# Norwegian - sl, hy/ky



## mezzoforte

Is "*sl*" said as if it were "*sjl*"... e.g. "*rusler,slumse*".  Does "*sjl*" occur in Norwegian?

Is "*hy*" pronounced like "*ky*"?  There are the words "*hys*" and "*kys*".  Do these sound similar to you?  I learned to make the "*kj*" sound by thinking of the English "*h*" in "*humour*", but now it seems that that is not sufficient to distinguish "*hys*" from "*kys*". 

This distinction didn't matter in German for the "*ch*" sound in "*ich,bücher*", since they have only one *k* sound.  Would you say that the German *ch *sound in *ich* is the same as the Norwegian *kj* sound?


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## missTK

Yes, -sl- is usually, perhaps always, pronounced sjl. At least I can't think of an exception right now. The -sjl- letter combination is rare, but I'm sure it exists in some compound word. In that case, it would be pronounced the same.

Hy and ky are not the same - ky (and ki) usually have the kj sound (like ich in German). There's no fricative at all in hy (or hi), it's just a regular h sound.


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## kirsitn

"sl" is pronounced like "shl/sjl" in most dialects, but some dialects from western Norway have a pure "sl" sound without any "j". Posh variants of the Oslo dialect also tend to have a pure "sl" sound.


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## missTK

Thank you - I was just talking to someone from Bergen, and when he said "sliten" my first thought was that I had to come back here to correct myself


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## mezzoforte

Cool! I'm having difficulty separating "*hy*" from "*ky*".  Is it true that the Norwegian "*kj*" is "more fricative" than the German "_*ch*_" in "_*ich*_"?

And is the Norwegian "*h*" in "*hy, hi*" the same as the English "_*h*_" in "_*hue, he*_" (the English "_*h*_" seems to be like the German "_*ch*_", but I am not an expert in German).

_BONUS QUESTION: WHY aren't we taught that "sl" is pronounced "sjl", but we are taught that "rs" is pronounced as "rsj"?_


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## kirsitn

mezzoforte said:


> And is the Norwegian "*h*" in "*hy, hi*" the same as the English "_*h*_" in "_*hue, he*_"



Norwegian "hi" is pronounced more or less like English "he". Norwegian "hy" has the same h as "hi" but with a "y" afterwards instead of an "i". English "hue" has a sound that's similar to "ch" in German and "kj" in Norwegian, so it can be used when pronouncing words starting with ki/ky/kj/tj. It is NOT used for words starting with h (regardless of the following vowel).




mezzoforte said:


> _BONUS QUESTION: WHY aren't we taught that "sl" is pronounced "sjl", but we are taught that "rs" is pronounced as "rsj"?_



Dunno... Maybe the teacher is a snob?


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## mezzoforte

kirsitn said:


> Norwegian "hi" is pronounced more or less like English "he". Norwegian "hy" has the same h as "hi" but with a "y" afterwards instead of an "i". English "hue" has a sound that's similar to "ch" in German and "kj" in Norwegian, so it can be used when pronouncing words starting with ki/ky/kj/tj. It is NOT used for words starting with h (regardless of the following vowel).



Ok.



kirsitn said:


> Dunno... Maybe the teacher is a snob?



I just saw somewhere that does explain about "sl"... lol


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## mezzoforte

Would it be valid to say that "*hys*" uses the German "*ch*", and "*kys*" uses the Norwegian "*kj*"?


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## missTK

No. Hys is just a plain old h as in house. No fricatives of any kind.
Norwegian kj and German ch as in "ich" are the same sound, or at least interchangeable. German ch as in "ach" doesn't exist in Norwegian.


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## aaspraak

mezzoforte said:


> _BONUS QUESTION: WHY aren't we taught that "sl" is pronounced "sjl", but we are taught that "rs" is pronounced as "rsj"?_



Neither of these are true for my west Norwegian dialect. 

Maybe they try to teach you a posh variant of east Norwegian/Oslo dialect. kirsitn mentions that Posh variants of the Oslo dialect tend to have a pure "sl" sound. 

I agree with the others about the sounds in *hys* and *kys*.


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## mezzoforte

No, I'm retracting my question about "*sl*".  It _is _written about it being pronounced "*sjl*", with the exception of the city "Oslo" when speaking formally.  

One thing that differs between Norwegian and German for the "*kj/ch*" sound is that German words don't start with "_*ch*_" (_I think _that words never start with either "_*ch*_" sound).  So even knowing some German, it is still something new to have "*kj*" at the start of a word.

The closest thing is for me is the "_front *h*_" sound (for English, and possibly German).  So now it's an issue of learning to make a distinction that I've never made before.

P.S. I have no teacher for Norwegian


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