Helsinki Slang
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Helsinki slang or ('Helsinki's slang', from
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, 'city'; see
etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
) is a local
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
and a
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
of the
Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...
mainly used in the capital city of
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
. It is characterized by its abundance of foreign
loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
s not found in the other
Finnish dialects Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish) ...
. Helsinki slang first evolved in the late 19th century as a
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
of the multilingual Helsinki
working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
communities, where
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
- and
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
-speaking youth lived together with
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and various other language minorities. Helsinki slang is not a typical dialect of Finnish, because unlike many other parts of Finland, the Helsinki area was predominantly Swedish-speaking during the time when the city of Helsinki originally evolved, and thus Helsinki slang is characterised by an unusual, strikingly large number of obvious foreign loanwords. Nevertheless, Helsinki slang is counted as a dialect on its own right, among the "purer" dialects of other parts of Finland. Grammatically Helsinki slang is based on colloquial Finnish. It is characterized by a large number of words originally borrowed from
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, but nowadays chiefly
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
. 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 Colloquial or spoken Finnish () refers to the unstandardized spoken variety of the Finnish language, in contrast with the standardized form of the language (). It is used primarily in personal communication and varies somewhat between the differen ...
, and the language sounds distinctively Finnish. The language's history can generally be divided into the 'old' slang () and the 'new' or 'modern' slang (). 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 a far greater number of Swedish and Russian loan-words 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 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. Youth subcultures ...
s starting from the 1950s. It is thus characterized by a greater influence of the
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
and proper
Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...
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 or simply . is a slang word itself, borrowed from the
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
'' stad'', 'city'. Literally, the name would mean 'slang of the city', but always means just the city of Helsinki in the slang – all other cities are unconditionally referred to by the common Finnish word for 'city' (). More importantly, Helsinki slang is not strictly speaking a
slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...
in the word's modern definition, but rather a
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
and a
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
. However, the term ''slang'' has stuck since long, especially as the language refers to itself as .


History


Roots in the 1880s

Helsinki was founded in 1550 by
Gustav I of Sweden Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksföre ...
in the coastal Swedish-speaking region of
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. When in 1809 Sweden lost Finland to
Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
, Helsinki became the capital of Finland by the decision of
Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son of ...
. 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 centre was rebuilt and a continuous growth was sustained. By 1880 the population had grown almost ten-fold to 43,000, mostly due to
industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
. This brought ever-increasing numbers of new Finnish-speaking
working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
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 numbers 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 Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
. 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 neighbourhoods 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 language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
s. The working class population was at this time concentrated in
Kallio Kallio (; sv, Berghäll; literally " the rock") is a district and a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, located on the eastern side of the Helsinki peninsula about one kilometre north from the city centre. It is one of the mo ...
,
Vallila Vallila () is a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Vallila is a central-northern neighbourhood, bordered by Pasila to the west and Alppiharju to the south. Like Kallio, Vallila is mostly residential and has a reputation of being a ...
,
Sörnäinen Sörnäinen ( sv, Sörnäs; ''Sörkkä'' or ''Sörkka'' in Helsinki slang) 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 ...
and
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
. Helsinki slang was probably first born in these tightly populated neighbourhoods in their factories, multilingual homes, markets and on their streets. Some have referred to 's roots as a
pidgin language A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
or the ''
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
'' 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 The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
and
multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
working class youth, a
speech community A speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and expectations regarding the usage (language), use of language. It is a concept mostly associated with sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics. Exactly how to ...
, formed their own
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
. The initiative for this grew at first from their needs of basic everyday communication, but soon 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''):
, , , . '' Kaisikseen''.


Modernization

The ''old slang'' continued to develop up until the 1940s. In 1944 the
Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...
between the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and Finland ended in the
Moscow Armistice The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of modi ...
, and Finland had to cede large parts of
Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...
to the Soviet Union. About 430,000 people became refugees 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 Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
to Helsinki. This had an effect on the slang as well. 1940s mark the beginning of the gradual transition between the old slang () and modern speech (). 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 Colloquial or spoken Finnish () refers to the unstandardized spoken variety of the Finnish language, in contrast with the standardized form of the language (). It is used primarily in personal communication and varies somewhat between the differen ...
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 A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
s and
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
, was, and continues to be, available. The cultural influence of the
English-speaking world Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest languag ...
, especially the
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n
youth subculture 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. Youth subcultures ...
s, grew, and increasing numbers of
English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
words started to find their way to the language of the urban Helsinki youth. With the popularity of
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and the advent of the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
, 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
neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
s. Nevertheless, even if words are borrowed to the slang, they are still in the present day modified to conform to the
phonotactics Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
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 harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
. They also include phonemes /b/, /d/ and /g/ and consonant clusters such as /sn/ rarely found in other
Finnish dialects Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish) ...
. Yet the words remain indisputably Finnish, incorporating Finnish grammar and mostly obeying
Finnish phonotactics Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to Standard Finnish, which is based on the dialect spoken in the former Häme Province in central south Finland. Standard Finnish is used by professional speakers, such as reporters and ne ...
. 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 Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish ( sv, finlandssvenska; fi, suomenruotsi) is a general term for the variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population, commonly a ...
(
Sipoo Sipoo (; sv, Sibbo) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the munic ...
dialect) 'cranky' is modified into 'drunkard', where the added 's' is arbitrary, as is the voicing change of 'k' to 'g'. Derivation of , 'a bicycle' from is even more convoluted: in the Swedish
language game A language game (also called a cant, secret language, ludling, or argot) is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to an untrained listener. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their c ...
is , which became and further – only the 'l' is etymologically original. In fact, the newer abbreviation of to loses even the 'l'. Some distinctive aspects in Helsinki slang are: * Very swift pace of pronunciation and speech * The voiced
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s , which are rare in standard
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
, are abundant: ('to dwell'), ('to break, to malfunction'), ('dork'), ('work'), ('girl'), ('to sleep'). Many speakers, though, especially in the modern variety, use several of these words with voiceless : , , . *
Consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s in the beginning of words, which appear natively only in south-western Finnish dialects, are commonplace, like ('Helsinki'), ('sick'), ('knife'), ('bottle') * Shortened or
diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
forms of words. Common
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
endings used include ''-is'' ( 'open fire', "condition"), ''-ari'' ( 'the street Fleminginkatu', 'a grill stand') and ''-de'' ( and 'heads and tails' (< Standard Finnish and 'ibid.')) * Slang and foreign word roots do not conform to
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
, although their
suffix In 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, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
es do (, ' pro , ' <
Sörnäinen Sörnäinen ( sv, Sörnäs; ''Sörkkä'' or ''Sörkka'' in Helsinki slang) 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 ...
), pro <
Töölö Töölö (; sv, Tölö, formerly spelled ''Thölö'') is the collective name for the neighbourhoods Etu-Töölö ( sv, Främre Tölö, lit=Front Töölö, links=no) and Taka-Töölö ( sv, Bortre Tölö, lit=Rear Töölö, links=no) in Helsinki ...
, pro , 'trousers'). This does not affect native Finnish words. ** With some speakers this goes even further; Standard Finnish and appear to be
merging Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...
as , a new neutral vowel. Before the modern period, this change has happened in Estonian and other southern
Finnic languages The Finnic (''Fennic'') or more precisely Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic) languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 mi ...
. * Surplus S appearing in beginning of words, forming consonant clusters: 'train' (cf. Swedish ), 'guitar' (cf. Swedish ), 'policeman' *
Ceceo In Spanish dialectology, the realization of coronal fricatives is one of the most prominent features distinguishing various dialect regions. The main three realizations are the phonemic distinction between and ('), the presence of only alveo ...
or lisp on , pronouncing it as a sharp, dental , or even as in English "''th''ing". This is considered an effeminate feature, but appears sometimes also in 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 The Pitkäsilta (; sv, Långa bron, ) is a bridge in Helsinki, Finland, connecting the districts of Kruununhaka and Siltasaari. It was completed in 1912 by the design of the architect Runar Eklund. Pitkäsilta is one of the best known landmarks ...
bridge, but it later spread to the southern neighborhoods as well, including
Punavuori Punavuori ( sv, Rödbergen) is a neighbourhood in the center of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name Punavuori (English: Red mountain) refers to red cliffs located between Sepänkatu and Punavuorenkatu. They were still visible in the 19th ce ...
( 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: Slang words obey normal
Finnish grammar The Finnish language is spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns elsewhere. Unlike the languages spoken in neighbouring countries, such as Swedish and Norwegian, which are North Germanic languages, or Russian, whic ...
, regardless of their etymology. However, Helsinki slang is always both spoken and written as colloquial Finnish, never as properly grammatical ''kirjakieli'' (, see
spoken Finnish Colloquial or spoken Finnish () refers to the unstandardized spoken variety of the Finnish language, in contrast with the standardized form of the language (). It is used primarily in personal communication and varies somewhat between the differen ...
). For example, "can you fix that in a working condition?" is "" 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 , to "" would be erroneous both in and slang. Helsinki slang is also used by the
Swedish-speaking Finn The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names; fi, suomenruotsalainen) can be used as an attribute., group=Note—see below; sv, finlandssvenskar; fi, suomenruotsalaiset) is a linguistic minority in Finl ...
ish minority in Helsinki. Modern Helsinkian Swedish-based 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 "" when spoken by a
Swedish-speaking Finn The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names; fi, suomenruotsalainen) can be used as an attribute., group=Note—see below; sv, finlandssvenskar; fi, suomenruotsalaiset) is a linguistic minority in Finl ...
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

*
Georg Malmstén Georg Malmstén (27 June 1902 – 25 May 1981) was a Finnish singer, musician, composer, orchestra conductor and actor. He was one of the most prolific entertainers in Finland of his time, producing over 800 records in numerous genres. In late ...
– musician (1930s–1980) *
Tuomari Nurmio Judge Bone, Tuomari Nurmio, is the artist name of Hannu Juhani Nurmio (b. 1950 in Helsinki), a Finnish rock singer and songwriter. Work Since his debut album, Nurmio has been regarded one of the most original Finnish singer-songwriters. His l ...
– rock musician (1979–) *
Remu Aaltonen Henry Olavi "Remu" Aaltonen (born 10 January 1948) is a Finnish drummer and singer. He is the lead musician of the band Hurriganes, but has also pursued a solo singing career. Aaltonen was born in Helsinki. He was the oldest child in a family o ...
– rock musician (1960s-) *
Asa ASA as an abbreviation or initialism may refer to: Biology and medicine * Accessible surface area of a biomolecule, accessible to a solvent * Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin * Advanced surface ablation, refractive eye surgery * Anterior spinal ar ...
(Avain), Finnish rap artist (1990s-) * Steen1, rap artist (1990s-) * Thono Slowknow, rap artist (1996–)


Writers

*See #Literature


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: (1920s) *
Pentti Saarikoski Pentti Saarikoski (Impilahti, now in the Republic of Karelia September 2, 1937 – Joensuu August 24, 1983) was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 1960s and 1970s. His body of work comprises poetry and ...
: ( Tammi, 1961) — Saarikoski's first Finnish-language translation of ''The Catcher in the Rye'' was controversially written in the Helsinki slang. *
Arvo Turtiainen Arvo Albin Turtiainen (16 September 1904, Helsinki – 8 October 1980) was a Finnish writer and recipient of the Eino Leino Prize The Eino Leino Prize is an annual prize award to top writers in Finland since 1956, with particular emphasis on po ...
: ( Tammi, 1962) *Tauno Rautapalo: ( Otava, 1963) *Edvard Janzon: (
Gummerus Gummerus 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. Annually, ...
, 1997) *Edvard Janzon: (
Gummerus Gummerus 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. Annually, ...
, 2002) *Tuomas Vimma: ''Helsinki 12'' ( Otava, 2004) *Arvo Pohjola:
Minimo.fi
2005) *Edvard Janzon: ''Villi Vallila'' ( Kesuura, 2006) *
Sami Garam Sami Garam (born 31 October 1967 in Helsinki) is a Finnish cook and writer of Hungarian descent. The son of Károly and Sirkka Garam (née Saarikoski). Sami Garam's mother, Sirkka Garam, is a sister of the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski. Sam ...
: (Johnny Kniga, 2003) — ''
Seven Brothers 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...
''


Comics

*Sami Garam: (2001) —
Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...
'
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
(name translates to "Has a jacket but is missing pants") *Sami Garam: ( WSOY, 2001) — ''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'' *Sami Garam: *Sami Garam: ( Egmont, 2005) — ''
Asterix and the Laurel Wreath ''Asterix and the Laurel Wreath'' (, "Caesar's Laurels") is the eighteenth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations). It was originally serialized in the magazine'' Pilote'', issues 621 ...
''


Dictionaries

*Heikki and Marjatta Paunonen: (WSOY, 2000) — won
Tieto-Finlandia The Finlandia Prize ( fi, Finlandia-palkinto; sv, Finlandiaprisen) is a set of Finnish literary prizes awarded by the Finnish Book Foundation to "celebrate reading and highlight new Finnish first-rate literature." Considered the most prestigious ...
2001 *Kaarina Karttunen: ( WSOY, 1979) *Juhani Mäkelä: ( WSOY, 1997) *Jukka Annala: (
Teos Teos ( grc, Τέως) or Teo was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus. It was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus, Ionians and Boeotians, but the date of its foundation is unknown. Teos was ...
, 2008)


Biblical

*Olli Seppälä: ( Kirjapaja, 2001) — ''The
Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-volu ...
'' *Olli Seppälä: ( Kirjapaja, 2000) *Pentti Malaste: (
Gummerus Gummerus 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. Annually, ...
, 2001) — ''The
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
''


Other

*Erkki Johannes Kauhanen: ( Tammi, 2002) *Erkki Mattsson: ( Edico Oy, 1999) – ''One who is afraid does not play'' *Erkki Mattsson: ( Edico Oy, 2001) – ''Let's laugh together''


Notes

* Translations

: 'mother'
(old/new), (old); 'father' (old/new); 'food' (< Rus. wiktionary:закуска#Russian, закуска) (old/new), (< Engl. 'food') (new), (old); 'die' (old/new), (new) * Whether '' Sörkka'' or '' Sörkkä'' is the correct slang form of ''
Sörnäinen Sörnäinen ( sv, Sörnäs; ''Sörkkä'' or ''Sörkka'' in Helsinki slang) 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 ...
'' has been the subject of a heated debate for a long time.
, violating vowel harmony, has a more nonstandard appearance that suggests slang authenticity, but equally well it may be the result of hypercorrection. On the other hand, sounds like in the way a naive, non-native speaker would say it. Some suggest a compromise, saying that the former should be used of the place and the latter of the Sörnäinen prison, while some say one is merely more recent than the other. Still, authoritative institutions such as the slang dictionary and the
Helsinki City Museum Helsinki City Museum ( fi, Helsingin kaupunginmuseo, sv, Helsingfors stadsmuseum) is a museum in Helsinki that documents and displays the history of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Its mission is to record and uphold Helsinki's spiritual, mate ...
take a neutral stance in the debate.


References


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. .


External links


Slangi.net
portal
Stadin Slangi ry

Journey Planner (Reissugaidi) for Helsinki in Slangi


Dictionaries



the most extensive online Helsinki slang dictionary (Hakkeri.net'
search
to the same corpus)
Urbaani sanakirja
(''
Urban Dictionary ''Urban Dictionary'' is a crowdsourced English-language online dictionary for slang words and phrases. The website was founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham. Originally, ''Urban Dictionary'' was intended as a dictionary of slang or cultural words ...
'') has many user-generated translations, but is not only limited to Helsinki slang City colloquials Culture in Helsinki Finnish dialects Slang {{Finnish dialects