Swedish phonology

Swedish has a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree in quantity, making 18 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Another notable feature is the pitch accent, a development which it shares with Norwegian. Swedish pronunciation of most consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages.

There are 18 consonant phonemes, of which /ɧ/ and /r/ show considerable variation depending on both social and dialectal context.

Finland Swedish has a slightly different phonology.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Central Standard Swedish in the Stockholm area. From Engstrand (1999:140)

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ	iː	ʏ	yː		ʉː	ʊ	uː
Close-mid	e	eː		øː	ɵ			oː
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ				ɔ
Open					a			ɑː

Swedish has nine vowels that, as in many other Germanic languages, exist in pairs of long and short versions. The length covaries with the quality of the vowels, as shown in the table below (long vowels in the first column, short in the second), with short variants being more centered and lax. The length is generally viewed as the primary distinction, with quality being secondary. No short vowels appear in open stressed syllables. The front vowels appear in rounded-unrounded pairs: /ʏ/–/ɪ/, /yː/–/iː/, /œ/–/ɛ/ and /øː/–/eː/.

Vowel	Example	Vowel	Example
iː	sil ('sieve')	ɪ	sill ('herring')
eː	hel ('whole')	ɛ	häll ('stone slab')
ɛː	häl ('heel')
ɑː	mat ('food')	a	matt ('listless; matte')
oː	mål ('goal')	ɔ	moll ('minor [key]')
uː	bot ('penance')	ʊ	bott ('lived') (supine)
ʉː	ful ('ugly')	ɵ	full ('full')
yː	syl ('awl')	ʏ	syll ('sleeper (railroad tie)')
øː	nöt ('nut')	œ	nött ('worn')

• Central Standard Swedish /ʉː/ is a near-close near-front compressed vowel [ʏː] that differs from /yː/ by the type of rounding. In other dialects, /ʉː/ may be central.
• /ɛ, œ, ɵ/ are mid [ɛ̝, œ̝, ɵ̞].
• /a/ has been variously described as central [ä] and front [a].

Rounded vowels have two types of rounding:

• /ɵ/, /ʉː/, /ʊ/ and /uː/ are compressed [ɘ̞ᵝ], [ɪᵝː], [ʊᵝ] and [ɯᵝː]
• /ʏ/, /yː/, /œ/ and its pre-/r/ allophone [œ̞], /øː/ and its pre-/r/ allophone [œ̞ː], /ɔ/ and /oː/ are protruded [ɪʷ], [iʷː], [ɛ̝ʷ], [ɛ̞ʷ], [eʷː], [ɛ̞ʷː], [ʌʷ] and [ɤʷː].

Type of rounding is the primary way of distinguishing /ʉː, ɵ/ from /yː, œ/, especially in Central Standard Swedish.

/ɛː/, /ɛ/ (in stressed syllables), /øː/ (with a few exceptions) and /œ/ are lowered to [æː], [æ], [œ̞ː] and [œ̞], respectively, when preceding /r/.

• ära /ˈɛ̂ːra/ → ('honor')
• ärt /ˈɛrt/ → ('pea')
• öra /ˈø̂ːra/ → ('ear')
• dörr /ˈdœr/ → ('door')

The low allophones are becoming unmarked in younger speakers of Stockholm Swedish, so that läsa ('to read') and köpa ('to buy') are pronounced [ˈlæ̂ːsa] and [ˈɕœ̂ːpa] instead of standard [ˈlɛ̂ːsa] and [ˈɕø̂ːpa]. These speakers often also pronounce pre-rhotic /øː/ and /œ/ even lower, i.e. [ɶː] and [ɶ]. This is especially true for the long allophone. Also, the [ɶː] allophone is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the long /ɑː/.

In some pronunciations, traditionally characteristic of the varieties spoken around Gothenburg and in Östergötland, but today more common e.g. in Stockholm and especially in younger speakers, [œ] and [ɵ] merge, most commonly into [ɵ] (especially before [r] and the retroflex consonants). Words like fördömande ('judging', pronounced /fœrˈdœ̌mandɛ/ in Standard Swedish) and fördummande ('dumbing', pronounced /fœrˈdɵmandɛ/ in Standard Swedish) are then often pronounced similarly or identically, as [fɵˈɖɵmːandɛ].

In Central Standard Swedish, unstressed /ɛ/ is slightly retracted [ɛ̠], but is still a front vowel rather than central [ə]. However, the latter pronunciation is commonly found in Southern Swedish. Therefore, begå 'to commit' is pronounced [bɛ̠ˈɡoː] in Central Standard Swedish and [bəˈɡoː] in Southern Swedish. Before /r/, southerners may use a back vowel [ɔ]. In Central Standard Swedish, a true schwa [ə] is commonly found as a vocalic release of word-final lenis stops, as in e.g. bädd [ˈbɛdːə] 'bed'.

In many central and eastern areas (including Stockholm), the contrast between short /ɛ/ and /e/ is lost. The loss of this contrast has the effect that hetta ('heat') and hätta ('cap') are pronounced the same.

In Central Standard Swedish, long /ɑː/ is weakly rounded [ɒ̜ː]. The rounding is stronger in Gothenburg and weaker in most North Swedish dialects.

One of the varieties of /iː/ is made with a constriction that is more forward than is usual. Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson describe this vowel as being pronounced "by slightly lowering the body of the tongue while simultaneously raising the blade of the tongue (...) Acoustically this pronunciation is characterized by having a very high F3, and an F2 which is lower than that in /eː/." They suggest that this may be the usual Stockholm pronunciation of /iː/.

There is some variation in the interpretations of vowel length's phonemicity. Elert (1964), for example, treats vowel quantity as its own separate phoneme (a "prosodeme") so that long and short vowels are allophones of a single vowel phoneme.

Patterns of diphthongs of long vowels occur in three major dialect groups. In Central Standard Swedish, the high vowels /iː/, /yː/, /ʉː/ and /uː/ are realized as narrow closing diphthongs with fully close ending points: [ɪ̝i ʏ̝y ɵ̝˖ʉ̟ ʊ̝u]. According to Engstrand, the second element is so close as to become a palatal or bilabial fricative: [ɪ̝ʝ ʏ̝ʝʷ ɵ̝˖βʲ ʊ̝β]. Elsewhere in the article, the broad transcription ⟨iː yː ʉː uː⟩ is used.

In Central Standard Swedish, /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are often realized as centering diphthongs [eə], [øə] and [oə].

In Southern Swedish dialects, particularly in Scania and Blekinge, the diphthongs are preceded by a rising of the tongue from a central position so that /ʉː/ and /ɑː/ are realized as [eʉ] and [aɑ] respectively. A third type of distinctive diphthongs occur in the dialects of Gotland. The pattern of diphthongs is more complex than those of southern and eastern Sweden; /eː/, /øː/ and /ʉː/ tend to rise while /ɛː/ and /oː/ fall; /uː/, /iː/, /yː/ and /ɑː/ are not diphthongized at all.

Consonants

The table below shows the Swedish consonant phonemes in spoken Standard Swedish.

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative		f	s	ɕ	ɧ	h
Approximant		v	l	j
Rhotic			r

/t, l/ are dental [t̪, l̪], but /n, d, s/ can be either dental [n̪, d̪, s̪] or alveolar [n, d, s]. If /d/ is alveolar, then /n/ is also alveolar. Dental realization of /n, d/ is the predominant one in Central Standard Swedish.

Stops

Phoneme	Example
p	pol ('pole') (of axis)
b	bok ('book')
t	tok ('fool')
d	dop ('christening')
k	kon ('cone')
ɡ	god ('good')

Initial fortis stops (/p, t, k/) are aspirated in stressed position, but unaspirated when preceded by /s/ within the same morpheme. Hence ko ('cow') is [kʰuː], but sko ('shoe') becomes [skuː]. Compare English [kʰuːɫ] ('cool') vs [skuːɫ] ('school'). In Finland Swedish, aspiration does not occur and initial lenis stops /b, d, ɡ/ are usually voiced throughout. Word-medial lenis stops are sometimes voiceless in Finland, a likely influence from Finnish.

Preaspiration of medial and final fortis stops, including the devoicing of preceding sonorants, is common, though its length and normativity varies from dialect to dialect, being optional (and idiolectal) in Central Standard Swedish but obligatory in, for example, the Swedish dialects of Gräsö, Vemdalen and Arjeplog. In Gräsö, preaspiration is blocked in certain environments (such as an /s/ following the fortis consonant or a morpheme boundary between the vowel and the consonant), while it is a general feature of fortis medial consonants in Central Standard Swedish. When not preaspirated, medial and final fortis stops are simply unaspirated. In clusters of fortis stops, the second "presonorant" stop is unaspirated and the former patterns with other medial final stops (that is, it is either unaspirated or is preaspirated).

The phonetic attributes of preaspiration also vary. In the Swedish of Stockholm, preaspiration is often realized as a fricative subject to the character of surrounding vowels or consonants so that it may be labial, velar, or dental; it may also surface as extra length of the preceding vowel. In the province of Härjedalen, though, it resembles [h] or [x]. The duration of preaspiration is highest in the dialects of Vemdalen and Arjeplog. Helgason notes that preaspiration is longer after short vowels, in lexically stressed syllables, as well as in pre-pausal position.

Fricatives

Phoneme	Example
f	fot ('foot')
s	sot ('soot')
ɕ	kjol ('skirt')
ɧ	sjok ('chunk')
h	hot ('threat')

/s/ is dental [s̪] in Central Standard Swedish, but retracted alveolar [s̠] in Blekinge, Bohuslän, Halland and Scania.

The Swedish fricatives /ɕ/ and /ɧ/ are often considered to be the most difficult aspects of Swedish pronunciation for foreign students. The combination of occasionally similar and rather unusual sounds as well as the large variety of partly overlapping allophones of /ɧ/ 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 that are labiodental can also be confused with /f/. The historic palatized kj and tj sound /ɕ/, is an affricate [t͡ɕ] or [t͡ʃ] in Finland Swedish.

The Swedish phoneme /ɧ/ (the "sje-sound" or voiceless postalveolar-velar fricative) and its alleged coarticulation is a difficult and complex issue debated amongst phoneticians. Though the acoustic properties of its [ɧ] allophones are fairly similar, the realizations can vary considerably according to geography, age, gender as well as social context and are notoriously difficult to describe and transcribe accurately. Most common are various sh-like sounds, with [ʂ] occurring mainly in northern Sweden and [ɕ] in Finland. A voiceless uvular fricative, [χ], can sometimes be used in the varieties influenced by major immigrant languages like Arabic and Kurdish. The different realizations can be divided roughly into the following categories:

• "Dark sounds" – [x], commonly used in the Southern Standard Swedish. Some of the varieties specific, but not exclusive, to areas with a larger immigrant population that commonly realizes 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 'sick', station 'station'), while the lighter sounds are used before unstressed vowels and at the end of morphemes (bagage 'baggage', dusch 'shower').

Sonorants

Phoneme	Example
m	mod ('courage')
n	nod ('node')
ŋ	lång ('long')
r	rov ('prey')
l	lov ('tack')
v	våt ('wet')
j	jord ('earth')

/r/ has distinct variations in Standard Swedish. For most speakers, the realization as an alveolar trill occurs only in contexts where emphatic stress is used. In Central Swedish, it is often pronounced as a fricative (transcribed as [ʐ]) or approximant (transcribed as [ɹ]), which is especially frequent in weakly articulated positions such as word-finally and somewhat less frequent in stressed syllable onsets, in particular after other consonants. It may also be an apico-alveolar tap. One of the most distinct features of the southern varieties is the uvular realization of /r/, which may be a trill [ʀ], a fricative [ʁ] or an approximant [ʁ̞]. In Finland, /r/ is usually an apical trill [r], and may be an approximant [ɹ] postvocalically.

Examples of retroflexion

	input	output		gloss
Inflection	/fœrt/	[fœ̞ːʈ]	fört	'brought' sup
	/fœrs/	[fœ̞ːʂ]	förs	'is brought' pass
Derivation	/fœrˈtɑːl/	[fœ̞ˈʈʰɑːl]	förtal	'slander'
	/fœrˈsɔrj/	[fœ̞ˈʂɔrj]	försorg	'taking care'
Compounds	/ˈfœ̂rˌtʉːr/	[ˈfœ̞̂ːˌʈʰʉːr]	förtur	'priority'
	/ˈfœ̂rˌsɑːl/	[ˈfœ̞̂ːˌʂɑːl]	försal	'antechamber'
Across words	/fœr ˈtɵn/	[fœ̞ˈʈʰɵnː]	för tunn	'too thin'
	/fœr ˈseːn/	[fœ̞ˈʂeːn]	för sen	'too late'

In most varieties of Swedish that use an alveolar /r/ (in particular, the central and northern forms), the combination of /r/ with dental consonants (/t, d, n, l, s/) produces retroflex consonant realizations ([ʈ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ, ʂ]), a recursive sandhi process called "retroflexion". Thus, /ˈkɑ̂ːrta/ ('map') is realized as [kʰɑ̂ːʈa], /nuːrd/ ('north') as [nuːɖ], /ˈvɛ̂ːnern/ ('Vänern') as [ˈvɛ̂ːnɛɳ], and /fɛrsk/ ('fresh') as [fæʂːk]. The process of retroflexion is not limited to just one dental, and e.g. först is pronounced [fœ̞ʂʈ]. The combination of /r/ and /l/ does not uniformly cause retroflexion, so that it may also be pronounced with two separate consonants [rl], and even, occasionally in a few words and expressions, as a mere [l]. Thus sorl ('murmur') may be pronounced [soːɭ], but also [soːrl].

In Gothenburg and neighbouring areas (such as Mölndal and Kungälv) the retroflex consonants are substituted by alveolar ones, with their effects still remaining. For example: /kvɑːrn/ is [kvɑːn] not [kvɑːɳ], /hoːrd/ is [hoːd], not [hoːɖ]. However, /rs/, unlike what many other Swedes believe, is not [s] but [ʃ], i.e. /fɛrs/ is [fæʃː], not [fæsː].

As the adjacent table shows, this process is not limited by word boundaries, though there is still some sensitivity to the type of boundary between the /r/ and the dental in that retroflexion is less likely with boundaries higher up in the prosodic hierarchy. In the southern varieties, which use a uvular /r/, retroflex realizations do not occur. For example, /ˈkɑ̂ːrta/ ('map') is realized as [ˈkʰɑ̌ʁta] (note that Tone 2 in Malmö sounds like Tone 1 in Stockholm), etc. An /r/ spelled ⟨rr⟩ usually will not trigger retroflexion so that spärrnät /ˈspæ̂rˌnɛːt/ ('anti-sub net') is pronounced [ˈspæ̂rːˌnɛːt]. Retroflexion also does not usually occur in Finland.

Variations of /l/ are not as common, though some phonetic variation exists, such as a retroflex flap [ɽ] that exists as an allophone in proximity to a labial or velar consonant (e.g. glad ('glad')) or after most long vowels.

In casual speech, the nasals tend to assimilate to the place of articulation of a following obstruent so that, for example, han kom ('he came') is pronounced [haŋ ˈkʰɔmː].

/v/ and /j/ are pronounced with weak friction and function phonotactically with the sonorants.

Prosody

Map of the major tonal dialects of Norwegian and Swedish, from Riad (2014).
• Dark areas have a low tone in accent 2, whereas the light areas have a high tone in accent 2.
• The isogloss marks the boundary between connective and non-connective dialects. East and north of it, all of the compounds get accent 2, whereas west and south of the isogloss, compounds vary in accent.

Stress

In Swedish, stress is not fixed. Primary stress can fall on one of the last three syllables in a word’s stem. This can lead to surface contrasts based solely on difference in position of stress:

• formel /ˈfɔrmɛl/ 'formula'
• formell /fɔrˈmɛl/ 'formal'

Primary stressed syllables are always metrically heavy, i.e. contain either a long vowel or a short vowel followed by a consonant. In phonological analyses of Swedish, stressed syllables in underived forms are assumed to be associated with a basic moraic trochaic foot [μ μ]_σ , e.g. bˈil 'car' (stress marked as (ˈ)). More whole-word based analyses of metrical structure where affixes are included also assume other foot types, in particular, syllabic trochaic feet [σ σ]_Ft, bˈil-ar 'cars'. Affixes affect stress to a considerable degree in the sense that inflectional suffixes can never receive primary stress (bˈil-ar-na 'the cars'), whereas many derivational suffixes can tent-ˈabel 'examinable'. Disyllabic words with accent 2 like ˈandˌe ‘spirit’, kvˈinnˌa ‘woman’, bˈilˌar 'cars' have secondary stress on the second syllable. In the Swedish Academy's lexicon , these disyllables are transcribed with the stress pattern 3 2, e.g. kvin³a² where (³) stands for primary stressed syllable with accent 2 and (²) represents a ‘secondary stressed’ syllable in words with accent 2). This secondary stress is assumed to have existed in Old Norse (see and references therein). Compound words have primary stress on the first element and secondary stress on the last element bˈil-dels-butˌiken 'car-part shop' (secondary stress marked as (ˌ)).

Pitch accents

Stressed syllables carry one of two different tones, often described as pitch accents, or tonal word accents. They are called acute and grave accent, accent 1 and accent 2. The actual realization of these two tones varies from dialect to dialect. In the central Swedish dialect of Stockholm, accent 1 is characterized by a low tone at the beginning of the stressed syllable (fìsken 'the fish') and accent 2, by a high tone at the beginning of the stressed syllable (mátta 'mat'). When the word is in a prominent/focused position, a high tone often occurs following the word accent (fìskén). In accent 2 words, this results in two high tones within the word (e.g. máttá), hence the term "two-peaked" for this dialect. In southern Swedish, a "one-peaked" dialect, accent 1 is realized as a high tone at the beginning of the stressed syllable (físken) and accent 2, by a low tone (màtta). Generally, the grave accent is characterized by a later timing of the word accent pattern as compared with the acute accent.

The phonemicity of this tonal system is demonstrated in the nearly 300 pairs of two-syllable words differentiated only by their use of either grave or acute accent. Outside of these pairs, the main tendency for tone is that the acute accent appears in monosyllables (since the grave accent cannot appear in monosyllabic words) while the grave accent appears in polysyllabic words. Polysyllabic forms resulting from declension or derivation also tend to have a grave accent except when it is the definite article that is added. This tonal distinction has been present in Scandinavian dialects at least since Old Norse though a greater number of polysyllables now have an acute accent. These are mostly words that were monosyllabic in Old Norse, but have subsequently become disyllabic, as have many loanwords. For example, Old Norse kømr ('comes') has become kommer in Swedish (with an acute accent).

The distinction can be shown with the minimal pair anden 'the mallard' (tone 1) and anden 'the spirit' (tone 2).

• "Acute" accent (tone 1): /˴anden/ (realized [ˈa᷇ndɛ̀n] = [ˈan˥˧dɛn˩]) 'the mallard' (from and 'mallard')

In Central Swedish, this is a high, slightly falling tone followed by a low tone; that is, a single drop from high to low pitch spread over two syllables.

• "Grave" accent (tone 2): /˵anden/ (realized [ˈa᷆ndɛ̂n] = [ˈan˧˩dɛn˥˩]) 'the spirit' (from ande 'spirit')

In Central Swedish, this is a mid falling tone followed by a high falling tone; that is, a double falling tone over two syllables.

The exact realization of the tones also depends on the syllable's position in an utterance. For instance, at the beginning of an utterance, the acute accent may have a rising rather than slightly falling pitch on the first syllable. Also, these are word tones that are spread across the syllables of the word. In trisyllabic words with the grave accent, the second fall in pitch is distributed across the second and third syllables:

• Grave-accent trisyllable: flickorna /ˈflɪ̂kʊɳa/ (realized [ˈflɪ᷆kːʊ᷇ɳà] = [ˈflɪ˧˩kːʊ˥˧ɳa˩]) 'the girls'

The position of the tone is dependent upon stress: The first stressed syllable has a high or falling tone, as does the following syllable(s) in grave-accented words.

In most Finland-Swedish varieties, however, the distinction between grave and acute accent is missing.

A reasonably complete list of uncontroversial so-called minimal pairs can be seen below. The two words in each pair are distinguished solely by having different tone (acute vs. grave). In those cases where both words are nouns it would have been possible to list the genitive forms of the words as well, thereby creating another word pair, but this has been avoided. A few word pairs where one of the words is a plural form with the suffix -or have been included. This is due to the fact that many Swedish-speakers in all parts of Sweden pronounce the suffix -or the same way as -er.

Translation acute	Acute accent (accent I)	Grave accent (accent II)	Translation grave
stern (of boat/ship)	akter	akter	acts
the elm	almen	allmän	public, general
the As	A:na	ana	suspect
the mallard	anden	anden	the spirit
the reverse gear, the crate	backen	backen	the slope
the ball (dance event)	balen	balen	the nest
the bulb (on horse)	ballen	ballen	the dick (slang for penis)
the Bs	B:na	bena	parting (hair)
binds	binder	bindor	sanitary towels
the piece	biten	biten	bitten
the book	boken	boken	overripe, spoilt (of fruit)
the nests	bona	bona	polish
the nests' (genitive of 'bona')	bonas	bonas	be polished (passive of 'bona')
the bristles	borsten	borsten	the brush, the broom
the brace (sailing)	brassen	brassen	the Brazilian
the letters	breven	brevvän	pen pal
breaks (present tense of 'brista')	brister	brister	flaws
the well	brunnen	brunnen	burnt (past participle of 'brinna')
the edges of forests	brynen	brynen	whetstones
the edge of a forest	brynet	brynet	the whetstone
the cage	buren	buren	carried (past participle of 'bära')
the pranks	busen	busen	the hooligan
the trolling spoons	dragen	dragen	drawn (past participle of 'dra'), tipsy
the draught, the trolling spoon	draget	draget	drawn (past participle of 'dra')
the speed, the energy	drivet	drivet	drifted, driven (past participle of 'driva')
the Es	E:na	ena	unite, unify
male name	Enar	enar	junipers
the falls	fallen	fallen	fallen (past participle of 'falla')
the fall	fallet	fallet	fallen (past participle of 'falla')
fastens	fäster	fester	parties
the fish	fisken	fisken	acts of fishing
the Fs	F:en	FN	The UN
the phone (in phonetics)	fonen	fånen	the idiot
the armfuls	fången	fången	the prisoner
the armful	fånget	fånget	caught (past particple of 'fånga')
the rug	fällen	fällen	places where trees have been felled
fells, cuts down	fäller	fällor	traps (plural of the noun 'fälla')
the party, the feast	festen	fästen	places where something has been attached
the bow (on ship/boat)	fören	fören	conditions of the ground for travelling (plural of 'före')
towards the bow (on ship/boat)	förut	förut	before, earlier
marries	gifter	gifter	poisons (plural of 'gift')
the poison	giftet	giftet	the marriage
the Js	J:na	gina	tackle (sailing), take a shortcut
the deal (in card games)	given	given	given
the candles	ljusen	gjusen	the osprey
the griffin	gripen	gripen	grabbed, gripped (past participle of 'gripa')
the walkway	gången	gången	gone (past participle of 'gå')
the heath	heden	heden	heathen (adjective)
has the time to do something	hinner	hinnor	coatings
the cuts (made with a heavy object like an axe)	huggen	huggen	chopped (past participle of 'hugga')
the directions	hållen	hållen	held (past participle of 'hålla')
the direction	hållet	hållet	held (past participle of 'hålla')
the Hs	H:na	håna	mock, taunt
higher	högre	högre	the man to the right (as in 'den högre')
the ide	iden	iden	bears' dens for hibernation
the Is	I:na	Ina	female name
ahead of, in front of	inför	inför	introduces, introduce (present tense or imperative of 'införa')
the sounds	ljuden	juden	the Jew
Japanese syllabary	kana	kana	slide (noun/verb)
the carat	karaten	karaten	the karate
the cat	katten	katten	a profanity (as in for example 'Katten också!')
the bang	knallen	knallen	the small hill, the pedlar
the knot	knuten	knuten	tied (past participle of 'knyta')
the bowler hat	kubben	kubben	the chopping block (for wood)
the litter (group of newborn animals)	kullen	kullen	the hill
the corps	kåren	kåren	the breeze
the lichen	laven	laven	the headframe
leads (present tense of 'leda')	leder	leder	joints (anatomy)
the military service	lumpen	lumpen	contemptible, lousy
the moth	malen	malen	ground, milled (past participle of 'mala')
the milk	mjölken	mjölken	the fish seed
the courage	modet	modet	the fashion
the mop	moppen	moppen	the moped
the names	namnen	namnen	the namesake
the norm	normen	norrmän	Norwegians
the tack	nubben	nubben	the shot (alcohol)
pinches (present tense of 'nypa')	nyper	nypor	Grips made with the thumb against one or more of the other fingers (plural noun)
name of a Norse God	Oden	oden	odes
the mite	oret	orätt	injustice
the rabble (definite plural of 'pack')	packen	packen	the bale
clown	pajas	pajas	be destroyed (passive of 'paja')
panther	panter	panter	deposits
Persians	perser	pärser	ordeals
Poland	Polen	pålen	the pole (thick wooden stick)
pollen	pollen	pållen	the horsey
radar	radar	radar	present tense of 'rada', as in 'rada upp' (=list something)
grid	raster	raster	breaks (in school or at a workplace, i.e. for example coffee breaks)
rule	regel	regel	latch
travels (present tense of 'resa')	reser	resor	journeys, trips
the melee, the fighting	rivet	rivet	torn
cylinder that rotates and is used for painting	roller	roller	roles
diamonds (in card games)	ruter	rutor	squares, (window) panes
the route	rutten	rutten	rotten
the rye	rågen	rågen	the overmeasure
the nymphs	råna	råna	rob
the horizontal bars (gymnastics)	räcken	räcken	railings
the horizontal bar (gymnastics)	räcket	räcket	the railing
runs	ränner	rännor	chutes
sabbath	sabbat	sabbat	destroyed, sabotaged (past participle of 'sabba')
cedar	ceder	seder	customs (traditions)
the Cs	C:na	sena	late (plural of 'sen'), sinew
cider	cider	sidor	pages
the view	sikten	sikten	sights (on rifles, plural of 'sikte')
the barks (dog sounds)	skallen	skallen	the skull
the spoon	skeden	skeden	stages (of time)
the shift	skiftet	skiftet	the change
the shifts	skiften	skiften	changes
the ejaculations	skjuten	skjuten	shot (past participle of 'skjuta')
the speed, the ejaculation	skjutet	skjutet	shot (past participle of 'skjuta')
the shots	skotten	skotten	the Scotsman
the (rain) shower	skuren	skuren	cut (past participle of 'skära')
the gunner	skytten	skytten	acts of shooting
the battles, the hits	slagen	slagen	beaten
the battle, the hit	slaget	slaget	beaten
the toil	slitet	slitet	worn
the ends	sluten	sluten	closed (past participle of 'sluta')
the end	slutet	slutet	closed (past participle of 'sluta')
the (extended) family	släkten	släkten	genera (biology)
the cop	snuten	snuten	past participle of 'snyta' (=blow one's nose)
the zoos	zoona	sona	expiate
the stocks (cooking)	spaden	spaden	the spade
the spas	spana	spana	watch, observe, search
bursts, cracks (present tense of the verb 'spricka')	spricker	sprickor	cracks (plural of the noun 'spricka')
the steps	stegen	stegen	the ladder
fights (present tense of 'strida')	strider	strider	fights, battles (plural of the noun 'strid')
the moving patches/bands (of something)	stråken	stråken	the bow (for a violin)
the stubble	stubben	stubben	the tree stump
the racks	ställen	ställen	places (locations)
the rack	stället	stället	the place
the sucking device	sugen	sugen	sucked (past participle of 'suga'), in the mood for something
the urge	suget	suget	sucked (past participle of 'suga'), in the mood for something
the seed, the grain	säden	säden	things intended for sowing (plural of 'säde')
the cell	cellen	sällen	the brute
the grips	tagen	tagen	taken
the grip	taget	taget	taken
the tank	tanken	tanken	the thought
toner	toner	toner	tones
the trot	traven	traven	the pile, the stack
the plot (of land)	tomten	tomten	Santa Claus, the gnome
the inch	tummen	tummen	the thumb
sign	tecken	täcken	bed covers
the point, the cusp	udden	udden	the headland
uphill	uppför	uppför	present tense or imperative of 'uppföra' (=set up a theatre play, behave)
downhill	utför	utför	present tense or imperative of 'utföra' (=carry out)
the hole in the ice	vaken	vaken	awake
the whale	valen	valen	stiff, numb
the shrouds (sailing)	vanten	vanten	the mitten
the vase	vasen	vasen	the bundle of brushwood
the bay	viken	viken	folded (past participle of 'vika')
makes a whistling sound (of for example wind)	viner	viner	wines
the knobs	vreden	vreden	the rage, the wrath
the host/the world	värden/världen	värden	values
male name	Oskar	åskar	present tense of 'åska' (=thunder)
the gravel	ören	ören	pennies (plural of the monetary unit 'öre' used when no numeral immediately precedes the word)
the gravel	öret	öret	the penny (1/100 of a Swedish krona)

Note that karaten/karaten is the only pair with more than two syllables (although we would get a second one if we used the definite forms of the pair perser/pärser, i.e. perserna/pärserna). The word pair länder ('countries', plural of land) and länder ('loins', plural of länd) could have been included, but this one is controversial. For those speakers who have grave accent in the plural of länd, the definite plural forms will also constitute a three-syllable minimal pair: länderna (acute accent, 'the countries') vs. länderna (grave accent, 'the loins'). Although examples with more than two syllables are very few in Standard Swedish, it is possible to find other three-syllable pairs in regional dialects, such as Värmländska: hunnera (acute, 'the Huns') vs. hunnera (grave, 'the dogs'), ändera/ännera (acute, 'the mallards') vs. ändera/ännera (grave, 'the ends'), etc.

Prosody in Swedish often varies substantially between different dialects including the spoken varieties of Standard Swedish. As in most languages, stress can be applied to emphasize certain words in a sentence. To some degree prosody may indicate questions, although less so than in English.

Phonotactics

At a minimum, a stressed syllable must consist of either a long vowel or a short vowel and a long consonant. Like many other Germanic languages, Swedish has a tendency for closed syllables with a relatively large number 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 number of possible final two-consonant clusters is 62.

In some cases this can result in very complex combinations, such as in västkustskt , consisting of västkust ('west coast') with the adjective suffix -sk and the neuter suffix -t.

Central Standard Swedish and most other Swedish dialects feature a rare "complementary quantity" feature wherein a phonologically short consonant follows a long vowel and a long consonant follows a short vowel; this is true only for stressed syllables and all segments are short in unstressed syllables. This arose from the historical shift away from a system with a four-way contrast (that is, VːCː, VC, VːC and VCː were all possible) inherited from Proto-Germanic to a three-way one (VC, VːC and VCː), and finally the present two-way one; certain Swedish dialects have not undergone these shifts and exhibit one of the other two phonotactic systems instead. In literature on Swedish phonology, there are a number of ways to transcribe complementary relationship, including:

• A length mark ː for either the vowel (/viːt/) or the consonant (/vitː/)
• Gemination of the consonant (/vit/ vs. /vitt/)
• Diphthongization of the vowel (/vijt/ vs. /vit/)
• The position of the stress marker (/viˈt/ vs. /vitˈ/)

With the conventional assumption that medial long consonants are ambisyllabic (that is, penna ('pen'), is syllabified as [ˈpɛ̂n.na]), all stressed syllables are thus "heavy". In unstressed syllables, the distinction is lost between /u/ and /o/ or between /e/ /ɛ/. With each successive post-stress syllable, the number of contrasting vowels decreases gradually with distance from the point of stress; at three syllables from stress, only [a] and [ɛ] occur.

Sample

The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun. The transcriptions are based on the section on Swedish found in The Handbook on the International Phonetic Association, in which a man in his forties from Stockholm is recorded reading out the traditional fable in a manner typical of Central Standard Swedish as spoken in his area. The broad transcription is phonemic, while the narrow is phonetic.

Broad transcription

/nuːrdanvɪndɛn ɔ suːlɛn tvɪstadɛ ɛn ɡɔŋː ɔm vɛm ɑːv dɔm sɔm vɑːr starkast || jɵst doː kɔm ɛn vandrarɛ vɛːɡɛn fram | ɪnsveːpt iː ɛn varm kapːa || dɔm kɔm doː øːvɛrɛns ɔm | at dɛn sɔm fœrst kɵndɛ foː vandrarɛn at ta ɑːv sɛj kapːan | han skɵlːɛ anseːs vɑːra starkarɛ ɛn dɛn andra || doː bloːstɛ nuːrdanvɪndɛn sɔ hoːrt han nɔnsɪn kɵndɛ | mɛn jʉː hoːrdarɛ han bloːstɛ dɛstʊ tɛːtarɛ sveːptɛ vandrarɛn kapːan ɔm sɛj | ɔ tɪl slʉːt ɡɑːv nuːrdanvɪndɛn ɵpː fœrsøːkɛt || doː lɛːt suːlɛn siːna stroːlar ɧiːna heːlt varmt ɔ jeːnast tuːɡ vandrarɛn ɑːv sɛj kapːan | ɔ soː vɑːr nuːrdanvɪndɛn tvɵŋɛn at eːrɕɛnːa at suːlɛn vɑːr dɛn starkastɛ ɑːv dɔm tvoː/

Narrow transcription

[ˈnuːɖaɱˌvɪnˑdɛn ɔ ˈsuːlɛn ˈtv̥ɪsːtadɛ ɛŋ ˈɡɔŋː ɔɱ ˈvɛmˑ ɑv ˌdɔm sɔɱ vɑˑ ˈstaɹːcast || ˈʝɵsˑt ˈd̥oː kʰɔm ɛɱ ˈvanːdɾaɾɛ ˈvɛːɡəɱ fɾam | ˈɪnˌsv̥eə̯pt iˑ ɛɱ vaɹˑm ˈcʰapːa || dɔm kʰɔm doˑ øə̯vɛˈɾɛnːs ˈɔmˑ at dɛn sɔm ˈfɵʂːʈ kʰɵnˑdɛ foˑ ˈvanːdɹ̝aɹɛn at ˈtʰɑː ɑˑv sɛj ˈcʰapːan | hanˑ skɵlˑɛ ˈanːˌseːs vɑˑ ˈstaɹːcaɾɛ ɛn dɛn ˈandɾa || doː ˈbloə̯stɛ ˈnuːɖaɱˌvɪnˑdɛn soˑ ˈhoːʈ han ˈnɔnːˌsɪŋ ˈkʰɵnːdɛ | mɛɳ ʝʉˑ ˈhoːɖaɾɛ ham ˈbloə̯stɛ | dɛsˑtʊ ˈtʰɛːtaɾɛ ˈsv̥eə̯ptɛ ˈvanːdɹ̝aɹɛŋ ˈcʰapːan ˈɔmˑ sɛj | ɔ tʰɪl ˈslʉːt ɡɑˑv ˈnuːɖaɱˌvɪnˑdɛn ˈɵpː fœ̞ˈʂøə̯cɛt || doˑ lɛˑt ˈsuːlɛn siˑna ˈstɾoːlaɹ ˈɧiːna heˑlt ˈvaɹːmt | ɔ ˈʝeːnast tʰuˑɡ ˈvanːdɹ̝aɹɛn ˈɑːv sɛj ˈcʰapːan | ɔ soˑ vɑˑ ˈnuːɖaɱˌvɪnˑdɛn ˈtvɵŋːɛn at ˈeːɹˌɕɛnːa at ˈsuːlɛn vɑˑ dɛn ˈstaɹːcastɛ ɑˑv dɔm ˈtv̥oː]

Orthographic version

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

References

• Adams, Douglas Q. (1975), "The Distribution of Retracted Sibilants in Medieval Europe", Language, 51 (2), Linguistic Society of America: 282–292, doi:10.2307/412855, JSTOR 412855
• Andersson, Erik (2002), "Swedish", in König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan (eds.), The Germanic Languages, Routledge language family descriptions, Routledge, pp. 271–312, ISBN 0-415-28079-6
• Bannert, R. (1976), Mittelbayerische Phonologie auf Akustischer und Perzeptorischer Grundlage, Lund: Gleerup
• Bruce, Gösta (1977), Swedish Word Accents in Sentence Perspective (PDF), Liber, ISBN 91-40-04589-7
• Bruce, Gösta (1993), "On Swedish lexical stress patterns" (PDF), PHONUM, 2: 41–50
• Bruce, Gösta (2010), Vår fonetiska geografi, Studentlitteratur, ISBN 9789144050539
• Bruce, Gösta; Hermans, Ben (1999), "Word tone in Germanic languages", in van der Hulst, Harry (ed.), Word Prosodic Systems in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 605–658
• Elert, Claes-Christian (1964), Phonologic Studies of Quantity in Swedish, Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell
• Elert, Claes-Christian (2000), Allmän och svensk fonetik (in Swedish) (8th ed.), Stockholm: Norstedts, ISBN 91-1-300939-7
• Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning (ed.), Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 271–300
• Eliasson, Stig; La Pelle, N. (1973), "Generativa regler för svenskans kvantitet", Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 88: 133–148
• Elmquist, A. Louis (1915), Swedish phonology, Chicago: The Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8
• Fant, G. (1983), "Feature analysis of Swedish vowels – a revisit", Speech, Music and Hearing Quarterly Progress and Status Report, 24 (2–3): 1–19
• Frid, Johan (2001), "Swedish word stress in optimality theory", Working Papers (Dept. Of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University), 48: 25–40
• Garlén, Claes (1988), Svenskans fonologi (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-28151-X
• Gårding, E. (1973), "The Scandinavian word accents", Working Papers (Dept. Of Linguistics and Phonetics, Lund University), 8: 1–119
• Gårding, E. (1974), Kontrastiv prosodi, Lund: Gleerup
• Hamann, Silke (2003), The Phonetics and Phonology of Retroflexes, Utrecht, ISBN 90-76864-39-X{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Helgason, Pétur (1998), "On-line preaspiration in Swedish: implications for historical sound change", Proceedings of Sound Patterns of Spontaneous Speech, vol. 98, pp. 51–54
• Helgason, Pétur (1999a), "Preaspiration and sonorant devoicing in the Gräsö dialect: preliminary findings.", Proceedings of the Swedish Phonetics Conference 1999, Gothenburg Papers in Theoretical Linguistics, Göteborg University, pp. 77–80
• Helgason, Pétur (1999b), "Phonetic preconditions for the development of normative preaspiration", Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, San Francisco, pp. 1851–1854{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
• Liberman, Anatoly (1978), "Pseudo-støds in Scandinavian languages", Orbis, 27: 52–76
• Liberman, Anatoly (1982), Germanic Accentology, vol. 1: The Scandinavian Languages, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
• McAllister, Robert; Lubker, James; Carlson, Johann (1974), "An EMG study of some characteristics of the Swedish rounded vowels", Journal of Phonetics, 2 (4): 267–278, doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(19)31297-5
• Petrova, Olga; Plapp, Rosemary; Ringen, Ringen; Szentgyörgyi, Szilárd (2006), "Voice and aspiration: Evidence from Russian, Hungarian, German, Swedish, and Turkish", The Linguistic Review, 23: 1–35, doi:10.1515/tlr.2006.001, S2CID 42712078
• Reuter, Mikael (1992), "Swedish as a pluricentric language", in Clyne, Michael (ed.), Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 101–116
• Riad, Tomas (1992), Structures in Germanic Prosody, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Stockholm University
• Riad, Tomas (2006), "Scandinavian accent typology" (PDF), STUF – Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, 59 (1): 36–55, doi:10.1524/stuf.2006.59.1.36, S2CID 120424722, archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-08
• Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
• Ringen, Catherine; Helgason, Pétur (2004), "Distinctive [voice] does not imply regressive assimilation: evidence from Swedish", International Journal of English Studies: Advances in Optimality Theory, 4 (2): 53–71
• Ringen, Catherine; Suomi, Katri (2012), "The voicing contrast in Fenno-Swedish stops", Journal of Phonetics, 40 (3): 419–429, doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2012.02.010
• Schaeffler, Felix (2005), "Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects", Phonum, 10
• Swedish Academy (1893–2023), Ordbok över svenska språket (SAOB) (in Swedish), Lund: Gleerups
• Thorén, Bosse; Petterson, Nils-Owe (1992), Svenska Utifrån Uttalsanvisningar, Svenska institutet, ISBN 91-520-0284-5
• Thorén, Bosse (1997), Swedish prosody
• Tronnier, Mechtild (2002), "Preaspiration in Southern Swedish dialects", Proceedings of Fonetik, 44 (1): 33–36
• Wretling, P.; Strangert, E.; Schaeffler, F. (2002), "Quantity and Preaspiration in Northern Swedish Dialects", in Bel, B; Marlien, I. (eds.), Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2002 conference, Aix-en-Provence: Laboratoire Parole et Langage, pp. 703–706

Further reading

• Bolander, Maria (2001), Funktionell svensk grammatik (1st ed.), Liber AB, ISBN 9789147050543
• Dahlstedt, Karl-Hampus (1967), Svårigheter i svenskans uttal, Modersmålslärarnas förening
• Garlén, Claes (2003), Svenska Språknämndens Uttalsordbok, Svenska Språknämnden, ISBN 978-9172273092
• Hedelin, Per (1997), Norstedts Svenska Uttalslexikon, Norstedts Ordbok, ISBN 9789119711229
• Kuronen, Mikko (2000), Vokaluttalets akustik i sverigesvenska, finlandssvenska och finska (PDF), University of Jyväskylä, ISBN 978-951-39-4093-5
• Kuronen, Mikko (2001), "Acoustic character of vowel pronunciation in Sweden-Swedish and Finland-Swedish" (PDF), Lund University Department of Linguistics Working Papers (49): 94–97
• Leinonen, Therese (2010), An Acoustic Analysis of Vowel Pronunciation in Swedish Dialects (PDF), University of Groningen, ISBN 978-90-367-4450-8
• Lundskær-Nielsen, Tom; Barnes, Michael; Lindskog, Annika (2005), Introduction to Scandinavian phonetics: Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, Alfabeta, ISBN 978-8763600095
• Rosenqvist, Håkan (2007), Uttalsboken: svenskt uttal i praktik och teori, Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, ISBN 978-91-27-40645-2
• Torp, Arne (2001). "Retroflex consonants and dorsal /r/: mutually excluding innovations? On the diffusion of dorsal /r/ in Scandinavian". In van de Velde, Hans; van Hout, Roeland (eds.). 'r-atics. Brussels: Etudes & Travaux. pp. 75–90. ISSN 0777-3692. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)

External links

• Introduction to Swedish – A guide to pronunciation (Stockholm School of Economics)