!!!Sprache des Österreichers

Austrian German: The language of the Celts replaced the language of 
the subjugated Illyrians and other Indo-Europeans and similarly, under 
Roman rule, Latin became the predominant language, which, after the 
Migration of the Germanic Peoples, gave way to the languages of the 
Slavs who had settled in the east and south (Romance vernaculars only 
survived in parts of Tirol and Vorarlberg); similarly, when the 
Bavarians established their rule from the 8%%sup th/%  century 
onwards, they brought with them the Upper German vernacular and made 
it the national language. At the same time the Alemanni, who also 
spoke the Upper German vernacular, came to the westernmost part of 
Austria, to Vorarlberg. In the north-east of Austria, Frankish 
settlers contributed to the development of the national language. In 
the early Middle Ages German spread all over Austria and became the 
language of the Austrians. Only in the high alpine valleys of 
Vorarlberg and western Tirol have Rhaeto-Romanic vernaculars continued 
to be spoken; in southern Carinthia Slovene is still maintaining its 
hold (even though on the decrease), as is Croatian in Burgenland.

\\
The Austrian language was influenced by the long and independent 
history of Austria, the development of its own culture and relations 
with non-German-speaking nations lasting several centuries. The 
peculiarities of Austrian German lie in its vocabulary and 
pronunciation as well as in syntactic and grammatical varieties ( 
Austriacism), which can also be observed in literary works. German 
dictionaries register them as equally valid Austrian varieties. 
Austrian German is divided into  Dialects according to geographical 
areas; it is only in the province of Vorarlberg that they can be quite 
different from the common spoken language.  Oesterreichisches 
Woerterbuch (Austrian Dictionary).

!Literature
H. Rizzo-Baur, Die Besonderheiten der deutschen 
Schriftsprache in Oesterreich und Suedtirol (Brockhaus-Hefte 
editions), 1961; Woerterbuch der bairischen Mundarten in Oesterreich, 
1963ff.; M. Hornung, Besonderheiten der deutschen Hochsprache in 
Oesterreich, in: Oesterreich in Geschichte und Literatur, 1973.


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