Tag Archives: Phonology

Comparison between Bornholmsk and Mainland Scanian sounds

A table which compares the phones of Bornholmsk (Espersen 1908 & Prince 1924) with those in mainland Scanian (from the north-western area according to Lucazin 2010).

Phoneme Bh IPA Scy. IPA words so pronounced
/a/ [a] [ɑ] or [a] land (country/land), kat (cat)
/ā/ [aː] [aː] or [ɑː] fara (travel), kar (man/chap)
/ɑ̄/ [ɑʊ]1 [aʊ̭], [ɑʊ̭] or [ɑː] dag (day), klar (clear)
/e/ [e] [ɛ] fett (fat/grease)
/ē/ or /ei/ [eː] [eː]2 ner (down), reza (journey v.)
/ai/ [æi] [ai] Scy. fail/Sv. fel (failure/wrong)
/ī/ [iː] [ei]3 kniʋ (knife)
/i/ [i] [i] or [ei̭] brink (brink), sil (herring)
/o/ no info [ʊ] or [eʊ̭]4 ondra (lower), gold (gold)
/ō/ “English oh [eʊ] sol (sun)
/ū/ [ʉː]?? [øʉ] skruʋa (screw)
/ȳ/ [yː] [øʏ] sky (sky), myra (ant)
/ǣ/ [əe] [ai] or [ɛː] knæ (knee)
/ø̄/ “i in bird [øː]5 rød (red), bøste (loin/flank/ham)
/ɔ̄/ [eʊ] nål (needle), see ō
/b/ [b] [b] bæra (carry), flab (mouth)
/d/ [d] [d] dra (drag/pull)
/f/ [f] [f] fæ (cattle)
/h/ [h] [h]
/j/ [j] [ɪ̭] jord (earth)
/l/ [l] [l] luka (weed v.)
/m/ [m] [m]
/p/ [p] [p]
/t/ [t] [t]
/g/ and /j/ [g] and [j] [g] and [ɪ]
/z/ [z] [s] snaka (talk)
/s/ [s] [s] Bh. sten/Scy. stain (stone)
/r/ [r] [ʁ]
/k/ and /ɕ/ [k], [t͡ɕ] and [ɕ] [k], [t͡ɕ] and [ɕ]
/n/, /ɲ/ and /ŋ/ [n], [ɲ] and [ŋ] [n] and [ŋ] springa (chink/slit)
/ʋ/ [ʋ] [ʋ] kiʋa (row/quarrel v.)

1 Since the sources predate IPA, Prince doesn’t mention it and it doesn’t exist in Danish, my sources really don’t say what it sounds like, but [ɑʊ] is likely.

2 [eː] I am pretty confident that this sound isn’t a common realization of /ē/ in NW Scania, since I grew up in NW Scania and I can pronounce it in speech only with very much difficulty. [ei̭] possible.

3 actually [ei̭ː] is the notation in Lucazin p. 27. Certainly, in the NW, the i is pronounced longer than the e.

4 [o] is my guess for both accents.

5 This should probably be a diphthong instead.

Literature used:
Utkast till ortografi över Skånska Språket (2010), M Lucazin.
The Danish Dialect of Bornholm (1924) John Dyneley Prince.
Bornholmsk Ordbog (1908) J C S Espersen & Konglige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.