Normally, learners of a second language like Swedish want to learn the standard version, which for Swedish as known as rikssvenska or standardsvenska. Yet, Sweden, being the long, vast country it is, has numerous dialects spoken in all the different parts of the country — some big, some small. So even if your goal is to be proficient in standard Swedish, it is a good idea to understand how Swedish dialects can vary.

Dialects in general can differ in many ways: pronunciation, vocabulary, even grammar. Within each of these categories are various subcategories. Here, you can read all about how Swedish dialects differ in terms of pronunciation.

CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

Individual sounds are pronounced differently in different parts of Sweden. This goes for both consonants and vowels.

In standard Swedish, for example, we pronounce sj- toward the back of the mouth. In many of the dialects of Norrland (norrländska), Sweden’s northern two-thirds, that sound is actually pronounced closer to the English sh-. (Sweden’s northern two-thirds are often grouped together due to their sparse population.)

In southern Swedish dialects such as Scanian (skånska), sj- is pronounced as in standard Swedish, but the letter r is pronounced at the back of the mouth, like in German. In these dialects, consonant clusters such as -rs are pronounced with r and s separated.

In some dialects around the border between the Östergötland (östgötska) and Småland (småländska) regions, the pronunciation of r varies depending on its position in a word — for example, the word röra, “to touch”, is pronounced something like “wöra“, where w is pronounced as in English and r is at the back of the mouth. Cool, right?

Even vowels have varying pronunciation in different parts of Sweden. In standard Swedish, ö is pronounced differently as a long vowel than as a short vowel. In parts of Uppland (uppländska), especially the city of Uppsala, the long and short pronunciations of ö have become one — both are pronounced as the standard short ö, but when the vowel is long, the upplänningar pronounce it slightly longer.

In many parts of Scania (Skåne – see also Scanian/skånska above), the vowel u is famous for being pronounced closer to a standard Swedish y. The Scanian y, as a result, has been pushed to a different position. The Scanian dialects are also known for their diphthongs — på (“on”) is pronounced something like a standard Swedish pöo — which have likely appeared as a result of the region once having been controlled by Denmark and Danish speakers.

INTONATION

Dialects can also vary in their intonation, academically known as prosody. For those of you who don’t know, intonation is the melody of the language.

Standard Swedish is generally said to have a “falling tone” (fallande ton), meaning that sentences generally start with a high tone, and that tone gets lower as the sentence goes on.

In the dialects of Västergötland (called västgötska) and Bohus län, where Gothenburg or Göteborg (göteborgska) is located, sentences often start with a high tone, move down to a low tone, and finally return to a high tone. In this way, it is very similar to, and likely a result of contact with, Oslo Norwegian. Many Swedes find this dialect particularly “friendly” or even “adorable”.

In many southern dialects (sydsvenska), one can observe intonational differences even at the word level. Take the word äta, “to eat”, for example. In standard Swedish, this is pronounced with double emphasis, meaning that both syllables are stressed. In sydsvenska, as well as in much of norrländska, there is only one main stress, and that is on the first syllable. So, instead of saying Ä-TA, they say something like Ä-ta. The same goes for compounds like papperspåse, “paper bag”. In standard Swedish, we say PAPP-ers-PÅS-e, while in the aforementioned dialects, they say PAPP-ers-pås-e.

What kind of Swedish do the Swedes you know speak? Skånska? Östgötska? Is it easy or hard for you to understand them? What kind of Swedish do you ultimately want to learn? Tell us about it in the comments!