österreichisch

Forms

österreichisch (strong nominative masculine singular österreichischer, comparative österreichischer, superlative am österreichischsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German Österreich + -isch, the adjective of the country name.^[1][2][3] The name is Middle High German ōsterrīche, Old High German ōstarrīhhi (“eastern realm”), a compound of ōstar (“eastern”) and rīhhi (“realm, land”), the word in Reich.^[4][5][2] The suffix continues Old High German -isc, an old Germanic suffix of origin that also forms norwegisch.^[6]

Other proposals derive the name from a Slavic word or from a goddess Ostara; the second is no longer held.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ōstarrīhhi first meant the eastern part of the Frankish realm, East Francia, as in the Isidor and in Otfrid, who praises King Louis for ruling ostarrichi.^[4][7][8] A deed of gift of 996 uses Ostarrîchi for the region around Neuhofen an der Ybbs, in present-day Lower Austria.^[2] The Grimms' dictionary glosses the adjective with Latin austriacus and quotes österrichische lehenleut (“Austrian vassals”) from the Zimmern Chronicle.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German ōsterrīche could still mean any land in the east, but it also named Austria.^[5][9] Campe notes that the name, once used generally for an eastern land, had survived only as the name of a country and state, and records österreichisch “belonging to Austria, native there, coming from there”, as in die österreichischen Länder.^[3]

The Zimmern Chronicle already speaks of talking uf österreichisch, in the Austrian manner of speech, and Liselotte of the Palatinate writes österreichisch sprechen.^[9] Paul's dictionary keeps a list of Austrian words, among them Jause “snack”, Marille “apricot”, Jänner “January”, Karfiol “cauliflower” and Ribisel “currant”.^[10]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German ōstarrīhhi “eastern realm” appears in the Isidor translation.^[4]
• 863–871 – Otfrid uses ostarrichi for the East Frankish kingdom.^[4][7]
• 996 – Ostarrîchi names a region in present-day Lower Austria in a deed of gift.^[2]
• 3rd quarter of the 12th century – Middle High German ōsterriche is recorded in König Rother.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Austrian: relating to Österreich or to the Austrians: Er fährt einen Wagen mit österreichischem Kennzeichen.^[11][1][2]
2. Coming from Austria or from Austrians.^[2][11]

Noun

1. (Österreichisch, das Österreichische) Austrian German, the variety of German spoken in Austria.^[1]

Related words

• Österreich
• Österreicher
• Reich

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b Campe, Joachim Heinrich (1807–1811), Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache, 5 vols., Braunschweig: Schulbuchhandlung
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 451
7. ^ a b Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 137
8. ^ Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch (ReA, DDD-AD 1.0) (2016), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin et al., hdl.handle.net/11022/0000-0003-37E5-D
9. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 1379
10. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag