SWEDISH PHONOLOGY 
 
 BiT 
 
 A. LOUIS ELMQUiST 
 
 Northwestern University 
 
 CHICAGO 
 THE ENGBERG-HOLMBERG PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 1915 
 
 \
 
 Copyright, 191.S, by 
 A. Louis Elmquist
 
 H ,.■■' . -*' *- 
 
 PRJl^ACR. 
 
 In this little volume I have made no attempt to 
 treat any part of the subject exhaustively, nor is 
 the book intended primarily as a work of reference. 
 My purpose has been merely to give as much as 
 the student of Swedish ought to know about Swed- 
 ish pronunciation. Particularly Swedish-Americans, 
 who have comparatively little difficulty with the 
 sounds themselves, can profit much by a systematic 
 study of the subject. 
 
 The book, then, is intended as a text-book to 
 accompany and to supplement the study of the gram- 
 mar. In my Swedish Grammar I have referred 
 freely to the Phonology. As the pronunciation of 
 a modern language is clearly of basic importance 
 for any knowledge of the language, it is my hope 
 that the Phonology will be in the hands of every 
 student of Swedish grammar, and that it will be re- 
 ferred to freely from the very beginning. 
 
 I have everywhere avoided treating the subject 
 historically, my main object being to give only 
 what would be of practical value to the student. 
 I have touched only rarely, and in an elementary 
 way, upon matters phonetic. Except for an account 
 of the leading differences between the present and 
 older stages of orthography, I have treated ortho- 
 graphic matters very sparingly. A full treatment of 
 Swedish orthography is given in Jules Mauritzson's 
 "Svensk Rattskrivningslara" (Rock Island, 1908). 
 
 A. LOUIS ELMQUIST. 
 Evanston, Illinois, 
 August, 191 j.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ! A lv 
 
 THE ALPHABET 
 
 STRESS / 
 
 ACCENT (acute And grave) i' 
 
 Compared with English, § 3. 
 
 Accent, a combination of tone and stress, § ; 
 
 Nature of the acute accent, § 5. 
 
 Nature of the grave accent, § 6. 
 
 Summary, § 7. 
 
 Compound words, § 8. 
 
 Words not stressed on the first syllable, § 9. 
 
 How to learn the grave accent, § 10. 
 
 Rules for determining which words of more tban one 
 syllable have the acute accent, §11. 
 
 Accent and sentence-stress, § 12. 
 
 Uniformity of accent in Sweden, §13. 
 QUANTITY 21 
 
 Quantity rules, § 14. 
 
 Consonant-length, § 15. 
 
 Quantity and sentence-stress, § 16. 
 
 Orthographic indication of length of sound, § 17. 
 
 Concerning orthography of m and n, § iS. 
 VOWELS 2S 
 
 The individual vowels, §§ 19-27. 
 
 Orthographic representation of the sound of a a::d d, 
 § 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 - 
 
 Summaries relating to the consonants, § 59. 
 UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION 57 
 
 No rigid norm of pronunciation, § 60. 
 
 A and o before r, § 61. 
 
 E anrl a, § 62. 
 
 A'. § 65. 
 
 TJ, § 64. 
 
 SJ, § 65. 
 
 L, § 66. 
 NAMES OF THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET. ... 61 
 ORTHOGRAPHY (present form compared with older)... 61
 
 SWEDISH PHONOLOGY. 
 
 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. 
 
 2. The first syllable has the main stress, both 
 in simple and in compound words. Ex.: kvinna 
 woman, tala to speak, gossarna the boys, troligare 
 more likely, avstand distance, jiirnviigsolycka railway 
 accident, gcnomrcsa to travel through, erfara to ex- 
 perience.
 
 8 STRESS § 2 
 
 Exceptions to this rule are numerous: 
 
 (a) In the case of a rather large number of com- 
 pounds formed from two (or more) words that orig- 
 inally stood side by side in the sentence, the first 
 of these in many instances being unstressed owing 
 to the fact that it did not have the sentence-stress 
 (see note 2, below), the main stress falls on the 
 stressed syllable of the posterior component that 
 originally had the sentence- stress. Ex.: densam 'via 
 the same, varan' dra each other, farva'l farewell, 
 kanhan'da perhaps, iblan'd sometimes, ifr&'n from, 
 omkring 1 around, tillba'ka back, bveral'lt everywhere, 
 ihja'l to death, atmirislone at least, emel'lan between , 
 bredvi'd beside, naval very well, minsan'n upon my 
 word, dsta'd off, bveren's agreed, dny'o anew, omin'- 
 tetgbra to frustrate, istan! dsatta to repair, Karlskro 1 - 
 na, Norrstrbm ', Sodertal'je, Vastera's, Kristineham'n, 
 
 Visingsb' , Gbtebor'g. 
 
 (b) Words of foreign origin are as a rule stressed 
 on the same syllable as in the foreign language 
 from which they have come; in a very large num- 
 ber of instances, particularly in words borrowed 
 from French or the Classical Languages, this is some 
 syllable other than the first. Ex.: fotografi photo- 
 graph, armc army, laborato' rium laboratory, muse' - 
 urn museum, sol da' t soldier, exa'men examination, 
 aku't acute, tca'ter theater, proud men pronoun, pia'- 
 no piano, e/egan't elegant, famil'j family, april' April, 
 litteratu'r literature, adres's address, vwde'rn modern, 
 telefo'n telephone, lati'n Latin, Ame'rika, Berli'n. 
 
 (c) Words beginning with the originally foreign 
 prefixes be-, ge-, and most of those beginning with
 
 § 2 STRESS 9 
 
 for-, stress the syllable immediately following. As 
 a rule, for- is not stressed when it corresponds to 
 German "ver-", but stressed when it corresponds 
 to German "vor-". Ex.: bcrat'ta to relate, bcskyd'd 
 protection, geva'r weapon, fbrsb'ka to try, fbrh&t- 
 lande relation, forsik'tig careful. 
 
 (d) Nouns with the originally foreign suffixes 
 -ifiua, -essa, and verbs ending in the originally for- 
 eign -era, stress the first syllable of these endings; 
 nouns with the suffix -eri stress the last syllable. 
 Ex.: lararin ' na (woman) teacher, prinscs'sa prin- 
 cess, stude'ra to study, telefone'ra to telephone, ba- 
 geri' bakery. 
 
 (e) Some adjectives of more than two syllables 
 
 ending in -lig and a large number ending in -isk 
 
 stress the syllable immediately preceding. Ex.: 
 
 egen'tlig real, orden'tlig -orderly, ojfen'tlig public, 
 
 fieri' tlig hostile, mora'lisk moral, poli'tisk political, 
 
 ka na ' disk Canadian. 
 
 Note. — i. The position of the stress is in Swedish not 
 marked except in words of foreign origin with stressed final 
 t', and inflectional forms of such words; in this case the stress- 
 mark is placed directly above the e. Ex.: arme army, plur. 
 arnicer. Moreover, a stressed e is thus marked in some prop- 
 er names; as, Linne", Tegnir, Franzni. In some cases the 
 stressed e is doubled in proper names; as, Noreen, Andreen. 
 
 In this book the stress, whenever not on the first syllable, 
 is marked by a stress-mark placed after the long sound (cf. 
 § 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 
 
 3. Concerning different degrees of the strength of the 
 stress of syllables not having the main stress, see §§ 4-9. 
 
 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 
 
 main, stress are in this book called stressed syllables, while 
 syllables with stress 2, 1, and o are called unstressed syllables. 
 
 5. NATURE OF THE ACUTE ACCENT. In the case 
 of words of two syllables the acute accent combines 
 high tone with stress 3 on the first syllable and 
 low tone with stress o on the second syllable; as, 
 talet the speech, finger finger, biittre better, sadan 
 such, hander hands, nordisk northern. 
 
 If the word has three syllables, both of the un- 
 stressed (see § 4, note) syllables have low tone, 
 but the third syllable has stress 1 ; as, koffertar 
 trunks, understa (the) lowest, hdnderna the hands. 
 
 Note. — Also when there are more than three syllables, 
 all the unstressed syllables have low tope. The syllable im- 
 mediately following the stressed syllable here too has stress 
 o; of the others, every second or every third syllable, count- 
 ing from the main stress of the word, has stress 1. Thus, 
 words with four syllables usually have the succession 3001, 
 but frequently 3010; as, koffertarna the trunks. 
 
 6. NATURE OF THE GRAVE ACCENT. Words of 
 two syllables have on the first syllable stress 3, the 
 stress decreasing only moderately (i. e., less than 
 in words with the acute accent) and then increas- 
 ing a little just before the end of the syllable; the 
 first syllable begins with the middle tone, then 
 sinks to the low tone, rising a little just before the 
 end of the syllable; the second syllable combines 
 high tone with stress 1. Cf. tala (grave) to speak, 
 with talet (acute) the speech. Ex.: kvinna woman, 
 gammal old, trogen faithful, aldrig never, honom 
 him, bgon eyes. 
 
 If there are three syllables, the first combines 
 middle tone with stress 3, the stress decreasing on-
 
 12 ACCENT § 7 
 
 ly moderately; the second combines low tone with 
 stress o; the third, high tone- with stress i. It 
 will be observed that the accentual conditions of 
 the first syllable of dissyllables are distributed over 
 the first two syllables of trisyllables. Compare ia- 
 lade (grave) spoke, with the last three syllables of 
 beta' lade (acute) payed. Ex.: manniska human be- 
 ing, larare teacher, skenare more beautiful, arbcte 
 work. 
 
 Note. — If there are more than three syllables, all the un- 
 stressed syllables have low tone, except the last, which has 
 high tone. The stress-conditions are identical with those 
 described in § 5, note. Ex.: konungarna the kings. 
 
 7. SUMMARY. Two syllables Three syllables 
 
 Acute: H 3: h o H 3: L o: L 1 
 
 Grave: ML 3: H 1 M 3: 1, o: H 1 
 
 8. COMPOUND WORDS (including here, as else- 
 where, words with such suffixes as -dom, -het, -lek, 
 -sam, -skap, -bar, -aktig, which are treated as pos- 
 terior components of compound words). The accent 
 of compounds is similar to that just described, ex- 
 cept for the degree of stress of the unstressed syl- 
 lables. Compound words with the grave accent have 
 stress 2 on that syllable of the second component 
 that has the strongest stress (for compounds with 
 main stress on the second component, cf. § 9); com- 
 pounds with the acute accent have stress 1 on such 
 syllables, but sometimes this is reduced to stress o. 
 Ex.: (Stress 2) skolhus school-house, handelsbod 
 store, genomresa to travel through. (Stress 1) trad- 
 gard orchard, Smaland. (Stress o) midda(g) din- 
 ner, 7)ianda{g) Monday, farbror uncle.
 
 § 9 ACCENT 13 
 
 Note. — In the matter of the relative stress of the un- 
 stressed syllables (cf. § 5, note), stress 2 in compounds usually 
 takes the place of stress 1 in simple words. Stress 2 may al- 
 so rest on the syllable immediately following the main stress 
 of the word, in which case the use of stress 1 on following 
 syllables follows the rule given in § 5, note, but counting 
 from the syllable with stress 2. Thus, dissyllabic compounds 
 with the grave accent have the stress-succession 3 2; trisyl- 
 lables have 320 or 3 o 2; compounds with four syllables 
 have 3201,3020, or 300 2. 
 
 1). WORDS NOT STRESSED ON THE FIRST SYLLA- 
 BLE. Beginning with the stressed syllable, the ac- 
 cent of words not stressed on the first syllable is 
 identical with that described in §§ 5 and 6. That 
 is, words stressed on the last syllable have the acute 
 accent, like monosyllables. Other words not stressed 
 on the first syllable have either the acute or the 
 grave accent; the acute accent, however, predomi- 
 nates strongly (see § n, a). 
 
 All syllables preceding the main stress have low 
 
 tone, whatever the accent of the remainder of the 
 
 word is. If there is one syllable preceding, it has 
 
 stress o; if there are two, the first has stress 1, 
 
 and the second has stress o. Ex. : maski'n machine, 
 
 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. 
 
 10. HOW TO LEARN THE GRAVE ACCENT. The 
 grave accent is more difficult to learn than anything 
 else connected with the pronunciation of Swedish.
 
 14 ACCENT § IO 
 
 A detailed description of it can do little good with- 
 out a careful demonstration by a teacher. 
 
 The pronunciation of words of three syllables 
 should first be mastered (as talade). When this 
 has been acquired, and the distribution of the tones 
 is clearly understood, the student can learn the ac- 
 cent of words of two syllables (as tald) with much 
 less difficulty. It should be borne in mind that the 
 first syllable of lata embraces the accentual features 
 of the first two syllables of talade; the final syllables 
 are alike. The student will be materially aided by 
 first hearing the two first syllables of talade (tala-) 
 without the final syllable, but as if this were to fol- 
 low; then, similarly, the first syllable of tala (/«-) 
 alone, which, finally, should be compared with the 
 accent of monosyllables (as ta). It will also be 
 found profitable to practise with words that are 
 pronounced alike except for the accent, and are 
 different in meaning. Such are: 
 ACUTE ACCENT GRAVE ACCENT 
 
 anden the duck anden the breath, the spirit 
 
 axel shoulder axel axle, Axel 
 
 (del) bristcr (it) breaks brister faults 
 buren the cage buren carried 
 
 baren the berries baren carry (imperative) 
 
 giftet the poison gifiet the marriage 
 
 haven the seas (/) haven (you) have 
 
 heden the heath heden heathen 
 
 rcgcl rule regel bolt 
 
 (lian) skanker (he) presents skanker gifts 
 slutet the end slutet close 
 
 {hari) si rider (he) fights strider fights
 
 § II ACCENT 15 
 
 11. RULES FOR DETERMINING WHICH 
 WORDS OF MORE THAN ONE 
 SYLLABLE HAVE THE 
 ACUTE ACCENT. 
 
 (a) Most words stressed on some syllable other 
 than the first have the acute accent. Ex.: tillba'ka 
 back, tea'ter theater, prono'mcn pronoun, beta' la to 
 pay (but tala to speak, has the grave), fbrsb'ka to 
 try (but sbka to seek, has the grave), fbrhdl' lande 
 relation, for hop 'pning expectation, fbrsik'tig careful, 
 stude'ra to study, egen'tlig real, poli'tisk political, 
 Ame'rika. 
 
 Also inflectional forms of such words have the 
 acute accent, even when a syllable is added. Ex.: 
 tea' tern, tea'trar, tea'trama, def. sing, and indef. 
 and def. plur. of tea'ter; prono'minet, def. of pro- 
 no' men; berat'tade, past tense of berat'ta; fbrh&l'lan- 
 det, fbrh&V landen{a) , forms of for/id! 'lande; for 'hop ' p- 
 ningen , fbrhop ' pningar(na) , forms of fbrhopp ' ning ; 
 fbrsik' tiga, fbrsik' tig are , fbrsik! 't/gast, a-iorm, comp., 
 and. superl. of fbrsik'tig; stnde'rade, past of stude'ra, 
 egeu'tliga, poli'liska, a -form of egen'tlig, poli'tisk. 
 
 When, in the process of inflection, one or more syl- 
 lables are added to a word of more than one syllable 
 stressed on the last syllable, the resulting form has 
 the acute accent. Ex.: exklusi'va, a-form of exklusi'v 
 exclusive; bekvamare, bekvii' mast, comp. and superl. 
 of bekvd'm comfortable; forlus'ter, plur. of fori us' t 
 loss; bageri'cr, plur. of bageri' bakery. 
 
 Note. — 1. Nouns ending in -in'na and -cs'sa do not have 
 the acute accent (for examples see § 2, d).
 
 16 ACCENT § II, b 
 
 2. Many compounds, and some simple words, have the 
 grave accent, though stressed on some syllable other than 
 the first. Ex.: kanhan'da perhaps, varan' dra each other, 
 istan'dsatta to repair, atmin' stone at least, profes'sor pro- 
 fessor (but acute accent and stress-shift in the plur. profes- 
 so'rer), Karlskro'na. 
 
 (b) Most words of foreign origin have the acute 
 accent, which resembles that of the languages from 
 which the loan-words have come more than does 
 the grave accent. Not a few of these, however, 
 have either the acute or the grave accent, while 
 some have the grave. Examples of loan-woids 
 stressed on some syllable other than the first and 
 having the acute accent have been given under (a); 
 here follow examples of those stressed on the first 
 syllable: genus gender, negcr negro, kilo kilogran , 
 pojke (usually acute) boy, angest anguish, koffcrt 
 trunk, Paulus, London. 
 
 Note. — I. Here belong also words with the originally 
 foreign suffix -isk; as, nordisk northern, grekisk Greek, 
 jordisk earthly. 
 
 2. Inflectional forms of most words of foreign origin also 
 have the acute accent, even when a syllable is added. Ex.: 
 kofferten, koffertar(na), from koffcrt; negern, negrer(na), 
 from neger; nordisk a, a-form of nordisk. 
 
 Exceptions to this are, for example, nouns of foreign 
 origin ending in -cl, -en, -er with plural in -ar; as, bibel 
 bible, biblar{na)\ froken young lady, froknaii na ; febcr 
 fever, fcbrar(na). Similarly in all adjectives ending in -el, 
 -er, which have the acute accent, when -a, -are, -ast are 
 added; as, sii/ipei simple, simp/a, simp tare, simpiast; saker 
 sure, sakra, sdkrare, sdkrast. See under (c) below. 
 
 (c) Most words ending in -cl, -en, -er have the 
 acute accent. No distinction is in the following 
 account made between native words and words of
 
 § II, d ACCENT 17 
 
 foreign origin. (1) Almost all nouns with these 
 endings have the acute accent, except that rather 
 many ending in -el in the Second Declension have 
 the grave; as, nyckel key, himmel heaven. More- 
 over, nouns ending in -er and indicating relation- 
 ship have the grave accent (as modcr mother, fader 
 father, broder brother, syster sister, dotter daughter). 
 Examples of nouns with the acute accent: fagel 
 bird, vigsel marriage, dker field, socken parish, ?ieger 
 negro, miiskel muscle, hagel hail, finster window, 
 vatten water. (2) All adjectives ending in -el, -er 
 have the acute accent, but those ending in -en have 
 the grave accent. Ex.: (Acute) simpcl simple, 
 iidel noble, bitter bitter. (Grave) oppen open, liten 
 small. (3) Most indeclinable words ending in -erhave 
 the acute accent. Ex.: tinder under, over over, eller 
 or, soder south, sbnder asunder, heller either. 
 
 Note. — 1. Nouns with the endings given above that have 
 the plural ending in -ar have the grave accent in this form, 
 but plurals in -er have the acute accent. Tofflor, plur. of 
 ioffel slipper, has either the acute or the grave accent. 
 Nouns that have the same form in the singular and plural have 
 also the same accent in both. The two words broder brother, 
 and fader father, which in the singular have the grave ac- 
 cent, have the acute in the plural, broder, fader. 
 
 2. Adjectives with the endings mentioned above which 
 have the acute accent, have the grave accent in the a-form 
 and in the comparative and superlative; as, simp/a, simp/are, 
 simplast. But the t-ioxxn. (simpelt) has the acute. Cf. b, 
 note 2, end, above. 
 
 (d) In the process of inflection, in addition to 
 
 the instances noted above, the acute accent occurs 
 
 as follows: (1) When, through the addition of a 
 
 plural ending, a monosyllabic noun becomes dissyl-
 
 18 ACCENT § II, d 
 
 labic, the resulting form has the grave accent. In 
 the Third Declension, however, all nouns that modi- 
 fy or shorten the vowel in forming the plural (with 
 the exception of sbner, plur. of son son) have the 
 acute accent; as, bbcker, plur. of bok book; hander, 
 plur. ol hand hand; getter, plur. of get goat. All but 
 one of these, bonde, are monosyllabic; note also leda- 
 vio't. Also a few other monosyllabic nouns (not of 
 common occurrence) of this declension have the acute 
 accent in the plural. Some may have either the acute 
 or the grave accent, usually in different localities; as, 
 vz'ner, plur. of vin wine; sakcr, plur. of sak thing. 
 
 (2) Comparatives ending in -re (-rre) have the 
 acute accent, except f'brre former, which always has 
 the grave, and nedre nether, undre lower, bvre upper, 
 which have either the acute or the grave. Superla- 
 tives ending in -erst have either the acute or the 
 grave accent, both in the inflected and in the un- 
 inflected form; as, bverst uppermost, ytterst outermost. 
 
 (3) The present singular indicative active ending 
 in -er has the acute; as, kbper buys, dbmer judges, 
 
 finncr finds. (4) The present singular indicative 
 passive ending in -es usually has the acute, but 
 sometimes the grave accent; as, hopes is bought, 
 domes is judged, finnes is found. (5) The addition 
 of the post-positive definite article never changes 
 the nature of the accent of the form to which it is 
 added, whether it results in the addition of a sylla- 
 ble or not. In the following examples the definite 
 form has the acute accent because the indefinite 
 form has the acute: bordet, borden, from bord table; 
 biet, bina, from bi (plur. bin) bee; bib/iote' ket, bibliote'-
 
 § II, e ACCENT 19 
 
 ken, from bibliote k library; tea' tern, tea'trarna, from 
 tea' ter (plur. tea'trar) theater; kofferten, koffertarna, 
 from koffert (plur. koffertar) trunk; fag eln, from fdgel 
 bird; kaglet, haglen, from hagel hail; muskeln, musk- 
 lema, from muskel (plur. muskier) muscle; boken, 
 bbckerna, from bok (plur. backer) book; stolen, from 
 stol chair. 
 
 Note. — Observe that, as a result of the principle stated in 
 d, 5, monosyllabic nouns have the acute accent in the defi- 
 nite singular, but in most cases (cf. d, 1) the grave accent 
 in the indefinite and definite plural. Cf. also above, c, note I. 
 
 (e) Most compounds have the grave accent. Some, 
 however, have the acute accent, or, more often, 
 either the acute or the grave. But no compound 
 may have the acute accent if the first component 
 as an independent word would have the grave 
 accent. Particularly frequent is the acute accent in 
 the case of compounds formed from two (or more) 
 words that originally stood side by side in the 
 sentence (as the following examples show, many 
 such compounds are stressed on the first syllable, 
 i. e., whenever the first component had the sentence- 
 stress; cf. § 2, a); historically, nouns with the defi- 
 nite article appended (cf. d, 5) are compounds of 
 this kind, but they are not now felt as com- 
 pounds. Examples of the acute accent in this type of 
 compounds (some of these no longer felt as com- 
 pounds): allting everything, varf'br why, vardera 
 each, hittills up till now, sadan such, alltsa accord- 
 ingly, hejsan hey, middag dinner, tretti thirty, trad- 
 gard orchard, vilken which, vari wherein, Sd(di 1 
 manland, Sverige, Smdland. Note particularly the 
 compounds with s between the component parts; as,
 
 20 ACCENT § 12 
 
 Kinsman sheriff, krigshar army, lifstid lifetime, 
 namnsdag name-day, torsdag Thursday, Dalsland, 
 Ka rlsson , Pe Iters son . 
 
 12. As already briefly mentioned (§ 2, note 2), 
 many words in the sentence are left um-tressed, 
 that is, without stress 3 on any syllable. A suc- 
 cession of unstressed words (and syllables) that 
 thus stands between two syllables having stress 3, 
 are pronounced with stress o or stress 1 in accord- 
 ance with the rules given in § 5, note. In the 
 case of words of more than one syllable, stress 1 
 then usually falls on the syllable that has the main 
 stress when the word is pronounced by itself. Ex.: 
 
 0103 1 030010 o 3010 
 
 professor Flom. Han betalade honom. Han ialar inte. 
 3010 30 1 o 1 o 3 o o 3 
 Ester kokar mat och hennes garnle Jar hugger red. 
 However, if stress 1 would stand next to a syllable 
 with stress 3, it is reduced to o, and mother syl- 
 lable is strengthened and receives the stress 1. Ex.: 
 
 103 0103 1003 03 
 
 major Palm, butmajor Helin or major He/in, from major 
 
 10 3 031003 103 
 
 hotel! Nord, from hotel/; paragraf tre from paragraf 
 
 0301 31 
 
 jag vet inte, from inte. 
 
 These unstressed words and syllables also lose 
 their accentual characteristics and are pronounced 
 in a monotone which in Stockholm is the high tone. 
 W'.ien thus unstressed, the grave and the acute ac- 
 cent cannot be distinguished from each other, but
 
 § 13 ACCENT, QUANTITY 21 
 
 one is reminded of the acute rather than of the 
 grave accent. Compare, for instance, the accent of 
 mellan ber'gen and over ber'gen; when stressed, 
 mellan has the grave, over, the acute accent. 
 
 13. UNIFORMITY OF ACCENT IN SWEDEN. The 
 pronunciation of sounds is with the cultured pretty 
 much the same throughout Sweden, 01 there is at 
 least in the case of most differences an attempt to 
 overcome the diverging sounds of the home-dialect. 
 In the matter of accent there is, however, no such 
 uniformity, nor is there any attempt to follow a 
 standard. On the one hand, the nature of the 
 acute and the grave accent varies much in different 
 parts of the country; on the other hand, very many 
 words and forms may have either the grave or the 
 acute accent, usually varying according to the 
 locality. The grave accent is on the whole favored 
 more in the region about Lake Malaren, particularly 
 in Stockholm; if a word may have either the acute 
 or the grave accent, it usually has the grave accent 
 in the region named. 
 
 -&■ 
 
 QUANTITY. 
 
 14. All unstressed vowels are short; as, falla to 
 fall, flickor girls, begyn'na to begin. "Unstressed", 
 as here used, is limited to stress 1 and stress o. 
 In syllables with stress 2 (compounds) the vowel 
 may be long or short, just as in syllables with the 
 main stress; as, mansken moon-light. 
 
 A stressed vowel is: (a) long if final, or if fol- 
 lowed by only one consonant; as, se to see, dag
 
 22 QUANTITY § 14 A I 
 
 day, tala (first vowel) to speak; (b) short if fol- 
 lowed by more than one consonant (either a double 
 consonant or a consonant-group; included are cases 
 like ng, which, of course, represents only one 
 sound); as, hast horse, tacka {ck = kfr) to thank, 
 tall pine, lang long. 
 
 (A) Exceptions to (a). In the following in- 
 stances the vowel is short though followed by only 
 one consonant: 
 
 (1) Vowels followed by j and x are always short. 
 The letters, of course, represents two sounds. Ex.: 
 nej no, lax salmon. 
 
 (2) Vowels followed by final m and n are in some 
 instances long, in others, short. See § 18. 
 
 (3) In the word-endings -ik'el, -ip'el, -if el, a vow- 
 el followed by a single consonant is short; as, ar- 
 tik'el article, kapit'cl chapter, titel title. So also in 
 a number of individual words, most of which may 
 also be pronounced with a long vowel; as, wilh a 
 short vowel, frukost breakfast, april' April, Jupiter 
 Jupiter, d'oma (cf. § 18, a) to judge; varying be- 
 tween a long and a short vowel are, for example: 
 apel apple-tree, hade had, radisa radish, tadel cen- 
 sure, tobak tobacco, vetenskap science, oken desert, 
 honom (see § 22, 4) him, saga (with changing 
 consonant-sound) to say, huvud head. 
 
 (B) Exceptions to (b). In the following in- 
 stances a vow^el is long although followed by two 
 consonants: 
 
 (1) Vowels followed by the supradentals rd, rl, rn 
 are in practically all cases long; a prominent excep-
 
 § 14 B 2 QUANTITY 23 
 
 tion is herrn the gentleman, in which the vowel is 
 short. Vowels followed by rs are regularly short; 
 excepted are instances where 5 has been added as an 
 inflectional ending to a word ending in r preceded 
 by a long vowel, in which case the vowel remains 
 long in accordance with 2, a, below (as fars, gen. 
 of far father; bars pres. sing. ind. pass, of bixra to 
 carry). Vowels followed by rt are usually short, 
 bnt in some instances long (the latter not only in 
 cases like stort, n. of stor, which follows 2, a, be- 
 low). As supradentals, these five consonant-groups 
 are in reality digraphs and represent single sounds. 
 Ex.: (Vowel long) barn child, bord table, piirla 
 pearl, art species. (Vowel short) hjarta heart, vers 
 verse. 
 
 (2) In the process of inflection and derivation, 
 owing to the influence of word-forms or words where 
 the vowel is followed by only one consonant, the 
 vowel is usually long though the inflectional or de- 
 rivatory process results in a consonant-group, unless 
 the result is a double consonant. The following 
 cases occur: (a) The addition of an ending {-de, -te, 
 -d, -t, -s). Ex.: (Second Weak Conjugation) viig- 
 de, vdgd, vagi, from viiga to weigh; lakte, lakt, from 
 laka to heal; but the vowel is short in ledde, ledd, 
 lett, from leda to lead; m'otte, mbtt, from mbta to 
 meet. (Adjectives) brunt, from brun brown; but 
 the vowel is short in vitt, from vit white. Note 
 also, in comparison, cases like lag low, lagre, lixgst, 
 but storre (with a double consonant). (Genitives) 
 stols, from stol chair. (Passives) laks, from laka to 
 heal; bars, from bar, p.ist tense of bdra to carry.
 
 24 QUANTITY § 14 B 2 
 
 (b) Syncope of an unstressed vowel, upon the 
 addition of an inflectional ending. Ex.: dkrar, from 
 aker field; haglet, haglen, from hagel hail; vapnet, 
 vapnen, from vapen weapon; rt^//«, ddlare, ddlasf, 
 from aafc/ noble, (c) Often in derivation, particu- 
 larly when the second element begins with / or n. 
 Ex.: ivra to exert one's self, ivrig eager, cf. iver 
 eagerness; segla to sail, cf. segel sail; mogna to 
 ripen, cf. mogen ripe; gulna to turn yellow, cf. gul 
 yellow; germa'nsk Germanic, cf. germd'n Teuton; 
 fbrso'nlig reconcilable, cf. fdrso'na to conciliate; syn- 
 lig visible, cf. synas to be seen, appear; lasning read- 
 ing, cf. llisa to read; blast blowing, cf. bldsa to blow; 
 glddja to cheer, cf. glad glad, (d) Usually also in 
 composition, even when the result is a double con- 
 sonant. Ex.: uttaga to take out, cf. ut out; valbar 
 eligible, cf. val election. 
 
 Note. — 1. Exceptions to 2, above. When the genitive ( f. 
 2, a) occurs in certain set phrases, the vowel is shortened; 
 so also usually when it is the first component of a compound 
 word, and, further, in a few additional instances. The rule 
 that a vowel followed by more than one consonant is sh< rt 
 can here assert itself, because the form of the same word 
 with a long vowel is not present to the mind. Ex.: till skogs 
 (but denna skogs cigare, with a long vowel), till havs (but ett 
 havs striinder)\ till livs (but ett helt livs moda)\ allt slags; 
 lids nog; hur dags; livstid; slagsmdl; riksdag; regularly 
 Guds, with the vowel short, but guds, with the vowel long. 
 — The neuter form hogt, from hog high, has a short vowel 
 irregularly; so also hogst and stdrsl (from stor large). — In 
 the 5-form of the verb the vowel is in some instances 
 shortened; as, syns, from synas to seem; tors from tdras to 
 dare. — As exceptions to 2, c, observe, e. g., tCimja to tame, 
 cf. tarn tame; gronska to become green, cf. grbn rrcen; 
 vidga to widen, cf. vid wide.
 
 § 15 QUANTITY 25 
 
 2. Also in a few individual words, a vowel is long though 
 followed by more than one consonant; as, aln yard, ell, tnoln 
 cloud. In a few such, the vowel may be eitlier long or sbort. 
 
 15. CONSONANT-LENGTH. In Swedish, conso- 
 nant s as well as vowels are either long or short. 
 ■ In stressed syllables, if tbe vowel is short, the con- 
 sonant immediately following is long; if the vowel 
 is long, the consonant immediately following is sbort. 
 
 In Swedish, one sound in each word, and only 
 
 one, is always long. Either the vowel of the stressed 
 
 syllable is long, or the consonant (if there is one) 
 
 following immediately upon this vowel is long. All 
 
 other sounds in the word are short, both consonants 
 
 and vowels. 
 
 Note. — In compounds having stress 2 on one component, 
 there is one long sound in each of two syllables (as nidnskev). 
 
 1G. QUANTITY AND SENTENCE-STRESS. In all 
 words in a sentence that do not have the sentence- 
 stress (see § 2, note 2, and § 12) the long sound 
 is shortened, such words containing no long sound. 
 Ex.: do bo/t to die away, ga hem' to go home, ja 
 vis' st of course, om du vil'l if you want to, sa da'r 
 that way. 
 
 17- ORTHOGRArillC INDICATION OF LENGTH OF 
 SOUND. Long vowels are not distinguished in writ- 
 ing from short vowels; the quantity of vowels can 
 be deduced from the consonants that follow them, 
 according to the rules of § 14. 
 
 Consonant-length is not indicated in the case of 
 /, x (for examples see § 14 A 1), digraphs (as 
 ng) , and trigraphs (as sch). In the case of other 
 consonants, consonant length is indicated by a double
 
 26 QUANTITY § 17 
 
 consonant: (a) finally (but see § 18 concerning 
 111 and ri)\ as, halt hat, tack {ck = kk) thanks, vass 
 sharp, dorr door, dagg dew, ^«^ bed, till to; 
 (b) between vowels; as, sitta to sit, tacka {ck = kfc) to- 
 thank, ^m« to guess, stirra to stare, vagga cradle, 
 ladda to load, stilla quietly; (c) before /, n, r, but 
 m is never doubled in this position, and 11 rarely 
 (the cases of n are not many, as eriura to remem- 
 ber, inre inner; but tunnlar, plur. of tunnel tunnel); 
 as, uggla owl, fackla {ck = kk) torch, bppna to open, 
 vissna to wither, offret, def. sing, of offer victim, 
 apple apple, vackra, tf-forrn of vacker beautiful. 
 
 Except before /, n, r, long consonants are not 
 doubleS* when followed by another consonant; as, 
 fisk fish. When, however, in the process of inflec- 
 tion, a long consonant written double in accordance 
 with (a) or (b), above, comes to stand before a con- 
 sonant in an inflectional ending {-de, -te, -d, -t, -s), 
 it remains doubled (but m and n remain doubled 
 only before s) ; as, fdlldc, Jalld, fallt, from fdlla to 
 fell; viickte, vdc/ct, from vacka to awaken; tryggt, u. 
 of trygg secure; tails, gen. of tall pine; stalls, pres. 
 sing. pass, of stalla to place; lamms, gen. of la mm 
 lamb; spanns, gen. of spann bucket; Jimis, pres. of 
 finnas to be. But notice begyn'te, begyn't, from be- 
 gyn'na to begin; kande, kand, kant from kanna to 
 know; sant, n. of sa?in true. 
 
 Note. — 1. The rules of § 17 and § iS take no account 
 of the orthography of consonants at the end of the prior 
 components of compounds, in the case of which the spelling 
 remains as it was in the original word; as, kannbar, cf. kan- 
 na; manskap, cf. man; inom, cf. in. But notice tillata, from 
 till and lata.
 
 § iS QUANTITY 27 
 
 2. In a number of words, almost all of foreign origin, a 
 double consonant is written in unstressed syllables between 
 vowels, although the sound of the consonant is short; as, 
 ko))i))iittc committee, possessi'v possessive, professo'rer pro- 
 fessors, adde'ra to add, litteratu'r literature. 
 
 18- CONCERNING ORTHOGRAPHY OF M AND N. 
 
 (a) IyOiig m is written double between vowels 
 (except in romare Roman; amen amen; dbma to 
 judge; domen, domar, from dom sentence, and related 
 words). Ex.: komma to come, sommar summer. 
 Otherwise m is never doubled (except finally in the 
 three words davim dust, dam, lamm lamb, ramm 
 ram). Ex.: om if, vein who, som who, fern five, 
 dem them. Note cases like the following: hem home, 
 but hemmct, hcmmcn; torn empty, but tomma; tele- 
 gram' telegram, but telegram 'met ', telegram' men; drbm 
 dream, but drbmmen, drbmmar; drbm (imperative), 
 drdmde, drbmt, but drbmma to dream: kom (impera- 
 tive and past sing.), but komma to come, past phir. 
 kommo; somrar, plur. of sommar summer; himlar, 
 plur. of himmel heaven; gamla, from gammal old. 
 
 (b) L,ong n is in a number of words not written 
 double when final: han he, hon she, den it, min my, 
 din your, sin his, etc., en one, man (plur. man, 
 but def. mannoi, mannen) man, van (but viinnen, 
 vanner) friend, m/in (but munnen, munnar) mouth, 
 lean (but kunnd) can, men but, an still, igen' again, 
 in in, allman (but allmanna) common, an (a par- 
 ticle), sj'bn, def. of sjb lake. In other words, final 
 long n is doubled; as, skinn skin; kann, past sing. 
 of hinna to reach; fann, past sing, of Jinna to find; 
 sa?in true; iunn thin. Between vowels, long w is 
 regularly doubled. When followed by another con-
 
 ?.8 VOWELS 8 ^9 
 
 sonant, long n is doubled only before s of an inflec- 
 tional ending; see examples in § 17. 
 
 Note. — A single final m and n may of course also repre- 
 sent short m and n; as, lam lame, dam lady, tarn tame, 
 fin fine, van accustomed, man mane, vin wine. 
 
 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. 
 
 11). LONG. (1) Long a has a sound midway be- 
 tween that of the stressed vowel in "father" and 
 "saw". Ex.: av of, hat hate, fara to travel, bra 
 well. 
 
 SHORT. (2) Short a has the sound of the first 
 "a" in "aha", or of "a" in German "Mann". Ex.: 
 halt hat, alia (both vowels; plur. of all all), arm 
 arm, utan without, fiicka girl. 
 
 Note. — Observe that in cases like fa/a to speak, the two 
 a's are different in quality (as well as in quantity), while iu 
 tacka to thank, they are identical. 
 
 e. 
 
 20. LONG. (1) The sottnd of long e lies midway 
 between that of "i" in "hid" (prolonged) and "a" 
 in "hate" (without the vanish). It is very close 
 to the vowel-sound of German "See". Ex.: ek oak,
 
 g 20 VOWELS 29 
 
 er } r our, het hot, veta to know, redan already, se to 
 see. 
 
 (2) In the prefix er- t and in a few individual 
 words, most of which may also have the sound de- 
 scribed in (1), long e has the sound of long a (see 
 § 26, 1). Ex.: erhalla to receive, ersatta to com- 
 pensate, med with, det that, problem problem, sy- 
 st 'in system, poe'm poem, mode ' rn modern, chef chief, 
 kuve'rt (vowel long only when the final / is not pro- 
 nounced) envelope, Per. 
 
 SHORT. (3) When short and stressed, and when 
 it precedes the main stress, short e normally has 
 the short sound corresponding to the long e of (1). 
 Ex.: ctt (n. of en one), hett (u. of het hot), vecka 
 week, begri'pa to understand, gevd'r weapon. 
 
 (4) When short and stressed, frequently also when 
 unstressed (both before and after the main stress), 
 it is pronounced like short a (see § 26, 2) in a 
 large number of words, of which many are of for- 
 eign origin. Ex.: den it, denna (n. detta) this, men 
 but, sex six, berg mountain, nej no, eller (first e) 
 or, Sver(i)ge (first e) Sweden, svensk Swedish, mest 
 most, biljet't ticket, fen ' tlig hostile, accen't accent, 
 verb verb, England England, septem'ber (first two 
 ^'s) September, adjektiv adjective, exa'men (first e) 
 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 
 
 21. LONG. (0 Long i has the sound of "i" in 
 "police" (no vanish). Ex.: i in, is ice. liv life, 
 bita to bite, bi bee. 
 
 SHORT. C 2 ) Short i has the corresponding short 
 sound, as in the first syllable of "event", "enough". 
 Ex.: in in, irra to wander, min (n. mitt) my, sitta 
 to sit, juni June. 
 
 o. 
 
 22. LONG. CO Long o has normally a sound not 
 very unlike that of "oo" in "boot" (no vanish). 
 Ex.: ord word, broder brother, kov hoof, bo to live. 
 
 (2) In a few native words and in a large number 
 of words of foreign origin, it has the soungLofJong 
 a (see § 25, 1). Ex.: son son, sova to sleep, ko- 
 nung king, lova to promise, ovan above, hov court, 
 JUosdf philosopher, katalo'g catalog, logisk logical, 
 telefo'n (also with the of 1, above) telephone. 
 
 SHORT. (3) In a number of words, short o has 
 the short sound corresponding to that of long o in 
 (1). Ex.: hon she, onsdag Wednesday, ost cheese, 
 orm snake, socken (or the o of 4) parish, bonde 
 peasant, bodde, bott (forms of bo to live), dom judg- 
 ment, Momma flower, pia'no piano, voka'l vowel, tele- 
 fond ra (or the of 4) to telephone, botanik botany, 
 konsonan't (second 0) consonant, kilo kilogram, kro- 
 kodi'l (both ds) crocodile, gavo (from giva to give). 
 
 (4) In a very large number of words, short o 
 has the sound of short a (see § 25, 2). Ex.: ofta 
 often, oss us, gott (n. of god good), doktor (both ds)
 
 § 23 VOWELS 3 1 
 
 doctor, Stockholm (both <?'s), Norge Norway, honom 
 (often pron. with long oof i in first syllable; in 
 some parts of Sweden, with long oof 2), trottoa'r (both 
 o's) side-walk, diftong' diphthong, a/ton evening. 
 
 Note. — 1. In the plural-ending -or of the First Declen- 
 sion, o may have either of the short sounds of o given above, 
 or it may have a sound resembling that of "00" in "book". 
 Ex.: flickor girls. 
 
 2. Concerning oil see § 23, note 2. 
 
 u. 
 
 23. LONG. (1) The sound of long u may be pro- 
 dnced by placing the tongue in position for the "a" 
 of English "ate", and rounding the lips so that 
 the aperture is very small; the lips are usually drawn 
 close to the teeth and not protruded. Ex.: 7*7 out, 
 hus house, njuta to enjoy, dit you. 
 
 SHORT. (2) Short u may be produced by placing 
 the tongue in position for a vowel lying between 
 the sound of "e" in "met" and "a" in "mat", 
 and rounding the lips without protrusion so that 
 the aperture is moderately large. It is practically 
 the same sound as that of the final vowel of "value" 
 (omitting the y-sound). Ex.: ting young, kung 
 king, bundo (from binda to bind), konung king, 
 universite't university, huvud (concerning this, see 
 § 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 
 
 3. Swedish u never begins with the sound of English 
 consonantal "y", as in "use", "unite"; as, universite't uni- 
 versity, musi'k music, muse'utn museum. 
 
 y- 
 
 24. LONG. (1) Long y has a sound that resem- 
 bles German "ii", as in "iiber", but lies closer to 
 Swedish i. Ex.: yr dizzy, tyg cloth, flyga to fly 
 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. 
 
 25. LONG. (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. 
 
 SHORT. (2) Short d has the sound of "o" 
 "obey", or of the first part of the diphthong 
 "boy". Ex.: dska thunder, Idng long, manga man; > 
 stdtt (from sta to stand), bldtt (n. of bid blue). 
 
 a. 
 
 26. LONG. (1) Long a has approximately th< 
 same sound as "ai" in "air", being the same a 
 "a" in German "ahnlich". Ex.: ata to eat, ra 
 straight, lasa to read, tra wood. 
 
 SHORT. (2) Short a has the corresponding short 
 sound. Ex.: agg egg, rati right, kanna to know. 
 vauin')ia (woman) friend.
 
 §27 VOWELS 33 
 
 o. 
 
 21- LONG. (0 Long b has the sound of "6" 
 in German "bbse". It may be produced by placing 
 the tongue in position for Swedish c, and then round- 
 ing (and slightly protruding) the lips so that the 
 opening is moderately small, but larger than for 
 Swedish y. Ex.: b island, bga eye, brbt (from bryta 
 to break), mbta to meet, do to die. 
 
 Note. — Instead of this sound, the long sound correspond- 
 ing to short o may be used in a few words, especially be- 
 fore m, n, r, and the supradentals, and (less often) after r. 
 Ex.: skon beautiful, gron green, for for, hora to hear, brbd 
 bread, sorter (plur. of son son). 
 
 SHORT. (2) Short b has the sound of German 
 "o" in "Gotler". It may be produced by placing 
 the tongue in position for Swedish a, and rounding 
 the lips (with moderate protrusion) so that the open- 
 ing is moderately large. Ex.: bppen open, mjblk 
 milk, mbjlig possible, mbtt (past part, of mbta to 
 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. 
 
 (2) The sound of a, normally designated by d, 
 is written o in a large number of words when short, 
 and in many words when long; see $ 22, 2 and 4. 
 
 29. RELATION OF QUALITY TO QUANTITY. The 
 five vowels e, i, y, a, (that is, when does not 
 represent the «-sound) have the same quality of 
 sound whether long or short; as, het hot, n. licit.
 
 34 VOWELS § 30 
 
 vit white, n. vitt; ny new, n. nytt; rat straight, n. 
 ratt; bo to live, supine bolt. 
 
 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 
 may usually retain the quality of the long vowel (shortened) 
 when there is a strong feeling of association with the word 
 having the long vowel; as, moble'ra to furnish, cf. model 
 piece of furniture; gjuterV foundry, cf. gjuta to cast; bageri' 
 bakery, cf. bagare baker; malarin'na (woman) painter, cf. 
 malarc painter. 
 
 30- THE RELATION OF QUALITY TO SENTENCE- 
 QUANTITY. When, owing to the absence of sentence- 
 stress, long a, u, a, o are shortened, they may either 
 change their quality, or they may retain the original 
 quality (shortened) on account of the influence cf 
 the sound in the word when stressed; as, ja vis'st 
 of course, hur of'ta how often, gd hem' to go home, 
 do bor't to die away. 
 
 31. HARD AND SOFT VOWELS. The vowels are 
 divided into: 
 
 (1) Hard vowels: a, 0, a, u. 
 
 (2) Soft vowels: c, z, y, ii, o. 
 
 This distinction is of great importance in connec- 
 tion with the pronunciation of g, k, sic, followed by 
 a vowel; see also § 32. 
 
 Note. — The terms "hard" and "soft" vowels are to be 
 preferred here to "back" and "front" vowels; long u was 
 formerly, but is not now, a back vowel. For the sake of
 
 § 32 VOWELS 35 
 
 uniformity I employ the same terms also in § 32, though 
 the phraseology there and the historical point of view would 
 rather suggest the use of the terms "front" and "back". 
 
 32. VOWEL-MODIFICATION. In the older form of 
 Swedish the hard vowels became soft vowels under 
 certain conditions in various words and word- forms. 
 This development has resulted in the presence in 
 the language of: (a) inflectional forms of the same 
 word, some with a hard and some with a sold vowel 
 and (b) words having a hard vowel related to words 
 having a soft vowel (not all words by far, however, 
 that now contain a modified vowel can be connected, 
 with other words with which they would in this 
 way be related). Vowel-modification in English can 
 be seen in cases like: goose, geese; mouse, mice; 
 man, men; full, fill; fall (intrans.), fell (trans.). 
 
 The vowels that in Swedish thus correspond 
 through vowel-modification are: 
 
 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 t langst; ung young, comp. and superl. yngre, 
 yngst; valja to choose, past valde; tang heavy, tyngd 
 weight; hus house, hysa to house; full full, fylla to 
 fill; /ova to promise, Ibfte promise; ga to go, gang- 
 se current; fara to go, fiird trip; varmldndsk per- 
 taining to the province / "armland. 
 
 33. In the preceding paragraph a number of ex- 
 amples (beginning with tung: tyngd) have been
 
 36 VOWELS § 33 
 
 given, illustrating the connection of vowel-modifica- 
 tion with derivation. There are also examples of the 
 three inflectional categories that to a limited extent 
 are subject to the principle of vowel-modification, 
 namely: (a) the comparison of certain adjectives 
 (for the list, see my "Swedish Grammar", Lesson 
 XII), (b) the inflection of certain verbs of the 
 Second Weak Conjugation (for a list of the most 
 important of these, see "Swedish Grammar", lyes- 
 son XV; all are included in Appendix IV of the 
 Grammar), and (c) the formation of the plural of 
 certain nouns. Here follows a list of the nouns that 
 modify the vowel in forming the plural; a few of 
 these also have a plural-form without modified vowel 
 (in most cases with a meaning and declension differ- 
 ing from that of the plural with modified vowel). 
 The six nouns bok, fot, rot, gas, lus, mzis both mod- 
 ify and shorten the vowel, plur. backer, f biter, 
 totter, gass, loss, moss. The vowel-modification in 
 lus, mus is irregular. 
 
 2 DECLENSION 
 dotter daughter 
 moder mother 
 
 3 DECLENSION 
 and duck 
 
 bok book 
 bonde peasant 
 brand firebrand 
 fot {f otter or fot) foot 
 liciiid hand 
 land (Hinder or . country
 
 § 34 VOWELS, DIPHTHONGS 37 
 
 ledamo't (stressed vowel) member 
 
 natt night 
 
 rand edge 
 
 rot root 
 
 son son 
 
 spann {spanner or spannar) bucket 
 
 spang {sponger, less often spdngar) foot-bridge 
 
 stad city 
 
 star (staver or stavar) stave; bokstav (-staver) letter 
 
 strand shore 
 
 stand (stander or stand) estate (of the realm) 
 
 stang pole 
 
 tand tooth 
 
 tang tongs 
 
 5 DECLENSION 
 
 broder brother 
 
 fader father 
 
 gas goose 
 
 lus (loss, irregular) louse 
 
 man (/nan or man) man 
 
 mus (moss, irregular) mouse 
 
 DIPHTHONGS. 
 
 34. Swedish has few words containing diph- 
 thongs, which occur chiefly in words of foreign 
 origin. Ex.: ej not, nej no, inig (usually pronounced 
 maj) me, kejsare emperor, tibjd height, pojke boy, 
 maj May, angus'ti August, automa'tisk automatic, 
 tautologi' tautology, auktorite't authority, auktio'n 
 auction, Paulus Paul, Euro' pa Europe, pseudony'm 
 pseudonym, eufemis'm euphemism, pneuma'tisk pneu- 
 matic.
 
 38 DIPHTHONGS, CONSONANTS § 35 
 
 35. The diphthong ej is pronounced aj. The pro- 
 nunciation of the others, except au and eu, needs 
 no comment. 
 
 Au has the sound of short a + short u; as, pans ' 
 pause, augus'ti August. In some common words 
 it has the sound of long a (long when stressed) 
 and short u, distributed over two syllables; in this 
 case it is of course not a diphthong; as, Paul. A 
 number of words may have either of the two pro- 
 nunciations mentioned. In some words of Greek 
 origin, au usually has the sound of short a -f- v 
 (then not a diphthong); as, automa'tisk automatic, 
 tautologi' tautology. 
 
 Eu has the sound of short a + short u or short 
 a + v (in the latter case not a diphthong); as, 
 eufoni euphony, pseudony'm pseudonym. In a few 
 common words it usually has the sound of c (long 
 when stressed) and short u, distributed over two 
 syllables (then not a diphthong); as, Euro' pa Europe, 
 neutrum (sometimes pron. with of) neuter, raima- 
 tis'm (this usually has the sound of) rheumatism. 
 
 CONSONANTS. 
 
 36. SWEDISH CONSONANTS DIFFERING IN SOUND 
 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 
 "three", but should be carefully distinguished from 
 the ordinary American r-sound. For examples of 
 words containing r and the other sounds discussed
 
 § 36 CONSONANTS 39 
 
 in this paragraph, see under the individual sounds 
 below. 
 
 (2) The Swedish dentals, d, t, /, 11, s, differ in 
 sound from the corresponding English consonants. 
 The. Swedish sounds are articulated farther toward 
 the front of the mouth, and with the blade of the 
 tongue. In the case of /, in addition, the middle 
 of the tongue is made legs— hollow —in Swedish. 
 There is in Sweden some diversity in the manner 
 of production of the dentals; in some places the dif- 
 ference in sound between certain of the Swedish 
 dentals and the corresponding English ones is min- 
 imal. 
 
 (3) When r is followed by a dental consonant, 
 i. e., in the combinations rd, rt, rl, rn, rs, it com- 
 bines with the dentals into sounds called supra- 
 dentals. which a re articulated farther back than the 
 English dentals^with the tip of the tongue. The 
 EnglisTSTdentals are accordingly articulated between 
 the Swedish dentals and the supradentals. The 
 sound of the Swedish supradentals approaches that 
 of our dentals when preceded by the American 
 (cerebral) "r" (as in "heard", "heart", "barn", 
 "verse"), but in the Swedish sounds no r is heard. 
 In elevated speech, however, a weak r is sometimes 
 heard; in the case of rl, also frequently in ordinary 
 speech. 
 
 (4) The Swedish sound that corresponds to our 
 sh-souud should be carefully distinguished from this. 
 It may be produced by combining the tongue- 
 position of Swedish supradental 5 with that of a sound 
 lying between the ch-sound of German "Nachte" 

 
 40 CONSONANTS S 37 
 
 and of "ich"; the sound is very often a little labi- 
 alized. 
 
 Note. — Concerning variation in the pronunciation of some t 
 of these sounds, see §§ 60-66. 
 
 37- VOICED AND VOICELESS CONSONANTS. Some 
 consonant-sounds (as "f", "s") are produced by 
 forcing the breath through a much narrowed passage- 
 way in the mouth, the narrowing for "f" and "s" 
 being made at different places. Such sounds are 
 called spirants. In the production of certain other 
 consonants (as ^kLL u _Hp^, "t") there is a co mple te 
 closure of the mouth-passage (at a different place 
 for each of the three sounds mentioned) and for 
 a moment, until the closure is released, the 
 breath-current is stopped; such sounds are known 
 as stops. 
 
 But another spirant, "v", can be produced with 
 narrowing at the same place as for "f", and simi- 
 larly another, "z", with the same narrowing as for 
 "s"; so also three other stops, "g", "b", "d", can 
 be produced with closure at the same place as for 
 "k", "p", "t". In a very important respect these 
 new sounds are, however, very different: before the 
 breath-current reaches the mouth, it squeezes past 
 the vocal chords in the throat, which have now 
 been brought so close together that the breath in 
 passing them causes them to vibrate, thus producing 
 voice. These ("v", "z", "g", "b", "d") are 
 called voiced sounds. On the other hand, "f", "s", 
 "k", "p", "t", which are produced with the vo- 
 cal chords so far apart that the breath passes by 
 as if they were not there, are called voiceless.
 
 §38 CONSONANTS 4-1 
 
 In producing the voiceless stops "k",J^J_ x "t", 
 there is at the place of closure a feeling of strong 
 tenseness, and a clearly audible "explosion" takes 
 place as the closure is opened, and the breath- 
 current released. In the case of the voiced stops, 
 however, the strength of the breath-current is much 
 weakened in forcing its way past the vocal chords, 
 and there is no such feeling of tenseness at the 
 place of closure as with the voiceless stops; when 
 the breath-current is released, it is very weak, and 
 the "explosion" is barely audible. 
 
 38- ASSIMILATION. There is in Swedish a very 
 strong tendency for the voiced consonants^, b, d, v 
 to become voiceless (k, ft, t, f) when followed by 
 a voiceless sound (usually /or s). That is, the 
 open condition of the vocal chords is anticipated, 
 and the preceding consonant in this respect tends 
 to become like the following sound. Very often, 
 however, sounds that can be said to be between g 
 and k, b and/), etc., are used instead; the sounds 
 in question have open vocal chords in common with 
 voiceless consonants, but absence of tenseness in 
 common with voiced consonants (the lack of tense- 
 ness in this case caused by a breath-current that is 
 weaker in its inception). In ordinary speech, 
 k, ft, t, f are heard in most cases of the kind un- 
 der consideration; in more careful speech, however, 
 the intermediate sound is employed in the case of 
 many words, while even g, b, d, v are sometimes 
 heard in elevated speech. But the voiced stop, 
 when followed by <r as an inflectional ending (geni- 
 tive and passive) usually remains in all these forms
 
 4 2 CONSONANTS § 38 
 
 of speech when a long vowel precedes; or, the vow- 
 el is shortened (in many cases) and assimilation 
 takes place. Ex.: observe ' ra to observe, Ibsen, ab-. 
 sol n't absolute, substantiv substantive, Jakobs Jacob's, 
 snabbt (n. of snabb swift), vigscl marriage, bogse'ra 
 to tow, avlagsen distant, slagsmal (vowel shortened) 
 fight, halvvags (vowel short.) half-way, liigst (from 
 lag low), hur dags (vowel short.) at what time, 
 tre slags (vowel short.) three kinds of, till skogs 
 (vowel short.) to the woods, byggs (from bygga to 
 build), tryggt (from trygg secure), lagt (from lag 
 low), vagt (from veiga to weigh), byggt (from byg- 
 ga to build), nyttigt (from nyttig useful), ledsen 
 sorry, idka to carry on, lids (vowel short.) nog 
 time enough, till/reds (vowel short.) satisfied, styvt 
 (from styv stiff), akti'vt (from akti'v active), behbv's 
 (vowel short.; from behb'vas to be necessary), havsyta 
 (vowel short.) surface of the sea. 
 
 Note. — Of the above examples some employ the voiceless 
 sound much more freely than others; in some instances the 
 voiceless sound is practically obligatory. There are, further, 
 a few cases where the voiceless sound is always employed, but 
 owing to the tmphonetic orthography is nevertheless written 
 with the sign for a voiced sound; as, lagt (from lagga to lay), 
 sagt (from saga to say), bragie, bragt (from bringa to 
 bring), Guds (vowel shortened; from Cud God), gods goods, 
 hogt, hdgst (vowel shortened; from hog high). 
 
 In haft (vowel shortened; from hava to have) the voiceless 
 sound is expressed in the orthography. The assimilation of 
 d before / is regularly taken account of in writing; as, gott 
 (from god good), bebot't 1 from bebod'd inhabited). Similarly, 
 in derivatives, the voiceless sound is written; as, shrift writ- 
 ing, cf. skriva to write. 
 
 In the past tense and past participle of the Second Weak 
 Conjugation there is assimilation acting in the opposite di-
 
 § 39 CONSONANTS 43 
 
 rection, where d of'the inflectional ending becomes / (writ- 
 ten /) when preceded by a voiceless consonant; as, kopte, kept 
 (from kopa to buy); cf. the normal byggde, byggd (from byg- 
 
 ga to build). 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL. CONSONANTS. 
 
 Note. — In the following account, digraphs and trigraphs 
 are treated under the first letter of the combinations. 
 
 b. 
 
 39. B is pronounced as in English. Ex.: bat 
 boat, bjuda to offer, stab staff, snabb swift, gubbe 
 old man, bomb (final b not silent) bomb, jubla to 
 exult. 
 
 Note. — On the assimilation of b before / and s, see § 38. 
 
 40. (1) Instead of kk, Swedish regularly writes 
 ck; as, icke not, vackla to totter, tjockna to become 
 thick, rock coat. 
 
 Note.-- 1. In one word, och and, double k is written ch; 
 cf. ock, with c/-, meaning "also". 
 
 2. Beyond the use mentioned, the letter c is employed 
 only in words of foreign origin and in proper names; see 
 below. 
 
 (2) C has the sound of Swedish s (see § 36, 2) 
 when followed by a soft vowel (only <?, /', y occur 
 in this case). Ex.: centra! I central, decern' bcr De- 
 cember, artiflciel'l artificial, multiplier ' ra to multiply, 
 ocea'n ocean, cirka about, cykel cycle, Cederschiold ', 
 Celan'der, C \ dsius . 
 
 (3) C has the sound of k when followed by an- 
 other c (pronounced s; see § 36, 2). Ex.: accen't 
 accent, accepte'ra to accept, vacci'n vaccine.
 
 44 CONSONANTS § 41 
 
 Note. — In some proper names, c followed by a hard vow- 
 el or a consonant (other than c) occurs; it then also has 
 the sound of k; as, Nican'der, Carl (generally spelled 
 Karl), Creutz. 
 
 (4) Ch (except in the word och and; see § 40, 1, 
 note 1) is used only in loan-words and proper names; 
 it has the sound of sj (see § 36, 4, and § 53, 3). 
 Ex.: chokla'd chocolate, champinjo'n mushroom, chi- 
 ka'n disgrace, Chariot' ta. 
 
 Note. — 1. In some proper names, ch has the sound of 
 k; as, Chorcz'us, Chrysan'der. 
 
 2. In addition to the use of the letter c as presented 
 above, it occurs in the combinations sc and sch; see under 5. 
 
 41. (1) Concerning the pronunciation of d, see 
 § 36, 2. Ex.: du you, bada to bathe, hundra 
 hundred, a Id rig never, hedra to honor, ladda to load, 
 fid time, bragd feat, foljd consequence, vild wild. 
 
 Note. — On the assimilation of d before t and s, see § 3S. 
 
 (2) Concerning the pronunciation of rd, see § 36, 
 3. Ex.: hard hard, viirde worth, horde, hord (from 
 hbra to hear), orden'tlig orderly, bord table. 
 
 (3) Initial d is silent when followed by j. Ex.: 
 
 djur animal, djup deep, djavul devil, djarv bold. So 
 
 also at the beginning of a posterior component it 
 
 is of course silent; as, husdjur domestic animal. 
 
 Note. — D is silent, or, in some instances, usually silent, 
 in cases like: didst oldest, bradska hurry, skridsko skate, 
 handske glove, irddgard orchard, v auditing turning. 
 
 f. 
 
 42. F is pronounced as in English. Ex.: fa to 
 get, /ran from, fjader feather, haft (from hava to
 
 § 43 CONSONANTS 45 
 
 have), trdffa tc meet, fotogra'f photographer, nymf 
 nymph, si off stuff. 
 
 Note. — In some proper names, f and fv have the sound 
 of v; as, Lagerlof, Silfverstolpe. 
 
 g. 
 
 43- (0 £ has the sound of Swedish j (see §45, 1): 
 
 (a) Before stressed soft vowels and before un- 
 stressed soft vowels preceding the main stress. Ex.: 
 giva to give, gass (from gas goose), gick, gingo 
 (from ga to go), g'dra to do, begyn'na to begin, 
 egeii'tlig real, igen' again, Gotcbor'g Gothenburg, 
 gemis gender, gestal't figure, gcnera'l general, unge- 
 fa'r about, forgo! ves in vain, Gcijcr. So also in the 
 posterior components of compound words, though 
 they do not have the main stress of the word; as, 
 missgynna to disfavor. 
 
 (b) Usually after / and r. Ex.: berg mountain, 
 fiirg color, sorg sorrow, Sverge Sweden, Norge Nor- 
 way, ialg tallow, svalg throat. 
 
 Note. — Iu some words, g may have either this sound or 
 that of 5, below; as, gi/ar'r guitar, logi'k logic, agen't agent, 
 tcologi' theology, legen'd legend, origina'l original, sigil'l 
 (rarely the g of 5) seal, intelligen't intelligent, margina'l 
 margin, kirur'g (almost always the sound of 5) surgeon. 
 
 (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 
 
 sa'ge massage, loge (theater) box, lodge, ekipa'ge 
 equipage. 
 
 (3) G usually has the sound of Swedish ng (see 
 § 49, 4) when followed by u, this gn being pro- 
 nounced ngn. Ex.: vagn wagon, regno, to rain, 
 logn lie, in hog' 'nito incognito, signa'l signal, magne't 
 magnet, Tegnir. 
 
 Note. — In the cases under (3), the preceding vowel is 
 short, which is regular. But note the sound of g followed 
 by the sound of n in mogna (from mogen ripe), tnogna to 
 ripen (cf. mogen ripe), egna (from egen own). Observe 
 that in these cases the vowel is long. 
 
 (4) G is silent in the initial combination gj, which 
 occurs in very few words, and only before a hard 
 vowel. Ex.: gjorde (from gora to do), gjuta to 
 cast. So also at the beginning of posterior com- 
 ponents of compounds. 
 
 Note. — -1. G is also silent in morgnar (from morgan 
 morning). 
 
 2. Initial g followed by 11 is not silent in Swedish; as, 
 gnaga to gnaw. 
 
 (5) Except when pronounced as above indicated, 
 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 
 
 44. (0 //is pronounced as in English. Ex.: 
 han he, hits house. 
 
 (2) Initial h is silent when followed by j. Ex.: 
 hjarta heart, hjdlpa to help, hjul wheel, Hjalmaren, 
 Hjalmar. So also at the beginning of posterior com- 
 ponents of compounds; as, ihja'l to death. 
 
 j. 
 
 45. (1) / has approximately the sound of Eng- 
 lish "y" in "yes". Ex.: /a yes, nej no, bjuda to 
 offer, njuta to enjoy, mjuk soft, fjarde fourth, fa- 
 mil'j family, kastan'j chestnut, spjut spear, hbljd 
 (from holja to cover). 
 
 Note. — After a vowel, j is always long, though never 
 written double; see § 14 A 1. 
 
 (2) In some words of foreign origin, j has the 
 sound of sj (see § 53, 3, and § 36, 4). Ex.: jour- 
 no! I journal, juste ' ra to adjust, projek't project, jas- 
 min jasmine. 
 
 (3) Concerning the combinations dj, gj, //j, kj, 
 /j, sj, tj, skj, stj, xi (xj), see under the first letter 
 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 
 
 though they do not have the main stress of the 
 word. 
 
 (2) Otherwise k has the sound of English "k"; 
 that is, (a) before hard vowels and consonants (ex* 
 cept j; see 3, below) and when doubled, (b) before 
 unstressed e and i in final syllables, (e) when final. 
 Ex.: ko cow, kunna to be able, sko shoe, Mar clear, 
 kvinna woman, skriva to write, vikt weight, rike 
 kingdom, tekni'k technics, rak straight. 
 
 Note— 1. Some words, almost exclusively of foreign origin, 
 have the latter sound, where the sound of Swedish tj would 
 be expected. Ex.: anarki' anarchy, banket't banquet, buket't 
 bouquet, kisse pussy, ko file, line, kor choir, fabriko'r 
 manufacturer, banki'r banker, stake't fence. A few may 
 have either the sound of k or that of tj; as, kilogram' kilo- 
 gram, arki'v archives, k&x biscuit, arkitek't architect. 
 
 2. Long k is written ck; cf. § 40, 1. 
 
 3. Initial k followed by 11 is not silent in Swedish; as, kniv 
 knife, knci knee. 
 
 (3) Ay, which occurs in very few words, and 
 only before a hard vowel, has the sound of Swedish 
 tj (see § 54. 3)- Ex.: kjortel (or kjol) skirt. 
 
 1. 
 
 47. (1) On the pronunciation of / see § 36, 2. 
 Ex.: lata to let, tala to speak, alia all, moln cloud, 
 malm ore, glas glass, kallna to grow cold, dal val- 
 ley, tall pine. 
 
 (2) Concerning the pronunciation of ;7, see § 36, 3. 
 Ex.: parla pearl, farlig dangerous, Karlstad. Cf. 
 3, note, below. 
 
 (3) Initial /.is silent when followed by /. Ex.: 
 Ijnd sound, ljus light, ljuga to lie, ljuv sweet, ljung
 
 § 48 CONSONANTS 49 
 
 heather, Ljungan, Ljusnan, Ljunggren. The same 
 rule applies to posterior components of compound 
 words. 
 
 Note. — L is silent in v&rld world, and karl man. In the 
 proper name Karl, I is not silent, but in this case r is very 
 often silent; the / then becomes dental (or, to be more exact, 
 dental / is in this word often substituted for supradental I; 
 see § 36, 2 and 3). 
 
 m. 
 
 48- M has the sound of English m. Ex.: mjolk 
 milk, mamma mamma, malm ore, dogm dogma, 
 rymd space. 
 
 Note. — In words of foreign origin, final in becomes voice- 
 less when preceded by voiceless t or s; this is a sound strange 
 to English and consists simply of a breath through the nose 
 with the lips closed, and without vibration of the vocal 
 chords. Ex.: rytm rhythm, sarkas'm sarcasm, fanatis'm 
 fanaticism, schism schism, reumatis'm rheumatism. But 
 when, in inflected forms of these words, a vowel follows, the 
 normal (voiced) m is used; as, rytmen, schismer. So also 
 when another word immediately following in the sentence 
 begins with a vowel; as, reumatis'm i ryggen rheumatism 
 in the back. 
 
 n. 
 
 49. (1) Concerning the pronunciation of n, see 
 § 36, 2. Ex.: natt night, annan other, njuta to 
 enjoy, fnysa to sniff, snb snow, moln cloud, frysa 
 to freeze, namn name, sann true, vin wine. 
 
 Note. — 1. Concerning the orthographic designation of 
 long n, see § 18, b. 
 
 2. N is usually silent when preceded by m or ng and 
 followed by d, t, or s. Ex.: lugnt (pron. lungt; from lugn 
 calm), namnde, namnt (from niimna to mention ),jdmnl (from 
 jamn even), hamnd revenge, ugnsdorr (pron. ungs-) oven
 
 50 CONSONANTS § 49 
 
 door, vagnshjul (pron. vangs-) wagon wheel, namnsdag 
 name-day, regnskur (pron. rengskur) shower. 
 
 (2) Concerning the pronunciation of m, see 
 §36, 3. Ex.: barn child, jam iron, skorna (def, 
 plur. of sko shoe), bockerna (def. plur. of bok book), 
 Vat tern. 
 
 (3) N is pronounced like the digraph ng (see 4, 
 below): 
 
 (a) When followed by k, as in English. Ex.: 
 tanka to think, dunkel dark, vinka to beckon, 
 banket 7 banquet, konkur's (pron. also with the sound 
 of ri) bankruptcy, konkre't (pron. also with 11) con- 
 crete. 
 
 (b) In many words of foreign origin, n has the 
 sound of ng when followed by any consonant (ex- 
 cept ri)\ en followed by a consonant is in this case 
 pronounced ang. Ex.: annon's advertisement, pen- 
 sion (pron. pangsjo'ri) pension, elegan't (pron. also 
 with w) elegant, gi -n ti'l (pron. sjangti'l) genteel, pensi 
 pansy, intressan'f (pron. also with n) interesting, 
 plansch (pron. also with 11) picture, koine rt (pron. 
 also with 11) concert, arrange ' ra (pron. arangsje'ra) 
 to arrange. But not all such words have this sound; 
 the sound of n is used, for example, in intelligent 
 intelligence, konsekven's consistency. 
 
 (4) Ng has the sound of "ng" in "sing", "sing- 
 ing" (but not as in English "finger", which is 
 "ngg"). Ex.: ingen no one, finger finger, sang 
 song, /con/nig king, engelsk English, talang' talent, 
 salong' saloon (room). 
 
 Note. — Ng rarely has other sounds: ngg (as singula'r 
 or sin'gular singular, funge'ra to officiate); nj (as evange'lium
 
 § 50 CONSONANTS 5 r 
 
 gospel, ungef&'r about); ngg or nj (as tangen't key, 
 finge'ra to feign). 
 
 P- 
 
 50. P has the sound of English "p". Ex.: pa 
 on, pcppar pepper, pipa pipe, asp trembling poplar, 
 lapp patch, piece, pjunk squeamishness, spela to 
 play. 
 
 Note. — I. Initial p followed by n is not silent in Swedish; 
 as, pncuma'tisk pneumatic. 
 
 2. Initial p followed by 5 is silent in psalm psalm, and 
 psaltare psalter, but it is pronounced in Psilan'der. In 
 pseudony'm pseudonym, and psykologi' psychology, /> may 
 be pronounced, or it may be silent. 
 
 3. Ph, with the sound of/, occurs in a few proper names; 
 as, Josephson. Beyond this, ph does not occur; aoteplosop 1 
 philosophy. 
 
 q. 
 
 51. Q has the sound of k; it occurs only in proper 
 names, followed by v (u). Ex.: Qvarnstr'dm, Alm- 
 qvist. 
 
 r. 
 
 52. Concerning the pronunciation of Swedish r, 
 see § 36, 1. Ex.: rod red, vrida to turn, skriva to 
 write, tre three, fyra four, stirra to stare, narr 
 fool, storm storm, bar bare, oster east, hundra 
 hundred. 
 
 Note. — 1. Concerning the frequently silent r in Karl, see 
 
 § 47- 3. » ote - 
 
 2. Concerning silent r in connection with supradentals, 
 see § 36, 3. 
 
 3. Rh, with the sound of /', occurs in a few proper names; 
 as, Arrhe'niuSy Rhodi'n,
 
 52 CONSONANTS § 53 
 
 s. 
 
 53. (i) Concerning the pronunciation of s, see 
 § 36, 2. Ex.: se to see, skriva to write, skvalpa 
 to splash, svin pig, spjut spear, polsk Polish, poll's 
 police, passa to suit, slcksack zigzag, inrikes inland. 
 
 Note. — Swedish s never has the sound of "z", as very 
 often in English. Sp and st are never pronounced "schp", 
 "scht", as they are in German. 
 
 (2) On the pronunciation of rs, see § 36, 3. 
 Ex.: vers verse, stbrst (from stor large), mors (from 
 mor mother), gosscirs (from gosse boy), sommars 
 (from sommar summer), Jibrs (from libra to hear). 
 
 (3) ►S/V concerning the pronunciation of this, see 
 § 36, 4. Ex.: sjb lake, sju seven, sjalv myself , himself 
 (etc.). 
 
 (4) Sk has the sound of: 
 
 (a) sj before stressed soft vowels (and unstressed 
 soft vowels preceding the main stress, of which 
 there are very few cases). Ex.: sice to happen, 
 skbn beautiful, skilja to separate, skdra to cut, 
 skynda to hurry, maski'n machine. The same is 
 true in posterior components of compound words. 
 
 (b) s-\-k otherwise, i. e., (aa) before hard vowels 
 and consonants (except j; see 5 below); (bb) before 
 unstressed soft vowels in final syllables; (cc) when 
 final. Ex.: sko shoe, skada to hurt, skriva to write, 
 lysk German, handskc glove, flasket the pork, slaskig 
 sloppy, skar (from skdra to cut, with sj-) . 
 
 Note. — Sic has the sound of sj in a few words where, 
 according to the rules given, the sound sk would be expected; 
 as, manniska human being, marskal'k marshal. Kanske 
 (pron. with sj) perhaps, is a compound.
 
 § 54 CONSONANTS 
 
 Do 
 
 On the olher hand, s'c has in a few words the sound of 
 sk instead of sj; as, konjiske'ra to confiscate, riske'ra to 
 risk, skiss sketch, skeptisk (s/c or sj) skeptical, skelet't 
 (rarely with sj) skeleton. 
 
 (5) Skji which occurs in a few words before a hard 
 vowel, has the sound of sj. Ex.: skjorta shirt, 
 skjuta to shoot. 
 
 (6) Stj has the sound of sj. Ex.: stjdrna star, 
 stjala to steal. 
 
 (7) Sch has the sound of sj. Ex.: schal shawl, 
 schema schedule, scharla'kan scarlet, schaslong' couch, 
 plansch picture, broschy'r pamphlet, manschet't cuff, 
 galosch! rubber, musta'sch mustache, marsch march, 
 schism schism. 
 
 (8) Sc has the sound of: (a) ^ (as seen scene); 
 (b) sj (as krcsccii do crescendo); (c) s or sj (as 
 rekognosce ra to reconnoitre, konvalescen't convalescent, 
 reminiscen' s reminiscence, discip'c/ disciple, discipli'n 
 discipline. 
 
 (9) Si, ssi have the sound of sj. Ex.: divisio'n 
 division, pensio'n pension, missio'n mission, assiet't 
 (pron. with sj or si) small plate. Note that Asien 
 is pronounced with si. 
 
 t. 
 
 54. (1) On the pronunciation of /, see § 36, 2. 
 Ex.: tio ten, sta to stand, hatt hat, ha fa to hate, 
 tea'ter theater, Ate'n Athens, tsar czar. 
 
 Note. — 1. In a few words, / may he silent; as, kuve'rt en- 
 velope, konse'rt concert, desse'rt dessert. 
 
 2. T/i, occurring in proper nouns, has the sound of /; as, 
 Thorild, Boe'thius, Luther (hut ohserve that lutcrsk and lu- 
 tera'n are spelled with /).
 
 54 CONSONANTS § 55 
 
 (2) Concerning the pronunciation of rt, see §36, 3. 
 Ex.: hjiirta heart, fort fast, start (from stor large), 
 gjort (from gbra to do), fartyg vessel, borta away, 
 vackert (n. of vacker pretty). 
 
 (3) 7y has approximately the same sound as 
 English "ch". Ex.: tjugu twenty, tjana to serve, 
 tjock thick, tjuv thief. 
 
 (4) 77, followed by a vowel, has three sounds: 
 
 (a) When followed by o and preceded by any 
 consonant except r, ti has the sound of sj. Ex.: 
 lektio'n lesson, auktio'n auction, direktio'n direction, 
 subskriptio n subscription . 
 
 (b) When followed by and preceded by a vowel 
 or r, ti has the sound of / + sj. Ex.: nattin nation, 
 statio'n station, motio'n exercise, portio'n portion. 
 In a number of words either tsj or sj is used; as, 
 rekommendatio' n recommendation, emigratio'n emi- 
 gration, addition addition, revolution, revolution. 
 
 (c) When followed by a or e, ti has the sound 
 of tsi. Ex.: initiati'v initiative, initia'l initial, pro- 
 feti'a prophesy, justif ieminister minister of justice. — 
 Aktie share, is usually pronounced aksie; patient 
 patient, and licentia't licentiate, may be pronounced 
 pasicn't, lisensia't, or regularly. 
 
 Note. — The proper name Fritiof is pronounced fritjof. 
 
 V. 
 
 55. V has the sound of English v. Ex.: vi we, 
 vela to know, svag weak, kvist twig, tva two, dvdrg 
 dwarf, tolv twelve. 
 
 Note.— Concerning the assimilation of v before t and s, 
 see § 38.
 
 § 56 CONSONANTS • 55 
 
 w. 
 
 56. W, which occurs only in a few proper names, 
 and in words derived from these, has the sound of 
 v. Ex.: JValli'n, Wrangel, Schweiz Switzerland, 
 sckweizeri' cafe. 
 
 57- (0 A' usually has the sound of long k-\~s. 
 
 Ex.: sex six, lax salmon, oxe ox, vaxa to grow. 
 
 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. 
 
 (2). Initial x has the sound of hs or .<r. Ex.: xy- 
 logra'f xylographer, Xcnofon, Xaniip'pa, Xerxes. 
 
 (3) Xi (xj) has the sound of k + sj. Ex.: re- 
 flexio'n reflection, anncxio'n annexation, Vaxjb. 
 
 z. 
 
 58. (1) Z, which is of infrequent occurrence, has 
 the sound of Swedish s. Ex.: zige'nare gipsy, zink 
 zinc, zon zone, zoologi' zoology, Afze'lhis, BerzeUms, 
 Creutz , Fra nzen . 
 
 (2) Z has the sound of ts in Schweiz Switzerland, 
 and in words derived from this. 
 
 59- SUMMARIES RELATING TO CONSONANTS: 
 
 (1) The distinction between hard and soft vowels 
 is of importance in connection with the pronuncia 
 tion of g, k, sk, and, to a limited extent, e. 
 
 (2) The combinations gj, kj, skj have the same 
 sound as g, k, sk followed by front vowels. 
 
 (3) Initial d, /i t /, and g are silent when followed 
 
 by j.
 
 56 CONSONANTS § 59 
 
 (4) G, b, d, v usually become k, p, t, f wheu fol- 
 lowed by / or s. 
 
 (5) Rd, rt, rl, rn, rs have each a single sound, 
 that of the supradentals; no r is heard. 
 
 (6) Swedish consonants that have sounds differ- 
 ing materially from the corresponding English 
 sounds are: r, sj, the dentals (d, t, I, n, s), and the 
 supradentals. 
 
 (7) The following combinations always have the 
 sound of sj: sj, s/cj, stj, sch, si, ssi, ch (practically 
 always); the following letters and combinations 
 sometimes have the sound of sj: sk, g (ge), j, sc, ti. 
 — Of the letters and combinations representing the 
 .sy-sound, only sj, skj, stj, sk are used in words of 
 native origin; sch, ch, g (gc), j, sc, st, ssi, ti occur 
 only in words of foreign origin. 
 
 (8) The following always denote ^: s, z (almost 
 always), x (including k; almost always); the fol- 
 lowing sometimes denote s: c, sc, x (rarely), / (in 
 the combination ti, rarely). 
 
 (9) The following always denote the //'-sound: tj, 
 kj; the following sometimes denotes tj: k. 
 
 (10) The following always denotes the ;^-sound: 
 ng (practically always); the following sometimes: 
 
 (11) The following always denote the Swedish 
 y-sound: initial dj, hj, If, gj; the following sometimes 
 
 do: j (usually), g. 
 
 (12) The following always denotes the ^-sound: 
 q; the following sometimes: k, c, ch (rarely). — 
 L,ong k is represented by ck, ch (in och).
 
 § 60 UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION 57 
 
 (13) The following always denote the z'-sound: 
 v, w. 
 
 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-divisions group 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. 
 
 As each of the large divisions mentioned repre- 
 sents a large part of the total population, it is in 
 some cases difficult to decide which of two varying 
 pronunciations should be said to belong to the "riks- 
 sprak". 
 
 It is clear, then, that there is no absolutely rigid 
 norm of correct spoken Swedish. While the uni- 
 formity is great enough, it is not unnecessarily 
 pressed, leaving room for a sufficient amount of indi- 
 viduality. Indeed, with regard to a number of mat-
 
 58 UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION § 6l 
 
 ters, two (sometimes more) different pronunciations 
 are recognized as equally good, only as being char- 
 acteristic of different sections of the country. Even 
 in the case of the individual sounds there is in a 
 number of instances considerable freedom of choice 
 between two differing pronunciations, the free- 
 dom of choice varying somewhat with the dif- 
 ferent sounds in question. Here follows an account 
 of the most important sounds of this kind, in vary- 
 ing degree considered dialectic, though not in all 
 cases considered dialectic })y all scholars, and to a 
 considerable extent (varying somewhat with the dif- 
 ferent sounds) employed by educated Swedes. 
 
 61. A AND 6 BEFORE R. In the greater part of 
 Sweden the sounds of a (written also e) and b, both 
 long and short, become more open when followed 
 by r; but before r standing alone these open sounds 
 are less widespread than before r followed by a con- 
 sonant. This open sound of a lies midway between 
 the "e" of "met" and the "a" of "mat". The 
 open sound of b may be produced by placing the 
 tongue in position for the open sound of a, and 
 rounding the lips (with moderate protrusion) so 
 that the opening is large. Ex.: jam iron, svdrd 
 sword, piirla pearl, vdrre worse, hjdrta heart, vdrk 
 pain, vers verse, herre gentleman, verk work, Sverge 
 Sweden, perso'u person, brn eagle, Ibrdag Saturday, 
 brt herb, dorr door, bbrja to begin, fbrst first, mark 
 dark. 
 
 62- E AND A. In large parts of Central and North- 
 ern Sweden, e (the sound of § 20, I and 3), both 
 long and short, has changed into a sound lying be-
 
 § 63 UNIFORMITY UP PRONUNCIATION 59 
 
 tween Swedish e and a, and in considerable parts 
 of this general region, a (both long and short) has 
 changed into this same intermediate sound. In .some 
 places, notably in Stockholm, both these changes 
 have taken place; there no distinction is made be- 
 tween the sound of e and of a, but each is pro- 
 nounced with a sound lying between both. 
 
 63. R. In Southern Sweden, r is pronounced with 
 articulation far back in the mouth, either as a spi- 
 rant produced between the back portion of the tongue 
 and the soft palate, or, a trifle farther back pro- 
 duced through the vibration of the uvula between 
 the tongue and the palate. Both these varieties of 
 back r are usually employed by one and the same 
 individual, the uvular r representing more careful 
 and distinct speech than the spirant. 
 
 In the more northerly portion of Southern Swe- 
 den both the back and the front r (that of $36, 1) 
 are employed by the same individual, the back r 
 being used only initially, and, when long, between 
 vowels and finally (as in rod red, surr buzz, surra 
 to buzz). In words where a second r occurs, but 
 in a different position from those mentioned, both 
 r-sounds are in this case employed in the same word. 
 
 In that part of Southern Sweden where the back 
 r is used exclusively, there are no supradentals; 
 here back r is pronounced, followed by the dentals. 
 
 64- Tj. In place of the affricate (= stop followed 
 by the corresponding spirant) £/-sound, the spi- 
 rant alone is employed in a large part of Central 
 Sweden and in the northerly portion of Southern 
 Sweden, the stop being omitted. Medially before a
 
 60 UNIFORMITY OU PRONUNCIATION § 65 
 
 stressed vowel (as in arki'v archives, betjlin't ser- 
 vant) the spirant is used even by some who in 
 other cases employ the affricate. 
 
 Normally the spirant mentioned, both as contained 
 in the affricate and as pronounced alone, is one 
 lying a little more forward than German "ch" in 
 "ich". In some parts of Sweden, however, the spi- 
 rant used is one lying between the sounds of "ch" 
 in German "ich" and "Nachte". 
 
 65. Sj. In place of the normal .y'-sound, Southern 
 Sweden employs one that reminds much of the 
 sound we in English represent by "wh" (when this 
 is not pronounced like "w"), but in producing the 
 Swedish sound the distance between the tongue and 
 the palate is smaller, and the opening of the lips 
 larger. The Swedish sound is articulated just a 
 little forward of the "ch" in German "ach", and 
 has more labialization than this. 
 
 66- L. In most of the dialects of Central and 
 Northern Sweden a peculiar /-sound (really rather 
 an r-sound) is employed, but not in all positions of 
 the word. The sound in question is produced by 
 raising the tip of the tongue up toward the palate 
 and turning it backward, without touching any- 
 where (about as in the case of our American cacu- 
 minal "r", but with more tenseness of the tongue); 
 then the tongue is flapped forward into its normal 
 position in the mouth, or into the position of the 
 following sound if there is one, the tip usually 
 touching the rim of the palatal arch in passing. 
 Ex.: tal speech, gul yellow, valja to choose, folk 
 people, bid blue, bubbla bubble, skramla to rattle.
 
 § 67 ALPHABET, ORTHOGRAPHY 6l 
 
 This /, which is called cacuminal /, is in some 
 parts of Sweden usually employed also in place of 
 the supradental d (written rd)\ as, bord table, hard 
 hard, garde field. But it is used less often in the 
 case of inflectional forms, such as gjorde, gjord 
 (from gora to do). 
 
 NAMES OF THE LETTERS OF THE 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 G7- The names of the letters of the alphabet are: 
 a, be, se, de, e, aff, ge, ha, i, ji (or Jodd), hi, all, 
 amm, dim, o, pe, kit, arr, ass, te, u, vc, ve (=zt'), 
 aks, y, sata, a, a, o. 
 
 Note. — I. The sounds represented by the combinations 
 sj, tj, tig are called sje-ljudet, tje-ljudet, and ang-ljudet, re- 
 spectively. The supradentals are called supradcnta'lt de, etc. 
 
 2. The vowels in the vowel-names are long (because final) 
 and are pronounced with the vowel-quality belonging to the 
 long sound in each case; e and o have their normal long 
 quality, that described in § 20, 1, and § 22, 1. Also the 
 consonant-names are pronounced like real Swedish words; 
 the quality of the long c is the same as in the vowel-names; 
 the o in jodd is that of short a. The g of ge usually has 
 the sound of "g" in "go." 
 
 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 
 
 been only proper for the orthography tp^have been 
 changed as the pronunciation changed. 'Though the 
 Swedish orthography has been improved from time 
 to time\ the changes have by no means kept pace 
 with ~tne changing pronunciation. Another very 
 disturbing element is the borrowing of words from 
 other languages; in these, corresponding sounds are 
 in very many cases represented by letters and com- 
 binations different from those that Swedish would/ 
 use for those sounds, but the foreign spelling is 
 usually retained in Swedish. 
 
 In recent years there have been several important 
 changes in orthography, the latest being that of 
 April 7, 1906. The literature can only slowly fol- 
 low these changes. Comparatively few of the Swed- 
 ish books can be printed anew whenever a change 
 is officially adopted, and while most new books that 
 appear, are printed with the latest spelling, yet par- 
 ticularly newspapers and periodicals, for commercial 
 reasons, generally retain the older form of ortho- 
 graphy until the new one is pretty well established 
 among all classes. 
 
 The student must accordingly be prepared to meet 
 several stages of orthography in his reading. Even 
 if he were to choose only books with the newest 
 spelling, an acquaintance with the older forms of 
 orthography is necessary on account of the diction- 
 aries. There is at the present time (August, 1914) 
 no Swedish-English or Swedish-Swedish dictionary 
 conforming with the changes adopted in 1906, while 
 some of the dictionaries in use have a form of or- 
 thography that is still older.
 
 § 68 ORTHOGRAPHY 63 
 
 The orthography used for a number of years 
 prior to 1906 (employed in Wenstroin-Harlock's 
 Swedish-English dictionary) differs from the present 
 orthography (employed in this book and in my 
 "Swedish Grammar") in the following particulars: 
 the z/-sound is there very often represented by f,fv, 
 or hv; the sound of tt and t is very often written dt. 
 In detail: 
 
 (1) The orthography superceded in 1906 employs: 
 (a) f (pron. v, and now written v) in native words 
 finally and when followed by a consonant; as, bref 
 (now brev) letter, kalf (now kalv) calf, ha/re (now 
 havre) oats, silfret (now silvret) silver, (b) fv 
 (pron. v, and now written v) medially when fol- 
 lowed by a vowel; as, brefvet (now brevet) the 
 letter, kalfven (now kalven) the calf, silfver (now 
 silver') silver, hafva (now hava) to have. 
 
 (2) At the beginning of some twenty-five words, 
 some of these being of very frequent occurrence, it 
 employes a silent h before v; as, hvad (now vad) 
 what, hvem (now vem ) who, hvarje (now varje) 
 every, hviska (now viska) to whisper, hvit (now 
 vit) white. 
 
 (3) It employs dt (pron. // or t) finally and 
 (less often) medially in certain cases where //, / is 
 now used. Except for a few individual words, it 
 is chiefly a question of cases where the neuter end- 
 ing / has been added to words and forms ending in 
 d, dd (which, by assimilation, have become voiceless, 
 i. e., /, tt); as, godt (now gott; f rom god good) , 
 bebod't (now bebot't; from bebod'd inhabited), mildt 
 (now milt; from mild mild), byggdt (now byggt; from
 
 64 ORTHOGRAPHY § 68 
 
 byggd, past part, of bygga to build), ledt (now left; 
 from ledd, past part, of leda to lead), sandt (now 
 siint; from sand, past part, of sanda to send), «/- 
 skadt (now alskat; from cilskad, past part, of £&&z 
 to love), kandte'ra (now hante'ra) to handle, landt- 
 bmk (now lantbruk) farming, gladtig (now g/dttig) 
 cheerful. 
 
 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: 
 
 (i) It has e (pron. a ) in many instances where 
 the later forms have a; as, prest (now prast) clergy- 
 man, sjette (now sjdttc) sixth. The present form of 
 orthography still has e (= a) in many words; see 
 § 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. 
 
 (4) It has gt (pron. kt, by assimilation) for the 
 later kt; as, slagt (now sliikf) family, vigt (now 
 vikf) weight, flygt (now flykt) flight, ansigte (now 
 ansikte) fac^. But where the neuter ending / is 
 added to a word ending in g, and in a few other 
 cases, the spelling gt is still used; note the cases 
 mentioned ii: § 38, particularly those in the note.
 
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