The thing that my girlfriend struggled with when she moved to sweden was our swedish letter "y". She can do it now, but it still doesn't come naturally, she has to consciously move the right muscles to pronounce it.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

honestly i'd more say it's like the english E, just sliiiightly different.
swedish I and Y are basically identical

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say identical. If you pronounce the name "My" it sounds different if you're actully saying "Mi"? Or "Fyra" vs "Fira", "By" vs "Bi" etc.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

i said basically identical, that's a qualifier to specify that it's not actually identical, just really really close with a minor difference.

it's the kind of thing where it's so close that you can alter what you hear by just showing someone saying the other word while playing the same audio.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 months ago

the thing this misses (understandably because even swedes don't realize it) is the precise pitch (yup, swedish is basically a tonal language, like less complicated chinese
i really can't put it into words but if you listen to a swede saying it you'll hear the sing-song-y-ness, and that the end sounds of the words are.. stressed? and lengthened

there's also sort of a stop in blå, b'lå, i think we sort of eject the B more? at least i do