Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2012-10-09 07:08:58 -0500, Giovanni Drogo said:

The (autonomous) province of Trento correspond to the part called
"Trentino" and is exclusively of italian language. The (autonomous)
province of Bolzano/Bozen correspond to the part called "Alto Adige /
Südtirol" and is bilingual (actually trilingual, citizens have to
declare whether they belong to the German, Italian, or Ladin group).

Funny story. I was lost in Merano. This was back in 2009, the big trip.
The motorway from the south somehow enters Merano, but there was no way
to take the northerly road out, that I could see. I had to navigate
through the city. Got lost.

Once I drove around the same center three times, I asked for directions.
"Dove autostrada nord?"

And I get what I expected, a lightspeed response in Italian. Sigh. The
woman recognized I didn't follow, and perhaps because I was in a German
car, she asked, in German, if I spoke German! A little, I replied. So
through some pidgeon German and some pantomime (closing and opening hands
with fingers outstretched with the word "amphel"), I know how many meters
to travel until I went left, then after the third "amphel", drive right, etc..

Finally made it out. SO glad they spoke German up there.

Later in my trip, I stopped for fuel in this part of Italy and the clerk
without pause starting talking to me in German. I escape a tourist identification!

My German is the best non-English European language, and I've thought to
take a leave some day to immerse in a German language, maybe through some
classes at a local university. I always assumed it would be in Germany
or perhaps Austria. Maybe it could be south Tirol. Thoughts? I
understand the dialects can awkward to carry from place to place, but,
would it be any different in say, Berlin, if I spoke south Tirolish
German versus Bavarian, Stuttgartish, or Wiener German?

Local German dialects can be mutually unintelligible, but people in the
German-speaking areas all understand Hochdeutsch. I've never had trouble
being understood in any I've been in, and I'm often well off the beaten
path. There have been times when I've had difficulty understanding replies,
but because I speak the educated language fluently, i can allow for some
varience, and I can follow most people's attempts to do the same, as well
as a heavy infusion of some dialects. I've had conversations I didn't
understand parts of a time or two, however.





--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist with iPad