Regional differences

[Richard A]

Arneb has shown us how German varies from region to region. Mostly spoken but sometimes written. So a question: is Schweinshaxe the southern name for Eisbeim? As far as I can tell, Eisbein, Schweinshaxe and Gołonka are all basically the same thing, but is this in fact true?

[Arneb]

The part (pig's lower leg) is the same in all three. Eisbein is salted, then cooked, Haxe is raw and steamed or cooked and then grilled, as, it seems, is Golonka.

For the cunning linguists, in Austria, Haxe/Eisbein/Golonka is called Stelze, or "Stöizn", to approximate the pronounciation.

Talking of regional differences. Do any German speakers here understand this legal treatise on a particularity of Austrian law, in a thick Austrian accent? I found it extremely funny:

[Richard A]

I was surprised at how much of it I did understand - a lot more than I have of your Franconian quotes. I suspect that this is official Austrian, if there is such a thing. A bit like when, visiting the Austrians’ western neighbours, I saw a billboard in Lucerne proclaiming, “Lieber hüt’ als mor’n”, I was able to understand it a lot better than I could my fellow passengers on the bus.

But it’s not just German that has national variations. Long before Brexit, when I was an intern at the European Commission in Brussels, I outraged a French fellow stagiaire with the explanation “Je ne l’avais pas avec.” She took the view - I still think bizarrely - that if non-francophones are going to speak French, even in Brussels, they should speak Parisian French. Belgium got its revenge - I have never had anything to do with ULB but now have good connections with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.