# How to acquire native Swedish accent?



## laurent485

I am a Swedish learner. While grammar and vocabulary are not too complicated, Swedish accent really poses big challenges for me. To get myself used to native Swedish accent (Rikssvenska accent), I listen to Sveriges Radio about 3 hours per day (that's the only way for me as I don't live in Sweden). When I read Swedish texts, I pay considerable attention to the particular phonetic features in Swedish such as stress timing (stressed syllables always long while unstressed always short), the unique intonation (accent 1 and 2). I recorded what I read and I find that something is still missing in my way of speaking compared to native Swedish accent. So I wonder whether it is possible for an ADULT language learner to acquire a native or a near-native accent. Could any native Swedish speakers give exemples that someone non Swedish native manage to speak Swedish without accent?


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## Tjahzi

As you have already concluded, this is an extremely hard task. I personally can't think of any adult speaker who has completely removed his/her accent. The closest was the Norwegian Arabic teacher at my university who has lived his last 30-35 years in Sweden. After talking a while, I noticed he his _u_:s were overrounded and prolonged. 

That said, it's always worth trying. My experience of Chinese speakers are that they usually fair rather bad, with the most obvious errors (ignoring grammar) being the realization of /r/ and intonation. However, I'm curious of whether you, as a speaker of a tonal language (Mandarin?), are able to _hear_ the differences between accent 1 and 2. (Many second language learner of non-tonal languages never acquire this ability). So, can you tell _stegen _and _stegen_ etc apart when heard spoken? That of course is a good first step to being able to produce this difference oneself. 
Regarding long and short syllables, I would also like to stress the importance of the quality of the vowel. As of now, I would say that it is almost equally important as the length of the vowel. In normal speech (when one wishes to speak quickly and effortlessly), it's possible to pronounce a long vowel short, as long as the quality is that of the short one. This might not be an ideal to pursue for a non-native learner, but rather an example of the importance of vowel quality.

In order not to be too general, is there anything in particular that you find troublesome?


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## Ben Jamin

laurent485 said:


> I am a Swedish learner. While grammar and vocabulary are not too complicated, Swedish accent really poses big challenges for me. To get myself used to native Swedish accent (Rikssvenska accent), I listen to Sveriges Radio about 3 hours per day (that's the only way for me as I don't live in Sweden). When I read Swedish texts, I pay considerable attention to the particular phonetic features in Swedish such as stress timing (stressed syllables always long while unstressed always short), the unique intonation (accent 1 and 2). I recorded what I read and I find that something is still missing in my way of speaking compared to native Swedish accent. So I wonder whether it is possible for an ADULT language learner to acquire a native or a near-native accent. Could any native Swedish speakers give exemples that someone non Swedish native manage to speak Swedish without accent?


 
Theoretically it is possible (I do not know such a person myself, though), but very difficult. But why should one try at all? The most importatnt thing is that everybody understands 100% of what you say. This is possible when your pronunciation is 95% correct, and your intonation 80% correct. This is possible after let's say 4000 hours of learning Why then should one waste another 6000 hours to achieve 100% correct pronunciation and intonation?


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## laurent485

Thank you Tjahzi for your comments ESPECIALLY those concerning pronunciation difficulties experienced by Chinese speakers. For the R realization, it was difficult for me to roll my tongue at the beginning as the rolled R doesn't exist in Mandarin. It took me finally around 3 months to get to pronounce the rolled R with ease. As with Swedish accents 1 and 2, I don't have too much trouble to distingue and pronounce them, perhaps thanks to my mother tongue (you are quite right, there are 4 tones in Chinese). 

I still have some difficulty to pronounce sounds like in, ing, an, ang, än, äng, on. I tend to nasalize these vowels as in Chinese they are always nasalized. 

The difference between manners of articulation in Swedish and Chinese maybe can explain my Swedish doesn't sound naturally, but I'm not sure. I have an impression that in Swedish vowels and consonants are articulated more at the back of tongue/mouth, while in Chinese the place of articulation is at the front of the mouth. So I guess English or Norwegian speakers should articulate Swedish sounds more accuretely than Chinese. Also, I think Swedish people speak Norwegian with indistinguishible accent. Is it true?


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## Ben Jamin

laurent485 said:


> Also, I think Swedish people speak Norwegian with indistinguishible accent. Is it true?


The intonation of Swedish and Norwegian, though similar in the ears of a non Nordic speaker, is actally quite different.
The Swedish speakers living in Norway are usually recognizable after a few words they have uttered. The main reason is however not the failed attempt at learning perfect Norwegian, but the lack of such effort. Swedish speakers in Norway do not feel any pressure on themselves to learn flawless Norwegian. In fact most of Swedish residents in Norway continue to speak Swedish their whole life, only partially adjusting their vocabulary to avoid misunderstandings. With the time passing they develop a kind of hybrid language that is somewhere between Swedish and Norwegian, mostly in respect to the vocabulary.


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## Tjahzi

Ahh, now that you mention it, the Chinese habit of nasalizing entire syllables is indeed a very characteristic one!

And yes, I picked the example with the Norwegian academic, Norwegian, whose accent is the closest, still absolutely not identical, to Swedish, to illustrate how hard it is. And he definitely spoke Swedish, not the hybrid languages that Swedes and Norwegians tend to adopt when abroad.

Additionally, if you can do "that rolled /r/", it's very good, and maybe advisable in order to be sure to distinguish it from /l/. However, it's my opinion that /r/ is usually realized as a flap/tap in standard Swedish. 

Good job on the accents, although their importance is neglectable, at least in comparison to Mandarin. 

The more I think of it, I'm inclined to advise you not to focus too much on vowel length. Trying to imagine the speech of the waiter of my local Chinese restaurant, I hear a lot of long vowels, but they mostly interrupt the intonation. (That is, the words appear to be broken down into syllables, like in Sino-Tibetan languages. However, this could be an error of its own rather than an effect of vowel lengthening.) Anyhow, as much as possible, try to focus on vowel quality.


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## AutumnOwl

It is possible to get a very good Swedish pronunciation as an adult, but it's very difficult, especially if you don't live in Sweden and hear and talk Swedish every day, but it's not necessary to have a perfect Swedish accent to be understood. I work as a medical secretary at a hospital and we have doctors from many different countries, and some of them have a very good Swedish accent, others haven't, and there are some who speak an almost perfect Swedish. As far as I can say it doesn't matter from what country they are from, whether they are able to learn to speak Swedish without a foreign accent or not, even if they come from the same country, some have more difficulties with finding a correct Swedish pronunciation.


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## Sepia

Listening to languages in your sleep also helps your phnetics along - sometimes more than you really want it to ...

Look, I am not trying to revive the thesis that you could learn languages in your sleep. I don't buy that either.

But I think it is a prooven fact that what you listen to in your sleep can really influence your pronounciation and I have actually experienced two funny examples of this:

I was staying in a hostel in Amsterdam where quite a lot of people slept in one room. One afternoon, one Canadian girl was sleeping on a bunk next to me and another person speaking in Danish for quite a long time. The Canadian girl could only speak English and some French. However, the next night she woke me up by speaking in her sleep, actually repeating half a phrase in Danish in exactly the same accent as the person I had been talking with!

Second example: For a while I had had not contact with English speaking persons and also had no chance of watching English language movies (mainly AE). So I listened a lot to BBC and often had the radio on when I fell asleep. Normally I speak in a mixture of AE and Canadian English. But the next time I spoke with a native English speaker (from Ireland) she told me later she had thought I came from London. (I had had no intention of changing the way I speak)

So believe me, it works.


And if listening to Swedish radio becomes too boring - if your Internet connection is fast enough there are a lot of TV-programmes to watch directly from the public TV channel on their website.


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## laurent485

Thank you Sepia for your advice and encouraging results you have had. Actually I tried to get rid of the influence of Chinese language on me and only think in Swedish. When I speak Swedish, I just try to imagine that I am a Sweden born people (en infödd svenk). Sometimes there has been a psychologic effect on me making me feel that I speak correctly.


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## Havfruen

Those are some funny stories. I listen to BBC while sleeping and I still speak English like an American. My accent changes depending where in US I live, but it's very neutral so no one can guess where I'm from.

I lived in Denmark for a year and during the last month I was talking to someone in Danish and they asked if I were from Norway. I think if you can learn one nordic language well enough that natives think you are from another nordic country, that is quite good enough! Then when I visited Montreal on vacation, I spoke French and they thought I was from Manitoba (English-speaking part of Canada, but all Canadians learn French in school). In both cases I was proud I was not obviously American.


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## Delfinen

Hej, Laurent485! Eftersom du verkar kunna ganska mycket svenska svarar jag på svenska. Du verkar mycket ambitiös, och även om det är mycket svårt att som vuxen tillägna sig ett nytt språk till den grad att man låter infödd, skulle du nog kunna lyckas - men knappast ensam utan hjälp av en duktig lärare och datorprogram. 
 Att skilja på grav och akut accent är verkligen detaljer som man inte har så stor nytta av då det är få ord som riskeras att sammanblandas p g a det. Dessutom uttalar vi orden med olika accent beroende på vilken regional variant vi talar. Det allra viktigaste för förståelsen förutom vokalkvalitet är istället *prosodin, rytmen i talet*, att man betonar på rätt sätt. Det finns gott om undersökningar som stöder detta.

Exempel på prosodifel som är vanliga och gör det jobbigt att lyssna (och därmed att förstå) : 
fel betoning i satsen: _Jag tror dig *inte*_ istället för _Jag *tror* dig inte_ (första exemplet kan gå om man vill betona _inte _för att någon annan har påstått motsatsen t ex -_Du *tror *mig, det vet jag! -Nej, jag tror dig *inte*_. Men man kan ju inte tala så hela tiden)

fel "paus" i satsen: _Jag är .... inte beroende av dina... pengar_ istället för _Jag ... är inte beroende ... av dina pengar_. (det handlar om *mini*pauser som gör att satsen får en viss rytm)

Detta är ju väldigt svårt att beskriva i skrift, men har du läst om detta vet du var jag menar. Om du härmar radio/tv-pratare så försök att tänka på rytmen - även om jag tror att det är svårt att höra för de pratar så fort. 

Här är en länk till fler tips:

http://si.se/Svenska-spraket/Svensk...romedel-skonlitteratur/Uttal-och-horovningar/


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