Re: Scandinavian Languages

Quoting Tristan McLeay <kesuari@...>:

> Andraes Johanssunu Æ¿raet:
> > Exactly what vowel it is depends on dialect. In mine, it's a high central
> > rounded vowel. Some dialects have a labialized (same lip position as
> > Swedish "o" if that's any help) version of this, some a labialized [2]
> (mid-
> > high front rounded). None is exactly usual, and substituting [y] or [u] is
> a
> > bad idea - those are both claimed by other phonemes (don't even think of
> using
> > a plain [2]!).
>
> What's the lip position of Swedish 'o' and how do labialised [2] and
> plain [2] differ? :)
I'm sort of hoping that BP will come to my rescue, but I'll try to explain.

Swedish, of course, have front rounded vowels, [y:], [Y], [2:] and [2] (and
allophonic [9(:)], plus that there's dialects with extras ...). There are also
so-called back rounded vowels, which are pronouced with the lips thrust
forward a bit and more rounded than normal rounded vowels; I guess you could
SAMPAcize them as [u^w:], [U^w], [o^w:] and [O^w], but the labialization is
normally left not indicated - it's subphonemic anyway. "Swedish 'o'" is [u^w:]
and [U^w], which are spelt |o| (which grapheme also spells [o^w:] and [O^w],
which phones can also be spelt |å| (a-ring); English does not monopolize
atrocious vowel spellings). For some speakers, including BP but not me, /}/ is
labialized. For me the short variant is [8] and the long [}:]; I think
BP's 'lect has [8^w] and [2^w:], but he better answers that himself. For those
with [2^w], the labialization is phonemic in this case, distinguishing /}/
and /2/. (Then there also dialects that have merged /2/ with /}/, but I don't
know how they realize it.)

                                                        Andreas