As a born Prussian German, I am always amazed that Americans cannot understand the history of Germany, as well as Europe.Hords of Germans migrated to America. Germany is made up of many former Kingdom's, each with their own form of a spoken German Dialect and accent. As a fact Germany formed a bund (confederation) of all German Principalities after the Napolic take over of most of German areas. Not till later when the Weimar Republic was formed, did German's kind of united.
Lichtenstein speaks all of the languages spoken around their tiny country.
It is very difficult for me to understand Switzerduetsch (Swiss German) It is a very heavely Dialected German with some Italien and French thrown in, I can understand Wieanese German, but it is very difficult to fully understand the German spoken by Natives in Lichtenstein.Of course as all German speaking area's, people all learned High German when Adolf came into power. If Adolf did one good thing for the German Nation, he ordered that all German Students would start to speak High German.
Even today when travelling across a land the size of California , you will hear dozens of different German Dialects spoken , thanks to Adolf ,they all can switch to High German by command as they all learned High German ( every Southern German calls this Northern German), It is more like Prussian, as in the North people of my parents Generation spoke :"Plat Duetsch", Would sound like Dutch , except it is only minimally so. "Ick kann ug an betten Plat Duetsch snakken" In High German " ich kann auch ein bischen Plat Deutsch sprechen" . Maybe you can immedeately see the difference. My parents under the Weimar republic even learned a old German script , which my Generation did not learn , we learned Latin script, I tried to read old German , it appeared like a different language.
When you travel across Germany today , if you listen carefully , you will still hear regional accents and a mesh of old and new. In Berlin one would say " Bist Du beklopt" "Are you out of your mind" a Baverian would say " Bist Deppert". Basically all of the area's now speak each its own dialected High German.
Should you land in Koeln (Colognia) So named by the Romans that build fortifications on the forded Rhein River, when they tried to settle the Britisch Isles, la Colognia = Colony, ahh sounds like English, you right , but realize that the Romans settled for a period , abandoned the Isles, later the Normans ( Vikinks all), settled Southern England and England spoke Norman French / Viking for 500 years , Did you know that many of our words, as well as German etc words are based on Norman French, Market, House, street Chase and on and on.
When In Colognia , not far from the Dome Cathedral, in old town, you will find the Roman Museum (A must see), when you listen to the locals , you will again hear a different accent, only spoken in that area :"Koelsch", God knows how it developed , maybe a mix introduced by the many non Italien Mercenaries serving in the Roman Legion., some time it got Germanised, Most German's cannot understand "KOELSCH". I can only understand little.
Ohh, you must eat some "Blood Wurst; delish, except you may find that even so it is a Delicatessen's Dream, maybe somebody should have killed the whatever before putting it on my "Your"plate. Dont bother to thank me when you return , i am moving right after finishing this writ!
Auf Wiedersehn, Servus , gruetz Di!
I stopped in Lichtenstein a few times to check on my money, as the Lichtensteiners are just as clever as are the Swizz and Luxenburgers. You enter the bank in Vaduz and they immedeately greet you with a typical Austrian , Grueze De ( Phonetically), when you reply , they can switch to several languages by quickly identifying your accent etc. Americans are always easily identified as we are uniquely not International.
I hope that I was able to put some light on this rather difficult subject.
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