It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Svedesc in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.
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.
↑/r/ varies considerably in different dialects: it is pronounced alveolar or similarly (a trilledr when articulated clearly or in slow or formal speech; in normal speech, usually a tappedr 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.
↑ 4,04,14,24,3Before /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.
[ɵ] is used in all closed syllables (as in kulturTemplate: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.
Sweden Swedish protruded [ʏ] sounds more similar to English unrounded Template:IPAblink (as in hit) than to German compressed [ʏ], and it is very close to Norwegian protruded [ʏ] (as in nytt[nʏtː]).
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]).
↑ 9,09,1Finland 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.
↑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.
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, ISBN0-521-63751-1
Hedelin, Per; Elert, Claes-Christian (1997), Norstedts svenska uttalslexikon, Norstedts, ISBN91-1-971122-0