Dialects

Guides to regional dialects — the living, everyday varieties spoken alongside a standard language. Each guide is organised into the eight CEFR sub-levels (A1.1 to B2.2), contrasts the dialect with its standard language, and points to verified, citable resources. We're starting with one guide and will add more over time.

Bavarian German (Boarisch)

Bavarian (in its own speech Boarisch, in Standard German Bairisch), also called Austro-Bavarian, is a group of Upper German varieties spoken in the south-east of the German-speaking area: the German state of Bavaria, most of Austria, and South Tyrol in Italy. It is the most widely spoken of all the German dialects — roughly 12 million speakers across about 125,000 km² — and forms a continuum of three branches: Northern Bavarian (the Upper Palatinate), Central Bavarian (along the Isar and Danube, including Munich and Vienna), and Southern Bavarian (Tyrol, Carinthia, South Tyrol).[^1] Confidence: High.