Friday, September 8, 2023

Word-Final Palatalization in Swedish

The palatal glide is very common in Swedish. Unlike in English, in which it only occurs syllable-finally in diphthongs, the Swedish palatal glide can occur word-finally in combination with liquids. Here are ten words which end with the palatal glide:

arg (angry)
detalj (detail)
familj (family)
färg (colour)
helg (weekend)
korg (basket)
medalj (medal)
sorg (sorrow)
varg (wolf)
älg (elk)

The use of the word-final palatal glide after liquids does not occur in the closely related Danish and Norwegian languages. For example, colour is farve in Danish and farge in Norwegian, and family is familie in Danish and Norwegian. Unlike in Danish and Norwegian, Swedish phonotactics allow the use of the word-final palatal glide following liquids.


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