Swedish phonology

The Swedish phonology is known for its melodic accent, a trait shared with few other Indo-European languages, but not by all Swedish dialects. Swedish is also notable for having a large vowel inventory, with 17 different phonemes considered to be monophthongs by the Swedes, although they in fact often may be realized as diphthongs. One of the Swedish -sounds is sometimes said to be unique to Swedish and Norwegian. On the other hand, Swedish pronunciation of consonants is similar to that of most other Germanic languages, including English, as are most of the basic phonological patterns.

A major problem for students of Swedish is what can be perceived as a lack of standardisation of pronunciation:

• The pronunciation of vowels, and of some consonant sounds (particularly sibilants), demonstrates marked differences in spoken prestige dialects.
• Many varieties of Swedish, also common in national broadcasts, assimilate the /r/-sound producing retroflex consonants.
• In addition, the melodic accent of South-Sweden is strikingly different from that of the capital-region (including Åland), which in turn differs clearly from provincial dialects of Dalecarlia and Gotlandia. In Finland-Swedish, melodic accent isn't used at all, as is also typical for those parts of northernmost Sweden, where Finnish dominated less than a century ago.

Standard pronunciation

Contrary to the situation with German, Danish, or Finnish there can't be said to exist any nation-wide spoken Standard Swedish. Instead there are (at least) three "regional standard varieties" (acrolects or prestige dialects), i.e. the most intelligible or prestigious forms of spoken Swedish, each within their area. No commonly accepted terms exist, not even in Swedish, but in this article they will be designated as (in order of significance):

• Central Swedish Standard
• South Swedish Standard
• Finland Swedish Standard

These may in turn be further divided, the prestige dialects of Gothenburg and Luleå may in some contexts be added to the list, and border areas may show some mixed characteristics. The Central Swedish Standard, that of the Swedish capital, is the largest and the most dominant of these.

The differences in the phonetics of these various forms of Standard Swedish can be quite considerable, although as a rule less marked than between varieties of lower registers, including major differences in:

• prosody
• fricatives
• diphtongs
• assimilation
• the realization of the /r/-phoneme

The differences may be compared with those between General American, Australian English, and the British Received Pronunciation.

In Swedish, the Central Swedish Standard may go under the name of rikssvenska, that however also is a term comprising all Swedish spoken in Sweden contrary to the Swedish spoken in Finland (or formerly elsewhere). Similarly, the Finland Swedish Standard may go under the name of högsvenska that however has become a controversial and emotionally loaded term that also has changed meaning in the course of the 20th century.

Some Swedes, particularly in the capital region, may consider all other varieties of Swedish than the Central Swedish Standard as "dialects". On the other extreme, some, not the least dialectologists , may reserve the term dialect for what they consider genuine rural dialects uncompromised by influence from the standard language, excluding also town dialects .

The most significant difference between the way people speak prestigeous Swedish is prosodic, which is hard to describe in text. There are however also some marked differences with regard to the realization of particular phonemes and assimilations:

/ ɧ / and [ ɧ ] are often used by Swedish linguists to designate the Swedish / ʃ /-sound, in Swedish known as the /"sje"/-sound. The phonetic symbol [ ɧ ] can be used to cover the whole range of labialized realizations [ ʃʷ ~ xʷ ~ χʷ, fʷ ], to contrast against [ ʂ ] in Sweden and [ ɕ ] in Finland-Swedish. Although academic works appear to be inconclusive, it seems highly likely that the most prestigeous realization of this phoneme in the capital region of Stockholm is changing from [ ʂ ~ ʃʷ ] towards the more contrasting [ xʷ ]. In northern Sweden [ ʂ ] dominates. Similarly, the precise nature of the different articulations of this sound in South Swedish Standard and dialects seems scantily researched.

Vowels

Like many other Germanic languages, Swedish has long and short versions of each vowel. As a general rule, a vowel followed by two consonants is short; otherwise it is long. For example, the Swedish word "glas" (glass) has a long "a", while "glass" (ice cream) has a short "a". To indicate a short vowel preceding a "k", "ck" is used instead of "kk". For example, "tak" (roof) vs. "tack" (thank you). Stressed vowels can be either long or short, but unstressed onees can never be long.

All pronunciations are made by a Swedish male, 25 years old, whose speech is a variety of Central Standard Swedish as spoken in the Stockholm area.

/ɛː/ and /øː/ are lowered when followed by /r/, /l/ dental consonants or by their retroflex counterparts. In Central Swedish, especially younger speakers are increasingly using [ɶː] in other phonotactic contexts as well. Words like fördömande ("judging") and fördummande ("dumbing") often are pronounced similarly, if not identically.

[ɛː] -> [ˈæː] (

 Sv-ära.ogg^? ära, [æːra] "honor").

[øː] -> [œ̟ː] (

 Sv-öra.ogg^? öra, [œ̟ːra], "ear").

Just like the long vowels, the short ones exhibit the same allophonic pattern when preceding supradental consonants.

[œ] -> [ɶ̟] (

 Sv-dörr.ogg^? dörr, /dœ̟r/, "door"). The

[ɛ] -> [æ] (

 Sv-ärt.ogg^? ärt, /æʈ/ , "pea").

Unstressed "e"s are pronounced [ə] (  Sv-begå stele.ogg^? stele, /bəˈgoː ˈsteːlə/, "commit", "stela"), i.e. a basic schwa.

Consonants

The table below shows the Swedish consonant phonemes and the range of their realizations in spoken Standard Swedish.

The range of realizations of the /r/-phoneme are shown shaded.

The Swedish fricatives /ɕ/ and /ɧ/ are often considered to be one of the most difficult aspects of Swedish pronunciation for foreign students. The combination of two such similar and fairly unique sounds as well as the large variety of allophones often presents difficulties for non-natives in telling the two apart. The existance of a third sibilant in the form of /s/ tends to confuse matters even more, and in some cases realizations like [ ] that are labiodental can also be confused with /f/.

/ɕ/ is in most dialects realized as [ɕ] and occasionally [ç], in this case almost identical to the German "ich"-sound. The exception is Finland-Swedish, where the phoneme is affricated into [t͡ɕ] or [t͡ʃ].

The fricative /ɧ/, also known as the sje-sound which is unique to Swedish, has a wide variety of realizations in Standard Swedish. The most common realization is what is most often called a voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, though this term is somewhat disputed. The nature of the realizations can be divided into three main groups according to how they are used:

• "Dark sounds" - [ɧ], and [x], most commonly used in the Souther Standard varieties.
• "Light sounds" - [ʂ], used in the northern varities 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, station), while the lighter sounds are used before unstressed vowels and at the end of morphemes (bagage, dusch).

/r/ has many quite distinct variations in Standard Swedish. The realization as an alveolar trill occurs among most speakers only in contexts where emphatic stress is used. In the southern variants the sound is rendered with [ʀ]. In Central Swedish the "r"s can vary greatly depending on social and phonotactic context. Word-initially, /r/ is often becomes a fricative [ʐ], in consonant clusters often as [ʂ] and especially in Central Standard Swedish as the approximant [ɹ]. Uses of taps like [ɾ] are also common.

The combination of "r" with "t", "d" or "n" results in retroflex consonants, which are not limited by word boundaries. Example: Vi går nu ("we're leaving now") and vi går till sta'n ("we're going downtown (to the city)") are rendered [vɪˈgɔːɳʉ̟ː] and [vɪgoʈɪˈstɑːn].

References

• Engstrand, Olle Fonetikens grunder (Studenlitteratur, Lund 2004) ISBN 91-44-04238-8
• Garlén, Claes Svenskans fonologi (Studenlitteratur, Lund 1988) ISBN 91-44-28151-X