Most guides to Austrian German are about the accent, which is the least useful half.
The useful half is that a large amount of ordinary vocabulary is simply different, particularly around food, and that Austria takes this seriously enough to have negotiated it into international law.
The twenty-three words in the treaty
When Austria joined the EU in 1995, its accession treaty included Protocol No. 10, listing twenty-three Austrian food terms and granting them the same legal standing as their German equivalents. It is the only provision of its kind. A country used a treaty to protect its word for potato.
der Erdapfel: a potato, literally an earth apple, the same construction as the French pomme de terre. Germany says Kartoffel.
der Paradeiser: a tomato, from Paradiesapfel, paradise apple. Germany says Tomate. In supermarkets you will see both, and in a Viennese market only one.
die Marille: an apricot. Germany says Aprikose. The Wachau valley marillen are a protected origin product and something of a national cause.
der Karfiol: cauliflower, from the Italian cavolfiore. Germany says Blumenkohl.
die Fisolen: green beans. Germany says grüne Bohnen.
die Melanzani: aubergine, again from Italian. Germany says Aubergine.
das Faschierte: minced meat. Germany says Hackfleisch.
der Topfen: quark. Germany says Quark, and Topfenstrudel is why this one matters.
das Obers: cream, and Schlagobers is whipped cream. Germany says Sahne and Schlagsahne.
der Kren: horseradish. Germany says Meerrettich.
The Italian loans in that list are not a coincidence. They arrived through the Habsburg empire's long entanglement with northern Italy, which also explains the coffee.
The everyday objects
das Sackerl: a bag, and the word you need at every till in the country. Germany says Tüte. The diminutive is doing its usual Austrian work.
die Jause: the snack, the Austrian counterpart of the Bavarian Brotzeit from the Munich article and of the words in the meals article.
das Beisl: a small, unpretentious pub with food. From Yiddish, and one of the words that tells you about Vienna's history.
der Greißler: the small corner grocery. Mostly gone as a business, entirely alive as a word.
die Palatschinke: a thin pancake, from the Hungarian palacsinta, itself from the Romanian, itself from the Latin. Four empires in one dessert.
The month problem
der Jänner: January. Not a dialect form, not informal. It is the standard Austrian word, printed in newspapers and written in contracts. Januar is understood everywhere and marks you as German instantly.
der Feber: February. Less universal than Jänner, still current in official use, and increasingly displaced by Februar.
Coffee, which requires its own vocabulary
Ordering "einen Kaffee" in a Viennese café is not wrong, exactly. It is simply not an answer to the question.
die Melange: espresso with hot milk and milk foam, the Viennese default and the closest thing to a cappuccino.
der Verlängerter: an espresso lengthened with hot water. Not an Americano, and Austrians will tell you why.
der kleine Brauner: a small black coffee with a little cream on the side. Ein großer Brauner is the double.
der Einspänner: a strong black coffee in a glass under a substantial cap of whipped cream, named after the one-horse carriage whose driver needed one hand free.
The one grammatical tell
es geht sich aus: it fits, there is enough time or room for it. Geht sich das noch aus? is asked constantly and is essentially untranslatable into German German, which would need a whole clause.
If you learn one Austrian construction rather than one Austrian noun, learn this one. Nothing marks a foreigner as at home in Vienna faster.
The greetings live elsewhere
Servus, Grüß Gott, Habedere and Baba are Austrian as much as Bavarian, and they are covered in the article on German greetings.
How to learn a food vocabulary
Photograph the sign and save the word. Food vocabulary is the one category where the world helpfully labels itself. A market stall in Vienna is a vocabulary list with prices on it.
Give Translate the whole label. Faschiertes vom Rind means more as a phrase than Faschiertes does alone.
Then let the levels do it. Twenty-three treaty words plus a dozen others is a fortnight of work and a permanent result.
The short version
Learn Erdapfel, Paradeiser, Marille, Topfen and Sackerl before your first shop. Learn Melange and Verlängerter before your first café. Write Jänner.
And learn es geht sich aus, because you will need it about six times a day and German has no way to say it.
Saw a word on a Viennese menu that your German did not cover? Save it in Vokabulo with the dish. Free to start on iPhone and iPad. 🇦🇹
