Swedish has a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree quantity, making 17 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Swedish pronunciation of most consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages. Another notable feature is the pitch accent, which is unusual for European languages.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | ɪ | iː | ʏ | yː | ʉː | ʊ | uː | |
| Close-mid | eː | øː | (ɵ) | oː | ||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | œ | ɔ | ɔː | |||
| Open | a | aː | ɑ | ɑː | ||||
Consonants[]
The table below shows the Swedish consonant phonemes in spoken Standard Swedish.[1]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɕ | ɧ | h |
| voiced | v | z | ʑ | ɣ | ||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | ɰ | ||
| Trill | ʙ | r | ||||
References[]
- ↑ Table adapted from Engstrand (2004:167)