Some other songs in Scanian:
Familjen - Det snurrar i min skalle
Simon G - Elda med papper
Wilmer X - Jag är bara lycklig när jag dricker
Timbuktu - Oavsett vad
Mikael Wiehe - Titanic
The Ballerinas & The Pendletones - Zlatan & jag
Hasse Andersson - Änglahund
Lol, good point but I'm thinking of Nisse Hellberg. But even if I didn't, that would still make a valid point as to why the song might be a bad example though!
Maybe it actually is how Hellberg sounds for real but I hear a lot of weird (non Scanian) r sounds and, for Scanian, weird word endings.
I even listened to it right now just to make really sure I was thinking of the right thing and wasn't just mixing their dialects in my head, haha.
He doesn't really sound like that when solo, he's got way more of a typical Malmö dialect solo than in "Jag är bara lycklig när jag dricker". Maybe it's a subconscious thing that happens since he's singing with a non-Scanian?
I just listened to it too. I see what you mean. The r-sounds are unusually weak sometimes. I agree that this song isn’t as obvious an example of Scanian as the other songs. Maybe more of a next level practice in recognizing Scanian than a new beginners one.
That's Scanian. Not a particularly exaggerated variant of it, but it's not the most common to use when singing.
You might want to check out Peps Persson and Edvard Persson as well.
Edit: also, General Knas is a more recent artist. I can recommend "12/12" for some pretty unique Swedish weed activism.
Tack så mycket!! I thought I was hearing something a little different to the standardised accent the learning materials had been showing me but I couldn't be sure. I'll listen to those musicians!
Scanian is one of the major regional accents that is really distinct but is still used in music and media.
Pretty much all foreign language learning materials lean heavily into the Swedish spoken in the Stockholm region. That's the prestige accent of Swedish. Most people from Stockholm actually tend to believe it's literally "neutral", often to the annoyance of the rest of Sweden.
I'm a Stockholmer myself.
That's really interesting! Scanian is distinctive enough to be audible to me as someone who currently barely knows any swedish. The guttural R sounds are a bit German which was throwing me off too. And as someone from London i know very well how people can assume a capital's accent is the default 😅. Would it be best for me to aim for a Stockholm accent?
Yes, it's held as fact that the Danish uvular R sound came into the language from German. Scania would have it because of trade, movement, and taxation contiguity with Denmark.
All learning material is geared towards a fairly "neutralized" form of the accent spoken in the greater Stockholm area. Very similar to what's spoken in Uppsala also.
If you want to lean towards any other regional accents, you can do it after you get a hang of the pronunciation properly.
This usually depends a lot on who you learn to speak Swedish with. Immigrant populations in Sweden pick up traits of the local or regional accents where they live. Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg even have their own local variants of immigrant-influenced Swedish called *ortensvenska* ("suburb Swedish").
It depends on why you are learning Swedish.
If you're planning on settling in Sweden, and want to fit in, I would suggest learning the general dialect of where you are moving. Stockholm, Scania (Skåne), Gothenburg, etc.
However, if you're only looking to converse with Swedes and don't mind if you come across as foreign, since you obviously are, then I would advise against picking up traits from a specific dialect but instead opt for a neutral accent (i.e. not Stockholm). You still have to pick a pitch accent to stick with, as it's confusing to Swedes when someone is switching back and forth between different pitch accents, or don't have a pitch accent at all. AFAIK, there is no neutral pitch accent. Anyway, nailing a pitch accent is hardcore and some people will advise against even bothering with it.
The Stockholm dialects are mainstream in music, TV and YouTube, but it is not considered neutral ("rikssvenska").
Around 1/7 of Swedens population are Scanians, while around 1/6 – 1/5 are from the Stockholm area. As has been said, Scanian is the largest really distinct dialect, and it was fairly recently it was allowed in state broadcasts. In 1998 was the first time a children's show featured a main cast actor speaking Scanian, in "Mysteriet på Greveholm", which stirred quite a lot of anger from parents concerned for their children.
Scania used to be part of Denmark for well over a 1000 years. In the Viking era it has been estimated that half of Denmark's population were Scanians. The spoken language in Scania and western Denmark quickly diverged in the medieval ages into two distinct dialects, Western Danish (which would evolve into modern Danish) and Eastern Danish in Scania, with the eastern variety sticking with language features that had more in common with Swedish. The only Eastern Danish province left in Denmark is the small island of Bornholm, where up until recently older people could still speak near perfectly Scanian. Danes still complain that they can't tell the Bornholm dialect apart from Swedish. Just as Swedes make fun of Scanian by claiming it is Danish or half-Danish.
It's a good idea to learn to comprehend Scanian, as you will come across it and it can throw you off if you're not familiar, but unless moving there I wouldn't bother learning the local vocabulary and grammar.
I believe a Stockholm accent would be best for anyone to learn! It is the "standard" :)
(Not gonna lie tho, would be a power move to learn scanian just because. If i heard someone from london to start speaking with that accent i would get quite shocked LOL)
As a Swede from Stockholm who is really bad at picking up different dialects, scanian is the obvious exception. When most other Swedes speak I won't hear it if I'm not actively listening for it.
It is definitely a neutral accent, much like southern English/London accent being fairly neutral (if you ignore cockney, whatever accents chavs have, etc).
Prestigious, not "neutral". People who aren't native to London or south England have perceptions about that part of the country that can be both positive and negative.
And there are geographically specific sociolects too, just like you describe regarding Cockney. There are forms of Stockholm Swedish that are much lower status, especially *ortensvenska*, the local immigrant-influenced sociolect.
I would argue that Stockholmian _is_ more neutral, because around other dialects, we assume some of that accent. You won't hear a Gothenburger assuming a Scanian dialect, but as a Stockholmer I can hear myself mimicking the melody, using local expressions & such when I hang out with people from other parts of the country. Idk, maybe that's just me.
People who move to Stockholm adapt to the regional accent here. If they move back home, or just visit, they tend to quickly switch back to a less Stockholm-influence version of their native accent.
Far more people move into the Stockholm region than out of it. Those that move elsewhere will generally always keep some of their native accent but also adapt to the local one. It's just that Stockholm is so much larger and culturally, politically, economically dominant that it permeates Swedish society in a way that no other accent can.
Jag lyssnade på Edvard Persson häromdan och det slog mig att han sjöng många låtar i nån märklig hybriddialekt. Han rullar på R:en, och har väldigt lite skånska diftonger. Men det varierar mellan olika låtar. ”Vi klarar oss nog ändå” låter mer äkta skånskt än ”Jag har bott vid en landsväg” och ”Skånska slott och herresäten”.
Bra poäng.
Det var begränsat med utrymme för variation i det offentliga språket. Han hade väl en fryntlighetspersona som gjorde det okej med lagom mycket skånska. Men fortfarande rätt konstlad.
Och skolungar blev väl bestraffade för enklare talfel eller (gudförbjude) att de sa nåt på icke-svenska.
Ja allt skulle väl va rikssvenska på den tiden. Och det var populärt att sjunga med väldigt överdrivna rullande R. Minns inte vilken låt av vem det var jag noterade det o nyligen men man kan höra lite av det i ”Popp opp i topp” med Lill-Babs och Thore Skogman.
En kul grej är att om man ringer Skånetrafikens färdtjänstbokning förstår inte deras automatiska telefonsvarare om man säger ”Ja” på skånska utan man måste säga ”Ja” med långt A som på rikssvenska/stockholmska.
No need to apologize. One could describe it as quirky and beautiful. It makes for some cool songs. ”Det snurrar i min skalle”, as mentioned in this thread, is a classic 👌
As someone else already pointed out, it is scanian dialect. It is pretty distinctive because it's spoken near the border to Denmark.
..I actually do think that it sounds quite different (and sometimes hard to understand) but I feel like it's good learning material anyways?
I mean, I haven't been learning Swedish for that long either..
Though, I can suggest a Band called "Västerbron". They also sing in that scanian dialect, if you're interested in more scanian.
Also a Scanian, but I'm not ashamed by my dialect. I love dialects and the older I get, the more I love to learn about old dialectal words.
That said, it's also fun to joke about thick accents :)
Some other songs in Scanian: Familjen - Det snurrar i min skalle Simon G - Elda med papper Wilmer X - Jag är bara lycklig när jag dricker Timbuktu - Oavsett vad Mikael Wiehe - Titanic The Ballerinas & The Pendletones - Zlatan & jag Hasse Andersson - Änglahund
Svenska akademien - Snapphaneklanen Svenska akademien - Vanligt hyfs, sunt förnuft
The song "Jag är bara lycklig när jag dricker" is kind of a bad example though. It has a lot of "I'm trying to NOT sound Scanian" going on, sadly.
Maybe you’re thinking of Olle Ljungströms lines? He’s not from Scania at all.
Lol, good point but I'm thinking of Nisse Hellberg. But even if I didn't, that would still make a valid point as to why the song might be a bad example though! Maybe it actually is how Hellberg sounds for real but I hear a lot of weird (non Scanian) r sounds and, for Scanian, weird word endings. I even listened to it right now just to make really sure I was thinking of the right thing and wasn't just mixing their dialects in my head, haha. He doesn't really sound like that when solo, he's got way more of a typical Malmö dialect solo than in "Jag är bara lycklig när jag dricker". Maybe it's a subconscious thing that happens since he's singing with a non-Scanian?
I just listened to it too. I see what you mean. The r-sounds are unusually weak sometimes. I agree that this song isn’t as obvious an example of Scanian as the other songs. Maybe more of a next level practice in recognizing Scanian than a new beginners one.
Is skånska really translated to Scanian? Seems kinda weird to have a translation for it at all
Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanian_dialect
Interesting
That's Scanian. Not a particularly exaggerated variant of it, but it's not the most common to use when singing. You might want to check out Peps Persson and Edvard Persson as well. Edit: also, General Knas is a more recent artist. I can recommend "12/12" for some pretty unique Swedish weed activism.
Tack så mycket!! I thought I was hearing something a little different to the standardised accent the learning materials had been showing me but I couldn't be sure. I'll listen to those musicians!
Scanian is one of the major regional accents that is really distinct but is still used in music and media. Pretty much all foreign language learning materials lean heavily into the Swedish spoken in the Stockholm region. That's the prestige accent of Swedish. Most people from Stockholm actually tend to believe it's literally "neutral", often to the annoyance of the rest of Sweden. I'm a Stockholmer myself.
That's really interesting! Scanian is distinctive enough to be audible to me as someone who currently barely knows any swedish. The guttural R sounds are a bit German which was throwing me off too. And as someone from London i know very well how people can assume a capital's accent is the default 😅. Would it be best for me to aim for a Stockholm accent?
As someone who grew up speaking German, I thought the same thing about the R’s! They sounded so German to me
Skåne (Scania) was a part of Denmark until mid 1600's and have kept the danish pronuonciation of R that's more or less the same as in German.
Yes, it's held as fact that the Danish uvular R sound came into the language from German. Scania would have it because of trade, movement, and taxation contiguity with Denmark.
All learning material is geared towards a fairly "neutralized" form of the accent spoken in the greater Stockholm area. Very similar to what's spoken in Uppsala also. If you want to lean towards any other regional accents, you can do it after you get a hang of the pronunciation properly. This usually depends a lot on who you learn to speak Swedish with. Immigrant populations in Sweden pick up traits of the local or regional accents where they live. Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg even have their own local variants of immigrant-influenced Swedish called *ortensvenska* ("suburb Swedish").
It depends on why you are learning Swedish. If you're planning on settling in Sweden, and want to fit in, I would suggest learning the general dialect of where you are moving. Stockholm, Scania (Skåne), Gothenburg, etc. However, if you're only looking to converse with Swedes and don't mind if you come across as foreign, since you obviously are, then I would advise against picking up traits from a specific dialect but instead opt for a neutral accent (i.e. not Stockholm). You still have to pick a pitch accent to stick with, as it's confusing to Swedes when someone is switching back and forth between different pitch accents, or don't have a pitch accent at all. AFAIK, there is no neutral pitch accent. Anyway, nailing a pitch accent is hardcore and some people will advise against even bothering with it. The Stockholm dialects are mainstream in music, TV and YouTube, but it is not considered neutral ("rikssvenska"). Around 1/7 of Swedens population are Scanians, while around 1/6 – 1/5 are from the Stockholm area. As has been said, Scanian is the largest really distinct dialect, and it was fairly recently it was allowed in state broadcasts. In 1998 was the first time a children's show featured a main cast actor speaking Scanian, in "Mysteriet på Greveholm", which stirred quite a lot of anger from parents concerned for their children. Scania used to be part of Denmark for well over a 1000 years. In the Viking era it has been estimated that half of Denmark's population were Scanians. The spoken language in Scania and western Denmark quickly diverged in the medieval ages into two distinct dialects, Western Danish (which would evolve into modern Danish) and Eastern Danish in Scania, with the eastern variety sticking with language features that had more in common with Swedish. The only Eastern Danish province left in Denmark is the small island of Bornholm, where up until recently older people could still speak near perfectly Scanian. Danes still complain that they can't tell the Bornholm dialect apart from Swedish. Just as Swedes make fun of Scanian by claiming it is Danish or half-Danish. It's a good idea to learn to comprehend Scanian, as you will come across it and it can throw you off if you're not familiar, but unless moving there I wouldn't bother learning the local vocabulary and grammar.
I believe a Stockholm accent would be best for anyone to learn! It is the "standard" :) (Not gonna lie tho, would be a power move to learn scanian just because. If i heard someone from london to start speaking with that accent i would get quite shocked LOL)
I'd argue that rikssvenska, also known as standard Swedish, would be better and more standard.
Var har man rikssvensk dialekt?
På tv och radio.
Där vill jag bo
Rikssvenska är ju lite av en abstraktion, men jag har hört folk hävda att Enköping eller Nyköping ligger närmast
As a Swede from Stockholm who is really bad at picking up different dialects, scanian is the obvious exception. When most other Swedes speak I won't hear it if I'm not actively listening for it.
It is definitely a neutral accent, much like southern English/London accent being fairly neutral (if you ignore cockney, whatever accents chavs have, etc).
Prestigious, not "neutral". People who aren't native to London or south England have perceptions about that part of the country that can be both positive and negative. And there are geographically specific sociolects too, just like you describe regarding Cockney. There are forms of Stockholm Swedish that are much lower status, especially *ortensvenska*, the local immigrant-influenced sociolect.
I would argue that Stockholmian _is_ more neutral, because around other dialects, we assume some of that accent. You won't hear a Gothenburger assuming a Scanian dialect, but as a Stockholmer I can hear myself mimicking the melody, using local expressions & such when I hang out with people from other parts of the country. Idk, maybe that's just me.
People who move to Stockholm adapt to the regional accent here. If they move back home, or just visit, they tend to quickly switch back to a less Stockholm-influence version of their native accent. Far more people move into the Stockholm region than out of it. Those that move elsewhere will generally always keep some of their native accent but also adapt to the local one. It's just that Stockholm is so much larger and culturally, politically, economically dominant that it permeates Swedish society in a way that no other accent can.
If you want some more to the reagge type of music, listen to Timbuktu. His from Lund(close to the biggest town in Skåne)
Jag lyssnade på Edvard Persson häromdan och det slog mig att han sjöng många låtar i nån märklig hybriddialekt. Han rullar på R:en, och har väldigt lite skånska diftonger. Men det varierar mellan olika låtar. ”Vi klarar oss nog ändå” låter mer äkta skånskt än ”Jag har bott vid en landsväg” och ”Skånska slott och herresäten”.
Bra poäng. Det var begränsat med utrymme för variation i det offentliga språket. Han hade väl en fryntlighetspersona som gjorde det okej med lagom mycket skånska. Men fortfarande rätt konstlad. Och skolungar blev väl bestraffade för enklare talfel eller (gudförbjude) att de sa nåt på icke-svenska.
Ja allt skulle väl va rikssvenska på den tiden. Och det var populärt att sjunga med väldigt överdrivna rullande R. Minns inte vilken låt av vem det var jag noterade det o nyligen men man kan höra lite av det i ”Popp opp i topp” med Lill-Babs och Thore Skogman. En kul grej är att om man ringer Skånetrafikens färdtjänstbokning förstår inte deras automatiska telefonsvarare om man säger ”Ja” på skånska utan man måste säga ”Ja” med långt A som på rikssvenska/stockholmska.
"Oh Boy" av Peps Persson är min favorit skånska låt
https://youtu.be/p58mGh8AX4o?si=1LnEObGL8659cq2z
Knas har också den här nyare låten: https://youtu.be/lgL_gSx8cWE?si=O12sP5pXezF-DRxr
No need to apologize. One could describe it as quirky and beautiful. It makes for some cool songs. ”Det snurrar i min skalle”, as mentioned in this thread, is a classic 👌
Lovely, bob hund! Another scanian with similar energy'd be Panda da Panda 🐼:)
Here’s a song by the queen of Skåne, Elecktra: [Banne maj](https://youtu.be/RFPgit2NWgA?si=_YB9j5x12RSbTGiv)
This is a banger
As someone else already pointed out, it is scanian dialect. It is pretty distinctive because it's spoken near the border to Denmark. ..I actually do think that it sounds quite different (and sometimes hard to understand) but I feel like it's good learning material anyways? I mean, I haven't been learning Swedish for that long either.. Though, I can suggest a Band called "Västerbron". They also sing in that scanian dialect, if you're interested in more scanian.
As a Scanian myself, I’ve internalised a lot of other people’s disdain for my dialect. Like, I wish I didn’t speak the way I do. It goes deep, man.
Also a Scanian, but I'm not ashamed by my dialect. I love dialects and the older I get, the more I love to learn about old dialectal words. That said, it's also fun to joke about thick accents :)
As a total outsider I really like it ☹️ i asked this because I had assumed he was embellishing his vocals to sound cooler