Swedish Phonology
Contents
1. 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. 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 |
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
Minimal pairs help to prove that the quality of vowels is meaning distinguishing in Swedish.
| 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 and vitt for instance indicate that both words have different meanings. They only differ in one sound which is spelled with the same letter i but pronounced [iː] (vit) and [ɪ] (vitt). This verifies that length is meaning distinguishing in Swedish.
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 [minmuːʂafæːr].
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. ,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]
References
- http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0059.pdf
- Hall, Tracy Alan. Phonologie: Eine Einführung. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000. Print.
