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The chart below shows how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Swedish pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. The pronunciation is based primarily on Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology for details about pronunciation.
^ abcdeIn many of the dialects that have an apicalrhotic consonant, a recursive Sandhi process of retroflexion occurs wherein clusters of /r/ and dental consonants /rd/, /rl/, /rn/, /rs/, /rt/ produce retroflex consonant realizations: [ɖ], [ɭ], [ɳ], [ʂ], [ʈ]. In dialects with a guttural R, such as Southern Swedish, these are [ʁd], [ʁl], [ʁn], [ʁs], [ʁt].
^Swedish /ɧ/ is a regionally variable sound, sometimes [xʷ], [ɸˠ], or [ʂ].
^/r/ varies considerably in different dialects. It is pronounced alveolar or similarly in virtually all dialects except South Swedish dialects where it is uvular, similar to the Parisian French "r". At the beginning of a syllable, it can also be pronounced as a fricative [ʒ] as in English "genre" or "vision".
^ abcdeBefore /r/, the quality of non-high front vowels is changed: /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ are lowered to [æ] and [æː]; whereas the mid /œ/ and /øː/ are lowered to open-mid [œ] and [œː]. For simplicity, no distinction is made between the mid [œ] and the open-mid [œ]; both are transcribed with ⟨œ⟩.
^ ab[ɵ] and [ʉ] are unstressed allophones of a single phoneme /ɵ/ (stressed /ɵ/ is always realized as [ɵ]):
[ɵ] is used mantatorily in closed syllables (as in kultur[kɵlˈtʉːr]), but it can also appear in open syllables (as in musikal[mɵsɪˈkɑːl]). This includes cases where resyllabification caused by retroflexion makes the syllable open, as in kurtisan[kɵʈɪˈsɑːn].
[ʉ] appears only in open syllables. In some cases, [ʉ] is the only possible realization, as in e.g. känguru[ˈɕɛŋːɡʉrʉ], as well as always when /ɵ/ appears in hiatus, e.g. duell[dʉˈɛlː].
In other cases [ɵ] is in free variation with [ʉ], so that e.g. musik can be pronounced as either [mɵˈsiːk] or [mʉˈsiːk] (Riad (2014:28-29)). For simplicity, in case of such variation we always use the symbol [ɵ].
^ abThe distinction between compressed [ʉ] and protruded [ʏ] is particularly difficult to hear for non-native speakers:
Compressed [ʉ] sounds very close to German compressed [ʏ] (as in müssen[ˈmʏsn̩]).
Protruded [ʏ] sounds more similar to English unrounded [ɪ] (as in hit) than to German compressed [ʏ], and is very close to Norwegian protruded [ʏ] (as in nytt[nʏtː]).
^ abThe distinction between compressed [ʉː] and protruded [yː] is particularly difficult to hear for non-native speakers:
Compressed [ʉː] sounds very close to German compressed [yː] (as in üben[ˈyːbn̩]).
Protruded [yː] sounds more similar to English unrounded [iː] (as in leave) than to German compressed [yː], and is very close to Norwegian protruded [yː] (as in lys[lyːs]).
^ abPlaced before the stressed syllable. In case of words with the second toneme, ⟨²⟩ is used instead of the primary stress mark.
^ abUnless needed, this narrow transcription of the Stockholm tonemes will not be used in articles.
Bibliography
Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1