“Kebabnorsk”
I am trying to bring this blog back to life with a recently learned concept that I hope will show the evergrowing diversity of the norwegian society: The “Kebabnorsk”. This thing has been existing around Oslo´s Østkanten for more than a decade now, but I have really not looked into it until recently.
Kebabnorsk is, or rather was in its origins, an ethnolect, a dialect or slang linked to an specific ethnic background; in this case non-western inmigrants in Oslo. This dialect has diverse roots, pulling words and phonemes from Persian, Punjabi, Arabic, Turskish, Spanish etc. even including Japanese. The users of this dialect are multilingual and they mostly make use of the Kebabnorsk in informal conversation with peers.
I have found different takes on whether the term itself is acceptable or dismissive. Some users tend to avoid it, because it is based on fast-food-related ratial stereotypes, replacing it for names like Homlisk (from the Homlia district in east Oslo), while others seem to have reclaimed the term and take its low class inmigrant origins with pride.
Regardless of the name you use, this dialect is an healthy and well, and joining the endless norwegian “språkstriden” (the lenguage conflict). 13 years after the first Kebabnorsk dictionary, the first generation of immigrants users has made room to a new generation of norwegian users, mostly of inmigrant background and it has made its way to the world of arts through literature, music, theather, etc.