Helsinki slang

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Helsinki slang ( Stadin slangi ) is a local colloquial variant of the Finnish language , mainly in the Finnish capital Helsinki is spoken.

Helsinki slang is based on the Finnish colloquial language ( puhekieli ), but is characterized by a large number of expressions with non-Finnish etymology that replace everyday nouns, verbs and adjectives.

history

The roots of Helsinki slang go back to the 1880s, when the inhabitants of Helsinki were about half Finnish and half Swedish and during the rapid growth of the city during the industrialization period, the necessity of colloquial communication between speakers of different languages ​​arose . Therefore, older slang words mainly come from Swedish - about three quarters of the "old" slang words are of Swedish origin, about 5% come from Russian (the Grand Duchy of Finland was part of Russia at the time ) and the rest from Finnish. Occasionally there are also words from other languages, e.g. B. slaafaminen from German sleeping . In the first half of the 20th century until around the Winter War , the slang was widespread in the working-class areas of Helsinki, and there were district-specific variants, especially between the “proletarian” north and the “bourgeois” south of the city. In the 1950s, Helsinki slang became a phenomenon of youth culture and served mainly among male youth as a group language and an expression of rebellion against the older generation. But today it is also used by young women, so that there are no longer any gender-specific differences. Helsinki slang is still primarily a language used by young people . He still has a “tough guy” image to this day, even if, thanks to an increased presence in the media, as a subject of scientific research and after the appearance of several slang dictionaries, it has become a widely recognized phenomenon of subculture .

Since around 1990, thanks to globalization and the Internet, most of the linguistic newcomers have come from English . Helsinki slang is not to be confused with “ Finglisch ” (the Finnish variant of Denglisch ), which is a different phenomenon and not limited to Helsinki. Older speakers of the Stadin slangi , however, tend to regard the 1950s variant, which they know from their youth, as the only "real" one and the modern Anglicisms at best as neologisms , at worst as a mere adaptation to the American one Perceive culture. Helsinki slang (like language in general) is constantly evolving. It cannot be ruled out that Russian and Estonian influences will again become more noticeable in the future.

Helsinki residents never refer to their slang as “Helsinki slang”, but as Stadin slangi . Stadi is a slang expression derived from the Swedish stad ("city"). Literally translated, Helsinki slang means “city slang”. The word Stadi, which is only used in Helsinki slang, stands exclusively for Helsinki, often only for the so-called Helsinki core city, as a distinction to the outskirts. All other cities are only given the standard Finnish term for city, kaupunki . People who do not speak Helsinki slang (including Helsinkians) can also call Helsinki itself kaupunki . In contrast, the use of Hesa , another slang variant of the city name, identifies the speaker as a non-Helsinki citizen, if not a resident of a “rural” area.

Linguistic characteristics and examples

The grammar of Helsinki slang essentially corresponds to Finnish grammar; Slang expressions from other languages ​​are adapted to their rules. As a form of colloquial language, Helsinki slang differs in numerous points from the grammatical rules of the standard Finnish language. For example, “can you fix this ?” In Helsinki slang means “ voitsä duunaa ton kondiksee? “, Where duunaa and kondis are slang words. The grammatically correct form would be: “ voitko sinä duunata tuon kondikseen? ".

Helsinki slang is also woven into their Swedish slang by the Swedish-speaking minority of Helsinki. The above example “can you fix this ?”, Spoken by a Swedish-speaking Helsinki native , would look like this: “ kan you duunaa dendä 'kondiksee? ".

Some peculiarities of Helsinki slang are:

  • a relatively high rate of speech
  • an accumulation of voiced consonants ( b , d and g ) that are rarely used in Finnish: budjaa ("to live"), brakaa ("break"), dorka ("idiot"), duuni ("work"), gimma (" Girl "), goisaa (" to sleep ")
  • Combinations of consonants at the beginning of a word that normally only occur in the dialects of Southwest Finland: Stadi (Helsinki), glesa ("sick"), skeglu ("knife"), flinda ("bottle")
  • Hyper correctness regarding voiced consonants and consonant combinations on letters: biisi (. "Piece" of English piece ) stoge ( "train" of Swed. Tåg )
  • Abbreviations and slurries that enable quick pronunciation: Hesari is shorter than the street name Helsinginkatu or the name of the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat .
  • certain word endings in nouns such as -is ( fleggis ("open fire")), kondis ("condition / condition")), -ari ( snagari ("sausage stand ")) or -de ( krunde and klande ("head and tails ") (for coins )
  • Deviations from the vocal harmony : Sörkka instead of Sörkkä ( Sörnäinen district ), Tölika instead of Tölikä ( Töölö district ), byysat instead of buusat or byysät ("Hose")
  • the loss of final phonemes , especially the final [n]
  • Elimination of the negation verb ( en , et , ei etc.) in negative sentences: Te mihkää mee instead of Ette te mihinkään mene ("You are not going anywhere!")
  • Gelispeltes s (especially for female speakers)

Care and exploration

The association Stadin slangi ry, founded in 1995, is dedicated to maintaining Helsinki slang . Slang has been scientifically researched since the 1970s, primarily by the linguist Heikki Paunonen; For his "Large Dictionary of Stadin slangi" Tsennaaks Stadii, bonjaaks slangii , published in 2000 together with his wife, he received the 2001 Finlandia Non-Fiction Prize, endowed with 150,000 Finnmark (approx. 25,000 euros) . In a work published in 2016 on the etymology of Helsinki slang, he mainly examines the Russian roots of numerous slang words.

Literary use

Helsinki slang has also found its way into literature in recent times; Pentti Saarikoski and a number of younger authors use it as a stylistic device. Sami Garam has translated various works into Helsinki slang, including Aleksis Kivi's novel The Seven Brothers and Aku Ankka comics (“ Kelaa , snadi jeesaaja , kui iisii täl ois stedaa ” - “Just think, helper , it wouldn't be easy here to clean up"). Slang is also used in other comics, e.g. B .: " Hei spora kuski, stikkaa dörtsi posee , taäl on galsa blosis , bonjaat sä ? "(" Hello, Strabafahrer, close the door, it's drawing, you understand? ") From a" Viivi & Wagner "comic. In 2001, two slang translations of the New Testament appeared. Finnish popular music also has texts in Helsinki slang, such as Tuomari Nurmio and various rappers . Arvo Pohjola published a volume of Slang Poems (Himäföneri) in 2005 .

In 2011 and 2012, the regional transport association HSL offered its website not only in Finnish, English and Swedish, but also partly in Helsinki slang. The homepage of the Stadin slangi ry association is also written in slang.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.stadinslangi.fi
  2. ↑ http://aikataulut.hsl.fi/reittiopas/slangi/ ( Memento from June 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

literature

  • Heikki Paunonen, Marjatta Paunonen: Tsennaaks Stadii, bonjaaks slangii. Stadin slangin suursanakirja. WSOY, Helsinki 2002; New edition Sanoma Pro, Helsinki 2002 (Large dictionary of the Stadin slangi , Finnish), ISBN 978-951-023-239-2
  • Heikki Paunonen: Sloboa stadissa - Stadin slangin etymologiaa. Docendo, Helsinki 2016 ( Etymology des Stadin slangi , Finnish), ISBN 978-952-291-239-8