Kebabnorsk

Kebab Norwegian (Kebabnorsk; pronounced [ˈkêːbɑbˌnɔʂk]) is an ethnolect variety of Norwegian that incorporates words from languages of non-Western immigrants to Norway, such as Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi and Chilean Spanish. Kebab Norwegian has its origin among immigrant youths and those growing up with immigrant youths in the eastern parts of Oslo.

Kebab Norwegian was first identified in the 1990s. In 1995, Stine Aasheim wrote an M.A. thesis on the phenomenon: "Kebab-norsk: fremmedspråklig påvirkning på ungdomsspråket i Oslo".[1][2] Andreas Eilert Østby, who used Kebab Norwegian in his translation of Jonas Hassen Khemiri's novel Ett öga rött about immigrants speaking a similar dialect of Swedish, published a Kebab Norwegian dictionary in the same year, 2005.[3] In 2007, a hip-hop Kebab Norwegian version of Romeo and Juliet was staged in Oslo.[4] In 2008, 99% Ærlig, a film about East Oslo youth, featured Kebab Norwegian.[5]

The name "Kebab Norwegian" is taken from the kebab and based on stereotypes of users, who tend not to refer to it by that name, and increasingly perceive it as referring to "bad Norwegian".[6] Academic researchers more commonly refer to it as an ethnolect, specifically "Norwegian multiethnolect".[2][7][8] It includes words from about 20 languages, including Japanese and a "surprisingly large amount of Spanish".[9]

The dialect continues to evolve. As is characteristic of immigrant ways of speaking, it is also used by native-born young people when speaking with their peers,[10] and users code-switch and avoid it in situations such as job interviews.[11]