Stops

Initial fortis stops (/p, t, k/) are aspirated in stressed position, but unaspirated when preceded by /s/ within the same morpheme.^[7] 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.^[29][30] Word-medial lenis stops are sometimes voiceless in Finland, a likely influence from Finnish.^[30]

Preaspiration of medial^[31] and final fortis stops,^[32] including the devoicing of preceding sonorants,^[33] is common,^[34][35] though its length and normativity varies from dialect to dialect, being optional (and idiolectal^[36]) in Central Standard Swedish but obligatory in, for example, the Swedish dialects of Gräsö,^[37] Vemdalen and Arjeplog.^[38] In Gräsö, preaspiration is blocked in certain environments (such as an /s/ following the fortis consonant^[39] or a morpheme boundary between the vowel and the consonant^[33]), while it is a general feature of fortis medial consonants in Central Standard Swedish.^[33] When not preaspirated, medial and final fortis stops are simply unaspirated.^[40] 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).^[41]

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.^[42] In the province of Härjedalen, though, it resembles [h] or [x].^[42] The duration of preaspiration is highest in the dialects of Vemdalen and Arjeplog.^[43] Helgason notes that preaspiration is longer after short vowels, in lexically stressed syllables, as well as in pre-pausal position.^[31][44]

Fricatives

/s/ is dental [s̪] in Central Standard Swedish,^[45][46] but retracted alveolar [s̠] in Blekinge,^[47] Bohuslän,^[47] Halland^[47] and Scania.^[47]

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/. In Finland Swedish, /ɕ/ is an affricate: [t͡ɕ] or [t͡ʃ].^[29]

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.^[48] 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:^[49]

• "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

/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.^{[citation needed]} In Central Swedish, it is often pronounced as a fricative (transcribed as [ʐ])^[50] or approximant (transcribed as [ɹ]),^[7] which is especially frequent in weakly articulated positions such as word-finally^[29] and somewhat less frequent in stressed syllable onsets, in particular after other consonants.^[50] It may also be an apico-alveolar tap.^[29] One of the most distinct features of the southern varieties is the uvular realization of /r/, which may be a trill [ʀ],^[51] a fricative [ʁ] or an approximant [ʁ̞]. In Finland, /r/ is usually an apical trill [r], and may be an approximant [ɹ] postvocalically.^[52]

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".^[54][55] 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].^[56] 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].^[57]

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].^{[citation needed]}

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.^[58] In the southern varieties, which use a uvular /r/,^[59] retroflex realizations do not occur.^[56] For example, /ˈkɑ̂ːrta/ ('map') is realized as [ˈkʰɑ̌ʁta] (note that Tone 2 in Malmö sounds like Tone 1 in Stockholm), etc.^[60] An /r/ spelled ⟨rr⟩ usually will not trigger retroflexion so that spärrnät /ˈspæ̂rˌnɛːt/ ('anti-sub net') is pronounced [ˈspæ̂rːˌnɛːt].^[61] Retroflexion also does not usually occur in Finland.^[62][63]

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.^[64]

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].^[65]

/v/ and /j/ are pronounced with weak friction and function phonotactically with the sonorants.^[56]

Stress

In Swedish, stress is not fixed. Primary stress can fall on one of the last three syllables in a word’s stem.^[66][67] 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.^[67] In phonological analyses of Swedish, stressed syllables in underived forms are assumed to be associated with a basic moraic trochaic foot [μ μ]_σ ,^[68] 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'.^[67][69] 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 ,^[70] 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 ^[71] 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)).^[66][67]

Pitch accents

Stressed syllables carry one of two different tones, often described as pitch accents, or tonal word accents.^[72][73][68] They are called acute and grave accent, accent 1 and accent 2. The actual realization of these two tones varies from dialect to dialect.^[74] 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').^[73] 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).^[74] Generally, the grave accent is characterized by a later timing of the word accent pattern as compared with the acute accent.^[73]

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.^[75] 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.^[76] For example, Old Norse kømr ('comes') has become kommer in Swedish (with an acute accent).^[75]

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

Anden, anden

A Central Swedish realization of the difference between acute (single) and grave (double) accents

---

Problems playing this file? See media help.

• Acute accent: /ˈǎnden/ (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: /ˈânden/ (realized [ˈa᷆ndɛ̂n] = [ˈan˧˩dɛn˥˩]) 'the spirit' (from ande 'spirit')

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

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.^{[77][circular reference]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[78][circular reference]} 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.

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.