Swedish: The pronunciation of the final r in the verb forms

[Voytek]

Doe Swedes omitt the final r in this case or they don`t?

Sometimes I can`t here this final r.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I wouldn't say it diseppears totally, but more blend into what comes after - say, a common sentence like "Hur är det?" (lit. How is it? ~What's up?), either of the rs almost disappears (but not both), and the t definitely disappears:
Hur är de'
Hur ä' de' / Hur e' de'
Hu' är de'
Hur äre / Hur ere (notice how the -r and the initial d- becomes one single r)
Huäre/Huere

Does this help?

As mentioned above, final -r + initial d- tend to merge. Ska du - Skaru, Har du - Haru, Är det - Äre/Ere, even Hej då - Herå...

[tarvos]

The Swedish r turns into some kind of retroflex approximant. I think it also depends on the dialect.

[Voytek]

Than you very much, guys, I found both post very helpful.

Now I know all the pronunciation `moves` but still have to master the prosody. Any ideas how to do that in a relatively easy way?

[tarvos]

Oh boy. Now, I have to say that Swedish prosody is not exactly my strong suit. That's not to say that I don't speak Swedish - I do - but more that I never 100% got the hang of how to pronounce sentences with a very Swedish intonation. Prosody and intonation require a lot of listening, copying and working hard to make the tone and pitch contour match - something very important in Swedish because it is a tonal language, even though it's never marked in writing. Unfortunately I am terrible at the tonality of Swedish because I didn't pay enough attention to it - and as a result it's audible in my Swedish, even though I usually copied the melody of entire phrases which helps with sounding more natural.

It's mostly got to do with getting to find good resources and listening to the melody of phrases and where Swedes normally raise their pitch and lower it. You'll find that questions often contain rising pitch, as contrasted to Norwegian (where they are often used for declarative statements - a source of humour for the Swedes).

[jeff_lindqvist]

Now I know all the pronunciation `moves` but still have to master the prosody. Any ideas how to do that in a relatively easy way?

What Tarvos said. Listen to native content, pay attention to what happens, and do your best to imitate it.

If you're really serious about prosody, have a look here:
http://olle-kjellin.com/SpeechDoctor/ProcLP98.html

Pitch#1 (the acute pitch accent) is the typical bisyllabic tone (or lack of tone), with a penultimate stress - e.g. Jenny, London, language, Poland, Sweden, Johnson, Shakespeare, money, soccer, hockey... you get it.

Pitch#2 (the grave pitch accent) takes many forms, but a key element is that the voice/tone/pitch raises at some point. In Chinese, it can do so in monosyllabic words (shí, mái etc.), but in Swedish a pitch#2 word needs more syllables than just one.

By the way, pitch and stress are different things, but some people (including natives) may think that especially pitch#2 moves the stress. In my regional accent it doesn't (unless the stressed bit is the last part of a compound).

Usually a word belongs to the same category of pitch regardless of regional accent (e.g. bisyllabic infinitives, which are always pitch#2) but the actual tones may differ. Polysyllabic words which are pitch#1 may transfer to pitch#2 in compounds (especially when the added part is stressed) - e.g. London (pitch#1, as stated above) vs. "London-bo" (Londoner). The compound now has a stress on the ultimate syllable, and the "prefix" starts at the ground at take off, then it's up in the air, and finally it suddenly lands. Teeeeeenssiooooon - RELEASE. Again, in my regional accent. The Chinese pattern would probably be tone2-tone1-tone4. And compounds which consist of pitch#1+pitch#2 will sound as pitch#2+pitch#1. Tone sandhi? Probably.

Confusing? I'm sure it is.

Similar threads on the old HTLAL:
Swedish accent
Swedish - Tone in preteritum

[Voytek]

Once again, thank you very much for your time and effort, guys.

It seems to me that there will be a lot of work to do but I`m very determied to master Swedish because I felt in love with its melody and sounds and I want to speak as good as it`s possible for me.

[Voytek]

Now I know all the pronunciation `moves` but still have to master the prosody. Any ideas how to do that in a relatively easy way?

Listen to native content, pay attention to what happens, and do your best to imitate it.

Now, I know that I`m going a bit offtopic but could you rate my first sentences recording? I mean basically the prosody.
Here they are:
1
http://vocaroo.com/i/s14Djym7A40I
2
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1xf1Gc9NUmr
3
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1FuOfegwy5i
4
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1PUIyWQdaOt
5
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Fw4wsp12tz

p.s. Sorry about the kids screaming on the background. It`s Sunday and friends of my nephew just couldn`t resist to visit him and mess around a bit.

Thank you for your support, I really appreciate your effort.

[jeff_lindqvist]

The first struck me as sounding a little Finland-Swedish; the other ones still sound Slavic, although very good. There are Swedish actors (from just any Slavic speaking country) who sound like this.

How long have you studied Swedish, and how long with Olle Kjellin's method?

[Voytek]

The first struck me as sounding a little Finland-Swedish; the other ones still sound Slavic, although very good. There are Swedish actors (from just any Slavic speaking country) who sound like this.

How long have you studied Swedish, and how long with Olle Kjellin's method?

Thank you for your reply, mate! Could you kindly check my recordings again, this time I recorded sentences without the kids messing aroud:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1y2K2Pvo4yC
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1m2GXNLy8QO
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1kzgyTJmRlI
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Q6Ad5V4vfi

I`ve been studying Swedish (since October) for about 250 hrs (I don`t count creating flashcards for Anki) including an exposure time. Also I`ve been using the Olle Kjellin's method for 7 hours with 20 sentences from Lars Kepler`s `Eldvittnet`. Jonas Malmsjö`s voice was recorded for the audiobook and I`m trying to mimic his prosody.

Do you think it`s a good idea to try mimic a voice recorded for an audiobook? These are samples from the audiobook which I implemented in my Swedish prosody training:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1mOckMIKw3l
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1EBz4mZm9eX


Thanks, man!