Swedish Phonology

This article deals with the phonology of Standard Swedish (Rikssvenska) from a synchronical point of view. There may be a few references to regional variations, however, they are not explained in more detail. This entry is arranged into three larger parts: segmentals, supra-segmentals and phonotactics.

Segmentals

Vowels

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

Regarding the 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 and are therefore meaning distinguishing. Diphthongs do not exist in Swedish.

Long Vowels

There are nine long vowel phonemes in the Swedish language.

	Front unrounded	Front rounded	Central rounded	Back rounded
Close	iː	yː	ʉː	uː
Close mid	eː	øː		oː
Open mid	ɛː
Open				ɑː

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

Minimal pairs help to prove that two words differ in meaning based on one single sound which varies.

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

Hence, vit ('white': utrum, singular) and vitt ('white': neutrum, singular), for instance, are both spelled with an i. Though through the doubling of the final consonant the quality of the vowel changes from [iː] (as in vit) to [ɪ] (as in vitt). This verifies that length is meaning distinguishing in Swedish. Quite often the doubling of a consonant is responsible for the shortened pronunciation of a vowel.

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 the existence of a real phoneme is often disputed. In some dialects, especially in northern and Finland Swedish, /ɧ/ does not exist.

Furthermore the retroflex consonants /ʈ, ɖ, ʂ, ɭ/ and /ɳ/ are a fixture in Standard Swedish. In order to produce such a sound, the tip of the tongue is raised and bended backwards as far as possible so that it touches the rear teeth-ridge respectively the hard front of the palate. Retroflex consonants are orthographically represented by the consonant clusters rt, rd, rs, rl and rn and are a result of assimilation. Opinions differ concerning the total number of consonant phonemes since retroflex consonants are often treated as allophones. In Finland Swedish, for instance, retroflex consonants do not exist. They are realised bisegmentally as [rːs, rːd, rːs, rːl] and [rːn].

e.g. fors
     Standard Swedish: [fɔʂː]
     Finland Swedish:  [fɔrːs]

Since this article deals with Standard Swedish, which is the most dominant regional variety of Swedish, retroflex consonants are counted among phonemes. Hence there are 23 consonant phonemes in the Swedish language altogether.

In order to prove that retroflex consonants are phonemes, some minimal pairs can be arranged:

bord   ↔   bod               /buːɖ/    ↔    /buːd/
barsk  ↔   bask              /baʂk/    ↔    /bask/
Karl   ↔   kal               /kɑːɭ/    ↔    /kɑːl/
fart   ↔   fat               /fɑːʈ/    ↔    /fɑːt/
varna  ↔   vana              /vɑːɳa/   ↔    /vɑːna/

Another typical phoneme in Swedish is [ɕ]. Basically, it is an initial sound which occurs in front of a stressed vowel as in kök (= kitchen).

	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 one voiced.

Phonological Rules

Retroflex Consonants

Not only are retroflex consonants fixed in most simplexes (e.g. barn) but they can also occur in different articulatory patterns:

1. Word boundaries:

Retroflex consonants can cross over word boundaries if the final letter of a word is an 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].

In this case retroflex consonants are usually obligatory but along with unstressed, frequent and short words they are optional and can even lower the language bar.

2. Flections:

a) Genitive: 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 [minmuːʂafæːr].

b) Verbs: The retroflex consonants [ɖ] and [ʈ] occur in verbs with a final r in the word stem and which, besides that, receive the past and supine endings -de, respectively -t.

e.g. stör-de                  /støːɖə/
     disturb-PAST

     stör-t                   /støːʈ/
     disturb-SUP

Furthermore this rule applies to past participles:

e.g. en psykiskt stör-d                      flicka      /støːɖ/
     a  mentally disordered[ADJ.IDEF.SG.UTR] girl
  
     ett psykiskt stör-t                        djur     /støːʈ/
     a   mentally disordered[ADJ.IDEF.SG.NEUTR] animal
    
     den psykiskt stör-da                    flickan     /støːɖa/
     the mentally disordered[ADJ.DEF.SG.UTR] girl

c) Nouns: Almost all nouns receive in the definite plural the ending <-rna>. The ending is assimilated to the retroflex consonant cluster /ɳa/. The only exceptions, which do not carry a retroflex consonant, are the definite plural forms of neutral nouns, for instance ett hus (definite plural: hus-en) and ett äpple (definite plural: äpple-na).

e.g. flickorna, pojkarna, böckerna, lärarna

3. Composita:

e.g. vårsång /voːʂɔŋ/, vårdag /voːɖɑːg/, vårnatt /voːɳat/, vårtecken /voːʈekən/, vårluft /voːɭɵft/

4. Derivations:

e.g. varsam, förtala, lärdom, varning, förlänga

5. Cyclic use: Not only <r> but also retroflex consonants themselves can trigger a progressive assimilation. This rule is obligatory up to the word boundary. Across the boundary it is optional.

e.g. vårdnad        ɖ+n  -->  /ɖɳ/
     korsning       ʂ+n  -->  /ʂɳ/
     barnlös        ɳ+l  -->  /ɳɭ/
     bärnsten       ɳ+s  -->  /ɳʂ/
     hjärndöd       ɳ+d  -->  /ɳɖ/
     etc.

Exceptions

• Often when there is a morpheme boundary between <rr> and <t, d, n, s, l>,

e.g. borrs /rːs/, bisarrt /rːt/

• The morpheme internal <rl> can sometimes be either [l] or [ɭ],

e.g. pärla, kärl, Karl

Nevertheless across morpheme boundaries it is mostly [ɭ], e.g. härlig. Additionally, after a preceding [øː] it is also often [ɭ], e.g. curla.

• The cyclic use does not apply to rl and rst if the letter s follows,

e.g. kärls /ɭs/, törsts /ʂt/

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.  ,an'de-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, one sound influences the articulation of another sound. Thus the pronunciation of the velar plosives /g/ and /k/ differs according to the sound environment of the subsequent vowel.

If the voiced /g/ precedes a back vowel it does not change its velar position and is pronounced as [g]. If it precedes a front vowel it is palatalised and pronounced as [j].

gå [goː]     göra ['jøːra]

The same applies to the voiceless counterpart /k/. If it precedes a back vowel its velar position is maintained and pronounced as [k]. If it precedes a front vowel it is palatalised and pronounced as [ɕ].

kort [kʊʈ]   köpa ['ɕøːra]

3. Phonotactics

In modern Swedish the phonotactic patterns V:K and VK: are possible.

tak [tɑːk], tack [takː]

Furthermore the cluster VK was introduced to Finland Swedish on account of its contact with the Finnish language.

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]

All Swedish vowels except for [ʉ, ø] and half-length vowels occur in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables only short vowels can be found.

göra     [gøːra]
gudom    [gʉːdum]
lärjunge [lɛːrjɵŋə]

Syllabification

In order to mark the end of a syllable Swedish makes use of a process called syllabification. Often the positioning of the division varies and shifts as in för.ena and fö.rena. Something similar happens in the more distantly-related language German: It usually marks the end of a syllable with glottal stops. An exception is the word ver.ein / ve.rein which means the same as the example mentioned above.

References

• http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0059.pdf
• Hall, Tracy Alan. Phonologie: Eine Einführung. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000. Print.
• Lindqvist, Christer. Schwedische Phonetik: für Deutschsprachige. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, 2007. Print.

Quod Vide

• Swedish
• Schwedisch
• Nominalphrase im Schwedischen