Colin Newberry Jan 1, 2018:

It is NOT Bavarian let alone Upper Bavarian.

Björn Vrooman Dec 17, 2017:

Hello Rosica,

Thanks for the reply; I understand. Posting Google Book links is a hassle, unfortunately, so I've tried my best to provide the other two missing pieces to the puzzle and just hope that helped. Here's the EN description of Spertental:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spertental

@Anne
You may well be right. But consider how many times you have a fake German or Russian accent in English movies, so I'd just gloss over this :)

Have a nice Sunday evening, all of you

Ramey Rieger (X) Dec 17, 2017:

Southern dialect If you're looking for an idiomatic parallel, it would be useful to know:
...how old the daughter is
...what the surrounding context infers

But a corresponding expression from the Southern States could be,
"She's purdy (pretty) as a picture, she is" (complimentary)
"She ain't half bad." (envious)
"My, my she surely turned out good." (a mixture of both, which is why I suggested it in the first place)

Herbmione Granger Dec 16, 2017:

"You did a good job" is an expression I heard once from a woman addressing the father of a young woman, conveying that the daughter had developed into a shapely woman. This may not have relevance to this German expression. However, a large portion of my family was from the region of Bavaria.
PS I'm not very good at writing dialogues for characters with a "Southern twang" (southern USA manner of speaking) or Boston accent and so on :/

Rosica Dimitrova (asker) Dec 16, 2017:

I do not speak German myself, I am sorry. This was the text I got so that was what I posted. Thank you a lot for all your help.

Anne Schulz Dec 16, 2017:

@Björn Tirol passt in der Tat besser als Schwaben/Allgäu oder Oberbayern. Aber was für mich nirgendwo (Schwaben, Allgäu, Oberbayern, Tirol) hinpasst, ist das "hin-". Da müsste doch zu allermindest "hi-" stehen ;-)

Björn Vrooman Dec 16, 2017:

Hello Rosica Considering this isn't really confidential information, I don't quite understand why you didn't share another two important tidbits coming almost right before and after this sentence.

writeaway is right on both (or possibly all three) counts; I also agree with the interpretation given by Anne and Kristal, but not necessarily with Anne's discussion box post. Here's why:

Location
On the same page (!) in the book, it tells you that Claudia is a local "aus Spertental."

Spertental is a region in Tyrol, Austria. One well-known city not too far from it is Kitzbühel:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spertental

It's not Swabian.

Content
The paragraph right after(!) this sentence says that the men on the dance floor were staring at her and that she had a "Verehrer" five minutes after entering the establishment. I'd say the only description you get is about her physical attributes. So this must be about how pretty she is, nothing more. Claudia seemingly used to be a beautiful woman, so that she could tell--you know, from former beauty queen to current beauty queen...

Best

Anne Schulz Dec 16, 2017:

A mixture and sort of "Bavarian stage dialect", I would say ;-) <br />Actually, if it is Andreas Föhr, as it seems to be the case, the author was raised in the Allgäu region, and now lives in Upper Bavaria (which is also the scene and setting of his book), and he may well have integrated elements of both his past and his present language exposure into the "Bavarian" spoken by his characters.

Klaus Conrad Dec 15, 2017:

This is Allgäuer dialect.
In case your niece will have more problems you might find help here:
https://www.dein-allgaeu.de/regionen/regionen_woerterbuch_g....

Andrea Muller (X) Dec 15, 2017:

By Andreas Föhr? I think I bought this book for my mother a couple of years ago. There was a quite a lot of Bavarian dialogue in it, so your niece might have more questions for you.

longstocking Dec 15, 2017:

Die hast du gut hingekriegt. A southern (Bavarian?) dialect, meaning your daughter is a credit to you.