• moondog [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    swedish tips:
    ä is pronounced "ehhhh"
    ö is pronounced "uhhhh"
    å is pronounced "oh!"

      • huf [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        the letters do match with how they're pronounced though...

        • Aria 🏳️‍⚧️🇧🇩 [she]@lemmygrad.ml
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          i meant like i wished that the letters matched with how they'd LOOK like they'd be pronounced. sorry, english language moment.

          i used to think that ä = a pronounced twice (so like "aa"). but TIL that apparently in swedish ä has a different pronunciation.

          • huf [he/him]
            ·
            2 months ago

            english language "insticts" are a terrible place to start for most languages using latin letters. if you start from what the letters meant in latin and know a little bit of what the hell went on in the middle ages (or are at least vaguely familiar with the spelling of a few european languages), these arent that odd. okay, the å is, because that's a uniquely nordic replacement for "aa", the older spelling. and the pronunciation has shifted over the centuries to an o-like sound.

            but ä/ö are pretty standard forms for what used to be 'ae' and 'oe' (or æ and œ). they sound pretty similar to german or finnish (or a bunch of others) ä/ö, even when they're not identical.

            • BelieveRevolt [he/him]
              ·
              2 months ago

              nerd Acktually, in German ä represents more of an ”eh” sound, completely different from the Finnish ä.

      • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
        ·
        2 months ago

        It's got a tiny lil o up there too though!

        (easier to notice in actual print than on a zoomed out computer screen)

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      ö is pronounced "uhhhh"

      Are you sure? I've always struggled with how to explain the ö sound to English speakers

      I'd say it's kind of sort of like the ir in "whirlwind" if you dropped the r sound but even that's not too close

      For extra hard mode: try to teach English speakers the Finnish "u" and "y"

    • Hexboare [they/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Sure, next you'll be telling me the Swedes don't call their country Sweden