Palatals, labials and velars in Swedish

Andrew:
Thought I might mention that that same Swedish for Tourists
claims "kära" should be pronounced "chairah" by English speakers,
i.e. with an affricate that you say is no longer used in Sweden (and
which was probably not the same as English "ch" in "chair"). Why do
these publications feel they must oversimplify and thereby
misrepresent foreign pronunciation (a rhetorical question)?

Lars:
This is functional to make yourself understood. Or else the author
would have had to double or tripple the number of pages going into
the depth of phonology, phonetics and phonematics. I doubt that the
average tourist has the patience to indulge into that.
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Aquila Grande:

Norwegian:

Kjære (unvoised platal spirant) -dear

Sjkære (unvoised retroflex) - to cut

Lars:
In many Swedish dialects the retroflex is a reality, also in
sam.dhi: "Han köper skor"/han c^ö:p& ---s.ku:r/. This complexity
with a French ch as in Champagne, a retroflex s.and a labial sh as
in English, might have contributed to the latter being ousted to be
a plain labial sibilant.
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Mate:

Are you sure it is considered vulgar? I heard it is considered a male
characteristic. However, I have met two Swedish teachers (30
something)
from Uppsala and the man had a /s^/, while the woman had a /x/. She
did
not consider it vulgar though and that was the way she pronounced
"Standard" Sweidish.

Mate again:
Is it true that men tend to pronounce /x/ more than women? That is an
interesting phenomenon...

Lars:
Pronunciation sh as in English is called "fruntimmers-sje" (women's
she-sound).
Plain labial sibilant is (was?) macho. Upperclass girls' schools
might have created this gender shiboleth. Males using this (if not
from the Wild North) might be considered queer.
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Torsten:
I think the /s^/ is academically correct and /xW/ is Stockholm chic.
Am
I right Lars?

Lars:
I suspect so too. As I said in my earlier posting this might be the
received pronunciation in the upcoming generations.
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Harald:

It's not considered vulgar. /s^/ is normal and characteristic of
people from
the north (say north of Hudiksvall). South of that the norm is /x/,
so much
more people use /x/.

Lars:
I didn't say s^ was vulgar.
Stockholm chic /x/ is not used generally (at least not in my
generation) in the south.
Perhaps you are too young to have watched Birgitta Andersson
in "Te/x/edsgumman" having the dialect in and around /X/övde. I
think this variation really is considered vulgar, even by the
average inhabitant of Skövde.
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Rick:
Last month I had a Swedish university professor from the U Stockholm
tell me to be careful not to step in the <hondxweyt>, I'm guessing
this is the sound you're talking about.

Lars:
Exactly.

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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).
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.

Lars