Swedish SwedishSymbol Word Transcription p pil pi:l b bil bi:l t tal tA:l d dal dA:l k kal kA:l g g?s go:sThere are six fricatives:
f fil fi:l v v?r vo:r s sil si:l S sjuk S}:k (front and back allophones) h hal hA:l C tjock COk (not syllable-final)There are six sonorant consonants (nasals, liquids and semivowels):
m mil mi:l n n?l no:l N ring rIN (not syllable-initial) r ris ri:s l l?s l2:s j jag jA:gVowels
Long vowels (followed by short consonant):
i: vit vi:t e: vet ve:t E: s?l sE:l y: syl sy:l }: hus h}:s 2: f?l f2:l u: sol su:l o: h?l ho:l A: hal hA:lShort vowels (followed by long consonant):
I vitt vIt e vett vet E r?tt rEt Y bytt bYt u0 buss bu0s 2 f?ll f2l U bott bUt O h?ll hOl a hall halThere are also two pre-r allophones (long and short) of /E/ and /2/ (see below).
The following important allophonic variants occur in Swedish which require separate symbolic representation:
{: h?r h{:r pre-r allophone of E:
9: f?r f9:r " 2:
{ herr h{r " E
9 f?rr f9r " 2
@ pojken pOjk@n schwa vowel allophone
rt hjort jUrt retroflex consonant, not initial*
rd bord bu:rd "
rn barn bA:rn "
rs fors fOrs "
rl karl kA:rl "
* in cases where the dental consonants do not change into retroflexes,
they are transcribed using the separator sign (ASCII 45): r-t, r-d.
Swedish has two contrasting tonemes, but only in stressed syllables. Tone 1 is indicated by the ordinary stress mark, Tone 2 by a doubled stress mark, e.g.
stress and toneme 1 anden "and@n (the duck) stress and toneme 2 anden ""and@n (the spirit)
UCL Phonetics and Linguistics home page, University College London home page.
Maintained by J.C. Wells. Created 1995 09 20. Last modified 1998 07 01 (note on tonemes corrected)