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Why does ‘hand’ become ‘händer’ in plural?

Jan 24 2012

This is one question that boggles the minds of many learners of the Swedish language (as well as the other Nordic languages). Why doesn’t ‘hand’ just become ‘hander’ or ‘handar’ in plural?

The answer to this lies in a major change that occurred throughout Germanic Europe in the Early Middle Ages (which in Scandinavia was the middle of the Iron Age, 450~500 AD). The process is known today as the i-omljud in Swedish (in English the Germanic umlaut, i-umlaut, or i-mutation). What happened during this change was that an unemphasized i (prounced like ‘ee’ in modern English) in a word brought emphasized back vowels (vowels produced in the back of the mouth: a, o, u) forward, closer to i. For example, what you’re here to find out:

- The plural of hand in Old Norse was handiar. But since it is natural for human beings to simplify things, people began to say hændar (/´hændər/), combining the a with the i, creating a new sound, æ (pronounced similarly to the a in hat). From there, the æ as well as the ar at the end became more and more weakly pronounced, leading to its modern pronunciation, /´hɛndər/, orthographized as händer. The singular form, hand, however, remained the same because it lacked an i to change it.

The i-omljud also affected the other back vowels, o and u. Before this process, Old Norse only had five vowels: a, e, i, o, and u, like the rest of the Indo-European languages of that time. After the i-omljud, though, three more vowels had developed, namely y (what you get when you combine i and u), æ (i and a combined, as shown above), and ø (from i and o). The letters æ and ø were used when the Latin alphabet was first adopted but were replaced by the Low German ä and ö toward the end of the Middle Ages (in Sweden, 1050~1520 AD). Previously, Swedish was written completely in runes.

What about å then? When did that appear? Check back in one week and you’ll be able to find out!

“This” and “these”

Posted by Katja 6 Comments

Jan 19 2012

In Sweden there are lots of different dialects, and of course people use different words for the same thing. Something as simple as “this” you’ll find lots of variations of and for someone learning Swedish that can be a bit confusing. Especially if the word everybody is using in some areas is grammatically incorrect, and never before mentioned in a textbook.

Swedish

English equivalent

detta

denna

det här

this

Swedish

English equivalent

dessa

domma

de här

dom här

these

Domma is said especially around Jönköping and maybe Stockholm a little bit(?) but is found in other parts of Sweden as well. This is not grammatically correct, but you will still hear many people say it.

So you know the en and ett rules by now right? Well, just to check. Table which is in Swedish bord. Ett bord, we do not say en bord. Detta and denna follow the same priciple, you would say “detta bord” and not “denna bord”. You could also say “det här bordet”.

Then to point out to somebody which tables you were meaning, you would say “dessa bord” meaning these tables (bord is a exception, we do not say bordar for several tables, we just say ett bord, flera bord. One table, several tables). The noun you use after “dessa” is in in-definitive plural form, like dessa stolar (these chairs) dessa dörrar (these doors) etc.

Domma is used when you are actually supposed to be using dessa.

De här is strictly speaking only supposed to be used in written language but when people talk they still pronounce it as de här. This is maybe illogical but we don’t say de här bord, instead we say de här borden. So we specify by using bord-en or for one table, or det här bordet. Det här works for all nouns, regardless if it is a en or ett.

Dom här is used the same way as de här, so no worries there

Short dialog

Ett par går runt i IKEA och tittar på bord.

A couple are walking round in IKEA looking at tables.

Person A) Dom där borden är fina.

Person B) Dom här? (pekar)

Person A) Nej, dessa. (pekar på ett annat bord)

Person B) Jaha. Ja, jag tycker om dom också.

Swedish

English equivalent

bord

peka

fin (plu. fina)

annat

tycka (progressiv form; tycker)

också

jaha

table

to point

nice

other, different

to think, like

as well, too

Next time you hear some Swedish see if you can hear the differences.

Helpful Swedish Phrases

Posted by Marcus Cederström No Comments

Jan 18 2012

We try to give you a basic understanding of Swedish here at Transparent Language. We mix vocab in with grammar in with culture in with news. It’s always a challenge trying to make sure that these posts have a little bit for everyone. And we realize that that is nearly impossible. Some of you have been studying Swedish for years and come here to just clean up a few of those nagging little questions. Some of you just started learning Swedish recently and are trying to absorb as much as possible. And some of you have no interest in the language at all and come here to just check in on Swedish culture.

With all that in mind though, I thought it might be useful to offer up a few common phrases in Swedish that could be helpful if you find yourself in Sweden or just speaking with a Swede. It’s a great way to show off your linguistic chops and start a conversation. Even if you have to switch to English a little bit.

Keep in mind, this will not include every useful phrase, and some of you might not agree with my definition of useful. That’s ok. In fact, I prefer it that way. All I ask then is that you add your useful phrase in the comments section below! Also, please note that I have not given literal translations, but instead focused on the colloquial meaning of these phrases. Good luck!

Hej.	Hello.
Tjena.	Hey.
Jag heter ________.	My name is ________.
Mitt namn är ________.	My name is ________.
Vad heter du?	What is your name?
Hur är läget?	How’s it going?
Läget?	How’s it going? (Slangy)
Hur går det?	How’s it going?
Hur mår du?	How are you feeling?
Var kommer du ifrån?	Where do you come from?
Ja, tack.	Yes, please.
Nej, tack.	No, thank you.
Tack	Thanks.
Tack så mycket.	Thank you so much.
Det var så lite.	No problem.
Varsågod.	You’re welcome.
Hur mycket kostar ________?	How much does ________ cost?
Jag behöver en biljett till ________.	I need a ticket to ________.
Var ligger ________?	Where is the ________?
Var är toaletten?	Where is the toilet?
Var är toan?	Where is the toilet? (Slangy)
Är du hungrig?	Are you hungry?
Jag är hungrig.	I am hungry.
Är du törstig?	Are you thirsty?
Jag är törstig.	I am thirsty.
Ska vi ta en öl?	Should we grab a beer?

Stop or shut?

Posted by Steve 3 Comments

Jan 17 2012

Similar to the nouns in last Tuesday’s post, there are a number of Swedish verbs that have the same infinite form but different meanings and different conjugation.

One of the best examples is the words sluta, meaning either “stop”, “end”, or “shut”, depending on its context and grammatical conjugation. It is also worth noting that sluta as “stop” or “end” is intransitive, meaning that you can not sluta something – inserting a direct object after it makes no sense. You can, however, sluta doing something or sluta med something. Here are some examples

Lektionen slutarom fem minuter. – The lesson ends in five minutes.
Sluta tjata på* mig! – Stop nagging me! (*På in this case is tied to the verb, but not emphasized. You can’t say, for example, tjata mig.)
Sluta med tjatandet! – Stop with the nagging!

[Note: If you want to "stop" something (i.e. from doing something), you can use the word stoppa. If you want to "stop" something from being in motion, use the word stanna.]

Here is the conjugation of sluta meaning “end” or “stop”:

sluta – to stop/end

slutar – stop/end, stops/ends, am/is/are stopping/ending

slutade – stopped/ended, was/were stopping/ending

har slutat – have/has stopped/ended, have/has been stopping/ending

hade slutat – had stopped/ended, had been stopping/ending

Sluta with the definition of “shut”, however, is a transitive verb, meaning that something can’t just sluta; it has to sluta something else. Here is an example:

Jag slöt ögonen och somnade. – I shut my eyes and fell asleep.

If you want to say “His eyes shut“, because sluta in this definition is transitive, you have to say either:

Hans ögon slöt sig. (if they shut themselves on their own, i.e. via reflex) or:

Hans ögon slöts. (if they were shut, most likely by him himself, saying it from a first-person, relatively literary perspective).

Sluta meaning “shut” is conjugated like so:

sluta – to shut

sluter – shut/end, shuts/ends, am/is/are shutting

slöt – shut, was/were shutting

har slutit – have/has shut, have/has been shutting

hade slutit – had shut, had been shutting

Another good example of this phenomenon is sticka, meaning either “knit” or “be off” or “leave”.

sticka – to knit	sticka – to be off/leave
stickar – knit, knits, am/is/are knitting	sticker – am/is/are off, leave/leaves, am/is/are leaving
stickade – knit(ted), was/were knitting	stack – was/were off, left
har stickat – have/has knit(ted), have/has been knitting	har stuckit – have/has left/gone
har stickat – had knit(ted), had been knitting	hade stuckit – had left/gone

These are only two examples of such words. There are several more that will pop up as you learn more Swedish!

Pronunciation of the Swedish å, ä and ö

Posted by Katja 3 Comments

Jan 13 2012

The Swedish alphabet consists of 29 letters. The last three are å,ä and ö. These are the only ones that differ from the English alphabet.

The Swedish å-sound can either be a long sound or a short one. When being long it is pronounced like the English word fore. The short sound as in yonder.

Listen to the pronunciation of the different sounds through the links below.

Example (long): språk (language)

Example (short): ålder (age)

In the county Blekinge you’ll find that a lot of people don’t pronounce the r-sound hardly at all. For example: Korv (sausage) is pronounced kåååv. (with a very long å-sound). The Swedish o-sound can often sound a lot like the å-sound making spelling a little difficult at times. In Göteborg (Gothenburg) people don’t say korv or kåååv, instead they say körv.

Continuing, the ä-sound can also be pronounced a long and a short way. The long way sounds much like the ai in fair. The short ä-sound as the e in best.

Example (long): bäre (carry)

Example (short): vän (friend)

Lastly to the ö-sound. There are three different pronunciations for ö, two long and one short. The first long sounds like eu in the french word deux.

Example (long nr.1): röd (red – the color)

The second long sound mostly found before the letter r, sounds like the u in fur.

Example (long nr. 2): köra (drive)

The short ö-sound is like the e in her.

Example (short): sönder (broken)