Literally, the name would mean 'slang of the city', but always means just the city of Helsinki in the slang – all other cities are unconditionally referred to by the common Finnish word for 'city' (). More importantly, Helsinki slang is not strictly speaking a slang in the word's modern definition, but rather a dialect and a sociolect. However, the term slang has stuck since long, especially as the language refers to itself as . History Roots in the 1880s Helsinki was founded in 1550 by Gustav I of Sweden in the coastal Swedish-speaking region of Finland. When in 1809 Sweden lost Finland to Imperial Russia, Helsinki became the capital of Finland by the decision of Alexander I of Russia. At this time, Helsinki was almost unilingually Swedish. In 1820, for example, the city was home to about 4,500 people, only 5% of whom were Finnish-speaking. With the new capital status, the city's centre was rebuilt and a continuous growth was sustained. By 1880 the population had grown almost ten-fold to 43,000, mostly due to industrialization. This brought ever-increasing numbers of new Finnish-speaking working class from around the country to the largely Swedish-speaking city. In the 1870 census 57% of Helsinkians spoke Swedish as their home language, 26% Finnish, 12% Russian and 2% German, while also increasing numbers of residents were capable in both Swedish and Finnish. Helsinki slang is believed to have first began to evolve among the mixed-language working-class people of the 1880s. In addition to Swedish and Finnish, influence came from Russian and German. Helsinki slang is thought to have formed naturally as a sort of a common language for the mixed-language population who due to industrialization moved into the same neighbourhoods for employment, and had no single common language initially. The slang came to be for practical purposes of everyday communication and mutual understanding as a common language of the various language groups. For example, at this time about one fifth of newly-wed couples had different native languages. The working class population was at this time concentrated in Kallio, Vallila, Sörnäinen and Arabia. Helsinki slang was probably first born in these tightly populated neighbourhoods in their factories, multilingual homes, markets and on their streets. Some have referred to 's roots as a pidgin language or the lingua franca of this multilingual population. Youth's language From early on Helsinki slang was especially the language of the youth.