Finland Swedish - Phonology

Phonology

With the exception of the dialects spoken in Ostrobothnia along the west coast, close to the Gulf of Bothnia (example: the dialect spoken in Närpes), Finland Swedish is not particularly different from Central Swedish. The phonology is identical, but it has slightly different vowel qualities. The phoneme /ʉ/ is more centralized and pronounced like, quite similar to how many American English pronounce /u/ (as in moon). This should be compared to the Central Swedish, which is very close to the short vowel and is more rounded.

The realization of the highly variable phoneme /ɧ/ is more frontal on the mainland and can vary between and, while the realizations on Åland are more similar to the velar (and often distinctly labialized) in the neighboring parts of Sweden. /ɕ/ is affricated into or in all dialects including in standard Finland Swedish.

The tonal word accent, which distinguishes some minimal pairs in most dialects of Swedish and Norwegian, is not present in Finland Swedish (except around the parish of Snappertuna, west of Helsinki). The so-called "accent 2", used mainly in words with a two-syllable root, is not used at all; instead, "accent 1" is used in all words. Hence, Sweden Swedish minimal pairs like /ˈandɛn/ ("the duck") – with stress on only the first syllable – and /ˌandˈɛn/ ("the spirit") – with both syllables stressed – are both pronounced in Finland.