Swedish Phonology

Vowels

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

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

Long Vowels

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

Examples: is [iːs] ny [nyː] mus [mʉːs] sol [suːl] led [leːs] 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.

In many cases e an ä coincide and are pronounced the same as in sett - sätt. On that account some dictionaries mention that there are only eight short vowels in the Swedish language.

Consonants

Several assertions are put up concerning the number of consonant phonemes. Many dictionaries argue that there are only 18 of them, treating the five retroflexes as allophones. If the retroflexes are counted among phonemes, there are 23 consonant phonemes altogether.