Skånska - Scanian Dialect from the south of Sweden
Hello! Or maybe I should say "Haj!" as we say in Skånska instead of the regular "Hej!".
As a native Swedish speaker from the wonderful city of Malmö in Skåne, I thought it might be fun to introduce you to Skånska. Skånska is the dialect we use in the south, the way of pronuncing still varies exactly where you are in the south, but the "slang" is mostly the same. For spanish speakers you could compare with Argentinian slang "Lunfardo". For many people the Scanian dialect might be considered the hardest to understand. In the Scanian dialect we usually speak with diphthong, we add an E before the vowels which makes it quite hard to understand what we are saying sometimes. We also remove the consonants in the end of some words, usually the G and the T. The T in some words are soften to a D instead.
For example the words:
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Dålig (bad) is pronounced Deåli. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1NHg54qTTlG
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Tråkig (boring) is pronounced Treåki. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1i4IQSzKotj
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Sjuk (ill) is pronounced Sjeug. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1QWiifT62Po (I actually pronounce the K as an K. But on the countryside they will say the K like a G)
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Död (Dead) is pronounced Dö´. (Imagine saying english Dead with out the last D, but with an ö instead of "ea"..Dea..Dö´..) http://vocaroo.com/i/s0O5hZCrxdHx
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Dog (Died) is pronounced Deu. (sounds like the name Dew) http://vocaroo.com/i/s0a7n99Pa9el
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Sluta (Stop; as in "Stop it!" - "Sluta!") is pronounced Sluda or even Sleuda in some accents. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1BgVaVMnUEb (Again, I say the T like an T, but on the countryside they would say "sluda")
Notice that the K becomes a G in the end of the word Sjuk, this may also vary depending where you are in the south.
The sentence Jag vet inte (I don't know) becomes Ja ve éne when said quickly. This one is used more among friends when you are bored and someone says "What shall we do?" "Ja ve éne" http://vocaroo.com/i/s0RBNi0nVEV4
Words like Heter" (As in "Jag heter Sven") and Säker (Safe, secure, sure) becomes Hetor and Säkor when pronounced in Skånska. The E is changed to an O. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0JgmV5IvGYh
Det (That) and är (Is) are usually simplifed to De and e , also Och becomes a simple O. This is an example of the simplification of Det and är. First in English, then Swedish and then Skånska. This is an actual sentence that is totally correct.
"Is it that it is?" - "Yes it is that it is."
Regular Swedish: "Är det det det är?" - "Ja, det är det det är"
Skånska: "E de de de e?" - "Ja, de e de de e"
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1DKwVlqw2UR
Also, in some swedish dialects the SJ-sound and SK-sound as in Sjuk or Skön(Fine/Comfortable), is pronounced like when you want to silence someone, "SH" Shhh...More related to the German SCH-sound as in Schön. In Skåne we pronounce it a bit different, it is more of a blowing sound. For example the number Seven, which is Sju (in Skånska: Sjeu). Imagine you are blowing out a candle or whistle and at the same time saying the letter U. It is quite hard to explain exactly how to do it, most persons I know from other countries have difficulties pronouncing our SJ-sound.
Me saying Sju: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1oOlhVWnAbz
When you have learned how to say it, you should try to say:
Sjuttiosju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor på skeppet Shanghai! (Seventy-seven seasick sailors were looked after by seven lovely nurses on the ship Shanghai.)
Me saying it..Do not laugh! http://vocaroo.com/i/s19LUWumNamS
The vocabulary of Skånska is quite big. In my family and among friends we usually use words like:
-NOTE: I MIGHT UPDATE THIS LIST OF WORDS FROM TIME TO TIME-
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Påg (Boy) which in regular Swedish is Pojke. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Nt1w0pVwei
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Tös (Girl) - regular Swedish: Flicka. http://vocaroo.com/i/s06VL4iDP9JR
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Rälig (Disgusting or Scary) - Regular Swedish: Äcklig or Läskig http://vocaroo.com/i/s0O1iQ1cUfs9
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Tradig (Boring) - Regular Swedish: Tråkig. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0vfGcWdo0kU
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Hossor (Sockings)- Regular Swedish: Strumpor. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0kc83Om7zVh
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Hutta (To throw) - Regular Swedish verb: Kasta/Slänga. http://vocaroo.com/i/s10ABtdaKEBW
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Mög (Dirt, but also used as expressing "❤❤❤❤!") - Regular Swedish: Smuts or Skit http://vocaroo.com/i/s0AgXqfVLRHM
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Klyddig (Messy, tricky or difficult) - Regular Swedish: Rörigt or Svårt http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Wj1SbtNT39
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Redig (Proper, neat or tidy) - Regular Swedish: Ordentlig http://vocaroo.com/i/s18ySCzVUg3O
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Lé (Bad; like in "Bad dog!. Not to be confused with the swedish word for Smile, which is "le") - Regular Swedish: Stygg http://vocaroo.com/i/s1fFn4zrYM0w
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Tön (Silly, stupid; in a more kind way like; "What a silly dog! - Vilken tön hund!") - This one is harder to translate to Swedish though we have a variety of words that mean "Silly". I would say: Fånig, but we also have Fjantig or Knasig. But these could be regional too. Either way they could all be useful
Tön: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0FlX5hUT49g
Fånig, Fjantig and Knasig: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1CdgffwE4mk
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Sölig (Slow; as velocity) - Regular Swedish: Långsam http://vocaroo.com/i/s1OvMnRE2Uvi
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Spåga (Knit. That tiny tiny piece of irritating wood that gets stuck in your finger when you are working with wood) Regular Swedish: Sticka (-i fingret) http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Y35JKKZWYz
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Rullebör (Wheelbarrow) - Regular Swedish: Skottkärra. This is a classic Skanish word. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0xeWOqm0oNa
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Fubbick (Idiot) - Regular Swedish: Idiot
Some words may have a different meaning in the north and in the south as well, for example: The verb Grina, which in the north means "to cry a lot" and in the south it means "To laugh a lot"...So more or less the opposite of eachother.
Balle is the word we use for the buttocks in Skåne, but in the north I think it is the balls or the penis, I am still confused about this.
The easiest way to spot a "skåning" is to hear the way they say Mig, Dig and Sig.
- Mig - Maj.
- Dig - Daj.
- Sig - Saj. In most Swedish dialects it is pronounced Mej, Dej and Sej. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1yB704nvPtr
We sometimes tend to say Nej like Naj. Imagine saying the English "Hi" but with an N before. "Nay". I do not know if Duolingo mention this, but in the whole of Sweden you can also say Nä instead of Nej. In Skånska it sounds more like a goat, "Näee".............
Also with the salute Hej we say Haj, like in English. "Haj" also means shark, so if you want to be super boring you can answer "delfin"(dolphine) when someone says "Haj" to you.
That was it, I will add more to this lesson when I think of something new, so if you are interested you should stay tuned!
Some favorite musicians from Skåne where you can hear the accent:
Bob Hund, Pop-indie band with members from Helsingborg/Ängelholm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkBMwUxUhiU
Peps Persson, Blues/Reagge artist from Helsingborg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-vJmhrUjNw
Hasse Andersson, country singer from Malmö https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc1tvdanJPs
Danne Stråhed, "Dansbands" musician from Malmö https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ihbUqyCNNY
Timbuktu, rapper from Lund. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv759wmsSFk
Kal P Dal, rock musician from Malmö: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcSbN2rxTkw
And my favorite celebrity from Skåne, the stand up comedian JOHAN GLANS! (with english subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zurWFVMw8OU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMAWXKUjNXc
There is a movie called "Hata Göteborg" which is in Skånska. I can not find a stream with english subtitles, but you can download the movie and the subtitles separately. The acting is quite bad, but it is still entertaining.
If you need help or further explanation of something - Whether it is in Swedish or Skånska, you are welcome to ask me! Hope you enjoyed this short text!
For further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanian_dialect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanian_dialect#Vocabulary
83 Comments
Tack så mycket - lingots for you!
It would be jättebra if Swedes with different dialects could do a similar thread to this one.
Tack själv! Yeah, I also think it would be jättebra, I think dialects are as intresting as the language itself! It helps you to get around locally and people usually appreciate when you are trying to use slang from their region!
I love the Malmö dialect! To me it is not difficult at all to understand, but there are some countryside dialects in the south of Skåne that are trickier. I have always had a problem with Isak (Anders Isaksson), the goalie of the national football team and apparently he is from Smygehamn.
By the way, I used to wonder why the people from Skåne say "cyklen" (instead of "cykeln" which is correct), but now when I study Danish on Duolingo I know why :).
Edit: Do you say "postmannen" instead of "brevbäraren"?
Great! Malmö accent is awesome, and far more easier to understand than the countryside as you said. The countryside accents are more kept, if you listen to an old person from Malmö, you will hear that they speak with an older version of the Malmö accent!
For a long time when I was a kid (with many others) I always spelled that word wrong, the same thing with "Nycklen" (correct is Nyckeln which means Key). Haha, "Cyklen" and "Nycklen" are incorrect written, but when said they are perfectly acceptable. Did not know that it was from danish, you taught me something!
I would say "Brevbäraren", I actually think I never have heard someone say "postmannen"., but I can not speak for all us "skåningar" :)
There seems to be a lot of Danish influence in the Skåne dialect (or the other way around) such as the words "tös" (Danish: "tøs") and "mög" (Danish: møg) and the dropping of the "G" at the end of words (the "-(l)ig" suffix is usually pronounced "-(l)i'" in Danish, such as on dålig (Danish: dårlig)). Suddenly the relative mutual intelligibility between the Danes and the Swedes from the TV series "Broen" is starting to make sense!
I am a Dane living in Skåne - or the occupied territories as I call it when trying to rile up my Swedish friends.
And yes skånska is quite easy for a Dane to understand. And most locals here understand me very well - when talking to people from other parts of Swedish I have to put it much more effort in speaking slowly and enunciating very clearly.
I think the influence is partly due to the history of belonging to Denmark, but probably more so just because of the proximity and the fact that people on the west coast of Skåne (Malmö, Landskrona Helsingborg etc.) could watch Danish TV long before the days of satelite and cable TV. And they would have taken frequent trips to Helsingør and Copenhagen to visit Tivoli, buy cheap booze etc.
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Ah, the famous cheap booze chain that created so much intercultural exchange... Norwegians went to Sweden, Swedish went to Denmark, Danish to Germany, Germans to Czech Republic, Czechs to Slovakia, Slovaks probably to Ukraine (but I don't know about that for sure ^^).
You are right! Actually Skåne was Danish for a great time in history, but after a meeting in Roskilde Skåne was given to Sweden..(?). There are still people saying that we belong to Denmark and that we speak like the Danes, but I do not really agree. The pronunciation is still very different even though we have some in common.
There is an Danish island called Bornholm where they speak like a mix of Skånska and Danish. Danes do not use the SJ-sound like in Skåne, but on Bornholm they do!
Well that is not really surprising, since it was used to be part of Denmark.
So in which part of Skåne do you live? I know that they said "postmannen" in Lund before, but maybe they don't anylonger.
Btw, in standard Swedish "live in Lund" is "bo i Lund" but in skånska it is "bu i Lond" :).
Interesting, I grew up in Malmö and Genarp (not so far away from Hjärup) and I have not heard people use that word :P
My boys use it, Tim, so I wonder if it is a word children would say, rather than adults?
I think both adults and children use it. Could be locally haha, as you know Skane is full of small villages and it just happen to be that where I grew up no one used it. When I moved to the countryside from Malmö my new classmates were using words that I never used and I used words that they never used and so on.
Thank you so much! Glad you like it! I will be adding more words to the vocabulary soon! :)
Is it true that you use the French guttural R? Because if that's true, I'll learn Skånska just so I know what to do with my Rs.
Or you could learn "östgötska" (spoken in Norrköping and Linköping for example). The r:s are pronounced like English w.
Standard Swedish: "En rödrutig regnrock"
Östergötland dialect: "En wöwuti wegnwock"
English: "A red plaid rain coat"
I have childhood friends who speaks östgötska, I think it is so nice to listen to haha.
I get the sense that, with so many dialectal variations, the R isn't as big of a deal as I thought. Also, my great-grandfather was from Åland. How would you described the Åland Island dialect?
I would say that R is not important at all, like you said we have many variations. I do not really know how they pronounce the R in Åland, but since it belongs to Finland, where they use a spanish R, I would guess they do the same. I will try to find out!
Yes, Me and most of us use a French guttural R. I have great problems speaking Spanish and any other language with rolling R's...
Tack så mycket for this post, I just found myself spending way too much time watching Johan Glans on YouTube :) Unfortunately I do not nearly have enough experience with Swedish to distinguish individual dialects but this is a start I guess.
Haha glad you liked it! You can't get enough of Johan Glans! I hope you have learned to distinguish Skånska from the others at least a bit! Most people are introduced to Skånska quite late, because Swedish teachers usually teach a neutral Swedish and most Swedish movies are made with actors from Stockholm or with people who speak with neutral accent. Therefore most people have a negative attitude towards Skånska and say that it is ugly when first presented, but when you get used and understand it, you will love it :)
Very helpful! As a fellow resident of Skåne, it now makes perfect sense why I don't understand the majority of the things my father in law says! I have always understood other dialects much easier than Skånska! My bilingual 7 year old is the funniest - he has the strongest skånsk accent!
Glad you liked it and that you find it helpful! My girlfriend who has lived in Sweden for 3 years says the same, Skånska is really hard compared to other accents, you must adjust your "Swedish ear" into a different level. Haha, so charming :)
Thanks for sharing this. My Swedish ancestors come from Skåne, so I feel a particular affinity for the region and its dialect.
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I love this. Skånska is harder for me to understand than other Swedish dialects. To be fair, though, as an American learning Swedish, the only people I can easily understand are Finns!
Glad you liked it! I think Swedish is so hard for others because we pronounce the words so different from how they are written, also we finish the words and add accents differently to the north. The Finnish accent is so charming haha, sounds so intellectual!
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Intellectual! Really? I didn't know that. That must be why it's so easy for me to understand. ;)
When my friend hear skånska dialect he will tell me, Talar du skååånska? lol by the way what does "yo" mean. He always tells that after.
Finally someone confirms my theory that skåningar end each sentence with "ju" :)! It's hard to describe what it means though, maybe it's a bit like "of course" or "as we both know". I actually think it's quite nice, since it's very "including".
I had no idea that "ju" was a Scanish phenomenon.. I use it quite often when I think about it, it is one of those words that has no real translation, but I do not always use it in the end of an sentence. You can use it as a sign of disappointment, for example: "Vi skulle äta pizza ju / Vi skulle ju äta pizza..Jag vill inte äta pasta" (But we were going to eat pizza..I do not want to eat pasta). Also like a sign of understanding or realization "Ah, så är det ju !" (Ah, that's the way it is!)...My girlfriend usually make fun of me of how I pronounce it, because I pronunce "ju" as "juuuee"
I realize now that it is not a Scanish phenomena and that they use it in the north too.
"Vi skulle ju äta pizza" is of course something you can hear all over Sweden, but I meant sentences like these:
"Vi ska gå på stan nu ju." "Du kan vara hos mormor när vi går på bio ju."
It could be that it's mostly used when talking to kids. Anyway, I think it sounds nice.
Could be, could be.. I think it sounds nice too. Maybe it is not so common in the north to pull a double? I can say and hear for example "Vi ska ju gå nu ju". I have not thought much about this..
Tänkte inte pa dem när jag gjorde listan, men kan absolut lägga till Tralala, lilla molntuss och O´boy :)
I plan on moving to Malmö so I guess I need to study this, Thanks for the share!
Don't forget Panda Da Panda in your music list, some of my Swedish friends told me to not listen too much to his music if I wanted to sound "normal". It actually "helped" me when I heard some Swedes walking by at a festival in Hungary, I could immediately tell they were from Skåne because they sounded just like him, even though I did not catch what they were saying :P
Actually I have never listened to this guy, I had no idea he was from Skåne until now. I just assumed he was one of those cheesy singers from the north that all sound the same, but Panda Da Panda is actually good! Would like to hear an interview with him to hear if he speaks the same accent as he sings with!
He was at Musikhjälpen this year, you can listen to it again at http://t.sr.se/1ChB3ol (maybe you still have to click play at the top of the page). That's a song first, though, they start having a conversation at around 2:22:30 :)
Haha, he has a great dialect! You can tell that he is from the more south of Skåne! The R's are different to mine and also the diphthongs..Well, my accent is a mix of different types of Skånska, like many others in my age. Nowadays people move around more than 50 years ago.
I am looking to study Scanian when I am working on my Masters. This was a great informal introduction. The comments are also really informative :) Thanks!
Glad it was helpful! Are you living in Skåne or are you going to live there? :)
Jag ska bor där. Jag är Kanadensisk och jag bor i Vancouver för närvarande. Jag gör min BA fortfarande dock.
Förlåt för sent svar! Åh, vad härligt! Jag hoppas du kommer älska vårat vackra landskap! :)
Ingen problem, jag är upptagen med studerar i alla fall. Jag älskade Sverige den sista gång jag var där, så jag trör att jag ska känna mig hemma. Except för snön och köld, det är inte ofta vi har heller :)
I was wondering what kind of connotations (if any) come with speaking with this accent. For example, in English, if one speaks with a backwoods Tennessee accent, they may be perceived as uneducated, even if that is not the case. Some one with a British accent is usually perceived as being polished, educated, and proper. So basically, if I were to go out and try to speak with this accent (wish me luck!) are my native speaker friends going to be laughing me out of the water? Any thoughts?
It is one the accents that people usually complain about and many find it annoying and hectic. Gräv bort Skåne, "shovel Skåne away", has become somewhat of a slogan, although just for fun.
http://i.imgur.com/NowiAVR.jpg
And well... I assume they are gonna think it is really weird if you go out of your way to speak with any accent really. Imagine meeting a Swedish person who speaks with a deep south accent without any connection to the southern states. You would find it very odd wouldn't you?
So, aside from the fact that the TTS here is kinda wonky, what accent is considered the "standard" accent? As to the southern accent in English, I've heard quite a few Russian learners of English speak with rather thick southern accents which always strikes me as a little funny. :D Thanks!
Uppsala is often considered to have one of the most "pure" accents. But anything around Stockholm is pretty much standard.
Watch an episode of Aktuellt, the announcer will have the standard Swedish accent.
I think Skåne (and the dialect) gets a bad (and unfair) rap and is the butt of a lot of jokes. True, it is tricky to understand at times, but I wouldn't call it annoying - unless we're talking about Ola Selmen :)
There are of course different Scanian accents, some of which sound very educated and others which sound less educated :).
I would say the South accent would hit most people as the speaker is a bit uneducated, like with the Tennessee accent. Most of the time, the person is not uneducated, but even for me who speaks with a South accent, some people from the east of Skåne sound uneducated to me. On the countryside as well, where the accent is more well kept. It is actually a very bad habit to judge someones intelligence by the way they speak. I have felt offended for not being taken seriously in some occations when being with people from the north, just because of how I pronounce words different. In cities like Malmö and Lund there are many people from the north, I think that have contributed to a more "civilized" or more understandable Skånska, also television which is more accesible than 50 years ago has changed the "good oldSkånska." A person from the far north with a broad accent may also be perceived as dumb or uneducated even though that is not the case, at least for persons here from the South. And people from Stockholm sounds like snobs in our ears. It is an interesting phenomena how much we can think of a person because of the way he/she speaks. My girlfriend is not from Sweden, but she speaks Swedish fluently. She is very educated and still people disrespect her by not taking her seriously just because she has an foreign accent while speaking Swedish. Many Swedes does that unfortunately and keeps on changing the language to English when people struggle to speak Swedish. It is very discouraging for the learner. Wops, Sorry for getting a bit out of the subject!
I agree with Anders91 that the Swedish from Uppsala would be the "nice" Swedish. I also think it is up to yourself which accent you want to speak, go with the local dialect where you are. Would be boring if everyone spoke the same, right?
Indeed, t'would be boring. Even as someone that does not speak English with a Tennessee accent, I agree with your statement about judging people according to their manner of speech. I wondered about what you mentioned of Swedes changing the language back to English; would you say that it is really for the foreigner's benefit or would it be part of the "language power struggle" of much fame? Thanks for this information; quite helpful, I believe. :)
Most of the time I would say it is for the foreigner's benefit, but also because many Swedes, ofcourse not all, are bad at understanding Swedish spoken with an heavy accent, even dialects from inside Sweden, as some Swedes say they can't understand Skånska at all. As I said, this might come out as discouraging to the learner thinking that 'I am not good enough'. In some cases I just think Swedes like to show off their English skills.
Hmm. That's not very encouraging. ;) Thank you for the information though. It motivates me to work on my pronunciation a bit more. :)
Thanks for your detailed explanation! So, when a kid learns Swedish at a school in Malmo, which dialect are they taught? Or is there a standard oral version that is taught?
I don't think you learn a dialect at school really. If the teacher is from Skåne, he or she will (probably) speak skånska, but the children can speak any dialect they want.
I second this. I had teachers with lots of different accents throughout elementary school and high school and it was never an issue.
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Has anyone seen the TV show 'Bron'? Is the dialogue spoken on the Swedish side considered 'Skanska' because I noticed that the main Swedish character utters words that resemble Danish?
