German Memory in Asia - An Exploration Into Austrian-German Dialects

While I was talking to Dietmar Doering , a student entered into the office exclaiming, "Oh! I couldn't believe it, such a big change?" Doering told she was a former student and introduced Andrea. She was visiting Sri Lanka after her stay as an intern student in 2004. She was working in a leading Austrian newspaper as a sports journalist.

In the middle of our conversation, she smiled at Doering and said, "You are talking with an Austrian accent". He with a smile accepted her remark. Doering has been living in Sri Lanka for more than twenty years with his mother and he might have adopted that accent for her benefit.

Austrian German is a variety of the German language and mostly a High German dialect.
Dialects are receding in Austria as they are in some other areas of Europe, but it can safely be said that they are more persistent than in most of Germany.

Dialects are frequently used in TV series or movies where it is appropriate for a particular character and situation. Educated people in Vienna usually speak a very slight form of dialect or simply Standard German, but with the characteristic Viennese accent.

Austria's mountainous terrain led to the development of many distinct German dialects. All of the dialects in the country, however, belong to Austro-Bavarian groups of German dialects, with the exception of the dialect spoken in its west-most Bundesland, Vorarlberg, which belongs to the group of Alemannic dialects. There is also a distinct grammatical standard for Austrian German with a few differences to the German spoken in Germany.