{"id":522,"date":"2010-08-26T14:39:07","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T14:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=522"},"modified":"2010-08-26T14:39:07","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T14:39:07","slug":"how-to-pronounce-l-in-norwegian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/how-to-pronounce-l-in-norwegian\/","title":{"rendered":"How to pronounce L in Norwegian"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been requested that I write a post on hvordan bokstaven l <\/em>uttales<\/strong> (how the letter l <\/strong><\/em>is pronounced). \u00a0By the way, I like suggestions for writing material, so keep them coming! \u00a0Thanks, Jens. \u00a0Not only is it good to write more posts about pronunciation, but I was actually just thinking about l <\/strong><\/em>sounding like\u00a0r <\/strong><\/em>sometimes too! \u00a0So this forces me to think about it.<\/p>\n

For the most part, the uttalelse <\/strong>(pronunciation) of the letter l <\/strong><\/em>is fairly straight-forward, but as Jens pointed out in his comment on an earlier post about the letter r, <\/strong><\/em>sometimes, depending on where you are in Norway, l <\/strong><\/em>can sound like\u00a0r <\/em><\/strong>as strange as that may sound. \u00a0When I hear words with l<\/strong><\/em>s in them that sound like r<\/strong><\/em>s, I am reminded of dansk <\/strong>(Danish). \u00a0I\u00b4m reminded of dansk<\/strong> because so much of spoken Danish is formed in the back of the throat. \u00a0There are many different descriptions of what dansk<\/strong> sounds like, my personal favorite: like they\u00b4ve got a potato lodged in the back of their throat and they have to pronounce, sort of, around it. \u00a0Well, norsk<\/strong> can sound like this too from time to time. \u00a0Not surprising since the 2 languages are very similar in construction, vocabulary, and in written form. \u00a0But, l <\/strong><\/em>sounding like r <\/em><\/strong>is one of the only instances that I have observed that cause me to think the 2 languages sound similar to the ear.<\/p>\n

Most of the time, when l <\/em><\/strong>is at the beginning of a word, such as:<\/p>\n

land<\/strong> (country)<\/p>\n

laks<\/strong> (salmon)<\/p>\n

luft<\/strong> (air)<\/p>\n

lov<\/strong> (law)<\/p>\n

it sounds just like any l <\/em>in English. \u00a0Just a plain old <\/span>l.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The same is also true for most <\/span>ls that end a word, such as:<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

stjal<\/span> (stole)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

smil <\/span>(smile)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

hel<\/span> (whole)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

b\u00e5l<\/span> (fire)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And, Jens\u00b4example of the word Hallingdal <\/em>(place in central Norway), he heard people there pronouncing the l<\/strong><\/em> as if it were kind of an r<\/strong><\/em>-I say kind of because it\u00b4s not a full-blown r<\/em><\/strong>, but just slightly resembles one. \u00a0The word, or name in this case, that made me start to think about this peculiar pronunciation mystery is the last name Mikalsen<\/em>. \u00a0I recently met someone with this last name and when I asked him what his etternavn <\/strong>(last name) was so that I could put his nummer<\/strong> in my kontakter<\/strong>, he said Mikalsen<\/em>. \u00a0I started to type it how I thought it would be spelled, Mikarlsen. \u00a0I showed it to him, he kind of laughed, and told me to take the r <\/em><\/strong>out. \u00a0The way to form this sound is to really loosen your jaw and when you are ready to pronounce the l<\/strong>, drop your tongue farther into the back of your mouth and let it lay on the back of the roof of your mouth instead of where it normally lays against the back of your bottom front teeth. \u00a0This is quite frankly, quite hard to explain, but give it a whirl. \u00a0I\u00b4ll keep my eyes peeled for a youtube example….until then, you can laugh at yourself for how funny you think you sound (guaranteed, I just did when I was sitting here thinking about how to explain it).<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been requested that I write a post on hvordan bokstaven l uttales (how the letter l is pronounced). \u00a0By the way, I like suggestions for writing material, so keep them coming! \u00a0Thanks, Jens. \u00a0Not only is it good to write more posts about pronunciation, but I was actually just thinking about l sounding…<\/p>\n

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