What is “skånande” in the Swedish Skånska dialect?

Skånande is a playful name for the throaty R of skånska, the dialect of Skåne, Sweden’s southern tip. Most Swedes roll the R at the tip of the tongue. In skånska it comes from the back of the throat instead, closer to French or German. It’s the sound outsiders love to copy and can’t quite get. In the clip, a friend tries it and is told flatly: “Det kallas skånande” (“That’s called skånande”).

That throaty R likely came from Danish: Skåne was part of Denmark for centuries, and Danish has the same back-of-throat sound. In the clip, one friend jokes that copying it feels like saying “skrapande ärenden” — “scratchy errands” — a funny way to describe how rough it sounds. The Gothenburg dialect, göteborgska, comes up as the opposite: “lite mjukt och glatt” (“a bit soft and cheerful”), and it once won a poll for Sweden’s sexiest dialect, just ahead of skånska.