Stockholmska

Infobox Language
name=Stockholmska
nativename=Stockholmska
familycolor=Indo-European
states=Sweden
region=Northern Europe
speakers=Around 100000
fam2=Germanic
fam3=North Germanic
fam4=East Scandinavian
fam4=Swedish
agency=none
iso1=none|iso2=none|iso3=none

Stockholmska is a group of dialects spoken in Stockholm. Since the people in Stockholm generally are early adopters it is hard to define what constitutes stockholmska because various influences are quickly picked up in Stockholmska and then spread to the rest of Sweden. One example is the thin L sound (as opposed to the thick L) that came into stockholmska from German merchants. The thin L then spread into standard Swedish and the thick L is now considered a dialect feature.

The way Ä is pronounced is something people often associate with stockholmska. The older generation of stockholmians pronounce Ä as E. The way to pronounce it is actually an adaptation by people moving into Stockholm imitating the IE sound earlier used for Ä.

Some word endings are typical of stockholmska. When windmills were used they were given female names ending in -an. For instance a windmill owned by a Dutch (Holländare) would be called "Holländskan" (the dutchess). The -an ending was later adopted for other places. For instance Kungsträdgården became "kungsan", "biblioteket" (the library) became "bibblan" and so on. Another ending is -is from Latin [Svenska dialektmysterier, SVT, February 1, 2006] . Examples include "medis" (Medborgarplatsen), "rålis" (Rålambshovsparken) and "fiskis" (Fisksätra).

Stockholmska was used by Biffen och Bananen("the Beef ad the Banana") in the Swedish comic of the same name. Though the comic was cancelled in the 1970s.

Due to the concentration of many immigrants in the suburbs around Stockholm, many new foreign loanwords have become common especially among young people. Usually from Turkish (like "para" = money) or Arabic (like "yalla!" = hurry!). See Rinkeby Swedish.

In the northern, more rich, areas of Stockholm there is a distinct dialect characterized by the pronunciation of the letter "i", with the tongue against the front teeth. Such areas are Lidingö, Danderyd and Täby.

References