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The letter z is rare, used in names and a few loanwords such as zon "zone". z historically represented /ts/. By 1700, this had merged with /s/. As a result, z was replaced by s in 1700. z was instead used in loanwords for historical /z/. z is the second least used letter in Swedish, before q . [11]
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.
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.
The following is the chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet, a standardized system of phonetic symbols devised and maintained by the International Phonetic Association.
The Swedish sound can also be spelled several different ways, including dj , g , gj , hj , j , or lj , similarly to the tj-sound which can be spelled with ch (in some loanwords), k , kj , or tj . Traditional spelling therefore often results in a large difference between written and spoken language (deep orthography).
Within the chart “close”, “open”, “mid”, “front”, “central”, and “back” refer to the placement of the sound within the mouth. [3] At points where two sounds share an intersection, the left is unrounded, and the right is rounded which refers to the shape of the lips while making the sound. [4]
The Swedish Dialect Alphabet (Swedish: Landsmålsalfabetet) is a phonetic alphabet created in 1878 by Johan August Lundell and used for the narrow transcription of Swedish dialects. The initial version of the alphabet consisted of 89 letters, 42 of which came from the phonetic alphabet proposed by Carl Jakob Sundevall . [ 1 ]
A few letters that did not indicate specific sounds have been retired – ˇ , once used for the "compound" tone of Swedish and Norwegian, and ƞ , once used for the moraic nasal of Japanese – though one remains: ɧ , used for the sj-sound of Swedish. When the IPA is used for broad phonetic or for phonemic transcription, the letter–sound ...