Austria's Language Evolution: German Always Spoken?

Austria has a complex linguistic history. The territory that is now Austria has been German-speaking since the emergence of the German language, which evolved from older Germanic languages during the Great Migration period. The official language of Austria is Austrian German, which is influenced by Austro-Bavarian, the unofficial native language of Austria. German is the de facto first language of Austria, with around 98% of the population speaking it. However, there are variations in the standard German spoken across different regions, and distinct differences between regional dialects. Aside from German, Croatian, Hungarian, Slovenian, and Turkish are also spoken by minority groups in Austria.

German is the official language of Austria

German is the national official language of Austria and constitutes a lingua franca and de facto first language. It is used in the media, in schools, and for formal announcements. The variety of German used in Austria is Austrian German, which is influenced by Austro-Bavarian, the unofficial native language of Austria. Austro-Bavarian is the main dialect outside of Vorarlberg, and it is very difficult for German speakers from other regions to understand.

Austrian German is mutually intelligible with Standard German, with some differences in terms of accent and vocabulary. German is spoken by around 98% of the country's population, with some variation in the standard language spoken across the regions and distinct differences between the many regional dialects within the country.

Austrian German is influenced by Austro-Bavarian

Austrian German, or Österreichisches Deutsch, is the official language of Austria and is used in education, media, and administrative communications. It is mutually intelligible with Standard German, though there are some differences in accent and vocabulary.

The origins of Austro-Bavarian lie with the Germanic tribe known as the Bavarii, who established a tribal duchy covering much of what is today Bavaria and parts of Austria in the early Middle Ages. The tribe was eventually subdued by Charlemagne, and the Bavarii gradually migrated down the Danube and into the Alps—to all the areas where Austro-Bavarian dialects are spoken today.

In German, there is a distinction between "bairisch" (referring to the language) and "bayerisch" (referring to the state of Bavaria). The difference in spelling is due to King Ludwig I's passion for all things Hellenic—the German name for Bavaria today is spelled "Bayern", while the language spoken there has retained its original spelling of "Bairisch".

Alemannic and Austro-Bavarian are the two other major unofficial national languages of Austria. Alemannic is mostly spoken in the western state of Vorarlberg and is influenced by German Swiss dialects. Austro-Bavarian, on the other hand, is influenced by the Bavarian dialects of Austria.

German has been spoken in Austria since the Great Migration

The Germanic peoples who were pushed into the Roman Empire were admitted by Emperor Valens, who hoped they would defend the frontier. However, the Romans were unprepared for the large number of migrants, and their failure to accommodate them led to conflict. The migrants, known as the Visigoths, killed Valens in 378, winning a famous victory at Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey). Although the Romans subdued the Visigoths by 382, the empire's frontiers came under increasing pressure as the Huns continued their westward expansion. This led to further large migrations of Germanic peoples into the empire in 386, 395, 405, and 406.

The Roman Empire remained a significant power in Europe, and so the Germanic groups on the run from the Huns were eager to make peace. The Romans played these groups off against each other, and the threat of the Huns meant that the empire could mobilise them for its defence. However, when the Hun empire collapsed after the death of Attila in 453, the Germanic peoples gained the upper hand. They declared themselves independent, and by the 470s, several Germanic successor states had emerged, bringing the Roman Empire in western Europe to an end.

Within the boundaries of present-day Germany, the Hunnish conquest forced Germanic peoples out of the region east of the Elbe and Saale rivers. This area was subsequently settled by Slavic-speaking peoples, and it remained Slavic for about seven centuries. In contrast, the Germanic peoples who settled in the lands to the west and south, including the eastern Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringians, Alemanni, and Bavarians, laid the foundation for the development of the German language and ethnic identity.

Austria and Germany were once part of the same empire

Austria and Germany were once part of the Holy Roman Empire, which was officially a German polity from 1512 and mostly led by Austria itself. The Holy Roman Empire was a vast political entity that, at various times, encompassed the bulk of present territories of Germany, Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Slovenia, northern Italy and western Poland. The House of Habsburg became the ruling family of the Empire in 1440 and remained so until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806.

Austria was the seat of power and the dominant state within the realm. The numerous German states within the Empire constantly jostled for power and influence, and often warred against each other. In the 18th century, the Kingdom of Prussia rose as another influential power within the Empire, becoming Austria's main rival for dominance over their neighbouring German states.

The Napoleonic Wars

In the 1790s and 1800s, Austria and Prussia allied against the French Empire, but were ultimately unsuccessful. In 1804, Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, proclaimed the Austrian Empire, as the remaining German States had become clients of Napoleon's French Empire under the Confederation of the Rhine. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, Austria created the German Confederation as a new organisation among the German States, in which Prussia and Austria became reunited.

The German Confederation

The German Confederation lacked a monarch or a central government with real unifying force, and so dualism within the German Confederation laid the foundation for diplomatic tension between Prussia and Austria, who had ambitions to create a unified Germany under their different proposals. Austria proposed to unite the German states in a union centred on, and dominated by, the Habsburgs; Prussia, however, hoped to become the central force in unifying the German states and to exclude Austria from its affairs. In 1834, Prussia succeeded in creating a German Customs Union with northern German states with the hope of political union as its next step. The tension eventually gave rise to the 1866 Austro-Prussian War (Fraternal War of the Germans). Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia, sided with Italy to surround Austria and bring about the latter's defeat. The Austrian Empire was dissolved into the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, with the loss of their influence over southern German states (Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria).

The North German Confederation

In 1867, the new North German Confederation was declared by Bismarck. After Prussia's victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, in which the Prussian army entered and marched over Paris, Bismarck announced the creation of the German Empire and excluded Austria-Hungary solely in this unified Germany.

The First World War

In the 1910s, Austria-Hungary's ambition of turning Serbia into its protectorate facilitated the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary's throne, in 1914. When Austria-Hungary stirred up excuses for a war against Serbia, Germany, claiming the Alliance's terms of passive military defence instead of downright aggression, reluctantly entered the war on Austria-Hungary's side.

After losing the war, the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary were overthrown and both Germany and Austria became republics and were heavily punished in the Treaty of Versailles (1919) and Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye (1919). Austria lost over 60% of its pre-war territory (mostly settled by non-Austrians) and was hugely reduced to a rump state, The Republic of German-Austria. The majority in both countries wanted unification with Germany (now the Weimar Republic) into a Greater German nation, but this was strictly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles to avoid a dominant German state.

The Anschluss

In 1938, Nazi Germany, led by Austrian-born Adolf Hitler, annexed Austria into Germany in what would come to be called the Anschluss. Following the fact that Austria under Allied control claimed independence to be secondly separated from Germany on 27 April 1945, the German identity in Austria has been weakened.

Austria has many regional dialects

Austro-Bavarian differs significantly from Standard German, making it challenging for German speakers from other regions to understand the native population. The Viennese dialect, for example, is far less recognisable to German speakers. Austrian German also has distinct differences from the German spoken in Germany and Switzerland, with variations in vocabulary, accent, and grammar.

Alemannic, or Swiss German, is the main dialect spoken in Vorarlberg, with approximately 300,000 speakers. It is challenging for German speakers to understand. Vorarlberg is the only Austrian state where the Alemannic dialect is spoken, and it is not mutually intelligible with Austrian German.

In addition to these main dialects, there are several minority languages spoken in Austria, including Turkish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, and Romanian. These languages are recognised as official languages in specific regions of Austria, such as Burgenland Croatian and Hungarian in Burgenland, and Slovene in Carinthia and Styria. The country also has a large number of Turkish speakers and immigrants from former Yugoslavia, contributing to the linguistic diversity.

Overall, Austria's linguistic landscape is diverse, with various dialects and minority languages coexisting alongside the official language, Austrian German.

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