Abstract
This article deals with the language policy both at the European and at the national level. We pay attention to the status of the Austrian German, especially to the legal embedment of language use and its practical consequences.
In linguistics, the pluricentricity of German language was recognized, however, the Austrian German and the Swiss German are considered to be the O(ther) language varieties in addition to the D(ominant) variety, namely the German German (Clyne, 1995; Ammon, 1995). At the supranational level, the delimitation of the Austrian German against frequently used EU languages played an important role in the time of Austrian accession to the European Union, Protocol Nr. 10 make evidence about.
The always growing position of minority languages on the one hand, and the recognition of the state languages on the other hand are also a constant issue of EU law. At the national level, the import of foreign languages (English and German German) and the spread of domestic minority languages are an important topic.
The functions of the national minority languages are not always clearly declared due to the diversity of language laws. In addition to the description of the legal situation, some meaningful research results about the language practices are introduced.