Are all those Germans really different enough to count separately?
Like, I wouldn’t know how to distinguish my fluency in American English from British English. And that’s not even getting to Canadian, Australian, Irish… the differences are far more cultural than linguistic.
English (fluent)
Dutch (bad)
French (basics)
Japanese (basics)
Standard German (native)
Lower Austrian German (fluent)
Bavarian German (fluent)
Saxonian German (fluent)
Vienna German (good)
Hamburgian German (OK)
Berlin German (OK)
Northern German (OK)
Swabian German (OK)
Platt German (bad)
Tyrolean German (bad)
Swiss German (worse) - Yes, for me it’s easier to understand Dutch than Swiss German
Are all those Germans really different enough to count separately?
Like, I wouldn’t know how to distinguish my fluency in American English from British English. And that’s not even getting to Canadian, Australian, Irish… the differences are far more cultural than linguistic.
Yes, German dialects can vary greatly for example here’s the same sentence “I have an apple.” in different German dialects:
Standard German:
“Ich habe einen Apfel.”
Northern German / Platt:
“Ik hab en Appel.”
Middle German / Saxonian:
" 'sch’habm Abbl." ( 'sch is pronounced like sh)
Southern German / Bavarian & Austrian:
“I hob an Opfü.” (I is pronounced like the single letter E)
The Southern Germans are the ones with the Schwarzenegger accent.