# Swedish: g sound



## j.a_91

Hello all.
I just recently started studying Swedish and I think I've made some decent progress considering I'm doing self-study. But I don't understand the rules for the 'g' letter. In my two books, and in basically all places online, it says that a g before hard vowels (a, o, u, å) is pronounced like the English 'Gift'. Ok, I got that. Then it says that 'g' before soft vowels (ä, ö, e, i, y) is pronounced like 'yes'. Ex: Göteborg. Ok, got that too. But then I come across the word lägenhet and the g here is pronounced with a hard g sound not like a y. So I'm really confused. And this isn't the only word that has a g before a soft vowel but yet it's pronounced with the hard g sound. There are many more. But none of the books I've read talk about words that are an exception to the rule. They all say g before soft vowels is always 'y' sound. I just don't get it then. How can I know for sure which words will have a soft g or a hard g sound? Any responses are appreciated!


----------



## AutumnOwl

I can't give an explanation to why the "g" is pronounced as a hard g in _lägenhet_, but it might have to do with the fact that the "g" is between two vowels.


----------



## ger4

I found this difficult when I began learning Swedish as well, but there are actually some simple rules:
- g sounds like y before a soft vowel WORD-INITIALLY: ge, gissa, gälla, göra, ...
- g sounds like y in the combinations lg and rg: berg, torg, älg, borg (that's why Göteborg has two y-sounds and is pronounced something like Yötebory) 
- g sounds like y at the end of some words following a soft vowel: mig, dig, sig, viktig, försiktig (as well as all other adjectives ending in -ig, in normal speech)
- g sounds like y in some individual words as in säga, ungefär
- otherwise, g is pronounced as in 'gift'. That's why lägenhet doesn't have the y-sound: g doesn't appear word-initially here.


----------



## MattiasNYC

Holger2014 said:


> - g sounds like y at the end of some words following a soft vowel: mig, dig, sig, *viktig*, *försiktig *(as well as all other adjectives ending in -ig, in normal speech)



The ones in red get a hard 'g' sound. That also applie*d *to the others above but is now old-fashioned sounding.



Holger2014 said:


> - g sounds like y in some individual words as in säga, *ungefär*



Also actually incorrect. I suck at writing phonetics, but the sound is the same as in:

lång, hänga, ingen etc.


----------



## ger4

Hej, I am not a native speaker of Swedish, of course, but the words 'säga' and 'ungefär' definitely sound to me like 'säja/säya' and 'unjefär/unyefär'. As for 'viktig' and 'försiktig', I've heard the pronunciations with a hard 'g' sound only in very formal speech or in very slow speech, normally they sound to me like 'viktij/viktiy' and 'försiktij/försiktiy' or simply 'vikti' and 'försikti'. Then again, I'm not a native speaker. - Anyway, to keep it as simple as possible, I think these two rules are "undisputed":
(1) pronounce g like j/y word-initially only before soft vowels (e, i, y, ä, ö)
(2) pronounce g like j/y after l and r


----------



## Nilam

Hej! I am a native speaker of Swedish and I pronounce 'ungefär' like 'unyefär', though I have heard people use an ng-sound like in 'ingen'.

About lägenhet: the rule applies to the beginning of the word (as Holger said). 'Genväg' (meaning 'shortcut') and 'genom' (meaning 'through' or 'by') is pronounced 'yenväg' while the g in 'lägenhet', 'läge', 'seger' et cetera, is pronounced just g. G in 'säger' (and 'säga') is pronounced like y but g in 'väger' and 'väga' is pronounced g.

These rules are seldom absolute, they are more like a map of tendencies.


----------



## MattiasNYC

Nilam said:


> Hej! I am a native speaker of Swedish and I pronounce 'ungefär' like 'unyefär', though I have heard people use an ng-sound like in 'ingen'.



Where in Sweden are you from, if you don't mind me asking? (I'm from Gästrikland)

I am wondering if this could be regional. In either case I stand corrected.



Holger2014 said:


> normally they sound to me like  'viktij/viktiy' and 'försiktij/försiktiy' or simply 'vikti' and  'försikti'.



Again I'm not really hearing the "y". I hear "vikti" or with a "g". To me "viktij" sounds like something a child would say.


----------



## ger4

I might have been to Ska°ne too often... In Southern Sweden people seem to pronounce any long 'i' with some kind of a 'y'-ending (or an 'i-offglide') in words like 'tid', for example, so the '-ig' in 'viktig' might actually just sound like an ordinary long 'i' in Ska°nska...


----------



## Lugubert

MattiasNYC said:


> Nilam said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hej! I am a native speaker of Swedish and I pronounce 'ungefär' like  'unyefär', though I have heard people use an ng-sound like in 'ingen'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Where in Sweden are you from, if you don't mind me asking? (I'm from Gästrikland)
> 
> I am wondering if this could be regional. In either case I stand corrected.
Click to expand...


I'm a Swedish native. I've been living on the West coast most of my life. I certainly pronounce like Nilam, and would find any -ng- strange and exotic and would perhaps guess that speaker to be an immigrant or from way up north.


----------



## MattiasNYC

Hmmm... interesting. I definitely pronounce it with "ng" and hear that way more often in Gävleborg.


----------



## Tjahzi

This topic was recently discussed in this thread!


----------



## Dashiel

I just stumbled upon this thread and thought I should add that whilst g followed by a "soft" vowel, it's "generally" pronounced as a /j/, it is far from safe to use it I would say. There are many words where the initial g followed by a front vowel is pronounced as /ɧ/ (wikipedia IPA), /∫/ (SAOL PA). To name a few:

Generell, generalisera, geni, generad, genant, gelé, gest, gestikulera... 

There are also cases where the g is truly pronounced like a /g/, but I can only find one frequent word, and some far less frequent (such as medical words)

Gem, gerontologi


Same goes for g followed by an i. Giraff (/ɧ/), for instance.


----------



## Annica

Lugubert said:


> I'm a Swedish native. I've been living on the West coast most of my life. I certainly pronounce like Nilam, and would find any -ng- strange and exotic and would perhaps guess that speaker to be an immigrant or from way up north.



Pronunciation of _ungefär _is discussed (in Swedish) at the beginning of this radio program; they state that both -nj- and -ng- are correct according to Swedish pronunciation books, though -nj- is much more common. They also remark that the -nj- pronunciation doesn't match up with the spelling - e.g. the word _unge_ is pronounced with -ng-, not -nj-. If I understand correctly, they say that the word _ungefär _is a loanword from German and as it was adopted in Swedish, the pronunciation became -nj- because of the sound _e_. Feel free to correct me if I misunderstood!


----------



## RondellB.

As a native German speaker I might be able to help a little with the word's history, as it might be the reason for the -nj-sound to be more common and/or to be perceived as correct. This is just an assumption though.

Annica wrote that _ungefär_ is a loandword from German's _ungefähr._ This is a junction of the two expressions _un_ and _gefähr_. Now a first-letter-g in German is always a hard /g/ and _gefähr_ derives from a distinct word (_Gefährdung) _and is therefore spoken with such a hard /g/ as in _gift, go (br.) / gata, galen (sv.)._
The_ un _can be considered a type of prefix_, _which in its original meaning negated/inversed the meaning of _gefähr, _comparable to the br. prefixes _un- (intended), ir- (rational), in- (acceptable)_ or swedish o-_ (trolig, rolig, känt, lika)._

This is why the German way of speaking _ungefähr_ clearly separates the n from the g (disregarding dialects). When Swedes adopted the word, they probably adopted the "real" word _gefähr_ separately: _gefär_ with a /j/-sound, adding the prefix.


----------



## cocuyo

I don't really believe that _"gefähr"_ would have been adopted separately, as it is seldom used in German. Most German loans to Swedish are not common speech varieties from German, but formal written German, and it is rather well seen in _"ungefähr"_, which in common speech is seldom used. Germans use _"etwa"_, which is not imported into Swedish. The Swedish equivalent would be _"sådär"_. I rather would think that Swedish people are not very prone to pronounce a G before a soft vowel, so there are mainly two possibilities to pronounce _ungefär_ - either with the _y_ or the _ŋ_ sound. It should however be taken into account that "rules" for pronunciation or grammar in any language are never normative, but descriptive. The _g_ sound does exist among some speakers, although it is uncommon and will not be found in all dialects.


----------



## DerFrosch

cocuyo said:


> I rather would think that Swedish people are not very prone to pronounce a G before a soft vowel



Yes, that's true - but the etymology is nevertheless of relevance here.

After all, "-ge-" is not always pronounced with the [j] sound (what you called "y"). It's not pronounced that way if "ge" is part of a inflected form of a word ending in "-ng" ("ängen"), or if it's part of a word related to another word ending in "-ng" ("länge", which has a clear connection to "lång").

My point is that people were aware that "ungefär" wasn't related to "ung", otherwise the [j] pronunciation would never have been able to assert itself as the correct one.

There could be some truth in RondellB.'s theory, or the Swedish preference for the [j] pronunciation was decisive - hard to say.

By the way, cocuyo: "gefähr" is not only seldom used in German - it's never used. It's been obsolete for quite some time. It might even have been so already when it was imported in 1633.

Also, I wonder what makes you say that "sådär" is the Swedish equivalent to "etwa"?


----------



## cocuyo

DerFrosch said:


> "gefähr" is not only seldom used in German - it's never used.


_"Ungefähr"_ is seldom used in speech, but _"etwa"_ or _"rund"_ are more often used.



DerFrosch said:


> I wonder what makes you say that "sådär" is the Swedish equivalent to "etwa"?


Idiomatically, in spoken Swedish, German _"etwa"_ corresponds to Swedish _"sådär en"_, which is equivalent to _"ungefär"_ or German _"ungefähr"_. We also use _"omkring"_, which corresponds to English _"about"_ or German _"rund" _or_ "um"_. The other loan, _"cirka"_ is seldom used in speech, but is often written.


----------



## DerFrosch

Okay, but I still don't understand why you insist that "sådär en" should be considered the equivalent to "etwa". With "omkring" and "rund" I obviously see the analogy, but where is it in this case? "Sådär en" is markedly informal (and not that awfully common, is it?), whereas "etwa" is more neutral in style. I consider "ungefär" the closest equivalent to "etwa".

I agree with everything else you wrote, though.


----------



## cocuyo

Even though deviating from the main topic, we are getting to the core here, style. We sometimes do not have an exact equivalent to a word in a foreign language, which probably is the very reason for importing a word as the German _"ungefähr"_. We have however several informal variations on the theme, and for example German _"rund"_ in this case is equivalent to Swedish _"runt"_ or English _"around"_. We can see that the loan-word _"ungefär"_ fills the space of a formal variant for all the informal ones.

Speech is often redundant as well, so we might use them redundantly, as _"runt nio sådär"_. Most often these words are used for time -_ "någon gång kring nyår"_. The informal variants are plentiful, and we see them in several other languages too. In Spanish for example, it is very uncommon to hear _"aproximadamente"_ in speech, but generally people use the much shorter and less formal _"como"_.


----------

