Distinctive Traits
Variants of Rinkeby Swedish are reported from suburbs of Stockholm, Malmö, and Gothenburg with a predominantly immigrant population. These variants tend to be based on the local town accents, or on the variety of Standard Swedish taught in school. These varieties can be described as having a somewhat simplified version of the Swedish grammar and a richness of loanwords from the languages of the countries 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. Many English words and some English grammar are also used, due to a fairly widespread 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, helt galna!
- English; Hurry up, the police are coming, 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").
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