Swedish phonology

Swedish is notable for having a large vowel inventory, with 9 vowels that are distinguished in quality and to some degree quantity, making up 17 vowel phonemes, all of them being monophthongs. The most common realizations of /ɧ/ as a voiceless palatal-velar fricative is not known to exist in any other language. Swedish pronunciation of consonants is similar to that of most other Germanic languages.

A major problem for students of Swedish is what can be perceived as a lack of standardization 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 prosody of southern Sweden is strikingly different from that of the capital region (including Åland), which in turn differs clearly from dialectial varieties of Dalarna, Gotland, and Norrland. In Finland-Swedish, certain word accent common to most other forms of Swedish is not used 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 Danish or Finnish, there can't be said to exist any completely uniform 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. The three main varieties are:

• Central Standard Swedish
• Finland-Swedish
• Southern Standard Swedish

These may in turn be further divided, the varieties of major urban centers such as Gothenburg or Malmö may in some contexts be added to the list, and border areas may show mixed characteristics. Central Standard Swedish is the most widely spoken and the most dominant of these. Northern Swedes typically speak a version of Central Standard Swedish which is influenced by northern dialects and also by Finnish in some places, though some have retained their local dialects.

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

• prosody
• diphthongs
• assimilation

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

In Swedish, the Central Swedish variety may go under the name of rikssvenska ("National Swedish"), but which can be used by linguists as a term comprising all types of Standard Swedish spoken in Sweden contrary to the Finland-Swedish. Similarly, Finland-Swedish may go under the name of högsvenska ("High Swedish") that however has become a controversial and emotionally loaded term that also has changed meaning in the course of the 20th century.

Most Swedes consider all other varieties of Swedish than the standardized Central Swedish Standard as used in formal circumstances as dialects. Dialectologists, reserve the term for genuine rural dialects that have kept grammatical and phonetic structures that are much more distinctive from the standard language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects from the second half of the 19th century.

The most significant difference between the way people speak Standard Swedish is prosodic. There are however also some marked differences with regard to the realization of particular phonemes and assimilations:

	Finland Swedish Standard	Central Swedish Standard	South Swedish Standard
characteristics
/r/	[r]	[r ~ ʐ ~ ɹ ~ ɾ]	[ʀ ~ ʁ]
[r]-assimilations	[ʂ], [ʈ], [ɖ], [ɭ], [ɳ]		-
/ɧ/ ("sje") [initial] /ɧ/ ("sje") [final]	[ɕ]	[ɧ ~ ɧʷ] [ɧ ~ ɧʷ] [ʂ] [x ~ χ]	[ɧʷ]
/ɕ/ ("tje")	[ʨ]	[ɕ]	[ɕ ~ ç]
diphthongs	-	inward directed	outward directed

Vowels

All pronunciations below are made by a Swedish male, age 25, in a variety of Central Standard Swedish spoken in the greater Stockholm region.

The vowel phonemes of Central Standard Swedish

Like many other Germanic languages, Swedish has long and short vowels. The length covariates with the quality of the vowels, as shown below. As a rule, although not without exceptions, the place of articulation varies between long and short vowels. Unstressed vowels are always short.

Long vowels

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
i	sil, /siːl/, "sieve"
y	syl, /syːl/, "awl"
ʉ	ful, /fʉːl/, "ugly"
e	hel, /heːl/, "whole"
ɛ	häl, /hɛːl/, "heel"
ɑ	mat, /mɑːt/, "food"
ø	nöt, /nøːt/, "nut"
u	bot, /buːt/, "penance"
o	mål, /moːl/, "goal"

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

<ära> /ɛːra/; [æːra]; ("honor") [ɛː] -> [æː]

<öra> /øːra/; [œ̞ːra]; ("ear") [øː] -> [œ̞ː]

Short vowels

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
ɪ	sill, /sɪlː/, "herring"
ʏ	syll, /sʏlː/, "sleeper" (railroad)
ɵ	full, /fɵlː/, "full"
œ	nött, /nœtː/, "worn"
ɛ	häll, /hɛlː/, "flat rock"
a	matt, /matː/, "listless; matte"
ɔ	moll, /mɔlː/, "minor" (music)
ʊ	bott, /bʊtː/, "lived" (perfect tense)

Just like the long vowels, the short ones exhibit a similar allophonic pattern when preceding alveolar consonants. Though short /œ/ has a tendency to merge with /ɵ/.

<dörr>: "door" [œ] -> œ̞]

<ärt>: "pea" [ɛ] -> [æ]

Unstressed /ɛ/ is realized as [ə], i.e. a basic schwa. This feature is common to most varieties of Swedish.

<begå> "commit"; [bəˈgoː]

Consonants

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

	Bilabial		Labiodental		Dental			Alveolar	Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosives	p	b			t	d					k	g
Approximants				v			l	r		j			h
Fricatives			f		s				ɕ		ɧ
Trills
Nasals	m				n						ŋ

Plosives

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
p	pol, /puːl/, "pole"
b	bok, /buːk/, "book"
t	tok, /tuːk/, "fool"
d	dop, /duːp/, "christening"
k	kon, /kuːn/, "cone"
g	god, /guːd/, "good"

Initial /p, t, k/ are aspirated in most varieties, but unaspirated when preceded by /s/. Hence [kʰuː] ("cow"), but [skuː] ("shoe").

The combination of /r/ with /t, d, n, l/ 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") are rendered [vɪgoːɳʉ̟ː] and [vɪgɔʈɪstɑːn] in the central and northern varieties.

Fricatives

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
f	fot, /fuːt/, "foot"
v	våt, /voːt/, "wet"
s	sot, /suːt/, "soot"
ɧ	sjok, /ɧuːk/, "chunk"
ɕ	kjol, /ɕuːl/, "skirt"
j	jord, /juːrd/, "soil, earth"
h	hot, /huːt/, "threat"

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 partly overlapping allophones 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 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 Southern Swedish Standard. Some of the varieties specific, but not exclusive, to areas with large percentage of immigrant population very commonly realize 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, station), while the lighter sounds are used before unstressed vowels and at the end of morphemes (bagage, dusch).

/r/-realizations

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
r	rov, /ruːv/, "prey"

/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.

One of the most distinct features of the southern varieties are the use of uvular trills or voiced fricatives, [ʀ], [ʁ] for the /r/-phoneme. Unlike Central and Finland-Swedish, /r/ is not assimilated with supradental consonants into retroflex realizations. /kɑːrta/ ("map") is realized as [kʰ^aɑːʁta].

Laterals

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
l	lov, /luːv/, "tack"

Variations of /l/ are not as common, though some allophones exist particularly in the north and in and around Värmland as a retroflex flap [ɽ].

Nasals

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
m	mod, /muːd/, "courage"
n	nod, /nuːd/, "node"
ŋ	lång, /lɔŋ/, "long"

When preceding /f/ or /v/, /m/ is realized as [ɱ] as in /kamfεr/ ("camphor").

Phonotactics

Like many other Germanic languages, Swedish has a tendency for closed syllables with a relatively large amount 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 amount of final two-consonant clusters is 62. In some cases this can result in near-unpronounceable combinations, such as in västkustskt , consisting of västkust ("west coast") with the adjective suffix -sk and the neuter suffix -t. However, due to assimillations, when spoken västkustskt is pronounced as if it was spelt västkust.

All vowel phonemes, short or long, can occur in stressed syllables. Unstressed syllables can only be short, and the distinction between /e/ and /ɛ/ is therefore not present. In pre-stress syllables, all vowels but /u/ and /o/ are differentiated. With each successive post-stress syllable, the number of contrasting vowels decreases gradually with distance from the point of stress; within three syllables from intonation, only [a], [ɛ] or [ə] occur.

Sample

The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun.

Broad transcription

/nuːrdanvɪndɛn ɔ suːlɛn tvɪestadɛ ɛn goŋ ɔm vɛm ɑv dɔm sɔm vɑr starkast. jɵst do kɔm ɛn vandrarɛ vɛːgɛn fram ɪnsveːpt ɛn varm kapa. dɔm kɔm doː øvɛrɛns ɔm at dɛn sɔm fœrst kɵndɛ fo vandrarɛn at ta ɑv sɛj kapan, han skɵlɛ anseːs vɑra starkarɛ ɛn dɛn andra. doː bloːstɛ nuːrdnvɪndɛn sɔ hoːrt han nɔnsn kndɛ mɛn jʉ hoːrdarɛ han bloːstɛ dɛstʊ tɛːtarɛ sveːptɛ vandrarɛn kapan ɔm sɛj ɔ tɪ slʉːt gɑv nuːrdanvɪndɛn ɵp fœrsøːkɛt. doː lɛːt suːlɛn sɪna stroːlar ɧiːna helt varmt ɔ jènast tuːg vandrarɛn ɑv sɛj kapːan ɔ so vɑ nuːrdanvndɛn tvɵŋɛn atː eːrɕɛna at suːlɛn vɑː dɛn stàrkastɛ ɑv dɔm tvoː/

Narrow transcription

[nùːɖanvɪndən ɔ suːlɛn tvɪ̀stadə ɛŋ goŋ ɔm vɛm ɑv dɔm sɔm vɑr stàɹkast. ʝɵst d̥o kɔm ɛn vàndɹaɹə vɛːgən fram ɪ̀nsveːpt ɪ ɛn varm kàpa. dɔm kɔm do øvəɾəns ɔm at dɛn sɔm fœ̟ʂt kɵndə fo vàndrarən at ta ɑv sɛj kàpan, han skɵlə ànseːs vɑːra stàɾkaɾə ɛn dɛn àndɾa. doː blòːstə nùːɖnvɪndən sɔ hoːʈ han nɔ̀nsɪn kɵ̀ndə mɛn ʝʉ̟ hòːɖarə han blòːstə dɛstʊ tɛ̀ːtaɾə svèːptə vàndɹaɹən kàpan ɔm sɛʝ ɔ tɪ slʉ̟ːt gɑv nùːrdanvɪndən ɵp fœ̟ʂøːkət. do lɛːt suːlɛn sɪna stɹòːlaɹ ɧʷiːna heːlt vaɹmt ɔ ʝènast tuːg vàndrarən ɑv sɛj kapːan ɔ so vɑ nùːɖanvɪndən tvɵ̀ŋən atː èːɹɕɛna at suːlən vɑː dɛn stàɹkastə ɑv dɔm tvoː]

Orthographic version

Nordanvinden och solen tvistade en gång om vem av dom som var starkast. Just då kom en vandrare vägen fram insvept i en varm kappa. Dom kom då överens om att den som först kunde få vandraren att ta av sej kappan, han skulle anses vara starkare än den andra. Då blåste nordanvinden så hårt han nånsin kunde, men ju hårdare han blåste desto tätare svepte vandraren kappan om sej, och till slut gav nordanvinden upp försöket. Då lät solen sina strålar skina helt varmt och genast tog vandraren av sej kappan och så var nordanvinden tvungen att erkänna att solen var den starkaste av dom två.

References

• Engstrand, Olle Fonetikens grunder (Studenlitteratur, Lund 2004) ISBN 91-44-04238-8
• Elert, Claes-Christian Allmän och svensk fonetik (Norstedts, Stockholm 2000) ISBN 91-1-300939-7
• Garlén, Claes Svenskans fonologi (Studenlitteratur, Lund 1988) ISBN 91-44-28151-X