What language was the grandma speaking? - Krampus (2015) Discussion

German. Krampus is German folklore I believe :)

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It's also slavic. I'm from Slovenia, and we have him also.

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[–] arkay 8 years ago

It's not a German tradition, they only celebrate it in the alp region, the southern part of Bavaria and some other parts of Europe.

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[–] mawo333 8 years ago

The way they show it in the movie, is the Austrian form of krampus.

In the german folklore, there is a similar thing called "knecht ruprecht" (servant ruprecht) who is the servant of saint nick and while saint nick gives gifts, knecht ruprecht punnishes the evil children.

He is usually a big man in a long coat, with chains all over him and a sack to put in the bad children and a brushwood broom to beet the kids

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[–] angryskorpion-44260 8 years ago

It's Austro-Bavarian Alpine folklore.

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[–] niosudigs 8 years ago

Krampus has very little to do with german culture.

IT's an old tradition from the Austrian Alps, which spread to all parts of the Habsburg Empire over time. Austria, Southern Bavaria, Northern Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Southern Poland.

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[–] Arvin-G-Borkar 8 years ago

There are two possibilities 1.) the grandmother was actually the mom's mom and 2.) maybe the mom was too Americanized to know how to speak German. For instance, I have friends that do not know how to speak a bit about the language spoken by their grandmothers because they were born and raised in the U.S. Max probably learned German by being around his grandmother a lot, as young kids' brains are usually able to absorb and learn a language faster than adults AND because Max probably spent a lot of time with her.

Better watch out, better start crying. Better hurry up, run and hide. Krampus is coming to town! >:)

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[–] why_yes_its_will 8 years ago

It was the fathers mother and pretty sure he did understand her

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[–] northernlad 7 years ago

Yes! He did understand her. How did this get missed by people?

American Horror Story Season 6: Donald Trump

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[–] cgrill8 8 years ago

She was speaking German, and the Dad and Max could both understand her. Now I sort of find that odd, how Max could understand her and not speak German... I mean I took 2 years of German in high school. I was NOT fluent in German but was able to say a few short sentences, at least introduce myself, ask a few questions, knew my numbers, but that was about it! When I used to work in a call center and actually had a German woman on the phone (her English was fine), but when Ich sprechen ein wenig Duetch... whoa! She went so fast, it flew over my head! On paper is one thing (and somewhat easier taking your time) but actually hearing it, is ANOTHER! And tough to translate in your head when you're not dealing nor reading it everyday... so if Max could understand Omi... the he should have slipped up saying at least something SIMPLE in German if he was that good. Because when you hear it and think it, it's hard NOT to speak it (even when you're German is bad or wrong!) Das ist richtig!

Froliche Weinachten!

3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

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[–] Arvin-G-Borkar 8 years ago

Then again, I think people are speculating a bit too much. These were actors overall. All the actors would have no idea what she was saying, only they acted like it and every time a line was said in German (if any of the actors said anything), it was because it was in the script, not because they actually knew how to speak it.

Better watch out, better start crying. Better hurry up, run and hide. Krampus is coming to town! >:)

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[–] chrishon20 8 years ago

I was meant to be odd... Remember that Omi can actually tell an entire tale in English. It was a joke within the movie.

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[–] bluemagicmist 8 years ago

Now I sort of find that odd, how Max could understand her and not speak German ....
so if Max could understand Omi... the he should have slipped up saying at least something SIMPLE in German if he was that good. Because when you hear it and think it, it's hard NOT to speak it

Not true in my case. I was exposed to Hungarian on a daily basis from age 9. I could understand nearly everything that was spoken by the time I was 10/11, I could say simple phrases, but I always replied in English.
The mind does a quick translate,lol.

How can you slip up when it's not your primary language? *scratches head*

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[–] danloki 8 years ago

Now I sort of find that odd, how Max could understand her and not speak German...

Maybe it was as simple as this - so the non German members of the audience knew what they were talking about. I thought it was done really well. Obviously the director didnt want to use subtitles, and the way it was done makes you feel like the family members who couldnt understand her.

Max and Omi were the highlights for me. That was a lovely relationship.

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[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

Being able to speak German requires remembering a lot of grammar and vocabulary. Being able to understand German doesnt require as strong of an understanding. If youre only somewhat fluent in a language, you probably won't be albe to recall the translation of a lot of words, but you might be able to translate them easily when you hear them.

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[–] cgrill8 8 years ago

I dunno... I learned a little German in high school...and when I came upon a very excited customer who spoke German she went NUTS! And started speaking German 90 to nothing and I couldn't understand a single word, even when I asked her to slow down! What little I know I can speak it better than I can understand it by hearing... now simple conversationalist speaking German is really all we learned in school... and even then I didn't get a 'full' grasp on it... about the only thing I remember are VERY short (not even) sentences, numbers, and days of the week! So I'm not fluent at ALL. But I guess everyone's 'knack' of learning is different. Like Japanese, I hear it's easier to speak it and hear it, than learning all the Katakana, Haragana? and Kanji... which is a LOT more than just 26 alphabet letters...

3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

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[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

Well the speed of their speech will certainly make things harder.

I took some German in high school as well, and I was able to understand some of what Omi said. When she responded with "naturlich" to say "naturally", I could remember what that meant in English, but I certainly wouldnt be able to remember what "naturally" was in German on my own.

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[–] cgrill8 8 years ago

Funny thing was, she didn't care I barely understood her, she just felt good speaking her native tongue for a change on the phone so got over excited (I think), but yeah, Lich is our LY so the one word I remember is wirlich /veer-lich/ which simply means 'really'. Naturlich was fairly easy to understand too. Luckily the woman playing Omi had good diction direction from her acting classes. Diction is so important in any media. I was on the radio for a while, and you DO find yourself trying to speak clearer and less in your natural dialect when you're on the air. And some people over do it speaking clear while trying to keep their dialect. Oh my, and me in my Southern dialect trying to speak German... my friend who IS fluent in German would just laugh at me trying to speak German! He was correcting me left and right... :P I didn't care. Though our dialect CAN change depending on who your circle of friends are and how long you spend time with them. We went to Missouri when I was like, 8? Prior to my surgery, and we were there for a good week one winter visiting cousins, and my dad said we came back, and I spoke with a very clean accent and my Southern accent actually was GONE for a while way back then. I had no idea. Yet I go to Canada and a cute girl I was talking with pin pointed where I live to the CITY! That was scary, and I didn't care, it was still a turn on! ;P

But I come from the 'older' era when we joked about people's dialect and how people talked. My grandfather did it all the time, and his dad would even joke how the Austrians would talk at the commissary... it's just natural to make fun of how other people talk. We all do it. It's not 'politically correct' anymore, and I cannot stand that crap... I mean, if you can make fun of someone's accent, you should also be able to take someone making fun of you. Simple as that... and we did. It was all good. It was just for fun, and not meant to be hurtful or harmful. We all have different dialect and accents. And it should be FUN to speak like someone else. It used to be high compliment to speak in another accent. Now it's supposedly hurtful... whatever. Everyone can mimic a fake German accent or Italian accent if they want, but we can't pretend to speak deep South dialect without nearly being handcuffed by the speech police. Whatever...

3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

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[–] berta99 8 years ago

The actress is Austrian - so, not having seen the movie yet I would assume she speaks Austrian German.

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[–] Arvin-G-Borkar 8 years ago

You would be surprised that even people in Austria may know more English than Austrian German. By her age, it is plausible; however, they are actors too~

Better watch out, better start crying. Better hurry up, run and hide. Krampus is coming to town! >:)

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[–] niosudigs 8 years ago

i would be really surprised, because i am austrian and we're not nearly as good in english as the scandinavians.

and the accents are still quite strong in austrian german. strong enough to not be understodd by germans if we want to ;)

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[–] Marcelo1988 8 years ago

Yep, she does and even I had problems to understand her with that austrian accent and I'm german...

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[–] arkay 8 years ago

Why are you lying? She speaks pretty much standard German.

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[–] Marcelo1988 8 years ago

I'm not lying, that is never standard german. She had a strong accent...

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[–] surject 8 years ago

I'm not lying, that is never standard german. She had a strong accent...

Standard German in the english version of the movie => Aunt Dorothy: "English, I knew it"

German with a very strong accent in the german version of the movie => Aunt Dorothy: "Akzentfrei, sie kann's ja doch" (accent-free, she can do it)

Long story short: She was dubbed in the german version of the movie to give a meaning to the scene when she told her tale in a language everyone understood.

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[–] bastico 8 years ago

She is an Austrian actress from Vienna and speaks that kind of Austrian dialect that they speak in Vienna. Trust me, I am from Austria.

It's like you'd say someone from New York speaks pretty much standard English. What defines the standard?

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[–] volkstraum 8 years ago

Urdu.

"I can't help but notice that there are skulls all over everything. Are we the baddies?"

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[–] cgrill8 8 years ago

Well of course Max grew up with Omi. So he'd be used to her speaking Deutsch. For so long. So he may be able to understand her but maybe not speak it well. Rolling the R can be be tricky for some.

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[–] aspiringwriter16 8 years ago

Her accent sounded Austrian, so I assume Austrian German.

Don't Judge a Book by Its Movie

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[–] dankocerovac 8 years ago

Max wasn't the only person that could understand grandma. The father (Adam Scotts character) also understood her obviously as well because he replied to his mother (Max's grandma) in german. Which was very brief and consisted of one line only. I think he said something like this..."Ois wird in Ordnung sein. Ich wersprech's". (everything will be all right. I promise.) That is 100% austrian-german (german-german would be "Alles wird in Ordnung sein. Ich verspreche es.") except for the weird w in the verb "versprechen" which is most likely to be attributed to the fact that Adam Scott is an american actor and Americans do tend to pronounce it the wrong way. Now comes the interesting part which raised my attention. There seem to be different voiceovers circulating in different countries all concerning grandmas german.
For me it was really strange that grandma spoke perfect german with a thick austrian accent ,the kind you would learn in austrian schools as the son (Adam Scott) spoke in that single line with a thick, let's call it provincial austrian way of pronouncing german words. So it was a dead giveaway for me that in some version of the movie grandma talks just like the son does but was overdubbed for some reason. And after doing some research I found out that originally grandma spoke with a thick accent from Voralberg (which is the most western province of Austria bordering Switzerland) and the way people there speak german resembles very much (not completely) the way Swiss people speak their german. And the actress playing grandma really had a dialect coach who instructed her not to overdo it and switch into swiss-german. So grandma's original voralberg-austrian-german got overdubbed by her own voice speaking in a very clear school-like sounding austrian-german. Now comes the best part. When this movie was shown in cinemas around Germany and Austria, grandmas speaking lines were overdubbed AGAIN by some OTHER actress which spoke really generic german-german which is a shame beacause her very colorful voralberg-austrian-german got completely lost along the way.
I am a language buff myself so these things strike a cord with me and I hope, my interpretation of all things language related was somewhat helpful to you.

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[–] cgrill8 8 years ago

And the only Gottscheerish word left known is a 4 letter word... and not pronounced sheye-zuh, but Sheye-st. or at least that how my great-greandfather said it... (see my sig!) He ended it with a hard T. My own GRANDFATHER said it many times in his own basement for YEARS! And while I was taking German in high school I told my grandfather (proud to say he never cursed EVER...) what the word meant... he never said it again! He'd say it when he got mad... (but never with Grandmother around and only in his garage)... because his DAD would say it when he got mad... and to think, my grandfather's mother refused to kids to learn 'German'... guess they did learn ONE word. And I hear the Gottscheerish accent is pretty much extinct. sad... I hate we had the World Wars... I may have never been born, but at least Drandul would have still been in Austria... and not Travni Dol, Slovenia! (like anyone cares...) **shrugging back to my dark corner**

3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

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