The Kiruna dialect ( sv, kirunamål, kirunesiska) is a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

of Swedish spoken in the northern city of

Kiruna (; se, Giron ; fi, Kiiruna ) is the northernmost city in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland. It had 17,002 inhabitants in 2016 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality (population: 23,167 in 2016) in Norrbotten County. The city was ...

and the surrounding municipality. The pure Kiruna dialect is strongly influenced by

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and

Meänkieli (literally 'our language') is a group of distinct Finnish dialects or a Finnic language spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the valley of the Torne River. Its status as an independent language is disputed, but in Sweden it is recogn ...

, presumably as a result of immigration from the east.

Northern Sami Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

, the original language of the area, has left comparatively little impact on the dialect. In addition, the Kiruna dialect bears a patchwork of small influences from numerous other dialects and languages from the south, including Varmlandic, Jamtlandic, Scanian, Danish,

Västgötska Västgötska is a Swedish dialect spoken in the western Swedish province of Västergötland. Specifically, Västgötska commonly refers to several variants of the more broadly defined Götamål spoken across Västergötland except for Gothenburg ...

and Angermanlandic. This is because Kiruna had become a prominent settler town by the end of the 19th century, with immigrants flocking to it from across the country. A characteristic trait of the dialect is the word ''jo'' ("yes", especially after a negative question or in quick conversation), pronounced approximately as [] (found in many places in northern Norrland). This is not always used, however, and is only pronounced with ingressive airflow. Another distinctive trait of the Kiruna dialect is a heavy alveolar trill. The Kiruna dialect is fairly commonly spoken in comparison to more endangered

North Swedish Norrland dialects ( sv, norrländska mål, links=no) is one of the six major dialect groupings of the Swedish language. It comprises most dialects traditionally spoken in Norrland, except for those of Gästrikland and southern Hälsingland, which a ...

dialects such as the genuine dialects of Norrbotten and Västerbotten, Lower Luleå dialect and the Lower Kalix dialect. Unlike these dialects, the Kiruna dialect does not drop word endings. The Kiruna dialect is not a genuine dialect but standard Swedish with mixed regional influences.

References

*''Kiruna: 100-årsboken'' Swedish dialects Kiruna {{Germanic-lang-stub