Swedish Phonology

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1. Segmentals

Vowels

The Swedish alphabet uses nine vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y, å, ä and ö

Regarding their pronunciation, the language consists of 18 vowel phonemes which are distinguished by their length. There are nine long and nine short vowels which entail a difference of quality and quantity. Diphthongs do not exist in Swedish.


Long Vowels

There are nine long vowel phonemes which can cause a change in the meaning of a word.

  Front unrounded Front rounded Central rounded Back rounded
Close ʉː
Close mid øː  
Open mid ɛː      
Open       ɑː

Examples: is [iːs] ny [nyː] mus [mʉːs] sol [suːl] led [leːd] öl [øːl] bås [boːs] näs [nɛːs] sak [sɑːk]

Sometimes the doubling of a consonant also indicates the lengthening of a preceding vowel, e.g. bar - barr.


Short Vowels

Swedish makes use of nine short vowels.

  Front unrounded Front rounded Central rounded Back rounded
Close ɪ ʏ   ʊ
Close mid e   ɵ  
Open mid ɛ œ   ɔ
Open a      

In many cases e and ä coincide and are pronounced the same such as in sett - sätt. This sometimes leads to the assumption that there are only eight short vowels.


Minimal Pairs

Letter Long vowel Short vowel
i vit vitt
e vet vett
ä rät rätt
a fal fall
y byt bytt
ö röt rött
o bot bott
å fåt fått
u Rut rutt

Consonants

Typical for Standard Swedish is for instance the /ɧ/ phoneme which renders the consonant cluster sj as in sjö. It is described as a sound between [x] and [ʃ] but this is often disputed. In some dialects, especially in northern and Finland Swedish, /ɧ/ does not exist.

Furthermore the retroflexes /ʈ, ɖ, ʂ, ɭ/ and /ɳ/ are a fixture. They are orthographically represented by the consonant clusters rt, rd, rs, rl and rn.Opinions differ concerning the total number of consonant phonemes since retroflexes are often treated as allophones. Counting them among phonemes, there are 23 consonant phonemes in the Swedish language altogether.

  Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p, b t, d ʈ, ɖ   k, g  
Fricative f, v s ʂ ɕ ɧ h
Nasal m n ɳ   ŋ  
Trill / Flap   r        
Approximant       j    
Lateral Approximant   l ɭ      

Annotation: Where two phonemes appear in a single column the first phoneme is always voiceless and the second voiced.

Phonological Rules

Retroflex Consonants

Not only are retroflexes fixed in lexemes but they can also occur in different articulatory patterns:

1. They can cross over word boundaries if the final letter of a word is a r and the initial letter of the following word is either t, d, s, l or n,

e.g. vår triumf /voːrtriɵmf/ [voːʈriɵmf], hur mår du /hʉːrmoːrdɵ/ [hʉːrmoːɖɵ], under sängen /ɵndərsɛŋən/ [ɵndəʂɛŋən], eller nej /ɛlərnɛj/ [ɛləɳɛj], hur ledsam /hʉːrlesam/ [hʉːɭesam].

2. When the genitive s is attached to a word ending with r, the retroflex ʂ is used,

e.g. Peters hus [petəʂhʉːs], min mors affär [min muːʂafæːr].

2. Supra-Segmentals

Tone Accents

Swedish is a pitch accent language which once derived from Old Norse. It has two distinctive prosodical patterns related to the different syllabic structures in Old Norse. These two patterns cause a difference in meaning: Audio sample: 'anden'

1. Accent 1 (acute) which all old monosyllabic words receive,

e.g. and-en      [ándɛn]
     duck-DEF   

2. Accent 2 (grave) which all old dissyllabic words receive,

e.g. ande-n      [àndɛn]
     ghost-DEF

Besides its historical background, there are some further phonological rules:

1. Accent 1 can occur in any accented syllable regardless of position.

2. Accent 2 never occurs in the last syllable of a word. Therefore only polysyllabic words can have an accent contrast.


Assimilation

Due to proximity, some consonants are assimilated in the Swedish language. Thus the pronunciation of /g/ and /k/ differs according to the sound environment of the subsequent vowel. If /g/ precedes a back vowel it is pronounced [g] if it precedes a front vowel it is pronounced [j]. The same goes for /k/: If it precedes a back vowel it is pronounced [k], if it precedes a front vowel it is pronounced [ɕ].

 [goː]     göra ['jøːra]
kort [kʊʈ]   köpa ['ɕøːra]

3. Phonotactics

Likewise in many Germanic languages, the consonant cluster CCC is possible in Swedish. Combinations which are operative in spelling and in speech are spr, spl, spj, str, skr and skv.

Examples:
sprida (to spread), splittra (to splint; splint), spjut (spear), strejka (to go on strike), skriva (to write), skvallra (to gossip)

Stj and skj exist in written but not in spoken form. These two clusters are pronounced with the typical Swedish [ɧ] sound.

Examples:
stjärna (star) [ɧɛːɳa], skjorta (shirt) [ɧʉːta]

References

Quod Vide