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Swedish has a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree in quantity, making 18 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Another notable feature is the pitch accent, a development which it shares with Norwegian. Swedish pronunciation of most consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages.
Swedish has nine vowels that, as in many other Germanic languages, exist in pairs of long and short versions.[1] The length covaries with the quality of the vowels, as shown in the table below (long vowels in the first column, short in the second), with short variants being more centered and lax.[1] The length is generally viewed as the primary distinction, with quality being secondary.[2] No short vowels appear in open stressed syllables.[3] The front vowels appear in rounded-unrounded pairs: /ʏ/–/ɪ/, /yː/–/iː/, /œ/–/ɛ/ and /øː/–/eː/.
Central Standard Swedish /ʉː/ is a near-close near-front compressed vowel [ʏː] that differs from /yː/ by the type of rounding.[4] In other dialects, /ʉː/ may be central.
/ʏ/, /yː/, /œ/ and its pre-/r/ allophone [œ̞], /øː/ and its pre-/r/ allophone [œ̞ː], /ɔ/ and /oː/ are protruded [ɪʷ], [iʷː], [ɛ̝ʷ], [ɛ̞ʷ], [eʷː], [ɛ̞ʷː], [ʌʷ] and [ɤʷː].[6][7][10][11][12]
Type of rounding is the primary way of distinguishing /ʉː,ɵ/ from /yː,œ/, especially in Central Standard Swedish.
/ɛː/, /ɛ/ (in stressed syllables), /øː/ (with a few exceptions) and /œ/ are lowered to [æː], [æ], [œ̞ː] and [œ̞], respectively, when preceding /r/.[13][14][15]
The low allophones are becoming unmarked in younger speakers of Stockholm Swedish, so that läsa ('to read') and köpa ('to buy') are pronounced [ˈlæ̂ːsa] and [ˈɕœ̂ːpa] instead of standard [ˈlɛ̂ːsa] and [ˈɕø̂ːpa].[15] These speakers often also pronounce pre-rhotic /øː/ and /œ/ even lower, i.e. [ɶː] and [ɶ].[15] This is especially true for the long allophone.[15] Also, the [ɶː] allophone is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the long /ɑː/.[15]
In some pronunciations, traditionally characteristic of the varieties spoken around Gothenburg and in Östergötland, but today more common e.g. in Stockholm and especially in younger speakers, [œ] and [ɵ] merge, most commonly into [ɵ] (especially before [r] and the retroflex consonants). Words like fördömande ('judging', pronounced /fœrˈdœ̌mandɛ/ in Standard Swedish) and fördummande ('dumbing', pronounced /fœrˈdɵmandɛ/ in Standard Swedish) are then often pronounced similarly or identically, as [fɵˈɖɵmːandɛ].[16][17]
In Central Standard Swedish, unstressed /ɛ/ is slightly retracted [ɛ̠], but is still a front vowel rather than central [ə]. However, the latter pronunciation is commonly found in Southern Swedish. Therefore, begå 'to commit' is pronounced [bɛ̠ˈɡoː] in Central Standard Swedish and [bəˈɡoː] in Southern Swedish. Before /r/, southerners may use a back vowel [ɔ]. In Central Standard Swedish, a true schwa [ə] is commonly found as a vocalic release of word-final lenis stops, as in e.g. bädd[ˈbɛdːə] 'bed'.[18]
In many central and eastern areas (including Stockholm), the contrast between short /ɛ/ and /e/ is lost.[19] The loss of this contrast has the effect that hetta ('heat') and hätta ('cap') are pronounced the same.
In Central Standard Swedish, long /ɑː/ is weakly rounded [ɒ̜ː].[1][7][20] The rounding is stronger in Gothenburg and weaker in most North Swedish dialects.[20]
One of the varieties of /iː/ is made with a constriction that is more forward than is usual. Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson describe this vowel as being pronounced "by slightly lowering the body of the tongue while simultaneously raising the blade of the tongue (...) Acoustically this pronunciation is characterized by having a very high F3, and an F2 which is lower than that in /eː/." They suggest that this may be the usual Stockholm pronunciation of /iː/.[21]
There is some variation in the interpretations of vowel length's phonemicity. Elert (1964),[22] for example, treats vowel quantity as its own separate phoneme (a "prosodeme") so that long and short vowels are allophones of a single vowel phoneme.
Patterns of diphthongs of long vowels occur in three major dialect groups. In Central Standard Swedish, the high vowels /iː/, /yː/, /ʉː/ and /uː/ are realized as narrow closing diphthongs with fully close ending points: [ɪ̝iʏ̝yɵ̝˖ʉ̟ʊ̝u].[23] According to Engstrand, the second element is so close as to become a palatal or bilabial fricative: [ɪ̝ʝʏ̝ʝʷɵ̝˖βʲʊ̝β].[7] Elsewhere in the article, the broad transcription ⟨iː yː ʉː uː⟩ is used.
In Central Standard Swedish, /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are often realized as centering diphthongs [eə], [øə] and [oə].
In Southern Swedish dialects, particularly in Scania and Blekinge, the diphthongs are preceded by a rising of the tongue from a central position so that /ʉː/ and /ɑː/ are realized as [eʉ] and [aɑ] respectively. A third type of distinctive diphthongs occur in the dialects of Gotland. The pattern of diphthongs is more complex than those of southern and eastern Sweden; /eː/, /øː/ and /ʉː/ tend to rise while /ɛː/ and /oː/ fall; /uː/, /iː/, /yː/ and /ɑː/ are not diphthongized at all.[24]
Consonants
The table below shows the Swedish consonant phonemes in spoken Standard Swedish.[25]
/t,l/ are dental [t̪, l̪],[26] but /n,d,s/ can be either dental [n̪, d̪, s̪] or alveolar [n, d, s].[27] If /d/ is alveolar, then /n/ is also alveolar.[28] Dental realization of /n,d/ is the predominant one in Central Standard Swedish.[28]
Initial fortis stops (/p,t,k/) are aspirated in stressed position, but unaspirated when preceded by /s/ within the same morpheme.[7] Hence ko ('cow') is [kʰuː], but sko ('shoe') becomes [skuː]. Compare English[kʰuːɫ] ('cool') vs [skuːɫ] ('school'). In Finland Swedish, aspiration does not occur and initial lenis stops /b,d,ɡ/ are usually voiced throughout.[29][30] Word-medial lenis stops are sometimes voiceless in Finland, a likely influence from Finnish.[30]
Preaspiration of medial[31] and final fortis stops,[32] including the devoicing of preceding sonorants,[33] is common,[34][35] though its length and normativity varies from dialect to dialect, being optional (and idiolectal[36]) in Central Standard Swedish but obligatory in, for example, the Swedish dialects of Gräsö,[37]Vemdalen and Arjeplog.[38] In Gräsö, preaspiration is blocked in certain environments (such as an /s/ following the fortis consonant[39] or a morpheme boundary between the vowel and the consonant[33]), while it is a general feature of fortis medial consonants in Central Standard Swedish.[33] When not preaspirated, medial and final fortis stops are simply unaspirated.[40] In clusters of fortis stops, the second "presonorant" stop is unaspirated and the former patterns with other medial final stops (that is, it is either unaspirated or is preaspirated).[41]
The phonetic attributes of preaspiration also vary. In the Swedish of Stockholm, preaspiration is often realized as a fricative subject to the character of surrounding vowels or consonants so that it may be labial, velar, or dental; it may also surface as extra length of the preceding vowel.[42] In the province of Härjedalen, though, it resembles [h] or [x].[42] The duration of preaspiration is highest in the dialects of Vemdalen and Arjeplog.[43] Helgason notes that preaspiration is longer after short vowels, in lexically stressed syllables, as well as in pre-pausal position.[31][44]
The Swedish fricatives /ɕ/ and /ɧ/ are often considered to be the most difficult aspects of Swedish pronunciation for foreign students. The combination of occasionally similar and rather unusual sounds as well as the large variety of partly overlapping allophones of /ɧ/ often presents difficulties for non-natives in telling the two apart. The existence of a third sibilant in the form of /s/ tends to confuse matters even more, and in some cases realizations that are labiodental can also be confused with /f/. The historic palatized kj and tj sound /ɕ/, is an affricate [t͡ɕ] or [t͡ʃ] in Finland Swedish.[29]
The Swedish phoneme /ɧ/ (the "sje-sound" or voiceless postalveolar-velar fricative) and its alleged coarticulation is a difficult and complex issue debated amongst phoneticians.[48] Though the acoustic properties of its [ɧ] allophones are fairly similar, the realizations can vary considerably according to geography, age, gender as well as social context and are notoriously difficult to describe and transcribe accurately. Most common are various sh-like sounds, with [ʂ] occurring mainly in northern Sweden and [ɕ] in Finland. A voiceless uvular fricative, [χ], can sometimes be used in the varieties influenced by major immigrant languages like Arabic and Kurdish. The different realizations can be divided roughly into the following categories:[49]
"Dark sounds" – [x], commonly used in the Southern Standard Swedish. Some of the varieties specific, but not exclusive, to areas with a larger immigrant population that commonly realizes the phoneme as a voiceless uvular fricative[χ].
"Light sounds" – [ʂ], used in the northern varieties and [ʃ], and [ɕ] (or something in between) in Finland Swedish.
Combination of "light" and "dark" – darker sounds are used as morpheme initials preceding stressed vowels (sjuk 'sick', station 'station'), while the lighter sounds are used before unstressed vowels and at the end of morphemes (bagage 'baggage', dusch 'shower').
/r/ has distinct variations in Standard Swedish. For most speakers, the realization as an alveolar trill occurs only in contexts where emphatic stress is used.[citation needed] In Central Swedish, it is often pronounced as a fricative (transcribed as [ʐ])[50] or approximant (transcribed as [ɹ]),[7] which is especially frequent in weakly articulated positions such as word-finally[29] and somewhat less frequent in stressed syllable onsets, in particular after other consonants.[50] It may also be an apico-alveolar tap.[29] One of the most distinct features of the southern varieties is the uvular realization of /r/, which may be a trill [ʀ],[51] a fricative [ʁ] or an approximant [ʁ̞]. In Finland, /r/ is usually an apical trill [r], and may be an approximant [ɹ] postvocalically.[52]
In most varieties of Swedish that use an alveolar /r/ (in particular, the central and northern forms), the combination of /r/ with dental consonants (/t,d,n,l,s/) produces retroflex consonant realizations ([ʈ,ɖ,ɳ,ɭ,ʂ]), a recursive sandhi process called "retroflexion".[54][55] Thus, /ˈkɑ̂ːrta/ ('map') is realized as [kʰɑ̂ːʈa], /nuːrd/ ('north') as [nuːɖ], /ˈvɛ̂ːnern/ ('Vänern') as [ˈvɛ̂ːnɛɳ], and /fɛrsk/ ('fresh') as [fæʂːk]. The process of retroflexion is not limited to just one dental, and e.g. först is pronounced [fœ̞ʂʈ].[56] The combination of /r/ and /l/ does not uniformly cause retroflexion, so that it may also be pronounced with two separate consonants [rl], and even, occasionally in a few words and expressions, as a mere [l]. Thus sorl ('murmur') may be pronounced [soːɭ], but also [soːrl].[57]
In Gothenburg and neighbouring areas (such as Mölndal and Kungälv) the retroflex consonants are substituted by alveolar ones, with their effects still remaining. For example: /kvɑːrn/ is [kvɑːn] not [kvɑːɳ], /hoːrd/ is [hoːd], not [hoːɖ]. However, /rs/, unlike what many other Swedes believe, is not [s] but [ʃ], i.e. /fɛrs/ is [fæʃː], not [fæsː].[citation needed]
As the adjacent table shows, this process is not limited by word boundaries, though there is still some sensitivity to the type of boundary between the /r/ and the dental in that retroflexion is less likely with boundaries higher up in the prosodic hierarchy.[58] In the southern varieties, which use a uvular /r/,[59] retroflex realizations do not occur.[56] For example, /ˈkɑ̂ːrta/ ('map') is realized as [ˈkʰɑ̌ʁta] (note that Tone 2 in Malmö sounds like Tone 1 in Stockholm), etc.[60] An /r/ spelled ⟨rr⟩ usually will not trigger retroflexion so that spärrnät/ˈspæ̂rˌnɛːt/ ('anti-sub net') is pronounced [ˈspæ̂rːˌnɛːt].[61] Retroflexion also does not usually occur in Finland.[62][63]
Variations of /l/ are not as common, though some phonetic variation exists, such as a retroflex flap[ɽ] that exists as an allophone in proximity to a labial or velar consonant (e.g. glad ('glad')) or after most long vowels.[64]
In casual speech, the nasals tend to assimilate to the place of articulation of a following obstruent so that, for example, han kom ('he came') is pronounced [haŋˈkʰɔmː].[65]
/v/ and /j/ are pronounced with weak friction and function phonotactically with the sonorants.[56]
Map of the major tonal dialects of Norwegian and Swedish, from Riad (2014). • Dark areas have a low tone in accent 2, whereas the light areas have a high tone in accent 2. • The isogloss marks the boundary between connective and non-connective dialects. East and north of it, all of the compounds get accent 2, whereas west and south of the isogloss, compounds vary in accent.
Stress
In Swedish, stress is not fixed. Primary stress can fall on one of the last three syllables in a word’s stem.[66][67] This can lead to surface contrasts based solely on difference in position of stress:
formel/ˈfɔrmɛl/ 'formula'
formell/fɔrˈmɛl/ 'formal'
Primary stressed syllables are always metrically heavy, i.e. contain either a long vowel or a short vowel followed by a consonant.[67] In phonological analyses of Swedish, stressed syllables in underived forms are assumed to be associated with a basic moraic trochaic foot [μ μ]σ ,[68] e.g. bˈil 'car' (stress marked as (ˈ)). More whole-word based analyses of metrical structure where affixes are included also assume other foot types, in particular, syllabic trochaic feet [σ σ]Ft, bˈil-ar 'cars'.[67][69] Affixes affect stress to a considerable degree in the sense that inflectional suffixes can never receive primary stress (bˈil-ar-na 'the cars'), whereas many derivational suffixes can tent-ˈabel 'examinable'. Disyllabic words with accent 2 like ˈandˌe ‘spirit’, kvˈinnˌa ‘woman’, bˈilˌar 'cars' have secondary stress on the second syllable. In the Swedish Academy's lexicon ,[70] these disyllables are transcribed with the stress pattern 3 2, e.g. kvin3a2 where (3) stands for primary stressed syllable with accent 2 and (2) represents a ‘secondary stressed’ syllable in words with accent 2). This secondary stress is assumed to have existed in Old Norse (see [71] and references therein). Compound words have primary stress on the first element and secondary stress on the last element bˈil-dels-butˌiken 'car-part shop' (secondary stress marked as (ˌ)).[66][67]
Pitch accents
Stressed syllables carry one of two different tones, often described as pitch accents, or tonal word accents.[72][73][68] They are called acute and grave accent, accent 1 and accent 2. The actual realization of these two tones varies from dialect to dialect.[74] In the central Swedish dialect of Stockholm, accent 1 is characterized by a low tone at the beginning of the stressed syllable (fìsken 'the fish') and accent 2, by a high tone at the beginning of the stressed syllable (mátta 'mat').[73] When the word is in a prominent/focused position, a high tone often occurs following the word accent (fìskén). In accent 2 words, this results in two high tones within the word (e.g. máttá), hence the term "two-peaked" for this dialect. In southern Swedish, a "one-peaked" dialect, accent 1 is realized as a high tone at the beginning of the stressed syllable (físken) and accent 2, by a low tone (màtta).[74] Generally, the grave accent is characterized by a later timing of the word accent pattern as compared with the acute accent.[73]
The phonemicity of this tonal system is demonstrated in the nearly 300 pairs of two-syllable words differentiated only by their use of either grave or acute accent. Outside of these pairs, the main tendency for tone is that the acute accent appears in monosyllables (since the grave accent cannot appear in monosyllabic words) while the grave accent appears in polysyllabic words.[75] Polysyllabic forms resulting from declension or derivation also tend to have a grave accent except when it is the definite article that is added. This tonal distinction has been present in Scandinavian dialects at least since Old Norse though a greater number of polysyllables now have an acute accent. These are mostly words that were monosyllabic in Old Norse, but have subsequently become disyllabic, as have many loanwords.[76] For example, Old Norse kømr ('comes') has become kommer in Swedish (with an acute accent).[75]
The distinction can be shown with the minimal pair anden 'the mallard' (tone 1) and anden 'the spirit' (tone 2).
"Acute" accent (tone 1): /˴anden/ (realized [ˈa᷇ndɛ̀n] = [ˈan˥˧dɛn˩]) 'the mallard' (from and 'mallard')
In Central Swedish, this is a high, slightly falling tone followed by a low tone; that is, a single drop from high to low pitch spread over two syllables.
In Central Swedish, this is a mid falling tone followed by a high falling tone; that is, a double falling tone over two syllables.
The exact realization of the tones also depends on the syllable's position in an utterance. For instance, at the beginning of an utterance, the acute accent may have a rising rather than slightly falling pitch on the first syllable. Also, these are word tones that are spread across the syllables of the word. In trisyllabic words with the grave accent, the second fall in pitch is distributed across the second and third syllables:
Grave-accent trisyllable: flickorna/ˈflɪ̂kʊɳa/ (realized [ˈflɪ᷆kːʊ᷇ɳà] = [ˈflɪ˧˩kːʊ˥˧ɳa˩]) 'the girls'
The position of the tone is dependent upon stress: The first stressed syllable has a high or falling tone, as does the following syllable(s) in grave-accented words.
In most Finland-Swedish varieties, however, the distinction between grave and acute accent is missing.
A reasonably complete list of uncontroversial so-called minimal pairs can be seen below.[77][circular reference] The two words in each pair are distinguished solely by having different tone (acute vs. grave). In those cases where both words are nouns it would have been possible to list the genitive forms of the words as well, thereby creating another word pair, but this has been avoided. A few word pairs where one of the words is a plural form with the suffix -or have been included. This is due to the fact that many Swedish-speakers in all parts of Sweden pronounce the suffix -or the same way as -er.[citation needed]
Translation acute
Acute accent (accent I)
Grave accent (accent II)
Translation grave
stern (of boat/ship)
akter
akter
acts
the elm
almen
allmän
public, general
the As
A:na
ana
suspect
the mallard
anden
anden
the spirit
the reverse gear, the crate
backen
backen
the slope
the ball (dance event)
balen
balen
the nest
the bulb (on horse)
ballen
ballen
the dick (slang for penis)
the Bs
B:na
bena
parting (hair)
binds
binder
bindor
sanitary towels
the piece
biten
biten
bitten
the book
boken
boken
overripe, spoilt (of fruit)
the nests
bona
bona
polish
the nests' (genitive of 'bona')
bonas
bonas
be polished (passive of 'bona')
the bristles
borsten
borsten
the brush, the broom
the brace (sailing)
brassen
brassen
the Brazilian
the letters
breven
brevvän
pen pal
breaks (present tense of 'brista')
brister
brister
flaws
the well
brunnen
brunnen
burnt (past participle of 'brinna')
the edges of forests
brynen
brynen
whetstones
the edge of a forest
brynet
brynet
the whetstone
the cage
buren
buren
carried (past participle of 'bära')
the pranks
busen
busen
the hooligan
the trolling spoons
dragen
dragen
drawn (past participle of 'dra'), tipsy
the draught, the trolling spoon
draget
draget
drawn (past participle of 'dra')
the speed, the energy
drivet
drivet
drifted, driven (past participle of 'driva')
the Es
E:na
ena
unite, unify
male name
Enar
enar
junipers
the falls
fallen
fallen
fallen (past participle of 'falla')
the fall
fallet
fallet
fallen (past participle of 'falla')
fastens
fäster
fester
parties
the fish
fisken
fisken
acts of fishing
the Fs
F:en
FN
The UN
the phone (in phonetics)
fonen
fånen
the idiot
the armfuls
fången
fången
the prisoner
the armful
fånget
fånget
caught (past particple of 'fånga')
the rug
fällen
fällen
places where trees have been felled
fells, cuts down
fäller
fällor
traps (plural of the noun 'fälla')
the party, the feast
festen
fästen
places where something has been attached
the bow (on ship/boat)
fören
fören
conditions of the ground for travelling (plural of 'före')
towards the bow (on ship/boat)
förut
förut
before, earlier
marries
gifter
gifter
poisons (plural of 'gift')
the poison
giftet
giftet
the marriage
the Js
J:na
gina
tackle (sailing), take a shortcut
the deal (in card games)
given
given
given
the candles
ljusen
gjusen
the osprey
the griffin
gripen
gripen
grabbed, gripped (past participle of 'gripa')
the walkway
gången
gången
gone (past participle of 'gå')
the heath
heden
heden
heathen (adjective)
has the time to do something
hinner
hinnor
coatings
the cuts (made with a heavy object like an axe)
huggen
huggen
chopped (past participle of 'hugga')
the directions
hållen
hållen
held (past participle of 'hålla')
the direction
hållet
hållet
held (past participle of 'hålla')
the Hs
H:na
håna
mock, taunt
higher
högre
högre
the man to the right (as in 'den högre')
the ide
iden
iden
bears' dens for hibernation
the Is
I:na
Ina
female name
ahead of, in front of
inför
inför
introduces, introduce (present tense or imperative of 'införa')
the sounds
ljuden
juden
the Jew
Japanese syllabary
kana
kana
slide (noun/verb)
the carat
karaten
karaten
the karate
the cat
katten
katten
a profanity (as in for example 'Katten också!')
the bang
knallen
knallen
the small hill, the pedlar
the knot
knuten
knuten
tied (past participle of 'knyta')
the bowler hat
kubben
kubben
the chopping block (for wood)
the litter (group of newborn animals)
kullen
kullen
the hill
the corps
kåren
kåren
the breeze
the lichen
laven
laven
the headframe
leads (present tense of 'leda')
leder
leder
joints (anatomy)
the military service
lumpen
lumpen
contemptible, lousy
the moth
malen
malen
ground, milled (past participle of 'mala')
the milk
mjölken
mjölken
the fish seed
the courage
modet
modet
the fashion
the mop
moppen
moppen
the moped
the names
namnen
namnen
the namesake
the norm
normen
norrmän
Norwegians
the tack
nubben
nubben
the shot (alcohol)
pinches (present tense of 'nypa')
nyper
nypor
Grips made with the thumb against one or more of the other fingers (plural noun)
name of a Norse God
Oden
oden
odes
the mite
oret
orätt
injustice
the rabble (definite plural of 'pack')
packen
packen
the bale
clown
pajas
pajas
be destroyed (passive of 'paja')
panther
panter
panter
deposits
Persians
perser
pärser
ordeals
Poland
Polen
pålen
the pole (thick wooden stick)
pollen
pollen
pållen
the horsey
radar
radar
radar
present tense of 'rada', as in 'rada upp' (=list something)
grid
raster
raster
breaks (in school or at a workplace, i.e. for example coffee breaks)
rule
regel
regel
latch
travels (present tense of 'resa')
reser
resor
journeys, trips
the melee, the fighting
rivet
rivet
torn
cylinder that rotates and is used for painting
roller
roller
roles
diamonds (in card games)
ruter
rutor
squares, (window) panes
the route
rutten
rutten
rotten
the rye
rågen
rågen
the overmeasure
the nymphs
råna
råna
rob
the horizontal bars (gymnastics)
räcken
räcken
railings
the horizontal bar (gymnastics)
räcket
räcket
the railing
runs
ränner
rännor
chutes
sabbath
sabbat
sabbat
destroyed, sabotaged (past participle of 'sabba')
cedar
ceder
seder
customs (traditions)
the Cs
C:na
sena
late (plural of 'sen'), sinew
cider
cider
sidor
pages
the view
sikten
sikten
sights (on rifles, plural of 'sikte')
the barks (dog sounds)
skallen
skallen
the skull
the spoon
skeden
skeden
stages (of time)
the shift
skiftet
skiftet
the change
the shifts
skiften
skiften
changes
the ejaculations
skjuten
skjuten
shot (past participle of 'skjuta')
the speed, the ejaculation
skjutet
skjutet
shot (past participle of 'skjuta')
the shots
skotten
skotten
the Scotsman
the (rain) shower
skuren
skuren
cut (past participle of 'skära')
the gunner
skytten
skytten
acts of shooting
the battles, the hits
slagen
slagen
beaten
the battle, the hit
slaget
slaget
beaten
the toil
slitet
slitet
worn
the ends
sluten
sluten
closed (past participle of 'sluta')
the end
slutet
slutet
closed (past participle of 'sluta')
the (extended) family
släkten
släkten
genera (biology)
the cop
snuten
snuten
past participle of 'snyta' (=blow one's nose)
the zoos
zoona
sona
expiate
the stocks (cooking)
spaden
spaden
the spade
the spas
spana
spana
watch, observe, search
bursts, cracks (present tense of the verb 'spricka')
spricker
sprickor
cracks (plural of the noun 'spricka')
the steps
stegen
stegen
the ladder
fights (present tense of 'strida')
strider
strider
fights, battles (plural of the noun 'strid')
the moving patches/bands (of something)
stråken
stråken
the bow (for a violin)
the stubble
stubben
stubben
the tree stump
the racks
ställen
ställen
places (locations)
the rack
stället
stället
the place
the sucking device
sugen
sugen
sucked (past participle of 'suga'), in the mood for something
the urge
suget
suget
sucked (past participle of 'suga'), in the mood for something
the seed, the grain
säden
säden
things intended for sowing (plural of 'säde')
the cell
cellen
sällen
the brute
the grips
tagen
tagen
taken
the grip
taget
taget
taken
the tank
tanken
tanken
the thought
toner
toner
toner
tones
the trot
traven
traven
the pile, the stack
the plot (of land)
tomten
tomten
Santa Claus, the gnome
the inch
tummen
tummen
the thumb
sign
tecken
täcken
bed covers
the point, the cusp
udden
udden
the headland
uphill
uppför
uppför
present tense or imperative of 'uppföra' (=set up a theatre play, behave)
downhill
utför
utför
present tense or imperative of 'utföra' (=carry out)
the hole in the ice
vaken
vaken
awake
the whale
valen
valen
stiff, numb
the shrouds (sailing)
vanten
vanten
the mitten
the vase
vasen
vasen
the bundle of brushwood
the bay
viken
viken
folded (past participle of 'vika')
makes a whistling sound (of for example wind)
viner
viner
wines
the knobs
vreden
vreden
the rage, the wrath
the host/the world
värden/världen
värden
values
male name
Oskar
åskar
present tense of 'åska' (=thunder)
the gravel
ören
ören
pennies (plural of the monetary unit 'öre' used when no numeral immediately precedes the word)
the gravel
öret
öret
the penny (1/100 of a Swedish krona)
Note that karaten/karaten is the only pair with more than two syllables (although we would get a second one if we used the definite forms of the pair perser/pärser, i.e. perserna/pärserna). The word pair länder ('countries', plural of land) and länder ('loins', plural of länd) could have been included, but this one is controversial.[78][circular reference] For those speakers who have grave accent in the plural of länd, the definite plural forms will also constitute a three-syllable minimal pair: länderna (acute accent, 'the countries') vs. länderna (grave accent, 'the loins'). Although examples with more than two syllables are very few in Standard Swedish, it is possible to find other three-syllable pairs in regional dialects, such as Värmländska: hunnera (acute, 'the Huns') vs. hunnera (grave, 'the dogs'), ändera/ännera (acute, 'the mallards') vs. ändera/ännera (grave, 'the ends'), etc.
Prosody in Swedish often varies substantially between different dialects including the spoken varieties of Standard Swedish. As in most languages, stress can be applied to emphasize certain words in a sentence. To some degree prosody may indicate questions, although less so than in English.
Phonotactics
At a minimum, a stressed syllable must consist of either a long vowel or a short vowel and a long consonant.[79] Like many other Germanic languages, Swedish has a tendency for closed syllables with a relatively large number of consonant clusters in initial as well as final position. Though not as complex as that of most Slavic languages, examples of up to 7 consecutive consonants can occur when adding Swedish inflections to some foreign loanwords or names, and especially when combined with the tendency of Swedish to make long compound nouns. The syllable structure of Swedish can therefore be described with the following formula:
(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)
This means that a Swedish one-syllable morpheme can have up to three consonants preceding the vowel that forms the nucleus of the syllable, and three consonants following it. Examples: skrämts/skrɛmts/ (verb 'scare' past participle, passive voice) or sprängts/sprɛŋts/ (verb 'explode' past participle, passive voice). All but one of the consonant phonemes, /ŋ/, can occur at the beginning of a morpheme, though there are only 6 possible three-consonant combinations, all of which begin with /s/, and a total of 31 initial two-consonant combinations. All consonants except for /h/ and /ɕ/ can occur finally, and the total number of possible final two-consonant clusters is 62.
In some cases this can result in very complex combinations, such as in västkustskt/ˈvɛ̂stˌkɵstskt/ⓘ, consisting of västkust ('west coast') with the adjective suffix-sk and the neuter suffix -t.[80]
Central Standard Swedish and most other Swedish dialects feature a rare "complementary quantity" feature[81] wherein a phonologically short consonant follows a long vowel and a long consonant follows a short vowel; this is true only for stressed syllables and all segments are short in unstressed syllables.[34][37] This arose from the historical shift away from a system with a four-way contrast (that is, VːCː, VC, VːC and VCː were all possible) inherited from Proto-Germanic to a three-way one (VC, VːC and VCː), and finally the present two-way one; certain Swedish dialects have not undergone these shifts and exhibit one of the other two phonotactic systems instead.[82] In literature on Swedish phonology, there are a number of ways to transcribe complementary relationship, including:[83]
A length mark ː for either the vowel (/viːt/)[84] or the consonant (/vitː/)[85]
Gemination of the consonant (/vit/ vs. /vitt/)
Diphthongization of the vowel (/vijt/ vs. /vit/)
The position of the stress marker (/viˈt/ vs. /vitˈ/)
With the conventional assumption that medial long consonants are ambisyllabic (that is, penna ('pen'), is syllabified as [ˈpɛ̂n.na]), all stressed syllables are thus "heavy".[83] In unstressed syllables, the distinction is lost between /u/ and /o/ or between /e//ɛ/.[29] With each successive post-stress syllable, the number of contrasting vowels decreases gradually with distance from the point of stress; at three syllables from stress, only [a] and [ɛ] occur.[80]
The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun. The transcriptions are based on the section on Swedish found in The Handbook on the International Phonetic Association, in which a man in his forties from Stockholm is recorded reading out the traditional fable in a manner typical of Central Standard Swedish as spoken in his area. The broad transcription is phonemic, while the narrow is phonetic.[86]
Nordanvinden och solen tvistade en gång om vem av dem som var starkast. Just då kom en vandrare vägen fram, insvept i en varm kappa. De kom då överens om att den som först kunde få vandraren att ta av sig kappan, han skulle anses vara starkare än den andra. Då blåste nordanvinden så hårt han någonsin kunde, men ju hårdare han blåste, desto tätare svepte vandraren kappan om sig, och till slut gav nordanvinden upp försöket. Då lät solen sina strålar skina helt varmt och genast tog vandraren av sig kappan, och så var nordanvinden tvungen att erkänna att solen var den starkaste av de två.
↑ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p.292. The symbols "i" and "e" used in the original citation were changed to /iː/ and /eː/ to keep this article consistent.
↑ Those south of Kalmar, Jönköping and Falkenberg; a little north of these cities, a uvular rhotic appears in initial position and as a long consonant (Andersson 2002, p.273).
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek διακριτικός, from διακρίνω. The word diacritic is a noun, though it is sometimes used in an attributive sense, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritics, such as the acute ⟨ó⟩, grave ⟨ò⟩, and circumflex ⟨ô⟩, are often called accents. Diacritics may appear above or below a letter or in some other position such as within the letter or between two letters.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation for the sounds of speech. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.
The circumflex is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin: circumflexus "bent around"—a translation of the Ancient Greek: περισπωμένη.
A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch rather than by loudness or length, as in some other languages like English. Pitch-accent languages also contrast with fully tonal languages like Vietnamese, Thai and Standard Chinese, in which practically every syllable can have an independent tone. Some scholars have claimed that the term "pitch accent" is not coherently defined and that pitch-accent languages are just a sub-category of tonal languages in general.
English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
The sound system of Norwegian resembles that of Swedish. There is considerable variation among the dialects, and all pronunciations are considered by official policy to be equally correct – there is no official spoken standard, although it can be said that Eastern Norwegian Bokmål speech has an unofficial spoken standard, called Urban East Norwegian or Standard East Norwegian, loosely based on the speech of the literate classes of the Oslo area. This variant is the most common one taught to foreign students.
Proto-Balto-Slavic is a reconstructed hypothetical proto-language descending from Proto-Indo-European (PIE). From Proto-Balto-Slavic, the later Balto-Slavic languages are thought to have developed, composed of the Baltic and Slavic sub-branches, and including modern Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian, among others.
Stød is a suprasegmental unit of Danish phonology, which in its most common form is a kind of creaky voice (laryngealization), but it may also be realized as a glottal stop, especially in emphatic pronunciation. Some dialects of Southern Danish realize stød in a way that is more similar to the tonal word accents of Norwegian and Swedish. In much of Zealand it is regularly realized as reminiscent of a glottal stop. A probably unrelated glottal stop, with quite different distribution rules, occurs in Western Jutland and is known as the vestjysk stød. The noun stød itself does not have a stød.
Portuguese orthography is based on the Latin alphabet and makes use of the acute accent, the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, and the cedilla to denote stress, vowel height, nasalization, and other sound changes. The diaeresis was abolished by the last Orthography Agreement. Accented letters and digraphs are not counted as separate characters for collation purposes.
Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages, especially Afrikaans and West Frisian.
The phonology of Turkish deals with current phonology and phonetics, particularly of Istanbul Turkish. A notable feature of the phonology of Turkish is a system of vowel harmony that causes vowels in most words to be either front or back and either rounded or unrounded. Velar stop consonants have palatal allophones before front vowels.
The phonology of Standard Chinese has historically derived from the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. However, pronunciation varies widely among speakers, who may introduce elements of their local varieties. Television and radio announcers are chosen for their ability to affect a standard accent. Elements of the sound system include not only the segments—e.g. vowels and consonants—of the language, but also the tones applied to each syllable. In addition to its four main tones, Standard Chinese has a neutral tone that appears on weak syllables.
Lithuanian has 11 vowels and 45 consonants, including 22 pairs of consonants distinguished by the presence or absence of palatalization. Most vowels come in pairs which are differentiated through length and degree of centralization.
Wahgi is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Chimbu–Wahgi branch spoken by approximately 100,000 people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Like other Chimbu languages, Wahgi has some unusual lateral consonants.
This article is about the phonology and phonetics of standard Slovene.
Proto-Slavic accent is the accentual system of Proto-Slavic and is closely related to the accentual system of some Baltic languages with which it shares many common innovations that occurred in the Proto-Balto-Slavic period. Deeper, it inherits from the Proto-Indo-European accent. In modern languages the prototypical accent is reflected in various ways, some preserving the Proto-Slavic situation to a greater degree than others.
This article describes the phonology of the Oromo language.
Kerkrade dialect is a Ripuarian dialect spoken in Kerkrade and its surroundings, including Herzogenrath in Germany. It is spoken in all social classes, but the variety spoken by younger people in Kerkrade is somewhat closer to Standard Dutch.
Amongst the Iranian languages, the phonology of Pashto is of middle complexity, but its morphology is very complex.
The phonology of the Maastrichtian dialect, especially with regards to vowels is quite extensive due to the dialect's tonal nature.
References
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Andersson, Erik (2002), "Swedish", in König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan (eds.), The Germanic Languages, Routledge language family descriptions, Routledge, pp.271–312, ISBN0-415-28079-6
Bannert, R. (1976), Mittelbayerische Phonologie auf Akustischer und Perzeptorischer Grundlage (in German), Lund: Gleerup
Bruce, Gösta (2010), Vår fonetiska geografi (in Swedish), Studentlitteratur, ISBN978-91-44-05053-9
Bruce, Gösta; Hermans, Ben (1999), "Word tone in Germanic languages", in van der Hulst, Harry (ed.), Word Prosodic Systems in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.605–658
Elert, Claes-Christian (1964), Phonologic Studies of Quantity in Swedish, Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell
Elert, Claes-Christian (2000), Allmän och svensk fonetik (in Swedish) (8ed.), Stockholm: Norstedts, ISBN91-1-300939-7
Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning (ed.), Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter, pp.271–300
Eliasson, Stig; La Pelle, N. (1973), "Generativa regler för svenskans kvantitet", Arkiv för nordisk filologi (in Swedish), 88: 133–148
Elmquist, A. Louis (1915), Swedish phonology, Chicago: The Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company
Helgason, Pétur (1998), "On-line preaspiration in Swedish: implications for historical sound change", Proceedings of Sound Patterns of Spontaneous Speech, vol.98, pp.51–54
Helgason, Pétur (1999a), "Preaspiration and sonorant devoicing in the Gräsö dialect: preliminary findings.", Proceedings of the Swedish Phonetics Conference 1999, Gothenburg Papers in Theoretical Linguistics, Göteborg University, pp.77–80
Helgason, Pétur (1999b), "Phonetic preconditions for the development of normative preaspiration", Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, San Francisco: University of California, pp.1851–1854, ISBN1-56396-899-1
Liberman, Anatoly (1978), "Pseudo-støds in Scandinavian languages", Orbis, 27: 52–76
Liberman, Anatoly (1982), Germanic Accentology, vol.1: The Scandinavian Languages, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
McAllister, Robert; Lubker, James; Carlson, Johann (1974), "An EMG study of some characteristics of the Swedish rounded vowels", Journal of Phonetics, 2 (4): 267–278, doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(19)31297-5
Petrova, Olga; Plapp, Rosemary; Ringen, Ringen; Szentgyörgyi, Szilárd (2006), "Voice and aspiration: Evidence from Russian, Hungarian, German, Swedish, and Turkish", The Linguistic Review, 23: 1–35, doi:10.1515/tlr.2006.001, S2CID42712078
Reuter, Mikael (1992), "Swedish as a pluricentric language", in Clyne, Michael (ed.), Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.101–116
Riad, Tomas (1992), Structures in Germanic Prosody, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Stockholm University
Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN978-0-19-954357-1
Ringen, Catherine; Helgason, Pétur (2004), "Distinctive [voice] does not imply regressive assimilation: evidence from Swedish", International Journal of English Studies: Advances in Optimality Theory, 4 (2): 53–71
Ringen, Catherine; Suomi, Katri (2012), "The voicing contrast in Fenno-Swedish stops", Journal of Phonetics, 40 (3): 419–429, doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2012.02.010
Schaeffler, Felix (2005), "Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects", Phonum, 10
Tronnier, Mechtild (2002), "Preaspiration in Southern Swedish dialects", Proceedings of Fonetik, 44 (1): 33–36
Wretling, P.; Strangert, E.; Schaeffler, F. (2002), "Quantity and Preaspiration in Northern Swedish Dialects", in Bel, B; Marlien, I. (eds.), Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2002 conference, Aix-en-Provence: Laboratoire Parole et Langage, pp.703–706
Further reading
Bolander, Maria (2001), Funktionell svensk grammatik (in Swedish) (1ed.), Liber AB, ISBN91-47-05054-3
Dahlstedt, Karl-Hampus (1967), Svårigheter i svenskans uttal (in Swedish), Modersmålslärarnas förening
Garlén, Claes (2003), Svenska språknämndens uttalsordbok (in Swedish), Svenska Språknämnden, ISBN91-7227-309-7
Hedelin, Per (1997), Norstedts svenska uttalslexikon (in Swedish), Norstedts, ISBN91-1-971122-0
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