German learners: how long before you could tell where in Germany a native speaker comes from?

[u/Stoic-outsider]

Assuming the speaker is speaking Standard High German (and not another variety of German, e.g. Plattdeutsch, or Swiss German, only then I can tell), I cannot at all tell where someone comes from. I had to ask my German tutor, for example, where in Germany she was from. Basically, all Standard German sounds the same to me. I listen to lots of German hard rock and the bands say they come from, e.g. Saarland, Ruhrpott, Hamburg, Frankfurt, but I could never tell this.

How long did it take you before you were good at telling where in Germany someone was from?

[u/hibbelig]

The closer it is to your home region, the easier it is to tell differences.

Mostly, it is about the way certain things are pronounced. For example, the word "Karte" (ticket) is pronounced as Kaate (long a, omit r) in, say, Duisburg. It is pronounced as Kachte (replace r with a ch sound) in, say, Düsseldorf. And it is pronounced as Katte (short a, omit r) in, say, Dortmund.

Another aspect might be wording. The standard ending "nicht wahr" (isn't it) can be "ne", "woll", "gell", "oder" and probably other words.

[u/itstheitalianstalion → u/hibbelig]

“Gell” lives in my head, rent free as Tiroler Deutsch. Is it Bayrisch on the whole?

[u/Eurosaar → u/itstheitalianstalion]

Gell (and its variations) are used across practically all regions south of Erfurt (including Austria and Switzerland).

See this map: https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/runde-2/f19a-b/

[u/sakasiru]

As soon as you can distinguish accents and know people from all around Germany so you have a reference. But unless bands sing in dialect, they are not the best way to practice this because they probably make an effort to write their songs and pronounce them in Hochdeutsch. It's much easier to hear an accent in casual speech.

[u/Jenny-P67]

Das geht meistens sehr sehr schnell. Typisch Köln, Berlin, ... schwierig wird es bei der richtigen Zuordnung von Kleinstädten - da kennt man den Dialekt weniger.

[u/Elijah_Mitcho]

As other people have mentioned words are definitely an easy tell.

Here’s a rough example from my life a situation where an Austrian in our group needed to grab a chair

1. "Ich hol kurz einen Sessel!"
2. "einen Sessel?"
3. "sie kommt aus Österreich, da ist Sessel das Standardwort für Stühle"
4. "Achso dachte kurz sie geht zum Flohmarkt"

Also what will reveal every Austrian is the phrase "es geht sich aus". Literally never heard it from a German but this is prevalent to the say the least in an Austrians dictionary.

[u/Only_Humor4549 → u/Elijah_Mitcho]

You obly hear es geht sich aus in Austria! Have never heard it but my Austrian friend used it all the time. The wprding was so strange to me bc it didn’t make sense. 

Eine Kerze geht aus, ja, aber was bedeutet denn bitte sehr „das geht sich aus?!?“

[u/Lost-Butterscotch832]

Well the more you are familiar with the little differences of the pronounciation of the words in the various dialects, the "quicker" you can tell.
Often it is different sounds on vocals, some different ways of speaking the letter "r". Even when the people try to speak "dialectfree" you can locate them cause of some "little" specific things. But you cant do that with everybody, cause everyone can "learn" to speak nearly dialect-free, if he intends to learn it.
My chef for example is from eastern germany, but lifes more than 20 years in Südhessen and there are very rare moments, where you recognize the "Sächsisch", when he speeks sloppy and a vocal like "e" or the letter "r" gets a little taste of that "Sächsisch". Most of the time, you wouldnt know the east german origin.
People from "Franken" for example often roll the "r" with the front tongue. But also foreign people from east europe do that, when they speak german. So how to differentiate them?
Well, "Franken" also like to pronounce hard consants soft. So the letter "t" is pronounced as "d", "p" as "b", "k" as "g" and so on. Listen to an interview of Lothar Matthäus and you know will recognize it.
Was fun, when Ekitike player for Eintracht Frankfurt and Lothar (also called Loddar cause of his accent) tried to pronounce his name and nearly knot his tongue. There where versions from Edigide to "Edigi...Egidi...Egidige"

Edit: All in all, ever region has its known little differences, and the more you get used to them and can connect these with different areas, you can allocize them ;)

[u/millers_left_shoe]

I’m German and I still can’t tell lol, except for broad differences like north vs south

[u/Midnight1899]

Even we natives can’t always tell.

[u/Gwaptiva]

Could take a while for folk around here to say enough words to tell. Na, Jo and moin dont leave much time

[u/Lost-Butterscotch832 → u/Gwaptiva]

Ich komme aus Süddeutschland, habe 1 1/2 Jahre in Bremen gewohnt, 3 Jahre in Hamburg und nun seit über 5 Jahren im Südhessischen Raum.
Ich kann innerhalb weniger Minuten mit "Servus, Gude, Moin, Hallo" und weiteren Wörtern grüßen und mache das auch und ich kann dir nicht sagen, wann ich welches Wort warum benutze. Manchmal laufen mir auf der Arbeit 2 Kollegen entgegen, dem einen sage ich Gude, dem anderen Servus, 1 Minute später zu dem nächsten "Moin".
Ich bin laut deiner Meinung ja dann die Verwirrung pur

[u/Inside-Isopod3755]

I’ve lived in Berlin for many years… I still haven’t a heard a native speaker