot be translated literally, but it's a mixture of complaining and whining. So let's learn how to insult others and then complain about them:
8) Des is ma blunzn.
Pronunciation: [Days is ma bloon-tsn.]
Literal translation: This is black pudding / blood sausage to me. (Yes, seriously.)
Actual meaning: I don't care / I couldn't care less. Talking about Blunzn (black pudding or blood sausage), let's have a look at another use of this word in number 9:
9) Du blede Blunzn.
Pronunciation: [Do blay-day bloon-tsn.]
Literal translation: You stupid black pudding / blood sausage.
Actual meaning: You stupid girl. And no, I have no clue whatsoever why we call stupid girls blood sausage. We just do. Maybe it's because we love sausages: If someone laughs and calls you a "Wiaschtl" (sausage), it's sort of a term of endearment. Chances are you've done or said something funny and cute at the same time.
10) Do geht ma des G'impfte auf.
Pronunciation: [Dough gay-ed ma days gimp-f-tay ow-f.]
Literal translation: There goes me the vaccinated up. (No, the literal meaning doesn't really make sense in Austrian dialect, either!)
Actual meaning: This makes me truly angry. Again, I have no idea why we say that. We just do.
11) Bist du deppad?
Pronunciation: [Beast do depp-art?]
Literal translation: Are you stupid?
Actual meaning: Precisely that: Are you out of your mind? Can be used for any unpleasant situation, in which someone does something you don't approve of. It's fairly rude and I wouldn't overuse it, though. It's not to be confused with number 12:
12) Bist du deppad!
Pronunciation: [Beast do depp-art!]
Literal translation: Are you stupid!
Actual meaning: Unlike the questions, which is insulting, the exclamation indicates that you are extremely surprised or amazed (see also number 2 "Oida"); e.g. if you win a million Euros, you can say "bist du deppad!" to express your happiness and utter surprise!
13) Geh ma ned am Oasch.
Pronunciation: [Gay ma ned am oa-sh.]
Literal translation: Don't go on my arse.
Actual meaning: Don't annoy me. As you saw in number 5 ("ur-"), "oasch" can be both an adjective and a noun. As a noun, it means arse, as an adjective it means shitty.
This is a fantastic song about the working and particularly about the night from Sunday and Monday that makes use of "oasch"
14) Des is fia die Fisch.
Pronunciation: [Days is fear dee fish.]**
Literal translation: This is for the fish.
Actual meaning: This is completely unnecessary. I don't know what the poor fish have to do with unnecessary things - if you have an interesting hypothesis regarding this, I'd be highly interested! Please let me know in the comments below!
Time to say goodbye.
15) Pfiat di.
Pronunciation: [P-fear-t dee.]
Literal translation: None.
Meaning: Good bye. This may be even harder to pronounce than Oachkatzlschwoaf. Other words you can use to bid farewell are: servus, ciao or baba (sometimes also "Bussi, baba", which translates as "light kiss, bye"). "Tschüss" is also commonly used. However, it is sometimes frowned upon because it is considered to be a German German word - and I guess most of us know the (more or less) friendly rivalries between neighbouring countries ;-)
Funny examples of sayings in your native language, anyone?
I hope today's post about Austria was interesting, helpful or at least entertaining. If it was, please don't forget to upvote and resteem!
Do you have any weird sayings or words in your language? Do you have any theories on why we say things the way we say them? Please let me know in the comments below!
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the content of the links - and I do not own the content of any of the YouTube videos.