Austrian German in primary schools

Austrian German has the status of a variety of standard German, but is often regarded today as a dialect or colloquial language. There is often uncertainty about how to use Austrian German correctly, and it seems to be fading into the background. This study therefore investigated the extent to which fourth-grade pupils use Austrian or equivalent German terms. To this end, pupils were asked to name selected objects depicted in pictures from the children’s sphere of experience. The current research results of this study show that Austrian and German terms are used in equal measure. Based on the interesting data evaluated, it can be assumed that Austrian terms are slowly being replaced by their German equivalents, and that Austrian German is therefore losing importance.