Page:A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.djvu/23

Rh L between two consonants is generally dropped, as verld (verd), 'world.' It is not heard before j, as ljud (youd), 'sound.'

Sj, which as already observed is equivalent to sh, as sjuk (shuuk), 'sick,' is occasionally used to express the sound of si in such foreign words as asjette (assiette, Fr.), 'plate;' pasjon, 'passion.'

Although as a rule sk takes the sound of sh before soft vowels, as skepp (shepp), 'ship,' while it retains its hard sound before the hard vowels, as skall, 'shall,' its use is, however, occasionally irregular under both conditions, as handske (handskē), 'glove;' and menniska (mennisha), 'human being.'

T is often dropped before s, as båtsman (bosman), 'boatman;' skjuts (shüss), 'post-relay.' Tj has the sound of the Italian c before soft vowels, as tjära (cera, Ital.), 'tar.' Ti in foreign words has the sound of tsh, as nation (naatshone), 'nation.' The th of foreign words, pronounced like simple t, is rendered by that letter, although in the older forms of Swedish it constituted a distinct character of the alphabet.

Foreign words, although often rendered literally, as 'logis,' 'cake,' etc., are not unfrequently spelt phonetically, as marki, 'marquis,' kuragè, 'courage.'

A, å, o, u are reckoned as hard vowels, and e, i, ä, ö, y as soft vowels.

Final e is generally sounded, as in German.

In many words e has precisely the same sound as ä, which has been made to supersede it in the modern system of