Wienerisch

   The urban patois of Vienna, Wienerisch has many affinities with the dialects of eastern and southeastern Austria. Nevertheless, it is also quite distinctive. Like all of these regional idioms, it is grounded in the Bavarian dialect of German, which in turn retains strong connections with the changes in the pronunciation of the German language that began in the eighth century (second sound shift) and ended in the Middle High German of medieval times. Technically, Wienerisch is a variant of east Middle Bavarian. It is characterized by such pronunciation features as the blurring of differences in the articulation of “b” and “p,” and “d” and “t,” distinctive renderings of the sounds for “e,” “o,” “ö,” “au,” and “ei,” and frequent diphthongization of the vowels “a,” “i,” and “u.”

   The vocabulary of Wienerisch can be quite idiosyncratic, laced as it is with often unrecognizable borrowings from the tongues of all the peoples of east central and southeastern Europe who once belonged to the Habsburg Empire. To this have also been added elements from French, Italian, and Spanish, all of which were court languages at various periods from the 16th through the 18th centuries. The city’s position as the traditional capital of Austria has spread certain linguistic usages throughout the country that were once associated with Vienna alone. The term for a late-day sandwich, Brotzeit (Bread Time), is increasingly the Viennese usage, Jause, a word that has come down from the Middle High German of medieval times.