Denmark: Youth using Arabic slang

Danish kids are beginning to use Arabic and Turkish loanwords in their slang, says Charlotte Ryter, Danish teacher in Frederiksberg.  When she noticed this, she she put together a modern slang dictionary, together with her 10th grade class.  32% of the class are of immigrant background.  

Valtrim Mejdija from Albania and Ibber Sawaneh from Senegal like the fact that they can speak without being understood by parents, teachers or the police.  And the dictionary doesn't bother them, as it only contains ten words out of their large slang vocabulary.

Sabine Kirchmeier-Andersen, head of the Danish Language Council, think it's a sign of good integration that youth speak Arabic with each other.  She says slang has always been a group language, a way of of delimiting oneself from the other.  She thinks this shows that Danish and second generation immigrants youth are beginning to see themselves as one group.

"If both the Danes and the immigrants use it, it's a sign that they they see themselves as a group with a common language."

Anne Marie Dahl, future researchers, says that the children of today will become the carpenters, plumbers, journalists and language researchers of tomorrow and that then everybody will use Arabic loanwords.

English will continue to be used more, but slang has a way of becoming part of daily language and enters the regular dictionaries as well.

Sources: Nyhedsavisen, Nordjyske (Danish)

See also: Germany: Immigrants Help Create New Type of German Language, Netherlands: Dutchified Turkish, Antwerp: language as a weapon

This article was cross-posted to Islam in Europe and to THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS