The first German word I learned was “fünfundfünfzig.” This might seem odd to you, but when a teacher needs an entire whiteboard to write one word, I was astounded. My first German teacher was fifty-five at the time (or maybe I’m rewriting history somewhat as I myself rather slowly near fünfundfünfzig…). This word was the seed that grew into my love of German. I still see my teacher as my Sprachmutter because she gave me a new Muttersprache. Without over-torturing the metaphor, I can say that she introduced me to a world that was at that time rather small. I was learning German in the ninth grade in high school in a county in south Mississippi. Learning German didn’t have the social cachet or practicality that learning Spanish would have had, but that didn’t matter to me. I had found a new mother-tongue.

How does this lead us, then, to the Mundartgarten? Slowly, slowly, over the years I realized that my German was born of a book (despite the best efforts of my German teachers over the years). My lack of exposure to authentic German coupled with interactions that would challenge me to grow and to adapt made my German rather dusty. Though I’d spent a semester abroad in Germany, it wasn’t until I arrived in Carinthia, the state where I live now in Austria, that I was fully immersed in a dialect that strained my comprehension. In order to help me improve my German, I’m going to plant a wee little garden of dialect words in German in the hopes that it grows and grows over the coming years. Sometimes the words are from standard German and have acquired their own local phonological flair; and at other times, it seems the words live in this corner of the world without having ventured further.

One of the best parts of learning a new language is talking to people who know that language. If you’d like to see what I’m planting in the garden, check out the Mundartgarten blog! In the blog I’ll update entries whenever I find new information, so check back on entries that you’re interested in. Sometimes the blog entries are works in progress and are published inchoate. The reason I do this is that it helps me keep track of where I am and also invites others to comment along the way. Feel free to share corrections, additions, and whatever else you can think of!