Rinkeby Swedish
 | This article possibly contains original research. (September 2007) |
Rinkeby Swedish (Rinkebysvenska) is a common term for varieties of Swedish spoken mainly in suburbs with a high proportion of immigrants and immigrant descendants. Rinkeby in Stockholm is one such suburb, but the term Rinkeby Swedish may sometimes be used for similar varieties in other Swedish cities as well. The Swedish Language Council recommends[1] the term shobresvenska ("Sho Bre Swedish", from its expression "Sho bre!", meaning "Hello!" or "Hi!"). This term is winning ground but has yet not come into general use.[citation needed] The one magazine in Sweden published in these varieties, Gringo, proposes 'miljonsvenska' ("Million Swedish", from the Million Programme)
Classification
Opinions among linguists differ on whether to regard Rinkeby Swedish as a sociolect, dialect, ethnolect, or maybe a "multiethnolect". Since the number of influencing languages involved is rather large, and extremely few speakers are likely to be fluent in more than a few of these, the definition of pidgin language may appear more accurate than that of mixed language. The varieties may also be characterized as a register for informal communication between peers, since the speakers often use them only in specific social contexts and switch to other varieties where appropriate.
Use
Professor Ulla-Britt Kotsinas, a scholar frequently cited on Rinkeby Swedish, argues that these varieties primarily are spoken by teenagers from suburbs where immigrants and immigrant descendants are concentrated, and can be interpreted as expressions of youth culture: The language is a marker of belonging to a certain subculture and at the same time opposition to a perceived mainstream non-immigrant culture that seems not to value the immigrant descendants.
Rinkeby Swedish and similar varieties thus express belonging to the rather large group of youths with roots in other countries that have grown up in immigrant neighborhoods in a post-industrial society and with a disproportionately high unemployment rate for youths with immigrant background. Except for the fact that the linguistic distance is greater, Kotsinas sees in principle no difference from the suburban and urban working class varieties that followed industrial revolution and urbanization a century ago.
Many words from Rinkeby Swedish has nowadays been incorporated into all kinds of other Swedish youth slang and is used by many young people without immigrant heritage, from outside immigrant concentrated suburban areas during their daily speech.
Distinctive traits
Variants of Rinkeby Swedish are reported from suburbs of Stockholm, Malmö, and Gothenburg with a large immigrant dominance. These variants tend to be based on the local town accents, or on the variety of Standard Swedish taught in school. As pidgins, these varieties can be described as having a somewhat simplified version of the Swedish grammar and a richness of loanwords from the languages the speakers' parents or grandparents originated in: mainly Turkish, with traces of Kurdish, Arabic, Greek, Persian, Serbo-Croatian, Syriac, and to some extent Latin American Spanish. There is also an influx of English words and grammar due to a fairly common identification with African Americans and the appreciation of rap and hip hop music and culture.
Example:
- Rinkeby Swedish; Yalla bre, aina kommer, çok loco!
- Swedish; Skynda er, polisen kommer, [de är] helt galna!
- English; Hurry up, the police are coming, [they're] completely crazy!
In the translated sentence above the speaker of Rinkeby Swedish makes use of Arabic, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Swedish, Turkish again and finally Spanish. To exemplify further: The word aina is derived from Turkish slang for police, aynasız, which literally means without mirror.
Especially among younger speakers, the different varieties show a considerable variation in vocabulary and to some extent in grammar and syntax. However, they all share some grammatical similarities, such as discarding the Verb-second word order of Standard Swedish, instead using Subject Verb Object word order after an adverb or adverbial phrase (as in English, compare Idag jag tog bussen ("Today I took the bus") to Standard Swedish Idag tog jag bussen ("Today took I the bus").
Furthermore, speakers of Rinkeby Swedish are growing up and while many are just kids, more and more are reaching their thirties.
Sample vocabulary
| Phrase | Translation | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| abou | wow, oh | Turkish |
| aina/aynasız | Police | Turkish |
| baxa | (to) steal (in the Malmö region: to have intercourse) | |
| bazz | sexual intercourse | French |
| bre | aspect suffix | Serbo-Croatian |
| brychan, brushan | my brother, my friend, my pal, "bro" | Colloquial Swedish brorsan - familiar form of brodern, "the brother") |
| chilla (also softa) | (to) chill, take it easy, be calm | both variants from English |
| Çok (chok) | much, very | Turkish |
| Ey bre! | Hey you! | Ey/Hey + Bre |
| Ey len! | Hey you! (to get attention) | Ey/Hey + Len |
| fett | cool, nice | Possibly from German, where it is used in the same way, or perhaps calqued English slang "phat" [citation needed] |
| flos | money | Arabic |
| gitta | get away | Turkish (gitmek) |
| guzz | girl | Turkish |
| gött | buttocks | Turkish |
| habibi | lit. darling (used as familiar addressing in Arabic) | Arabic |
| idijut | idiot | Possibly Swedish [citation needed] |
| -ish/-isch | Common word ending | |
| Jalla! | Hurry! | Arabic (hybrid of "Ja Allah") |
| keff | bad | Arabic (which in Arabic actually means "slap") |
| khalas | Enough, stop or let's go | Arabic |
| knätch | Narcotics, hashish | |
| len | mate | Turkish |
| loco | crazy | Spanish |
| mannen | (familiar addressing; Hey, man), my man | Swedish (calqued English?) |
| para, parra | money | Turkish or Kurdish |
| sarre | sperm | Colloquial Swedish "sats" (load) |
| Sho | Greeting, can be used as "hello" or "goodbye" | Arabic |
| Sho bre, vad händer?/ Sho bre, händish? | Hi, what's happening? (casual opening phrase) | Sho + Bre + Common Swedish |
| shuno, shunne | guy, dude, fellow | |
| sne | angry | Swedish slang |
| soft (adj.) / softa (verb) | cool, good, nice (or calm down if used as a verb) | English (Pseudo-English?) |
| tagga | get away | |
| wallah | I Swear by God (Lit. By God) | Arabic |
| wallah jag svär | wallah + I swear | Arabic + Swedish |
Literary use
Quite recently several fiction books written in a literary imitation of Rinkeby Swedish have been published in Sweden:
- Till vår ära by Alejandro Leiva Wenger; (To our honour)
- Ett öga rött by Jonas Hassen Khemiri; (One eye red)
- Shoo Bre by Douglas Foley
- Kalla det vad fan du vill by Marjaneh Bakhtiari. (Call it whatever the hell you want)
- Gringo, Swedish magazine published quarterly, and also comes with free newspaper Metro every Monday. gringo.se
See also
External links
- Language and language use among young people in multilingual urban settings - a research project at Gothenburg University