Österreichisch-deutsche Definition von „Gasse“ – „Straße“ oder „Gasse“?

The question is most likely motivated by the fact that most street names in Austrian cities such as Salzburg and Vienna end in -gasse, not -straße. This is evidently related, in one direction or another (probably both), to the fact that it is more common in Austrian German than in German German to refer to a street in a city as a Gasse.

The word Straße is from Latin strata and originally referred to a paved road. The word Gasse is from a proto-Germanic word and originally referred to a road/street/path/passage that is laned by hedges or walls. A typical city street is paved and is laned by houses, so both original meanings make sense. In German German, Straße has become the standard term and Gasse is used only when its original sense is particularly strong, i.e. for narrow roads between houses or sometimes walls/hedges. In Austrian German, Gasse has become the standard term [added later:] regionally at least in Vienna. I am not sure what determines the alternative use of Straße in Austrian German – maybe Hubert Schölnast will shed some light on this.

PS: The results of web searches for „Straßenverzeichnis“ in connection with München, Salzburg and Wien have convinced me that my original impression concerning Salzburg was wrong. Gasse, while being more common than in Munich is clearly not the default term there as it is rarer than Straße. However, Gasse has always felt like the default term to me in Vienna. The city is currently expanding west of the Danube, where I lived for a few years. Many of the streets there seem to get names ending in -gasse at a time when they are still surrounded mostly by fields and no dense building development is planned. On the other hand, I just checked, and it turns out that -straße is also used occasionally, for example in the new Seestadt quarter. I guess this is decided on a case by case basis, perhaps often determined primarily by who suggests a name and which part of the country they come from.

Comments

• While Gasse is certainly used more frequently in Austria than in Germany (by and large), you really can’t say that it has become the „standard term“ for street names. In Vienna there are (approx.) 1325 Straßen, 396 Plätze, 43 Steige, 151 Stege, 10 Stiegen, 261 Brücken and 752 Wege. Gasse is usually reserved for smaller streets, although some of them certainly no longer are (Hadikgasse was mentioned as an example already). It is true that there are more than 3000 Gassen in Vienna, however.
• Hans, you should say that this is not really a question of Austria and Germany, like many other features of the language Southern Germany and Austria are best grouped together.
• Ingmar, in my village (populated by people from what later became Germany but built under Austro-Hungarian rule) even the main street is Gasse (die Hauptgasse), as are the roads to the neighbouring villages (what in Prussia one might call Landstrassen). It is probably a good indication of how things were earlier in more places.
• @AdamM.B.: Southern German and Austrian German are much closer than many Austrians believe, as they only notice northern German consciously and tend to generalise the differences to all Germans. But in this case I have my doubts. I will provide more details concerning this in my answer.
• In this case I also cannot say where the line is. Ideally there would be a fine-grained statistical way to know this (eg if Bayern had its own TLD).

Ich (und ich bin Österreicher) würde es vorziehen, Gasse zu übersetzen als Spur . Ich gehe auch davon aus, dass Spur eine andere Bedeutung als Gasse hat.

Siehe zum Beispiel hier .

Kommentare

• Die Frage ist etwas mehrdeutig. Es wird einerseits nach einer Definition / Bedeutung und andererseits nach einer Übersetzung gefragt. Während “ Spur “ wahrscheinlich eine gute Übersetzung (+1 dafür) für die österreichisch-deutsche spezifische Bedeutung für eine (Quer) Stra ß e „, dieser Antwort fehlt jedoch eine Erklärung dessen, worauf sie sich tatsächlich bezieht ( -1 dafür). Ich meine, “ Lane “ hat mehrere Bedeutungen auf Englisch und sicherlich sind die meisten von ihnen nicht von “ Gasse „. Insgesamt macht das null Punkte von mir;)
• Bedeuten Sie, dass (österreichisch) “ Gasse “ sich bezieht zu einer Querstra ß e ?
• Lane klingt in der Tat sehr angemessen. Man kann es im wirklichen Leben in Melbourne überprüfen.
• Ich würde normalerweise annehmen, dass Gasse städtisch ist, und ich würde normalerweise annehmen, dass Lane ländlich ist.