Helsinki slang
Encyclopedia
Helsinki slang or stadin slangi ("Helsinki's slang", from Swedish
stad, "city"; see etymology) is a local dialect
and a sociolect
of the Finnish language
mainly used in the capital Helsinki
. It is characterized by its abundance of foreign loan words not found in the other Finnish dialects.
Helsinki slang first evolved in the late 19th century as a sociolect
of the multilingual Helsinki working class
communities, where Swedish and Finnish
speaking youth lived together with Russian
, German
and various other language minorities.
Grammatically Helsinki slang is based on colloquial Finnish. It is characterized by a large number of words originally borrowed from Swedish
, German
and Russian
, but nowadays chiefly English
, vocabularies
. The loanwords replace some of even the most mundane Finnish-language words (closest kin words, "food", "die" etc.) with foreign alternatives. However, when spoken by a native Finnish speaker, all words are inflected by the rules of spoken Finnish
, and the language sounds distinctively Finnish.
The language's history can generally be divided into the 'old' slang (vanha slangi) and the 'new' or 'modern' slang (uusi slangi). Old slang was common in Helsinki up to the mid-20th century, and is thicker and harder to understand for an outsider of the group, even to one who would be capable in modern slang, because it incorporates far greater amount of Swedish and Russian loanwords than the modern variation. Old slang is mostly spoken by older Helsinkians, many of whom consider it the only true slang.
The modern variety has evolved side-by-side with the growing influence of English-language youth subculture
s starting from the 1950s
. It is thus characterized by a greater influence of the English language
and proper Finnish language
while the influence of Swedish and Russian has declined. The modern slang is healthy and continues to evolve. It is spoken to varying degrees by almost all native Helsinkians.
stad, "city". Literally, the name would mean "slang of the city", but stadi always means just the city of Helsinki in the slang – all other cities are unconditionally referred to by the common Finnish word for "city" ("kaupunki").
More importantly, Helsinki slang is not strictly speaking a slang
in the word's modern definition, but rather a dialect
and a sociolect
. However, the term "slang" has stuck since long, especially as the language refers to itself as slangi.
in the coastal Swedish-speaking region of Finland
. When in 1809 Sweden lost Finland to Imperial Russia, Helsinki became the capital of Finland by the decision of Alexander I of Russia
. At this time, Helsinki was almost unilingually Swedish. In 1820, for example, the city was home to about 4,500 people, only 5% of whom were Finnish-speaking.
With the new capital status, the city's center was rebuilt and a continuous growth was sustained. By 1880 the population had grown almost ten-fold to 43,000, mostly due to industrialization. This brought ever-increasing numbers of new Finnish-speaking working class
from around the country to the largely Swedish-speaking city. In the 1870 census 57% of Helsinkians spoke Swedish as their home language, 26% Finnish, 12% Russian and 2% German, while also increasing amounts of residents were capable in both Swedish and Finnish. Helsinki slang is believed to have first began to evolve among the mixed-language working class people of the 1880s
. In addition to Swedish and Finnish, influence came from Russian
and German
.
Helsinki slang is thought to have formed naturally as a sort of a common language for the mixed-language population who due to industrialization moved into the same neighborhoods for employment, and had no single common language initially. The slang came to be for practical purposes of everyday communication and mutual understanding as a common language of the various language groups. For example, at this time about one fifth of newly-wed couples had different native languages.
The working class population was at this time concentrated in Kallio
, Vallila
, Sörnäinen
and Arabia. Helsinki slang was probably first born in these tightly populated neighborhoods in their factories, multilingual homes, markets and on their streets. Some have referred to slangis roots as a pidgin language or the lingua franca
of this multilingual population.
, formed their own sociolect
. The initiative for this grew at first from their needs of basic everyday communication, but soon slangi probably came to signify a certain social status as well. Johannes Kauhanen notes on his slang history page that the first speakers of Helsinki slang were probably not the countryside-born agriculturists
who moved to work in Helsinki, but their children.
The first known written account in Helsinki slang is from the 1890 short story Hellaassa by young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in italics):
The old slang continued to develop up until the 1940s
. In 1944 the Continuation War
between the Soviet Union
and Finland ended in the Moscow Armistice
, and Finland had to cede large parts of Karelia
to the Soviet Union. About 430,000 people became immigrants within their own country. Many of them settled in Helsinki while, in the society at large, the transition from the agricultural society
continued ever stronger.
In practice the following years, especially the 1960s
, meant the second major wave of immigration
to Helsinki. This had an effect on the slang as well. 1940s
mark the beginning of the gradual transition between the old slang (vanha slangi) and modern speech (uusi slangi).
The new population was, and continues to be, in greater numbers Finnish-speaking, and the Swedish and Russian influences on the language have declined ever since. The language started to move more towards common colloquial Finnish
while still strongly borrowing from the old slang.
The following generations also grew up in a different kind of cultural environment, where more abundant amounts of foreign culture, especially entertainment such as film
s and music
, was, and continues to be, available. The cultural influence of the English-speaking world
, especially the North America
n youth subculture
s, grew, and increasing amounts of English-language words started to find their way to the language of the urban Helsinki youth. With the popularity of television
and the advent of the Internet
, this trend continues ever stronger in the present day.
of the slang. As noted below, the phonotactics are slightly different from typical colloquial Finnish.
. They also include phonemes /b/, /d/ and /g/ and consonant clusters such as /sn/ rarely found in other Finnish dialects. Yet the words remain indisputably Finnish, incorporating Finnish grammar and mostly obeying Finnish phonotactics
. Some rather arbitrary, but creative and distinctly Finnish expressive constructions are often used especially in the modern slang, e.g. päräyttää.
Furthermore, arbitrary modifications are found — these make the resulting slang words alien both to the speakers of regular Finnish and the borrowing language. For example, Finland Swedish (Sipoo
dialect) burk "cranky" is modified into spurgu "drunkard", where the added 's' is arbitrary, as is the voicing change of 'k' to 'g'. Derivation of fillari, "a bicycle" from velociped is even more convoluted: velociped in the Swedish language game
fikonspråk is filociped-vekon, which became filusari and further fillari — only the 'l' is etymologically original. In fact, the newer abbreviation of fillari to fiude loses even the 'l'.
Some distinctive aspects in Helsinki slang are:
(Rööperi in slang). The variation was most prominent in between the slang spoken on the two sides of the bridge.
meaning
and
meaning
Tuomari Nurmio
has written some of the most well-known songs that make an extensive use of slang words.
meaning
In 2009 and 2010 a campaign advertised season tickets for Helsinki ice-hockey club HIFK
with phrases like
meaning
Slang words obey normal Finnish grammar
, regardless of their etymology. However, Helsinki slang is always both spoken and written as colloquial Finnish, never as properly grammatical "kirjakieli" (see spoken Finnish
). For example, "can you fix that in a working condition?" is "voitsä duunaa ton kondiksee?" in slang, where "duunaa", "to do, to work" and "kondis", "condition, working order" are slang words. Trying to write the above sentence in properly grammatical form like in kirjakieli, to "voitko (sinä) duunata tuon kondikseen?" would be erroneous both in kirjakieli and slang.
Helsinki slang is also used by the Swedish-speaking Finnish minority in Helsinki. Modern Helsinkian Swedish-based slangi is still spoken in the same manner as in Finnish, mixing it into the Swedish language. The earlier example "can you put that in order?" would be "kan du duuna dendä' kondiksee?" when spoken by a Swedish-speaking Finn in Helsinki slang. The same sentence would be similarly erroneous in proper Finland Swedish language as well.
Several famous Helsinkians, especially musicians, are known for their skill in the slang, and have partially or entirely performed in it in public.
Several books and comics have been published written entirely in Helsinki slang, both as translations and as newly authored texts, or something in between. This is only a partial list, slanted towards the modern times.
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
stad, "city"; see etymology) is a local dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
and a sociolect
Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
of the Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
mainly used in the capital Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. It is characterized by its abundance of foreign loan words not found in the other Finnish dialects.
Helsinki slang first evolved in the late 19th century as a sociolect
Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
of the multilingual Helsinki working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
communities, where Swedish and Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
speaking youth lived together with Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and various other language minorities.
Grammatically Helsinki slang is based on colloquial Finnish. It is characterized by a large number of words originally borrowed from Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, but nowadays chiefly English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, vocabularies
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
. The loanwords replace some of even the most mundane Finnish-language words (closest kin words, "food", "die" etc.) with foreign alternatives. However, when spoken by a native Finnish speaker, all words are inflected by the rules of spoken Finnish
Spoken Finnish
Colloquial Finnish is the "dialectless" colloquial standard of the Finnish language. It is spoken in the Greater Helsinki region, and in urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna...
, and the language sounds distinctively Finnish.
The language's history can generally be divided into the 'old' slang (vanha slangi) and the 'new' or 'modern' slang (uusi slangi). Old slang was common in Helsinki up to the mid-20th century, and is thicker and harder to understand for an outsider of the group, even to one who would be capable in modern slang, because it incorporates far greater amount of Swedish and Russian loanwords than the modern variation. Old slang is mostly spoken by older Helsinkians, many of whom consider it the only true slang.
The modern variety has evolved side-by-side with the growing influence of English-language youth subculture
Youth subculture
A youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school...
s starting from the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
. It is thus characterized by a greater influence of the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and proper Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
while the influence of Swedish and Russian has declined. The modern slang is healthy and continues to evolve. It is spoken to varying degrees by almost all native Helsinkians.
Etymology
Helsinkians themselves never refer to their slang as Helsinki slang(i) but instead as stadin slangi or simply slangi. Stadi is a slang word, borrowed from the SwedishSwedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
stad, "city". Literally, the name would mean "slang of the city", but stadi always means just the city of Helsinki in the slang – all other cities are unconditionally referred to by the common Finnish word for "city" ("kaupunki").
More importantly, Helsinki slang is not strictly speaking a slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
in the word's modern definition, but rather a dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
and a sociolect
Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
. However, the term "slang" has stuck since long, especially as the language refers to itself as slangi.
History
Roots in the 1880s
Helsinki was founded in 1550 by Gustav I of SwedenGustav I of Sweden
Gustav I of Sweden, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known simply as Gustav Vasa , was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death....
in the coastal Swedish-speaking region of Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. When in 1809 Sweden lost Finland to Imperial Russia, Helsinki became the capital of Finland by the decision of Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
. At this time, Helsinki was almost unilingually Swedish. In 1820, for example, the city was home to about 4,500 people, only 5% of whom were Finnish-speaking.
With the new capital status, the city's center was rebuilt and a continuous growth was sustained. By 1880 the population had grown almost ten-fold to 43,000, mostly due to industrialization. This brought ever-increasing numbers of new Finnish-speaking working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
from around the country to the largely Swedish-speaking city. In the 1870 census 57% of Helsinkians spoke Swedish as their home language, 26% Finnish, 12% Russian and 2% German, while also increasing amounts of residents were capable in both Swedish and Finnish. Helsinki slang is believed to have first began to evolve among the mixed-language working class people of the 1880s
1880s
The 1880s was the decade that spanned from January 1, 1880 to December 31, 1889. They occurred at the core period of the Second Industrial Revolution. Most Western countries experienced a large economic boom, due to the mass production of railroads and other more convenient methods of travel...
. In addition to Swedish and Finnish, influence came from Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
Helsinki slang is thought to have formed naturally as a sort of a common language for the mixed-language population who due to industrialization moved into the same neighborhoods for employment, and had no single common language initially. The slang came to be for practical purposes of everyday communication and mutual understanding as a common language of the various language groups. For example, at this time about one fifth of newly-wed couples had different native languages.
The working class population was at this time concentrated in Kallio
Kallio
Kallio is a district and a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, located on the eastern side of the Helsinki peninsula about one kilometere north from the city centre. It is one of the most densely populated areas in Finland...
, Vallila
Vallila
Vallila is a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.Vallila is a central-northern district, bordered by Pasila to the west and Kallio to the south. Like Kallio, Vallila is mostly residential and has a reputation of a working-class district...
, Sörnäinen
Sörnäinen
Sörnäinen is a neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland.Sörnäinen is located a little more than one kilometre north from the coastal centre of Helsinki, near the district of Hakaniemi. The east side of Sörnäinen borders the sea....
and Arabia. Helsinki slang was probably first born in these tightly populated neighborhoods in their factories, multilingual homes, markets and on their streets. Some have referred to slangis roots as a pidgin language or the lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of this multilingual population.
Youth's language
From early on Helsinki slang was especially the language of the youth. It could be thought as a social language code, by which the multicultural and multilingual working class youth, a speech communitySpeech community
Speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
, formed their own sociolect
Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
. The initiative for this grew at first from their needs of basic everyday communication, but soon slangi probably came to signify a certain social status as well. Johannes Kauhanen notes on his slang history page that the first speakers of Helsinki slang were probably not the countryside-born agriculturists
Agricultural society
An agricultural society may refer to:*An agrarian society, one where the chief occupation is agriculture: typically contrasted with an industrial society....
who moved to work in Helsinki, but their children.
The first known written account in Helsinki slang is from the 1890 short story Hellaassa by young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in italics):
Kun minä eilen illalla palasin labbiksesta, tapasin Aasiksen kohdalla Supiksen, ja niin me laskeusimme tänne Espikselle, jossa oli mahoton hyvä piikis. Mutta me mentiin Studikselle suoraan Hudista tapaamaan, ja jäimme sinne pariksi tunniksi, kunnes ajoimme KaisikseenKaisaniemiKaisaniemi is a part of the centre of Helsinki, Finland. It is located immediately north of the Helsinki Central railway station and south of Hakaniemi. The most famous part of Kaisaniemi is the Kaisaniemi park, a park covering many hectares right in the city centre...
.
Modernization
| Years | Finnish Finnish language Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a... |
Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish... |
Russian Russian language Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics... |
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890-1920 | >20 | 75 | <5 | <1 | <1 |
| 1900-1920 | 30 | 60 | 2 | ? | ? |
| 1910-1940 | 39 | 50 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 1979 | 60 | 20 | ? | 10 | ? |
| 1985-1989 | 78 | 11 | — | 9 | — |
| Approximate proportions (%) of word origins by year. Source. | |||||
The old slang continued to develop up until the 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
. In 1944 the Continuation War
Continuation War
The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II.At the time of the war, the Finnish side used the name to make clear its perceived relationship to the preceding Winter War...
between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Finland ended in the Moscow Armistice
Moscow Armistice
The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on September 19, 1944, ending the Continuation War...
, and Finland had to cede large parts of Karelia
Karelia
Karelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...
to the Soviet Union. About 430,000 people became immigrants within their own country. Many of them settled in Helsinki while, in the society at large, the transition from the agricultural society
Agricultural society
An agricultural society may refer to:*An agrarian society, one where the chief occupation is agriculture: typically contrasted with an industrial society....
continued ever stronger.
In practice the following years, especially the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
, meant the second major wave of immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
to Helsinki. This had an effect on the slang as well. 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
mark the beginning of the gradual transition between the old slang (vanha slangi) and modern speech (uusi slangi).
The new population was, and continues to be, in greater numbers Finnish-speaking, and the Swedish and Russian influences on the language have declined ever since. The language started to move more towards common colloquial Finnish
Spoken Finnish
Colloquial Finnish is the "dialectless" colloquial standard of the Finnish language. It is spoken in the Greater Helsinki region, and in urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna...
while still strongly borrowing from the old slang.
The following generations also grew up in a different kind of cultural environment, where more abundant amounts of foreign culture, especially entertainment such as film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, was, and continues to be, available. The cultural influence of the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
, especially the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n youth subculture
Youth subculture
A youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. Youth subcultures offer participants an identity outside of that ascribed by social institutions such as family, work, home and school...
s, grew, and increasing amounts of English-language words started to find their way to the language of the urban Helsinki youth. With the popularity of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and the advent of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, this trend continues ever stronger in the present day.
Evolution
Although like any local dialect, Helsinki slang constantly evolves, most adult speakers of Helsinki slang still consider the pre-1960s version the real slang. Many of the now-adult speakers who grew up with the 1950s-style slang consider the modern chiefly English-derived slang terms neologisms. Nevertheless, even if words are borrowed to the slang, they are still in the present day modified to conform to the phonotacticsPhonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
of the slang. As noted below, the phonotactics are slightly different from typical colloquial Finnish.
Language characteristics
The borrowed words may violate phonological rules of the Finnish language, such as vowel harmonyVowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. They also include phonemes /b/, /d/ and /g/ and consonant clusters such as /sn/ rarely found in other Finnish dialects. Yet the words remain indisputably Finnish, incorporating Finnish grammar and mostly obeying Finnish phonotactics
Finnish phonotactics
- Syllables :The most common syllable structure in Finnish is CV, followed by CVC, CVV, CVVC, VC, V, VV, CVCC, VVC and VCC. These are all found in native vocabulary. In loanwords and proper names the following syllables structures are also found: CVVCC, CCV, CCVC, CCVCC, CCVV, CCVVC, CCCV, CCCVC...
. Some rather arbitrary, but creative and distinctly Finnish expressive constructions are often used especially in the modern slang, e.g. päräyttää.
Furthermore, arbitrary modifications are found — these make the resulting slang words alien both to the speakers of regular Finnish and the borrowing language. For example, Finland Swedish (Sipoo
Sipoo
Sipoo is a municipality of Finland. Its seat is in Nikkilä/Nickby.It is the eastern neighbour of Helsinki and is located in the Uusimaa region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of ofwhich is water...
dialect) burk "cranky" is modified into spurgu "drunkard", where the added 's' is arbitrary, as is the voicing change of 'k' to 'g'. Derivation of fillari, "a bicycle" from velociped is even more convoluted: velociped in the Swedish language game
Language game
A language game is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their conversations from others...
fikonspråk is filociped-vekon, which became filusari and further fillari — only the 'l' is etymologically original. In fact, the newer abbreviation of fillari to fiude loses even the 'l'.
Some distinctive aspects in Helsinki slang are:
- Very swift pace of pronunciation and speech
- The voiced consonantConsonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s /b d ɡ/, which are rare in standard FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, are abundant: budjaa (to dwell), brakaa (to break, to malfunction), dorka (dork), duuni (work), gimma (girl), goisaa (to sleep). Many speakers, though, especially in the modern variety, use several of these words with voiceless /p t k/: prakaa, kimma, koisaa. - Consonant clusterConsonant clusterIn linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
s in the beginning of words, which appear natively only on south-western Finnish dialects, are commonplace, like Stadi (Helsinki), glesa (sick), skeglu (knife), flinda (bottle) - Shortened or diminutiveDiminutiveIn language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
forms of words. Common nounNounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
endings used include -is (fleggis "open fire", kondis "condition"), -ari (Hesari the street Helsinginkatu, snagari "a grill stand") and -de (krunde and klande 'heads and tails' (< Standard Finnish kruuna and klaava 'ibid.')) - Slang and foreign word roots do not conform to vowel harmonyVowel harmonyVowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
, although their suffixSuffixIn linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es do (Sörkka, Sörkasta pro Sörkkä, Sörkästä < SörnäinenSörnäinenSörnäinen is a neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland.Sörnäinen is located a little more than one kilometre north from the coastal centre of Helsinki, near the district of Hakaniemi. The east side of Sörnäinen borders the sea....
), Tölika pro Tölikä < TöölöTöölöTöölö is the collective name for the neighbourhoods Etu-Töölö and Taka-Töölö in Helsinki, Finland. The neighbourhoods are located next to the city centre, occupying the western side of the Helsinki Peninsula....
, byysat pro byysät, "trousers"). This does not affect native Finnish words.- With some speakers this goes even further; Standard Finnish /æ/ and /ɑ/ appear to be mergingSound changeSound change includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation or sound system structures...
as /a/, a new neutral vowel. Before the modern period, this change has happened in EstonianEstonian languageEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
and other southern Finnic languagesFinnic languagesThe term Finnic languages often means the Baltic-Finnic languages, an undisputed branch of the Uralic languages. However, it is also commonly used to mean the Finno-Permic languages, a hypothetical intermediate branch that includes Baltic Finnic, or the more disputed Finno-Volgaic languages....
.
- With some speakers this goes even further; Standard Finnish /æ/ and /ɑ/ appear to be merging
- Surplus S appearing in beginning of words, forming consonant clusters: stoge, "train", skoude, "policeman"
- CeceoCeceoIn Spanish dialectology, the terms distinción, seseo and ceceo are used to describe the opposition between dialects that distinguish the phonemes and , and those that exhibit merger of the two sounds into either or .Dialects that distinguish the two sounds, and thus pronounce the words casa...
or lisp on /s/, pronouncing it as a sharp, dental /s̪/, or even /θ/ as in English "thing". This is considered an effeminate feature, but appears sometimes also on males' speech.
Variation
The old slang's vocabulary and form of speech had some variation in between different parts of the town. As noted above, the language was born north of the Pitkäsilta bridge, but it later spread to the southern neighborhoods as well, including PunavuoriPunavuori
Punavuori is a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.After the new location and growth of Helsinki in the 18th century, Punavuori became the area next to the center. During the 19th century the district had a seedy reputation. Most of the brothels and beerhouses were found in Punavuori...
(Rööperi in slang). The variation was most prominent in between the slang spoken on the two sides of the bridge.
Usage and examples
Many literary works in Helsinki slang contain long sentences with a large density of slang words, making them especially hard to decipher for the general Finnish-speaking population. Examples where the slang words are in italics and in the same order in both the original and translation follow:
(from the Viivi & WagnerViivi & WagnerViivi & Wagner is a somewhat absurdist Finnish newspaper comic strip drawn by Jussi "Juba" Tuomola.The titular main characters are Viivi, a Finnish woman in her twenties, and Wagner, a mature male pig. Wagner is fully anthropomorphic and sentient, yet still considers himself a pig instead of a human...
comics)
- Hei sporakuski, stikkaa dörtsi posee, tääl on galsa blosis, bonjaatsä?
meaning
Hey, tramdriver, push the door closed [please], it's a cold wind in here, do you understand?
and
(from Sami GaramSami GaramSami Garam is a Finnish cook and writer of Hungarian descent.The son of Károly and Sirkka Garam . Sami Garam's mother, Sirkka Garam, is a sister of the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski. Sami Garam's main profession is cooking, and he has worked as chef in many restaurants, receiving high acclaim for...
's slang version of Donald DuckDonald DuckDonald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
)
- Kelaa, snadi jeesaaja, kui iisii täl ois stedaa!
meaning
Think, Little Helper, how easy it would be to clean with this!
Tuomari Nurmio
Tuomari Nurmio
Tuomari Nurmio is the artist name of Hannu Juhani Nurmio , a Finnish rock singer and songwriter.-Work:Since his debut album, Nurmio has been regarded as one of the most original Finnish singer-songwriters. His lyrics are filled with peculiar and arresting metaphors and expressions, some of which...
has written some of the most well-known songs that make an extensive use of slang words.
RefrainRefrainA refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
from "Tonnin stiflat" ("Grand's boots")
- Klabbeissa on mulla tonnin stiflat. Ei ne tonnii paina, ne bungaa sen. Joskus mä stygen niille tsungaan, sillon kun mä muille tsungaa en.
meaning
In my feet I got a ton's boots. They don't weight a ton, they cost that. Sometimes a song I sing to them, that's when I don't sing to others.
In 2009 and 2010 a campaign advertised season tickets for Helsinki ice-hockey club HIFK
HIFK
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna i Helsingfors is a sports club from Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 HIFK is the oldest IFK club in Finland. The club has activities in many sports, including football, ice hockey, bandy, floorball, handball, athletics and bowling. HIFK Soccer ry is part of the...
with phrases like
Kandee hiffaa skaffaa, et ei tartte bluffaa et ois kliffaa.
Elämä nysä, kausi buli.
meaning
You should realize to acquire [one of these], so you don't need to pretend as to be having fun.
Life short, season great.
Slang words obey normal Finnish grammar
Finnish grammar
This article deals with the grammar of the Finnish language . For the ways in which the spoken language differs from the written language, see Colloquial Finnish...
, regardless of their etymology. However, Helsinki slang is always both spoken and written as colloquial Finnish, never as properly grammatical "kirjakieli" (see spoken Finnish
Spoken Finnish
Colloquial Finnish is the "dialectless" colloquial standard of the Finnish language. It is spoken in the Greater Helsinki region, and in urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna...
). For example, "can you fix that in a working condition?" is "voitsä duunaa ton kondiksee?" in slang, where "duunaa", "to do, to work" and "kondis", "condition, working order" are slang words. Trying to write the above sentence in properly grammatical form like in kirjakieli, to "voitko (sinä) duunata tuon kondikseen?" would be erroneous both in kirjakieli and slang.
Helsinki slang is also used by the Swedish-speaking Finnish minority in Helsinki. Modern Helsinkian Swedish-based slangi is still spoken in the same manner as in Finnish, mixing it into the Swedish language. The earlier example "can you put that in order?" would be "kan du duuna dendä' kondiksee?" when spoken by a Swedish-speaking Finn in Helsinki slang. The same sentence would be similarly erroneous in proper Finland Swedish language as well.
Famous speakers
Several famous Helsinkians, especially musicians, are known for their skill in the slang, and have partially or entirely performed in it in public.
Musicians
- Tuomari NurmioTuomari NurmioTuomari Nurmio is the artist name of Hannu Juhani Nurmio , a Finnish rock singer and songwriter.-Work:Since his debut album, Nurmio has been regarded as one of the most original Finnish singer-songwriters. His lyrics are filled with peculiar and arresting metaphors and expressions, some of which...
- rock musician (1979-) - Remu Aaltonen - rock musician (1960s-)
- Asa (Avain), Finnish rap artist (1990s-)
- Steen1Steen1Steen1 is a Finnish rap musician. He originally chose the name Steen Christensen, after the Danish criminal who shot two Finnish policemen in 1997, as his moniker, but changed it due to controversy.In 2004 Steen1 released his debut album entitled Salaliittoteoria...
, rap artist (1990s-)
Literature
Several books and comics have been published written entirely in Helsinki slang, both as translations and as newly authored texts, or something in between. This is only a partial list, slanted towards the modern times.
Novels and short stories
- Eero Salola: Ilman fritsaria (1920s)
- Pentti SaarikoskiPentti SaarikoskiPentti Saarikoski was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 60's and 70's...
: Sieppari ruispellossa (TammiTammiTammi has multiple meanings.* Tammi is a Finnish publishing company, named after the Finnish word for "oak".* Jukka Tammi, Finnish Ice Hockey Goaltender* Tammi Terrell, American Motown singer...
, 1961) — Saarikoski's first Finnish-language translation of Catcher In The Rye was controversially written in the Helsinki slang. - Arvo TurtiainenArvo TurtiainenArvo Turtiainen was a Finnish writer and recipient of the Eino Leino Prize in 1973.-References:...
: Minä paljasjalkainen (TammiTammiTammi has multiple meanings.* Tammi is a Finnish publishing company, named after the Finnish word for "oak".* Jukka Tammi, Finnish Ice Hockey Goaltender* Tammi Terrell, American Motown singer...
, 1962) - Arvo Pohjola: Himaföneri (Minimo.fi, 2005)
- Edvard Janzon: Rundi stadis välil snadis (GummerusGummerusGummerus Oy is a Finnish media group that was founded in Jyväskylä in 1872 by Kaarle Jaakko Gummerus. In 1985, it moved its headquarters from Jyväskylä to Helsinki. In 2008, it had an annual turnover of EUR 26,9 million...
, 1997) ISBN 951-20-5231-8 - Edvard Janzon: Palsa kanis, litski kalis (GummerusGummerusGummerus Oy is a Finnish media group that was founded in Jyväskylä in 1872 by Kaarle Jaakko Gummerus. In 1985, it moved its headquarters from Jyväskylä to Helsinki. In 2008, it had an annual turnover of EUR 26,9 million...
, 2002) ISBN 951-20-6092-2 - Edvard Janzon: Villi Vallila (Kesuura, 2006) ISBN 951-812-112-5
- Sami GaramSami GaramSami Garam is a Finnish cook and writer of Hungarian descent.The son of Károly and Sirkka Garam . Sami Garam's mother, Sirkka Garam, is a sister of the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski. Sami Garam's main profession is cooking, and he has worked as chef in many restaurants, receiving high acclaim for...
: Seitsemän broidii — Seven BrothersSeven BrothersSeven Brothers is the first and only novel by Aleksis Kivi, the national author of Finland, and it is widely regarded as the first significant novel written in Finnish and by a Finnish-speaking author. Published in 1870, Seven Brothers ended an era dominated by Swedish-speaking authors, most...
Comics
- Sami Garam: Aku Ankka - Rotsi on mut byysat puuttuu (2001) — Carl BarksCarl BarksCarl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
' Donald DuckDonald DuckDonald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
(name translates to "Has a jacket but is missing pants") - Sami Garam: Snögeli ja seittemän snadii starbuu (WSOY, 2001) ISBN 951-0-25703-6 — Snow White and the Seven DwarfsSnow White"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
- Sami Garam: Jörde-Juge
- Sami Garam: Kessen rehukotsa (Egmont, 2005) ISBN 952-469-399-2 — Asterix and the Laurel Wreath
Dictionaries
- Heikki and Marjatta Paunonen: Tsennaaks Stadii, bonjaaks slangii: Stadin slangin suursanakirja (WSOY, 2000) ISBN 951-0-23239-4 — won Tieto-Finlandia 2001
- Kaarina Karttunen: Nykyslangin sanakirja (WSOY, 1979) ISBN 951-0-09050-6
- Juhani Mäkelä: Stadin snadi slangisanakirja (WSOY, 1997) ISBN 951-0-22477-4
- Jukka Annala: Remusanakirja (TeosTeosTeos or Teo was a maritime city of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus, colonized by Orchomenian Minyans, Ionians, and Boeotians. The city is situated on a low hilly narrow strip of land connecting two larger areas of land . Teos ranked among twelve cities comprising the Ionian...
, 2008)
Biblical
- Olli Seppälä: Luukkaan evankeliumi slangiks skrivattuna (Kirjapaja, 2001) ISBN 951-625-740-2 — The Gospel of LukeGospel of LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
- Olli Seppälä: Stadilaisten katkismus (Kirjapaja, 2000) ISBN 951-625-676-7
- Pentti Malaste: Uusi testamentti stadin slangilla (GummerusGummerusGummerus Oy is a Finnish media group that was founded in Jyväskylä in 1872 by Kaarle Jaakko Gummerus. In 1985, it moved its headquarters from Jyväskylä to Helsinki. In 2008, it had an annual turnover of EUR 26,9 million...
, 2001) ISBN 951-20-5828-6 — The New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
Other
- Erkki Johannes Kauhanen: Slangivisa (TammiTammiTammi has multiple meanings.* Tammi is a Finnish publishing company, named after the Finnish word for "oak".* Jukka Tammi, Finnish Ice Hockey Goaltender* Tammi Terrell, American Motown singer...
, 2002) ISBN 951-31-2533-5 - Erkki Mattsson: Ei se skulaa joka skagaa (Edico Oy, 1999) ISBN 951-97542-1-0 – One who is afraid does not play
- Erkki Mattsson: Griinataa kimpassa (Edico Oy, 2001) ISBN 951-97542-2-9 – Let's laugh together
Further reading
- Petri Kallio: "How Uralic is Stadin Slangi?" In: Rogier Blokland and Cornelius Hasselblatt (eds.), Language and Identity in the Finno-Ugric World, pp. 176–191. Studia Fenno-Ugrica Groningana 4. Maastricht 2007. ISBN 9789042303157.
External links
Dictionaries
- Slangi.net's dictionary, the most extensive online Helsinki slang dictionary (Hakkeri.net's search to the same corpus)
- Urbaani sanakirja (Urban DictionaryUrban DictionaryUrban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary of slang words and phrases, which contained over 6 million definitions . Submissions are regulated by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors...
) has many user-generated translations, but is not only limited to Helsinki slang