The chart below shows how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Swedish pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-sv}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

The Sweden pronunciation is based primarily on Central Standard Swedish, and the Finland one on Helsinki pronunciation. Recordings and example transcriptions in this help are in Sweden Swedish, unless otherwise noted.

See Swedish phonology and Swedish alphabet § Sound–spelling correspondences for a more thorough look at the sounds of Swedish.

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
Svezia

SWE

Swedish-speaking Finns

FIN

b Nfurmazions sun chësta uscbok book
ɕ Nfurmazions sun chësta usckjol, Nfurmazions sun chësta usctjock, Nfurmazions sun chësta usckön sheep (SWE) or cheat (FIN)
d Nfurmazions sun chësta uscdop dad
ɖ rd Nfurmazions sun chësta uscnord[1] retroflex /d/
f Nfurmazions sun chësta uscfot foot
ɡ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscgod good
h Nfurmazions sun chësta uschot hat
ɧ ʃ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscsju, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscstjärna, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscskör, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscstation, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscpension, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscgeni, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscchoklad[2] somewhat like Scottish loch or sheep (varies regionally)
j Nfurmazions sun chësta uscjord, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscgenom, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscGöteborg yoyo
k Nfurmazions sun chësta usckon cone
l Nfurmazions sun chësta usclov lack
ɭ rl Nfurmazions sun chësta uscrl[1] retroflex /l/
m Nfurmazions sun chësta uscmod mode
n Nfurmazions sun chësta uscnod node
ɳ rn Nfurmazions sun chësta uscbarn[1] retroflex /n/
ŋ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscng long
p Nfurmazions sun chësta uscpol pole
r Nfurmazions sun chësta uscrov[3] somewhat like American atom or Scottish rose
s Nfurmazions sun chësta uscsot soot
ʂ rs Nfurmazions sun chësta usctorsdag[1] retroflex /ʃ/, somewhat like shrine
t Nfurmazions sun chësta usctok tool
ʈ rt Nfurmazions sun chësta uscparti[1] retroflex /t/
v Nfurmazions sun chësta uscvåt vote
Rare sounds
IPA Examples English approximation
w Wales Wales
Zlatan, Bratislava aha
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Svezia

SWE

Swedish-speaking Finns

FIN

a ɑ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscmatt cut
ɑː Nfurmazions sun chësta uscmat bra
æ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscvärk, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscverk[4] trap
æː Nfurmazions sun chësta uscära[4] ham
Nfurmazions sun chësta uscfet mayor
ɛ e Nfurmazions sun chësta uschäll, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscfett sell
ɛː Nfurmazions sun chësta uschäl RP pair
ɪ i Nfurmazions sun chësta uscsill hit
Nfurmazions sun chësta uscsil leave
ɔ o Nfurmazions sun chësta uscmoll[5] off
Nfurmazions sun chësta uscmål[5] floor
œ ø Nfurmazions sun chësta uscnött[5] somewhat like hurt
œ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscbörja[4][5]
œː Nfurmazions sun chësta uscöra[4][5] somewhat like herd
øː Nfurmazions sun chësta uscnöt[5]
ɵ ʉ Nfurmazions sun chësta uscfull, Nfurmazions sun chësta uscmusik[5][6] moot
ʉ duell,
känguru[5][6][7]
ʉː Nfurmazions sun chësta uscful[5][8] mood
ʊ u Nfurmazions sun chësta uscbott[5] wool
Nfurmazions sun chësta uscbot[5] rule
ʏ y Nfurmazions sun chësta uscsyll[5][7] somewhat like cute
Nfurmazions sun chësta uscsyl[5][8] somewhat like cube
Suprasegmentals
IPA Examples Explanation
Svezia

SWE

Swedish-speaking Finns

FIN

ˈ◌̌ ˈ◌ anden
[ˈǎnːdɛn]
'the duck'
tone 1 / acute accent:[9]
ˈ◌̂ anden
[ˈânːdɛn]
'the spirit'
tone 2 / grave accent:[9]
  • falling-falling tone in Stockholm: Template:Audio-IPA
  • falling-rising tone in Gothenburg: [ˈânːdɛ̌n]
  • rising-falling tone in Malmö: [ˈǎnːdɛ̂n]
ˌ Oxenstierna
[ˈʊ̂ksɛnˌɧæːɳa]
secondary stress, as in intonation
ː Helsingfors
Template:Audio-IPA
geminated consonant: fresh shrimp[10]

Notes

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  1. 1,0 1,1 1,2 1,3 1,4 In many of the dialects that have an apical rhotic consonant, a recursive sandhi process of retroflexion occurs, and clusters of /r/ and dental consonants /rd/, /rl/, /rn/, /rs/, /rt/ produce retroflex consonant realisations: Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink. In dialects with a guttural R, such as Southern Swedish, they are [ʁd], [ʁl], [ʁn], [ʁs], [ʁt]. In Finland Swedish, retroflexion might only occur in some varieties, especially among young speakers and in fast speech.
  2. Sweden Swedish /ɧ/ varies regionally and is sometimes Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, or Template:IPAblink.
  3. /r/ varies considerably in different dialects: it is pronounced alveolar or similarly (a trilled r when articulated clearly or in slow or formal speech; in normal speech, usually a tapped r or an alveolar approximant) in virtually all dialects (most consistently [r] in Finland), but in South Swedish dialects, it is uvular, similar to the Parisian French r. At the beginning of a syllable, it can also be pronounced as a fricative Template:IPAblink, similar to in English genre or vision.
  4. 4,0 4,1 4,2 4,3 Before /r/, the quality of non-high front vowels is changed: the unrounded vowels /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ are lowered to Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink (except certain instances of unstressed /ɛ/), whereas the rounded /œ/ (Template:IPAblink) and /øː/ are lowered to open-mid Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink. For simplicity, no distinction is made between the mid [œ˔] and the open-mid [œ], with both being transcribed as œ. Note that younger speakers use lower allophones Template:IPAblink (which they tend to merge with /ɵ/ into Template:IPAblink) and Template:IPAblink.
  5. 5,00 5,01 5,02 5,03 5,04 5,05 5,06 5,07 5,08 5,09 5,10 5,11 5,12 In Sweden, [ɔ, , œ, œː, øː, ʏ, ] are protruded vowels, while [ɵ, ʉ, ʉː, ʊ, ] are compressed. Instead, [œ, œː, ø, øː, ʉ, ʉː, y, ] are compressed, while only [o, , u, ] are protruded in Finland. This makes Finland Swedish [y] and [yː] sound closer to Sweden Swedish [ʉ] and [ʉː], which are also fronted, rather than to their respective counterparts.
  6. 6,0 6,1 Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink are the Sweden Swedish unstressed allophones of a single phoneme /ɵ/ (stressed /ɵ/ is always realized as [ɵ]):
    • [ɵ] is used in all closed syllables (as in kultur Template:Audio-IPA) but also in some open syllables, as in musikal [mɵsɪˈkɑːl]. Some cases involve resyllabification caused by retroflexion, which makes the syllable open, as in kurtisan [kɵʈɪˈsɑːn].
    • [ʉ] appears only in open syllables. In some cases, [ʉ] is the only possible realization, as in känguru [ˈɕɛ̌ŋːɡʉrʉ], or when /ɵ/ appears in hiatus, as in duell [dʉˈɛlː].
    • In other cases, [ɵ] is in free variation with [ʉ] so musik can be pronounced as Template:Audio-IPA or [mʉˈsiːk] Template:Harvcol. For simplicity, only ɵ will be used.
  7. 7,0 7,1 The distinction between compressed Template:IPAblink and protruded Template:IPAblink is particularly difficult to hear for non-native speakers:
  8. 8,0 8,1 The distinction between compressed Template:IPAblink and protruded Template:IPAblink is particularly difficult to hear for non-native speakers:
    • Sweden Swedish compressed [ʉː] sounds very close to German compressed Template:IPAblink (as in üben Template:Audio-IPA);
    • Sweden Swedish protruded [yː] sounds more similar to English unrounded Template:IPAblink (as in leave) than to German compressed [yː], and it is very close to Norwegian protruded [yː] (as in lys [lyːs]).
  9. 9,0 9,1 Finland Swedish, as well as a few accents of Mainland Sweden, have a simple primary stress (transcribed as ˈ) rather than a contrastive pitch accent. In such accents, a word like anden is always pronounced as [ˈɑnːden] regardless of its meaning. The variety of Swedish spoken in Åland usually resembles phonetically speaking the dialects of the Uppland area rather than other Finland Swedish varieties, but the pitch accent is still largely missing.
  10. Consonants always tend to geminate after a stressed short vowel in Sweden Swedish. In Finland, this is not always true and between vowels usually only happens when the short vowel is followed by an orthographic geminate.

Bibliography

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  • 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
  • Hedelin, Per; Elert, Claes-Christian (1997), Norstedts svenska uttalslexikon, Norstedts, ISBN 91-1-971122-0
  • Reuter, Mikael (1971), "Vokalerna i finlandssvenska: En instrumentell analys och ett försök till systematisering enligt särdrag" (PDF), Studier i nordisk filologi (per Swedish), Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, 46: 240–249{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  • Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
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