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Dialects of German
German, which is one of the world's mejor languagese, belongs to the western group of Germanic languages. In the european Union, it is the language with most native speakers. Apart from Germany, it is spoken Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the South Tyrol (in German, Südtirol) region of Italy, the major part of Switzerland, parts of Romania, Alsace (in German, Elsass), the East Cantons of Belgium, Austria, parts of the Lorraine (in German, Lothringen) region of France and Poland.A person who speaks German a little might remain shocked when he hears for the first time Germany, Austria or Switzerland dialects. "Hochdeutsch" (or standard German) is quite extended and used in the areas of business and tourism. Nevertheless, even if you are good speaker of German, it is possible that in certain situations you don't understand anything at all!! If this happens, it means you have heard one of the many dialects of German.
The different varieties of standard German are not to be considered dialects. This name is only attributed to the traditional regional varieties.
Standard German has originated from a written language rather than from a dialect of a specific region. In Northern Germany and in the cities, the standard language has replaced the traditional regional dialects. However, standard German itself also changes from a region to another and especially from the different German-speaking countries.
For instance, at public occasions in Austria you can hear a different pronunciation and vocabulary with respect to the one which is used in Germany, but also from any dialect.
In the majority of the regions, standard German is mixed with local varieties, which are more or less similar to standard language depending on situation.
In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, however, the mixture of dialect and standard is not usually used. In reality, Standard German is limited to a number of restricted situations, as in schools (in theory) or to comunicate with those who do not understand the Swiss dialect of that region. Dialects are hardly used in the written form and even for writing short notes standard german is preferred.
Dialects can be defined by comparing different words which are used to call the same thing. For instance, a "mosquito" in German may be called in many different ways, according to the region: Schnake, Moskito, Gelse, Staunze, Mugge, Mücke. what is more, for some German words it doesn't exist one universal term. That means that, depending on the area, the same words might have different meanings. In Northern Germany, "a mosquito" is Eine (Stech-) Mücke, while in parts of Austria the same word refers to a house fly, while mosquitos are Gelsen.