[Lance R. Casey]

Introduction

While the written Swedish language is uniform, there is a large number of regional varieties and dialects of the spoken language. Differences range from simple variations in single phonemes and prosody, via lexical differences, to full-blown separate phonological systems. Since it in my opinion would be counterproductive trying to either map all common differences or just concentrate on one specific variety, I will instead deal with rikssvenska.

This term is not readibly translatable (a literal translation could be Swedish of the realm, or national Swedish), but is understood by most (pretty much all, I would think) Swedes as referring to "standard Swedish"; a more or less theoretical common base which all other varieties and dialects can be considered to branch off of. While it is most uncertain if anyone actually uses rikssvenska in everyday life, as a regional standard anywhere, it is generally held that it is employed by news anchors in national television (which is logical, seeing as how they are supposed to represent and inform the entire country).

It seems appropriate, then, that this quasi-official "compromise" is what foreign speakers should be confronted with (it is, after all, what is taught in our schools; compare with the much similar situation of Received Pronunciation for English), since I will assert that all Swedes will:

• understand it
  
• recognize it as spoken Swedish

I will use SMACKIE for all phonetic transcriptions.


Alphabet

Swedish alphabet: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z å ä ö
Note that å ä ö are to be considered letters in their own right, and not modified versions of a and o.

Vowels are generally short when followed by more than one consonant (doubled or not) or when unstressed at the end of words of more than one syllable, and long otherwise. Doubled k is written ck.


Long vowels

Hard

• a [A:] listen
  As in "car", but more rounded. It's probably somewhere in between that sound and the vowel in "hot" in the Received Pronunciation.
  
• o [u:] listen
  As in "soon". Also pronounced as å below in some cases.
  
• u [ü:] listen
  This is a sound which is purported to be unique to Swedish and Norwegian. It lies between [u ] and [y] (see below), but is closer to the latter. Start by saying [u ], but move the tongue (and the place of primary articulation) forward in the mouth a little bit more than halfway -- not so far so that the sound becomes [y], and don't forget to keep the lips rounded. Russian speakers will find that it is close to 'ы' pronounced with (much) rounded lips.
  
• Ã¥ [o:] listen
  As in "war", but with the jaws closer together. Start to say "oh" with General American pronunciation, but keep the quality of the onset throughout the articulation -- don't complete the diphthong (i.e. don't let the [o] glide towards [U ]). As in French "rose".

Soft

• e [e:] listen
  As in "met", but long and with the jaws closer together. It's like the first part of the diphthong in "mate". Equal to French "né" or German "mehr".
  
• i [i:] listen
  As in "see".
  
• y [y:] listen
  As in "see", but with rounded lips. Equal to German 'ü' or as in French "sur".
  
• ä 1 [E:] listen, 2 [æ:] listen
  1. As in "met", but long.
  2. As in "man", but long. This variant is typically used when followed by r.
  
• ö 1 [ø:] listen, 2 [&:] listen
  1. Like e described above, but with rounded lips. Equal to French "feu".
  2. As in "met", but long and with rounded lips. Equal to French "heure". This variant is also typically used when followed by r.

Short vowels

Hard

• a [a] listen
  As in French "là". The first part of the diphthong in "aisle".
  
• o [u ] listen
  Shorter version of the long vowel described above (also see comment below).
  
• u [ö] listen
  Somewhat like the schwa (English "balloon", French "le"), but with the jaws closer together. Another way of arriving at it is to start with the long u described above and instead bring the jaws a bit further apart.
  
• Ã¥ [O] listen
  As in "war", but short.

Soft

• e [E] listen
  As in "met" (also see comment below).
  
• i [i ] listen
  Shorter version of the long vowel described above (also see comment below).
  
• y [y] listen
  Shorter version of the long vowel described above (also see comment below).
  
• ä [E] listen
  Like short e.
  
• ö [&] listen
  As in "met", but with rounded lips.

Comment: I have here listed the short versions of o, i and y as having the same quality as their long counterparts, but in colloquial speech these may lose their tension and thus be realized as [U ] ("put"), [I ] ("pit") or [Y] ("pit" with rounded lips) respectively. Furthermore, e can also be [e] when short, and [@] (schwa) when unstressed. Finally, short o is often pronounced as short å.


Consonants

As in English

• b
  
• d
  
• f
  
• h
  
• m
  
• n
  
• p
  
• q
  
• s
  
• t
  
• v

Having English counterparts

• j [j] -- as in "you", but probably a little more forceful (also /sj/ in loans, see below)
  
• l [l] -- as in "law", but never dark (velarized) as in "all"
  
• x [ks] -- never voiced

Soft/hard variation

• c -- like k before hard vowels, like s before soft vowels
  
• g -- like g before hard vowels, like j or sj (see below) before soft vowels
  
• k -- like "can" before hard vowels, like tj (see below) before soft vowels

Other

• r [R] -- trilled, as in Scottish or Russian
  
• w -- as in English in certain loans and foreign names, but used as a variant of v in names domestically
  
• z -- usually like s, even in foreign names (such as Zorro), but voiced in onomatopoeia (such as "bzz")

Consonant combinations

r-assimilations

• General -- The r is swallowed and makes the following (dental) consonant retroflexive, which means that the tongue is curled upwards and backwards so that its underside touches or approaches the hard palate. Note that this assimilation also occurs across morpheme and word boundaries, and that many varieties of Swedish don't employ it at all.
  
• rd [d_] -- equal to Klingon {D}
  Example: orda speak, orate, argue listen
  
• rl [l_]
  Example: arla early (in the morning) listen
  
• rn [n_]
  Example: urna urn listen
  
• rs [s_] -- equal to Klingon {S}
  Example: forsa flow like a torrent listen
  
• rt [t_]
  Example: karta map listen

Other

• ng [N] -- as in English "sing", but never as in "finger"
  
• gn [Nn] -- as ng followed by n
  
• nk [Nk] -- commonplace nasal assimilation
  
• dj gj hj lj -- all equal to j [j] (the preceding consonant has become silent in speech, but is retained in writing)

And now, two of the most difficult entities of the Swedish language:

Sje-ljudet (the /sj/ sound)

The standard phonetic transcription for this phoneme is [%], but the definition of it in the IPA chart is not very good. There is considerable confusion regarding the exact properties of this sound, but its place of articulation (as pronounced in the first sound clip below) is definitely in the velar-uvular range. If all else fails, I suggest using a weak version of the German ach-laut [x] as a stand-in (which is, really, close enough).

That is, however, only the tip of the iceberg. The /sj/ phoneme has a wide variety of allophones which vary greatly between regions, but the sound outlined above is arguably the "base". I would like to point out two prominent alternatives:

[S] -- With [%] often being termed "hard", this would be the "soft" /sj/. It's typically used in loans (such as dusch shower, schlager "pop song"), but it's also a rather common direct substitute for [%]. It is often used by female speakers in the latter capacity, and is therefore sometimes called fruntimmers-sje women's /sj/.

[s_] -- Like rs. Common for all occurrences of /sj/ in northern Sweden.

Note that the usages described above are only guidelines, or perhaps even nothing more than examples -- there is considerable overlap between all variants. Foreign speakers would most likely get away with using the Germanic [S], which is usually the origin of the Swedish /sj/.

Spellings: sj, sk (before soft vowels; this combination is otherwised pronounced [sk]), skj, stj, sc, sch (in loans), sh (in loans), g (before soft vowels in loans), j (in loans), ch (also /tj/), ti (as in nation nation; the t is usually pronounced), (s)si (as in fusion, fission with the same meanings as in English)
Example: sjösjuk seasick 1 ['%ø:'%ü:k] listen, 2 ['Sø:'Sü:k] listen, 3 ['s_ø:'s_ü:k] listen

Tje-ljudet (the /tj/ sound)

This sound is usually transcribed as [C], or [ç], but I personally find [j°] to be the best choice. It also provides a simple way for foreign people to produce the sound: just say j (as in "you"), but without vibration of the vocal cords (the strength of the airflow may have to be increased somewhat as well, in order for the sound not to be too weak). In some English dialects, this is the initial sound of "huge" (it's also the equivalent of 'hy' in Quenya, for those who find that helpful). German speakers may simply use the ich-laut.

Spellings: tj, kj, k (before soft vowels), ch (also /sj/)
Example: betjänt valet, servant [be'j°E:nt] listen

Some foreign speakers may have trouble distinguishing certain realizations of /sj/ from /tj/, but it is imperative that this be learnt. Consider the following minimal-pair exercises:
stjärna star -- kärna nucleus, core listen
skjuta shoot -- tjuta howl, shriek listen


Some phrases

Hej! Jag heter Lance R. Casey och kommer från Sverige. Jag är tjugotvå år gammal och är en Star Trek-fan. listen
Hi! My name is Lance R. Casey and I come from Sweden. I'm twenty-two years old and I'm a Star Trek fan.
Note the assimilation of "Star Trek" to "Sta <rt>rek", and that och is pronounced [Ok]. Also note that this is a very clearly enunciated recording; we tend to drop many of the final consonants (especially plosives) in colloquial speech. To illustrate the difference, here is the same phrase spoken in a manner fitting for an everyday conversation with another Swede, with the missing sounds removed in the transliteration (the superfluous gammal old has also been dropped):
Hej! Ja hete Lance R. Casey å komme från Sverje. Ja ä tjutvå år å ä ett Star Trek-fan. listen
(The observant student will notice that the gender of Star Trek-fan changed between these two versions. While semi-official sources agree that en is the correct article to use for fan -- probably regarded as being short for fanatiker fanatic, which has that gender -- I've always found ett better sounding for fan when viewed as a word in its own right. Swedish is a language with arbitrary gender assignment which must be learnt for each word, and fan just feels like an ett-word to me.)

Vad heter du? listen
What's your name?
Note again the r-assimilation across word boundaries.

Hur mår du? listen
How are you?
As above.

Jag mår bra, tack. listen
I'm fine, thanks.

Hej då! listen
Good-bye!


Vocabulary

hej (interj.) hi, hello
jag (pron.) I
heter (v.) present tense of heta be named, be called
och (conj.) and
kommer (v.) present tense of komma come
från (prep.) from
Sverige (proper n.) Sweden
är (v.) present tense of vara be
tjugotvå (num.) twenty-two (tjugo 20 + två 2)
Ã¥r (n.) year(s)
gammal (adj.) old
en (art.) indefinite article for words of uter gender
fan (n.) fan (usually pronounced as in English)
ett (adj.) indefinite article for words of neuter gender
vad (interrogative) what
du (pron.) you (sg.)
hur (interrogative) how
mår (v.) present tense of må feel (referring to mood and health)
bra (adj.) good
tack (interj.) thanks; please


Relevant grammatical features

• Word order is reversed in interrogative clauses: compare Jag mÃ¥r bra to Hur mÃ¥r du? (subject in italics)
  
• Verbs are only declined according to tense, not number. Hence, är covers both am, are and is.
  
• Swedish has two cases, nominative and genitive; the latter is unvaryingly formed by adding an s to the nominative, unless this already ends with an s or another sibilant. Everything else is handled with prepositions, like in English.
  
• As in most other languages, the verb "to be" is strong: vara infinitive, är present, var preterit, varit perfect/pluperfect, var! imperative, vore subjunctive
  
• We have two indefinite articles, for the two grammatical genders: en for uter, ett for neuter.
  
• Compound words are always written as one word, albeit via the use of a hyphen if there is an acronym or name involved. There is a monumental difference between, for example, stekt kyckling lever fried chicked is alive and stekt kycklinglever fried chicken liver, or rök fritt smoke freely and rökfritt no smoking!

I realize that this is a rather comprehensive first lesson, but we might just as well get all the basic stuff out of the way. Please do ask if something still is unclear.

This post has been edited by Lance R. Casey: 28 April 2005 - 09:52 AM

[Lana Tucker]

Wow! You must have been studied philology, haven’t you? So many terms that when one gets them all made out it becomes perfectly clear! Cheers! I’ve been studying only one foreign language in my life – English, now I really like to get to know Swedish better!! Don’t neglect these lessons in future, OK?

[Lance R. Casey]

Lana Tucker said:

Wow! You must have been studied philology, haven’t you?

Not in any formal capacity, but I have acquired some knowledge in the field, yes.

Lana Tucker said:

Don’t neglect these lessons in future, OK?     

The second lesson has just gone up.

[Emmchen]

Oh my gosh.

I must say that I am glad that Swedish is my native language, for having it put like this it seems a bit difficult... Great job!

[Jenson]

woah! *prints out* great lesson Lance! I look foward to seeing more!

[RogueEntity]

Oh now I wish Swedish was my native language. Are all the nordic languages this difficult? I always thought English was hard, but I can see it is much easier then swedish. I just cant seem to get my tongue around the pronounciations of the swedish letters, once I crack the pronounciation, then at least reading swedish wont be hard, and being able to speak it will come a lot easier.

[Emmchen]

rogue-entity, on Jan 5 2006, 03:27 AM, said:

Oh now I wish Swedish was my native language. Are all the nordic languages this difficult? I always thought English was hard, but I can see it is much easier then swedish. I just cant seem to get my tongue around the pronounciations of the swedish letters, once I crack the pronounciation, then at least reading swedish wont be hard, and being able to speak it will come a lot easier.

Hm. I personally think the other nordic languages are even more difficult to pronounce. But then again, I am Swedish so I don't really have the right to say anything.
If Lance isn't around to help (I think he probably is the best teacher here) I would be glad to help or answer questions!

[RogueEntity]

Well between you, PX and Lance, I may just be able to crack the basics, and who knows, by the end of the year I may be able to string a few words together or something.

[Emmchen]

rogue-entity, on Jan 5 2006, 03:39 AM, said:

Well between you, PX and Lance, I may just be able to crack the basics, and who knows, by the end of the year I may be able to string a few words together or something.

Of course. And just think of the positive side-effects, when you understand Swedish, you will also understand Norwegian and Danish pretty OK! You get 3 for the price of 1!

[RogueEntity]

Pity it wont help me learn Finnish though, I would love to understand the words in Star Wrek without the subtitles. I absolutly love the accent.

[Irene Brustad]

rogue-entity, on Jan 5 2006, 04:33 AM, said:

Pity it wont help me learn Finnish though, I would love to understand the words in Star Wrek without the subtitles. I absolutly love the accent.

Finnish is much more complicated than Swedish... I've been told that Swedish is easier to understand than Norwegian and Danish because they pronounce all the syllable's. Or something...

[Emmchen]

Irene Brustad, on Jan 5 2006, 07:31 PM, said:

Finnish is much more complicated than Swedish... I've been told that Swedish is easier to understand than Norwegian and Danish because they pronounce all the syllable's. Or something...

Isn't Finnish one of the more complicated languages there is? I've heard the grammar is really hard, at least.

And yeah, we swedes (eh, at least most of us, some accents I won't even mention...) pronounce things a bit more than the norwegian people, and quite a lot more than people from Denmark...

[Lance R. Casey]

Wow, what a sudden surge of interest! I would have expected this to be dead and deeply buried by now...

I'm not sure if Swedish really is that difficult (being a native, I obviously cannot judge the issue fairly) compared to 1) other Nordic languages 2) English. I can say, however, that our phonological system is more complex than that of English, especially regarding vowels -- we simply have more contrasting sounds to handle. Beyond that, I guess it's a matter of personal perception...


Now, I'm not really such a great proponent of lessons as such as a preferred method of learning -- as I see it, "trial and error" and "learning by doing" are always superior. So, I would suggest that any and all users who still hold an interest in this peculiar language (or Klingon ) themselves give suggestions as to what they would like to know about, and then we'll take it from there using annotated real-world examples.

How's that sound?

(Irene: Hei, nabo!)

[littledagger27]

Wow! I have to admit I am impressed. How many languages do you know, Lance?! To everyone else out there interested in languages: I suggest Klingon! It may not be useful (says my parents), but I say its REALLY fun to learn!

By the way, that's a good idea, Lance. We should start a new topic for suggestions.

[Lance R. Casey]

Quote

How many languages do you know, Lance?!

To quote myself from another place:

Native: Swedish
More or less fluent: English
Proficient: Klingon
With some skill: French
Wildly varying degrees of wildly varying knowledge: A whole bunch -- e.g. Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Quenya, Sindarin, German, Thai, Finnish, Polish, Latin, ...

(Emphasis on "varying knowledge", though -- it's mostly below the "excuse me, is there a toilet here?" level...)

[cross_jon]

completely and hopelessly confused... More promising than my past exploits with Russian though...

[Borg Assimilator]

Irene Brustad, on Jan 5 2006, 07:31 PM, said:

Finnish is much more complicated than Swedish... I've been told that Swedish is easier to understand than Norwegian and Danish because they pronounce all the syllable's. Or something...

I've never heard that before.



By the way: Hei Irene, er du her også? Jeg er 3 of 7 på Trekkers Norge forumet.

To you wondering what I said in Norwegian: Hey Irene, are you here as well? I'm 3 of 7 on the Trekkers Norway site.

This post has been edited by Borg Assimilator: 05 November 2006 - 06:19 PM