Berlin, Ick liebe Dir (Flickr: K.a.i.)

Berlin is a marvelous city. The metropolis offers an endless array of cultural events and is admired by many for its international diversity. Every year, Berlin welcomes a large number of tourists from all over the world. And sometimes, they fall head over heels for Berlin, decide to stay and call this their new home. For example the Turkish. Over the course of time, a large number of Turkish immigrants have settled in Kreuzberg, making this the second largest Turkish city by population after Istanbul. Or look at the Swabians, who’ve “invaded” the oh-so-loved Prenzlauer Berg, making it hard for Berliners to find an apartment there anymore. Nonetheless, most Berliners embrace their new neighbours, and in the future we’ll likely grow closer and all live together as one big family…

But for now, it’s the subtle differences that determine a so-called “waschechte” (born-and-bred) Berliner. A real Berliner speaks the Berliner language. But before I dive into this, let’s take a general approach. It’s no secret that the German language is difficult but beautiful, and once you’ve gotten the hang of it the fun can start! That is, until you are put to a halt by the many incomprehensible dialects found in places such as Bavaria, Saxony and Hamburg. What the hell should “Guggemada“ mean? Try looking that up in a dictionary and you’ll not find a single translation. (It means “Look over there” in Saxonian dialect). In Berlin, we speak our own dialect too, called Berlinerisch. This tongue is mostly heard in former East Berlin, but one finds it all over town. Growing up in the western part of Berlin, I had to learn my bit of Berlinerisch and I’m still not completely fluent yet so rest assured, we’re in this together.

Here are some easy tricks at mastering the Berlin dialect, so read on…

In general, words are slurred and shortened, making the language faster and smoother. The letter “G“ at the beginning of a word or syllable turns into a “J“, changing words like “Gut“ to “Jut“ (good). Words ending in “G“ are pronounced as “Ch“, making their ending softer as in the word “Richtig” to “Richtich” (correct).

Check out this handy translator with the basic Berlinerisch-words:

[Berlinerisch: German (English)]

Ick, icke: Ich (Me/I)

Dit: Das (That)

Weeste: Weißt du (You know)

Rische: Richtig (Right)

Hamse: Haben sie (They have…)

Tschul’jung. Entschuldigung (Excuse me)

Kiek’n: Gucken (Look at)

Futsch: Kaputt / Weg (Broken / Gone)

Knorke: Alles gut. (Everything good)

Samma: Sage mal (Say)

Pampig: Frech (Rude)

Rinbuttern: Investieren (Invest)

With these words we can make a couple of phrases:

“Weeste wat? Tschul’jung dit ick vorhin so pampig war, meen Auto war futsch aba jezze is allet wieda knorke und mir jehts jut. Kiek ma eener an, da hamse mir jesacht, ick soll da rische rinbuttern und dann kommt nur Müll bei raus, weeste? Typisch für die Balina! Dit jibs ja janich.”

(“Do you know what? I’m sorry I was so rude earlier, my car was broken but now everything is good again and I’m doing great. Someone look at this; they told me I should really invest in this and all I get in return is trash, you know? Typical for Berliners. That’s just not normal.”)

Too bad John F. Kennedy can’t read my Young-Germany blog, then he would have said his infamous Berlin sentence “Ich bin ein Berliner” in the local dialect, sounding something along the lines of, “Ick bin ‘n Balina, wa?!”