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The Swedish language is known by many to be a melodic one, and many say that Swedes sound like they’re singing when they speak. Is this true?<\/p>\nThe Swedish language is known by many to be a melodic one, and many say that Swedes sound like they’re singing when they speak. Is this true?<\/p>\n
Well, in truth, it depends largely on who’s speaking! Less individually, more regionally. In many parts of Sweden, people speak with a rather “flat” tone – compare Gothenburg Swedish with, for example, Scanian. Gothenburg is a city on the west cost of Sweden, near Oslo, Norway. Scania is the region furthest south in Sweden, right across the water from Denmark. Gothenburg Swedish (known to Swedes as g\u00f6teborgska<\/em>) has a particularly “singing” tone. Scanian (Swedish sk\u00e5nska<\/em>), on the other hand, has a rather flat tone with a downward tendency. Stockholm Swedish, which is generally considered very close to “Standard Swedish”, is somewhere in the middle of these, but not really. It’s sing-y, but in a different way.<\/p>\n In Standard Swedish, there are two main “tone” patterns called\u00a0tone accents<\/strong> – one where only one syllable is stressed (emphasized), and the other where two syllables are stressed. The former is called acute tone accent<\/em> whereas the second is called grave tone accent<\/em>. These “tone accents” are not to be confused with dialects – they are tonal patterns within<\/em> accents.<\/p>\n So what’s the difference?<\/strong>\u00a0 Here’s an example. Think of the English word “blackboard”, what a teacher might write on using chalk. Where’s the stress?<\/p>\n Blackboard:\u00a0 BLACK-board<\/em><\/p>\n This is the English equivalent of the acute accent<\/em>. The acute (single stressed) syllable doesn’t have to be the first, though:<\/p>\n Parkour:\u00a0 par-KOUR<\/em> are also examples. The grave accent<\/em>, on the other hand, is when you say:<\/p>\n Black board:\u00a0 BLACK BOARD<\/em><\/p>\n as two words. Here, we’re talking about a board that is black. A “black board”. Notice that you stress both the first word “black” and the second word “board”.<\/p>\n In Swedish, this distinction is very important.<\/strong> These two words have entirely different meanings:<\/p>\n stegen<\/em> – the steps (from ett steg<\/em>, “a step”) Stegen<\/em> as in “the steps” is pronounced as if you’re saying “blackboard” as one word. STEG-en<\/em>. BLACK-board. STEG-en<\/em>.<\/p>\n Stegen<\/em> as in “the ladder” is pronounced as if you’re saying “black board” as two words. STE-GE<\/em>. BLACK BOARD. STE-GE<\/em>.<\/p>\n Got it?! Other words like this are:<\/p>\n Acute:\u00a0 normen<\/em> – “the norm” (from en norm<\/em>) Acute:\u00a0 modet<\/em> – “the courage” (from mod<\/em>) Acute:\u00a0 tanken<\/em> – “the tank” (from en tank<\/em>) Swedish is full of these differences – the key is to learn the word without any ending! For example, for the word “thought”, learn that it’s base form is tanke<\/em>. If you know the tone accent of the base word, you’ll know that tanken<\/em> with the meaning “the thought” has the same tone accent. When you’ve mastered tone accents, you’ll sing just like a Swede!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Swedish language is known by many to be a melodic one, and many say that Swedes sound like they’re singing when they speak. Is this true? Well, in truth, it depends largely on who’s speaking! Less individually, more regionally. In many parts of Sweden, people speak with a rather “flat” tone – compare Gothenburg…<\/p>\n
\nVacation:\u00a0 va-CA-tion<\/em><\/p>\n
\nstegen<\/em> – the ladder (from en stege<\/em>, “a ladder”)<\/p>\n
\nGrave:\u00a0 norrm\u00e4n<\/em> – “Norwegians” (from en norrman<\/em>)<\/p>\n
\nGrave:\u00a0 modet<\/em> – “the fashion” (from mode<\/em>)<\/p>\n
\nGrave:\u00a0 tanken<\/em> – “the thought” (from en tanke<\/em>)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/05\/audio-2202_640-350x233.jpg\")