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.

There are 18 consonant phonemes, of which and show considerable variation depending on both social and dialectal context.

Finland Swedish has a slightly different phonology.

Vowels

Generalities

Swedish has nine vowels that, as in many other Germanic languages, exist in pairs of long and short versions. The length covaries with the quality of the vowels, as shown in the table below (long vowels in the first column, short in the second), with short variants being more centered and lax. The length is generally viewed as the primary distinction, with quality being secondary. No short vowels appear in open stressed syllables. The front vowels appear in rounded-unrounded pairs: –, –, – and –.

There is some variation in the interpretations of vowel length's phonemicity. ,Cited in . for example, treats vowel quantity as its own separate phoneme (a "prosodeme") so that long and short vowels are allophones of a single vowel phoneme. have been suggested to be underspecified for backness to explain the difference with their short counterparts.

Front Central Back unrounded rounded short long short long short long short long Close Close-mid Open-mid Open

Rounded vowels have two types of rounding: , , and are compressed: , , and , , and its pre- allophone , and its pre- allophone , and are protruded: , , , , , , and .

Close vowels: In Central Standard Swedish, are very peripheral and have been reported to be fully close in contemporaneous Stockholm speech, i.e. cardinal , . In Central Standard Swedish, are centralised to various degree and may be accompanied by simultaneous friction (referred to as Lidingö- or -i), this buzzing effect may be becoming an important auditory clue. In fact they are so centralised in Stockholm that considers none of both front in the variety. found the roundedness of an appropriate question for further research, from her data on Stockholm speakers of Swedish. In Göteborg a merger of and has been reported for younger speakers. cited in Central Standard Swedish is a near-close near-front compressed vowel . In other dialects, may be central. Mid vowels: are mid . In contemporary Stockholm speech, this is different, the main allophone of: is open-mid and near close. is open-mid . In contemporary Stockholm speech, the main allophone is close-mid: . Open vowels: has been variously described as central and front . In Central Standard Swedish, long is weakly rounded , on par in openness with lowered or even closer. This also occurs in Lund. The rounding is stronger in Gothenburg and weaker in most North Swedish dialects.

One of the varieties of is made with a constriction that is more forward than is usual.As in Mira ('Given name'). The same is also true for ; Thyra ('Given name'). Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson describe this vowel as being pronounced "by slightly lowering the body of the tongue while simultaneously raising the blade of the tongue (...) Acoustically this pronunciation is characterized by having a very high F3, and an F2 which is lower than that in ." They suggest that this may be the usual Stockholm pronunciation of .

In many central and eastern areas (including Stockholm), the contrast between short and is lost. The loss of this contrast has the effect that hetta ('heat') and hätta ('cap') are pronounced the same. Around the 1700s, Stockholm accents began undergoing the same merger in the long system; with pairs such as tre ('three') and trä ('wood'), although it started to be seen as a class marker in the 20th century and gradually vanished.

In Central Standard Swedish, unstressed is slightly retracted , but is still a front vowel rather than central . However, the latter pronunciation is commonly found in Southern Swedish. Therefore, begå 'to commit' is pronounced in Central Standard Swedish and in Southern Swedish. Before , southerners may use a back vowel . In Central Standard Swedish, a true acoustic schwa can be heard in the voiced release of voiced consonant, as in e.g. bädd 'bed'.

In some pronunciations, traditionally characteristic of the varieties spoken around Gothenburg and in Östergötland, but today more common e.g. in Stockholm and especially in younger speakers, and merge, most commonly into (especially before and the retroflex consonants). Words like fördömande ('judging', pronounced in Standard Swedish) and fördummande ('dumbing', pronounced in Standard Swedish) are then often pronounced similarly or identically, as .

In final positions, vowels are progressively devoiced. This is illustrated by research done in the 1980s focusing on the so called nolla-hallon effect; the word nolla ('(to/a) zero') played backward is unmistakeably perceived as hallon ('raspberry').

Pre- allophones

, (in stressed syllables), and (with a few exceptions) are lowered to , , and , respectively, when preceding .

+ Pre- open allophony input output gloss ära 'honor' ärt 'pea' höra 'to hear' Lowered öra 'ear' mörk 'dark' Lowered dörr 'door'

Older accounts extend the context to pre- and less often post-.

Another account of varieties lowering shows to be centralised i.e. , ; and to as open as i.e. .

Lowering of

Younger speakers (b. 1980 in Stockholm) have lower realisations of , so that läsa ('to read') and köpa ('to buy') are pronounced and instead of older standard and . These speakers often also pronounce pre-rhotic and even lower, i.e. and . This is especially true for the long allophone.Compare lowered vinäger ('vinegar'), mysteriös ('mysterious') with raised and clearly diphthongised läger ('camp'), föda ('to feed').

This lowered pronunciation has spread to an unknown extent onto the country and has been reported from Lund to Stockholm.

suggests the contrast between and their pre- allophone to be mainly carried by formant dynamic and onsets, the qualities gliding more towards the main allophone for pre-s. She also considers reasonable to assume one single allophone due to their significant overlap. Also, is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the long .

This lowering phenomenon probably has phonemic motivations, as, combined with other minor shifts, it makes Swedish go from a language with 4 different height distinction to 3. Here is a synthesis of some provisory anaylses.

+ Contemporary Stockholm Swedish main phonesInspired from and Front Central Back unrounded rounded short long short long short long short long Close Mid (r) Open (r) (r) groups in one central category, according to their realisation.

Diphthongisation

Patterns of diphthongs of long vowels occur in three major dialect groups.

In Central Standard Swedish: the high vowels , , and are realized as narrow closing diphthongs with fully close ending points: . Engstrand transcribes these diphthongs with semivowels (or in the case of , a fricative): . Elsewhere in the article, the broad transcription is used. and in particular, have a centralising tendency. Also is more strongly closing, greatly contributing to its diphthongal character. Diphthongisation of is reported in Stockholm vernacular at the beginning of the 20th century. In younger speakers, the long vowels may be fricated as ; this pronunciation is known as "Lidingö-i". the mid vowels and are often realized as diphthongs, alternatively described as centering or opening. They could be transcribed , .As in hel ('whole'), hål ('hole'). Elsewhere in the article, the broad transcription is used. cited in and cited in have also been reported to diphthongise, but recent accounts failed to certify this for contemporary accents, making them pattern, for the most part, with . Narrowly , or lowered .As in väg ('way')väg ('way'), död ('dead') / bröd ('bread'). Diphthongisation in a variety close to what would become the standard is first reported in Södertörn for all long vowels in the 17th century cited in and in the Central Standard for mid vowels (so including ) at the beginning of the 20th century. and cited in

In Southern Swedish dialects, particularly in Scania and Blekinge, the diphthongs are preceded by a rising of the tongue from a central position so that and are realized as and respectively.

The third type of distinctive diphthongs occur in the dialects of Gotland. The pattern of diphthongs is more complex than those of southern and eastern Sweden; , and tend to rise while and fall; , , and are not diphthongized at all.

Example table

Vowel Example Vowel Example Vowel Example Vowel Example sil ('sieve') sill ('herring') syl ('awl') syll ('sleeper (railroad tie)') lo ('lynx') lomma ('to lumber') ful ('ugly') full ('full') hel ('whole') häll ('stone slab') hål ('hole') håll ('direction') häl ('heel') hög ('high') högt ('highly') hal ('slippery') hall ('hallway')

Consonants The table below shows the Swedish consonant phonemes in spoken Standard Swedish.Table adapted from . colspan=2 Labial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive Fricative Approximant Rhotic

are dental , but can be either dental or alveolar . If is alveolar, then is also alveolar. Dental realization of is the predominant one in Central Standard Swedish.

Uterance finally, voiced obstruents are followed by vocalic release itself smoothing out into a voiceless period. This is illustrated by another backward speech example where the word viv ('wife' (poetic)) and its definite form vivet are both heard as the nonce word heviv.Sometimes the H-like sound is clearly audible, bräda ('board').

Stops Phoneme Example pol ('pole') (of axis) bok ('book') tok ('fool') dop ('christening') kon ('cone') god ('good')

Medial lenis stops () can turn into fricatives or approximants in casual speech.As in Saudiarabien ('Saudi Arabia'), bräda ('board'), temadagarna ("themed day" (awareness days, national holidays, school events...)).

Initial fortis stops () are aspirated in stressed position, but unaspirated when preceded by within the same morpheme.Hence ko ('cow') is , but sko ('shoe') becomes . Compare English ('cool') vs ('school'). In Finland Swedish, aspiration does not occur and initial lenis stops are usually voiced throughout. Word-medial lenis stops are sometimes voiceless in Finland, a likely influence from Finnish.

Plosives are often fricated near fricatives.As in Lisbet (phonetically ), Rådström ('Surname'), exkluderade ('excluded' or ./), lakritsbåts ('' ).

Preaspiration of medial and final fortis stops, including the devoicing of preceding sonorants, is common, though its length and normativity varies from dialect to dialect, being optional (and idiolectal) in Central Standard Swedish but obligatory in, for example, the Swedish dialects of Gräsö, Vemdalen and Arjeplog. In Gräsö, preaspiration is blocked in certain environments (such as an following the fortis consonant or a morpheme boundary between the vowel and the consonant), while it is a general feature of fortis medial consonants in Central Standard Swedish. When not preaspirated, medial and final fortis stops are simply unaspirated. In clusters of fortis stops, the second "presonorant" stop is unaspirated and the former patterns with other medial final stops (that is, it is either unaspirated or is preaspirated).+ Example of pre-aspiration in Standard central Swedish Word final princip ('principle') expedit ('shopkeeper') art ('species') Rättvik ('Surname') Intervocallic Anita arters ('species' .) Erika Post-sonorant Walter / Alkemark ('Surname') Pre-fricative Mats ('Mathias') arts ('species' ) texterna ('the texts') Pre-plosive recept ('recipe') / / akt ('act')