Austria well as those with significant German speaking minorities: Italy, Belgium and Denmark. Many local dialects are spoken in Austria, and though their base is Austrian German, their corresponding speakers have certain degrees of difficulty when trying to understand each other. The common spoken language of Austria is not the Standard German taught in schools, however, but the Austro-Bavarian language: a group of Upper German dialects not particularly intelligible with Standard German. German languages or dialects are thus spoken natively by 88.6% of the population, which includes the 2.5% German citizens who reside in Austria, followed by Turkish (2.28%), Serbian (2.21%),
States of Austria states of Upper Austria and Lower Austria are essentially equivalent to what were since 1783/84 the two autonomous halves of the Archduchy of Austria, a principality which formed the empire's historic heartland. Salzburg is coterminous with the former Austro-Hungarian Duchy of Salzburg (the former Archbishopric). Similarly, the state of Carinthia descends from the Duchy of Carinthia, the state of Styria descends from the Duchy of Styria, and the state of Tyrol descends from the Princely County of Tyrol; these states had to cede territories to Italy and Yugoslavia when Austria emerged in its present form. Also, the state of Vorarlberg