# Swedish: jag, pojke (pronunciation)



## Toadie

I'm just starting to learn Swedish as of a few days ago, and I'm running into a few pronunciation problems.  First, is the 'g' in 'jag' pronounced?  I haven't read any rule that says it isn't, but whenever I hear it, it doesn't seem to be pronounced.

Also, why is the 'k' in 'pojke' pronounced like an English 'k'?  According to one website, if a 'k' comes before 'e', 'i', 'y', 'ö' or 'ä', it's pronounced "like the 'ch' in 'check' without the initial 't' sound", yet when I hear examples, it is pronounced (English) "poy-keh".


----------



## María Madrid

Yup, pojke is pronounced with a k sound. Plural pojkar, same k sound. Kö meaning queue is also pronounced with a k sound but kön (gender) is pronounced with the sh sound, as Kerstin, kyrka, kära. etc.

Why is the pronunciation different just in some words? Considering English is your mother tongue you shouldn't be surprised to find different pronunciations for one same letter! The good news: Swedish doesn't have by far as many exceptions to the rule as English. Normally when you have more than one consonant the k is k: klocka, flicka, strejka. No idea if it's because these words may have a different origin or what (as it's the case with kö and strejka, for instance).

I suggest you check the pronunciation in your dictionary whenever you have doubts. Good luck! 

Edit: this is the link to the Swedish Academy. You'll find the phonetic transcription next to each entry. http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/

G in jag: Normally I only pronounce it if it's the last word of the sentence or if I stress it for some reason, otherwise I tend to relax the g sound, and it's true you sometimes just don't hear it, but some people do pronounce it, either in more formal speech or maybe depending on the dialect. I'm used to the Stockholm accent, let's wait and see what Suedes from other areas say.


----------



## Toadie

Thanks, very much!


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

María is on the right track: K in pojke and kö do not follow the normal pronunciation rules which you found for yourself, because they have non-Swedish origins. Pojke comes from Finnish, poika, and kö(*) from French queue, and there is also orkester, from Greek. These are all pronounced with the hard k because of their originating foreign pronunciation. Words like kön (=gender) has Scandinavian origins and, therefore, follows the rules, thus getting the sh- sound. There is no hard and fast rule: kyrka is originally a Greek word, but it was incorporated into Swedish so long ago that it, too, adheres to the standard pronunciation rules, i.e. sh- sound.

K in front of a, o, u and å should not present any problems, however: you can rely on the hard k sound with 99,5% certainty for those and I can't think of a single exception to that rule.

The g in jag as a pronoun is rarely pronounced, and you can safely drop it in all everyday conversation. However, when you use jag as a noun (in psychology, the term for the ego or self), you do always pronounce the g, but I don't expect you to discuss psychology in Swedish any time soon... 

I found some web courses in Swedish that you may or may not find useful:
http://www.linguanet-europa.org/plu...onLevel=Beginner&skills=Pronunciation&lang=en
There is of course also the excellent list of resources at the top of this forum, click here.
(*) Kö meaning queue or cue (stick for billiards-type games) is pronounced the same way - same French origin.

/Wilma


----------



## Toadie

María Madrid said:


> Considering English is your mother tongue you shouldn't be surprised to find different pronunciations for one same letter!


Aha, let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to learn English as a foreign language!  That must be a nightmare for you non-natives!  




Wilma_Sweden said:


> However, when you use jag as a noun (in psychology, the term for the ego or self), you do always pronounce the g, but I don't expect you to discuss psychology in Swedish any time soon...


Heh, a very good assumption indeed.

Thanks for the help, both of you!


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

Toadie said:


> Aha, let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to learn English as a foreign language!  That must be a nightmare for you non-natives!


Actually, it's not that bad. Since non-natives will, more often than not, learn the spelling at the same time as we learn the pronunciation and meaning of each new word, we have an advantage over the natives, who learn all the words by sound long before they can read or write, and THEN, years later, have to come to terms with the spelling!

The Swedish language is also riddled with spelling difficulties, although it's not half as bad as English. Out of the languages I know, Spanish is the most consistent in terms of spelling and pronunciation, it's as close to phonetic spelling as you can ever get, in my opinion.

/Wilma


----------



## AndersH

1) The word "pojke" is prononces completely according to standard rules. Thing is that k in front of soft vowels (eiyäö) is only prononced sj if in initial morphemic position. Well, lts take some examples:

  k: kaka kola tak hake pojke vaken vaska böcker söker 
  sj: kedja Kina kysser kämpa köra

Now you understand why "käke" [jaw] has four morphemes in it even though it has only three letters 

The fillowing words have two pronouniations with different meanings, the ones with k-sound are EXCEPTIONS to the pronounciation rules: kör kille  kisar


----------



## glaspalatset

What bothers me most regarding this is that some people greet (say) "God eftermiddag" with g in the end and some don't. 

And I'm not sure whether I should pronounce g. Are those two ways acceptabel?


----------



## AndersH

Yes. Both are. And it's worse: In "God mat" and "God jul!" both ways are heard. So don't bother. 

Eller som de säger i Göteborg: "Goa göbbar!" (goda gubbar! [nice old chaps!]).


----------



## AndersH

Sorrrrrrrryyyyy...

You said  g  not  d  in "god eftermiddag": the answer to that is that nobody really 
cares to pronounce final  g  in the word "middag", "äta middag" is sloppily pronounced
[ätami´dda] (NOTE SHORT FINAL A, rhymes with "spridda", except that it has accent 1) instead of the more correct [ätami´dda:g]. This is special for this word.  No other compounds with -dag behaves like this: juldag, höstdag; The word "vårdag" can be pronounce "vå:rda:" with LONG final A,  NOT rhyming with the word "vårda" which has SHORT final A. The word "middag" is very special case in that it has NO pronounciation *[mi´dda:], either [mi´dda:g] OR [mi´dda]. Got it?


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

AndersH said:


> 1)Thing is that k in front of soft vowels (eiyäö) is only prononced sj if in initial morphemic position.


Oops, I never thought of that, you're right. Thanks for clearing that up!



> Now you understand why "käke" [jaw] has four morphemes in it even though it has only three letters


I think you mean phonemes...



> kör kille  kisar


The exceptions, i.e. [k] instead of [sh] in initial morphemic position can usually, but not always, be explained by the non-Swedish origin of the words.

/Wilma


----------

