Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Perkerdansk

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Perkerdansk or Immigrant Danish is a multi-ethnolect spoken in Denmark, a variety of Danish associated primarily with youths of middle eastern ethnic background. It is a contact variety that includes features of Danish as well as Arabic, Turkish, English and other immigrant languages. Particularly common in urban areas with high densities of immigrant populations, its features have also spread to general youth language in Denmark.

The following is an example of Danish spoken by two youths in south Copenhagen. Speaker A speaks Berber as a first language and speaker B's first language is Kurdish. Nonetheless their Danish includes elements of Arabic (wallah "I swear") and Turkish (kız "girl", para "money", and English (I got "I have", -s plural ending on the Turkish word para). Other non-standard features are grammatical (simplification of grammatical gender system) and syntactical (lack of word order inversion in subordinate clauses).

A: wallah jeg siger min storebror han skylder mig 700 kroner jeg skal have 350 i dag og 350 om to uger. I got paras. Skal du til den der fest på fredag? "Wallah I say my older brother he owes me 700 crowns I am getting 350 today and 350 in two weeks. I got paras. Are you going to that party on friday?" B: mmm... A: wallah mand jeg siger dig efter den der tur jeg tænker bare på fest og kız. "Wallah man I tell you after that trip I think only about party and kız"

Danish poet Yahya Hassan makes creative use of elements of immigrant Danish in his work.

References

Perkerdansk Wikipedia