Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BiT
A. LOUIS ELMQUiST
Northwestern University
CHICAGO
THE ENGBERG-HOLMBERG PUBLISHING CO.
1915
\
Copyright, 191.S, by
A. Louis Elmquist
,.' -*' *-
H .
PRJl^ACR.
THE ALPHABET
STRESS /
Compound words, § 8.
Concerning orthography of m
and n, § iS.
VOWELS 2S
§ 28.
Relation of quality to quantity, § 29.
Relation of quality to sentence-quantity, § 30.
Hard and soft vowels, §31.
Vowel-modification, § 32.
Liit of nouns modifying the vowel in the plural, § 33.
DIPHTHONGS .7
CONSONANTS 38
Swedish consonants differing in sound from the cor-
responding English consonants, § 36.
Voiced and voiceless consonants, § 37.
Assimilation, § 38.
The individual consonants, §§ 39-5 s -
THE ALPHABET.
1. The Swedish alphabet is the same as the
English alphabet, with the addition of the three
vowel-characters a, a, and b (A, A, O) at the end.
In dictionaries t^ese_J e^tters_wilj_ alway s_be found
after z }
in the order named.
Note. — I. The letter y is used only as a sign for a vowel;
see § 24.
2. W
and q occur only in proper names; z and c (with
the important exception named in § 40, 1, and note 1) occur
only in words of foreign origin and in proper names.
Kxamples: lValli'11, Almqvist, zink zinc, Berze'lius, occa'n
ocean, Celsius.
3. For the names of the letters of the alphabet see § 67.
STRESS.
8 STRESS § 2
§ 15).
2. In Swedish as in English, many words in the sentence
are rapidly passed over and left unstressed, particularly ar-
ticles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary-
verbs; also not infrequently other verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
and nouns. See § 12.
10 ACCENT § 3
ACCENT.
3. In the pronunciation of an English word of
two syllables, let us .say "roses", the second sylla-
ble, besides having much weaker stress, has either
higher or lower tone than the first. Similarly in
the case of a monosyllabic word, as "rose", the
voice either rises or sinks during the pronunciation.
Swedish words of one syllable are accented very
much like such words in English. Also not a few
words and forms of two or more syllables are ac-
cented approximately as in English, but most words
and forms of two or more syllables (not including
words beginning with unstressed syllables) have in
Swedish an accent very different from that of Eng-
lish. The Swedish accent that resembles the Eng-
lish, and which in Swedish belongs primarily to
monosyllables, is called the acute accent; the other,
which is employed with" most words of more than
one syllable, is known as the grave accent.
4.Accent is a combination of various phases of
tone and stress. Swedish employs three different
tones, which we shall designate as high (H), mid-
dle (M), and low (E). Swedish has four different
degrees of strength of stress: strong, half-strong
(or, weakened), weak, and weakest; these can ad-
vantageously be designated by the figures 3, 2, 1, o,
respectively.
Note. — For the sake of convenience, when minute dis-
tinctions are unnecessary, syllables with strong, i. e., the
§ 5 ACCENT II
Acute: H 3: h o H 3: L o: L 1
Grave: ML 3: H 1 M 3: 1, o: H 1
fotoge'n kerosene.
Note. — When there are three syllables preceding the main
stress, the succession is usually 100, less often 010; when
tbere are four syllables, it is 1 o 1 o, less often 0100. Cf.
§ 5, note. Ex.: litteratu'r literature, akademi' academy,
midtiplice'ra to multiply, universite't university, individuel'l
individual.
§ II ACCENT 15
20 ACCENT § 12
3010 30 1 o 1 o 3 o o 3
0301 31
jag vet inte, from inte.
QUANTITY.
followed by more than one consonant; as, aln yard, ell, tnoln
cloud. In a few such, the vowel may be eitlier long or sbort.
that way.
(b) between vowels; as, sitta to sit, tacka {ck = kfc) to-
VOWELS.
Note. —
A careful distinction should be made between tbe
duration of long and short vowels; long vowels should not
be pronounced too short. Swedish long vowels do not have
the vanish which is so characteristic of English. Special
care should be taken to pronounce clearly unstressed a, which
is exceedingly common in endings. There are no silent vow-
els. Vowels do not change their sound before r (except as
stated in § 61).
a.
e.
er }
r
our, het hot, veta to know, redan already, se to
see.
examination.
(5) When unstressed, e has in endings the sound
of "a" in "ago", or of "e" in German "Gabe".
Ex.: gosse boy, taket the roof, saken the thing, vat-
ten water, himmel heaven, syster sister,, fbdelse (both
£'s) birth, hedern the honor, finnes is found.
3o VOWELS § 21
u.
§ 14 A
3) head.
Note. 1. —
In some words borrowed from French, u (both
long and short) has the sound of y (see § 24); as, juste'ra
to adjust, assure' ra to insure, obsku'r (pronounced either
with the sound of long u or that of long y) obscure.
2. In words borrowed from French, oil occurs and has
the sound of u (both long and short); as, bonjou'r (pron.
bongsju'r\ frock-coat, journa'l (pron. sjA journal.
32 VOWELS § 24
y-
ny new.
SHORT. (2) Short y has the short sound corre
sponding to long y. Ex.: yxa axe, syster sister, fiyt
ta to move, tryckeri' printing-shop, syre'n lilac.
Note. —
In the word fyrfi(o) forty, y has the sound o
short 6 (see § 27, 2); so usually also in kyrka church.
o
a.
LONG.
25. (1) Long
a has approximately t
sound of "o" in"rope" (no vanish). Ex.:
river, as ridge, bat boat, gas goose, sta to Stan
bid blue.
a.
o.
meet), Vdxjb.
28. ORTHOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF THE
SOUND OF A AND A. (1) The sound of a, normal-
ly designated by a, is written e in a large number
of words when short, and in a few words when
long; see § 20, 2 and 4.
The
four vowels a, u, d, have a different quality
of sound when long and when short, this even in
the case of varying vowel-quantity in different forms
of the same word; as, glad glad, n. glatt; Gud God,
gen. Guds; bid blue, n. bldtt; sot sweet, n. soil.
Note. — But when, in the process of derivation, a long
stressed a, u, a, or 6 has become unstressed and short, it
J-
correspond to a
d\
corresponds to b
?i corresponds to y
Ex.: hand hand, plur. hander; gas goose, plur. gass;
son son, plur. s'oner; Idng long, compar. and superb
langre langst; ung young, comp. and superl. yngre,
t
2 DECLENSION
dotterdaughter
moder mother
3 DECLENSION
and duck
bok book
bonde peasant
brand firebrand
fot {fotter or fot) foot
liciiid hand
land (Hinder or .
country
§ 34 VOWELS, DIPHTHONGS 37
DIPHTHONGS.
CONSONANTS.
SWEDISH CONSONANTS DIFFERING IN SOUND
36.
FROM CORRESPONDING ENGLISH CONSONANTS.
(i) Swedish r is pronounced with the Up of the
tongue vibrating (only moderately) against the rim
of the paTalai-arch. It is not very unlike "r" in
§ 39 CONSONANTS 43
b.
exult.
Note. — On the assimilation of b before / and s, see § 38.
(2) C
has the sound of Swedish s (see § 36, 2)
when followed by a soft vowel (only <?, y occur /',
Celan'der, C \ dsius
f.
g.
(2) G
has the sound of sj (see § 53, 3, and § 36,
4) before the soft vowels e and i in a number of
words of foreign origin. Ex.: gad' genius, passa-
ge' rare passenger, fotoge'n kerosene, ingenib'r engi-
neer, tragedi' tragedy, redige'ra to edit, genti'l (pron.
sjangti'l) genteel. In a few words, in addition, a
following e is silent (this is an exception to the
note preceding § 19); as, sergcan't sergeant, was-
46 CONSONANTS § 43
gnaga to gnaw.
Except when pronounced as above indicated,
(5)
g has the sound of "g" in "go"; that is, (a) be-
fore hard vowels and consonants (except j, and,
usually, n) and when doubled, (b) before unstressed
soft vowels that follow the main stress, (c) finally
(except after / and r). Ex.: gav (from giva to give,
which has the sound of Swedish/), gets goose (but
cf. plur. gdss, with J), get to go (but cf. gick,
gingo, with /), god good, glas glass, tigga to beg,
segcl sail, fattig poor, egen own, dag day.
Note. — Concerning the assimilation of g before t and s,
see § 38.
§ 44 CONSONANTS 47
j.
min jasmine.
in each case.
k. jr
4G. (1) K
has the sound of Swedish tj (see § 54,
3) before stressed soft vowels and before unstressed
soft vowels preceding the main stress. Ex.: kyrka
church, kar dear, k'dpa to buy, kateke's catechism,
kine's chinaman, kirur'g surgeon, kemi' chemistry,
kejsare emperor, Kbpenham'n Copenhagen, Kellgren.
So also in posterior components of compound words,
48 CONSONANTS § 47
§ 48 CONSONANTS 49
m.
n.
50 CONSONANTS § 49
P-
philosophy.
q.
r.
52 CONSONANTS § 53
s.
(etc.).
t.
54 CONSONANTS § 55
V.
see § 38.
§ 56 CONSONANTS •
55
w.
—
Note. Care should be taken not to give x the sound of
"gz" (as frequently in English when preceding the main
stress), for instance, in cxa'men examination, exak't exact.
z.
UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION.
GO- There are in Sweden a large number of dia-
lects, even the people of adjoining parishes often
differing noticeably in their speech. The small
dialect-divisionsgroup themselves naturally into
larger groups, and so it happens that the language of
Southern and Western Sweden shows certain ten-
dencies of pronunciation differing from the language
as spoken in Central and Northern Sweden.
The ideal of good uniform Swedish is called "riks-
sprak". As far as the written language is concerned,
the "rikssprak" is in all essentials a reality. In
the spoken language there is, particularly in re-
cent years, a growing tendency toward uniformity,
most of all, of course, in the cities; but even the
cultured to a large extent speak a form of Swedish
that in some degree .shows traces of their own par-
ticular (larger) dialect-group.
ORTHOGRAPHY.
08. Swedish orthography, while far from perfect,
is not nearly so confusing as English orthography.
On the whole, Swedish words are pronounced as
they are spelled. There are very few silent letters.
In the course of centuries the pronunciation of
Swedish has changed a good deal. It would have
62 ORTHOGRAPHY § 68
§ 68 ORTHOGRAPHY 63
A
form of orthography in use prior to that just
described (employed in Bjorkman's and in Oman's
Swedish-English dictionaries) differs from the pres-
ent orthography chiefly in the following additional
particulars:
§ 28.
(2) In some cases, similarly, it has (pron. a)
for the later a; as, fogel (now fdgcl) bird. The
present form of orthography still has (= a) in
many words; see § 28.
(3) It has qv for the later kv; as, qvall (now
kvall) evening.
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