Re: [tied] Palatals, labials and velars in Swedish

From: squilluncus
Message: 44823
Date: 2006-05-31

_____________________________________________
> Rick:
> Last month I had a Swedish university professor from the U
Stockholm
> tell me to be careful not to step in the , I'm guessing
> this is the sound you're talking about.
>
> Lars:
> Exactly.
> ----------------------
>
> I am very curious to know what this /hondxweyt/ is. Would that
be spelled [håndskejt]?

Hundskit: canine fecalia (hounds' shit). In a well-organized
lutheran state controlled society you don't have to worry about this.
In Sweden substantial fines await the dog owner who hasn't his
little plastic bag handy to pick up the remnants of his dog's
visceral evacuations. Therefore a Swede must look up (or rather:
down) when treading the ground of foreign territory.

> _____________________________________________________
> Squilluncus answering Andrew:
> It is a bit of a mystery. Try imagining blowing out a candle
having
> a big chew of bread on top of your tongue.
>
> Lars:
> Swedish possesses a peculiar articulation of lips. The sje
consonant
> is (by me and many unchic persons of my generation) pronounced
> entirely by using the lips only for sibilation.
> Then there is the vowel sound written U, which is very pointed
(more
> than Québecois titUbant).
> --------------------
>
> I believe I once saw the Swedish "long u" sound transcribed
as /yw/, while its "long y" was transcribed as /yj/. Are such
transcriptions accurate, or are they simplifications/just plain
wrong?

It is true that all long vowels in Swedish are diphthongs. But the
end part (w j) is more a consonant than a vowel. Therefore many
Swedes live with the illusion that their language is monophthongic.
What is considered a long i: is therefore an i + the voiced variant
of c^. In the province of Bohuslän this element approaches a voiced
z ressembling as I have mentioned Québecois Abitibi. A proof that
Canada was doubly colonized first by Leif Eriksson and then in the
beginning of the XVIIth century by descendants of vikings settled in
Normandy.

> Lars:
> It is an irony of fate that Swedes are the leading addicts in the
world of enjoying ground tobacco tucked under the lip (upper,
> mostly): lip-snuff. This is of course a major threat to the system
> and the most safe place for articulating sounds without
> disequilibrating the tucked in snuff is velars. /x/ has everything
> for a future success.
> --------------
>
> Maybe they can make the Swedish [sj]-sound when they spit it out.

If this is possibly without causing abstinence problems. This maybe
the key to legendary reticence of the inhabitants in the (for Europe
rather vast) woodlands.

Lars