--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:
>
> Thank you for this information, but what I actually meant to ask
>you was whether Swedish "long u" really had /y/ as its first
>element, followed by /w/.
No, it is not /y/ nor /ü/ or similar. I quote Bertil Malmberg,
Lärobok i fonetik, Lund 1969, p88: "This typical Swedish vowelsound
has always given phoneticians difficulties when classifying it
accurately. Formerly it was considered a middle-tongue vowel, but
later research has shown that the vowel is purely palatal having a
tongue position somewhat more close than the one for [e] but more
open than for [i]. The sound is also diphthongic as is the case with
[i] and [y] finishing with with a consonantic friction sound
(bilabial for /u,/). The vowel is best described thus: it unites a
half closed position of the tongue with a very special
labialisation . The lips are not protruded as is the case for [y]
but contracted in a very characteristic way (photo)." (my hasty
translation).
Further Malberg says that it has evolved from a former velar
articulation via middletongueposition to a fronted vowel.
So far Malmberg. Note though from this last statement that it is
still considered a 'hard' vowel not palatalizing /k/: "kul" is
pronounced /ku,:l/ whereas "kyla" is pronounced /c^y:la/.
> But I am quite surprised to hear that all Swedish long vowels are
>diphthongs. I thought English was the ugly duckling in this
>regard. Is even "long e" pronounced as a diphthong, and if so, how
>is it different from the diphthong "long ä" might be? And is "long
>a" a diphthong? If so, what combination of sounds is it?
Sorry, under influence of fatigue and a glass of wine I made too
hasty a statement; it is only the closed /i: y: u,: and u: (as in
mo:der)/ that have 'consonantic friction' as mentioned above.
I invite to the following site where you can get exact Hertz number
of the Swedish vowels as well as listen to them:
http://www.ling.su.se/staff/hartmut/svok.htm
There you can hear the difference between vowels with friction and
those without. A warning though: the /ä/ is pronounced too open by
the Stockholmers who in their dialect are unable to distinguish
between /e/ and /ä/. (It's a good thing that they don't display
their vulgar /xw/ on the world wide web!)
Lars