We don’t speak ordinary Swedish in Houtskär. Instead, we speak a special dialect, houtskärska, which very much resembles the German language, because it has three genders. The people of Houtskär speak this dialect with each other, and many older locals have never learnt to speak Swedish properly. It can be very difficult for an outsider to make any sense of a discussion between two locals, because they usually speak so fast and the words sometimes sound very strange.
If you would like to learn this interesting dialect you can buy or borrow the book ”Läsåbook e hootsjärskå” published by Houtskärs Kulturgille and/or listen to the book on the web page of Pro Houtskärin by clicking on the link with the same name.
It is not easy to understand the dialect, but dialects are something special that we need to treasure and in Houtskär we are very proud of our dialect!