Abstract
The present book starts with the premise that German displays a considerable degree of regional heterogeneity in form and usage. The Austrian German is a variety of the spoken and written German standard language in Austria.
It differs from the German variety used in the middle and northern parts of Germany in phonetics, morphology, syntax and especially in words and their meaning. Neither the amount of about 4 000 special expressions nor the accent allows a classification as a language of its own.
The Austrian variety depends on social, dialectal and historical facts. Its characteristic features are shortly described.
This book also deals with the Austrian German not only in the past but also in present days. The interest is devoted not only to history of German language in Austria but present situation of Austrian German in the land, Europe and opinions about this language.
The book describes concrete varieties of Austrian German and the influence of other languages as well.