Sound Correspondence Between Swedish and Danish/Norwegian

Many Swedish words with the letter å, a letter that is pronounced similarly to the letter o in English, correspond to words with the letter a in Danish and Norwegian. The letter å is also used in Danish and Norwegian and also appears in identical words. The following list of ten words illustrates the pattern:

ålder alder (age)

då/da (then)

fångst/fangst (catch)

gång/gang (time)

lång/lang (long)

långsam/langsom (slow)

många/mange (many)

sång/sang (song)

stång/stang (pole)

tång/tang (seaweed)

In many cases, the letters a and å appear in identical words in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Examples include far (father) and ål (eel). In the pair hand/hånd (hand), the Swedish word has a and the Danish/Norwegian word has å. The list provides ten words with different vowels, å in Swedish and a in Danish and Norwegian.

Schwa in Catalan

Unlike Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian, Catalan has a schwa. As in English, it occurs in unstressed vowels. The schwa is a common vowel of Catalan.

Words in which the Catalan schwa occurs are casa (house), home (man) and pare (father). The same words are casa, hombre and padre in Spanish. However, in Spanish, the word-final vowel of each word is not a schwa. In western dialects of Catalan, unstressed vowels are not reduced to a schwa, but the eastern dialects are the most widely spoken and include the largest city of Catalonia, Barcelona.

Catalan is a Romance language. One of the vowels of Catalan is the schwa, a vowel that does not occur in Spanish. The schwa in Catalan always occurs in unstressed syllables.

Identical Words in Finnish and Hungarian

Though Finnish and Hungarian are both Finno-Ugric languages, few words are identical in the two languages. The Finnish word mesi (honey) is méz in Hungarian, the Finnish me (we) is mi and veri (blood) is vér.  They are similar but nevertheless not identical. The following ten words are identical in the two languages:

algebra (algebra)

dilemma (dilemma)

energia (energy)

gorilla (gorilla)

internet (internet)

kamera (camera)

kenguru (kangaroo)

lista (list)

neon (neon)

paprika (paprika)

Though these words are identical, they are all loanwords. In fact, six of them are identical to English, and the other four are quite similar. The fact that it is a challenge to find identical words in Finnish and Hungarians indicates that the two languages are not so closely related to one another.

Pronunciation of First Person Singular Pronoun in German

The first person singular pronoun in German is ich. It is the pronoun that is used in Standard German. The consonant is a voiceless palatal fricative. However, other pronunciations also exist.

In northern Germany and in Berlin, the pronoun is often pronounced with a /k/. This pronunciation is identical to the pronunciation of the pronoun in Dutch. In Dutch, it is ik.

In Switzerland the pronoun is often pronounced with a velar fricative. In Standard German the velar fricative occurs after back vowels. However, in Swiss German, it also occurs after front vowels.

The pronoun is often pronounced with an alveopalatal fricative in cities such as Cologne and Frankfurt. In this part of Germany, the alveopalatal fricative is often used instead of the palatal fricative. 

Another variant is used in southern Germany and Austria. It is the combination of a glottal stop and high front unrounded vowel. This variant has no word-final consonant.

Though the pronoun ich is used in all of Germany and is considered standard, other variants are used. They are rarely used in written German but are common in spoken German. The variants are especially common in informal situations.

Negative Imperative of Danish and Norwegian

Danish and Norwegian are both Germanic languages, and they share many similarities. However, they also have a number of differences. Let us illustrate with the negative imperative.

The imperative with the negative ikke (not) has a different word order in the two languages. Norwegian places the word ikke at the beginning of the sentence, but Danish places it at the end. Compare the following examples:

Ikke kom! (Don't come!)

Kom ikke! (Don't come!)

Ikke gå! (Don't go!)

Gå ikke! (Don't go!)

Ikke skynd deg! (Don't hurry!)

Skynd dig ikke! (Don't hurry!)

Ikke stopp! (Don't stop!)

Stop ikke! (Don't stop!)

Ikke glem! (Don't forget!)

Glem ikke! (Don't forget!)

Though Danish and Norwegian are related languages, they use different word orders for the negative imperative. Danish places the negative adverb ikke at the end of the imperative, but Norwegian places it at the beginning. This is an important distinction between the two languages.

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is about the experiences of Hedda, the daughter of a general, who is trapped in a house and a marriage that she does not want. Hedda's married name is Hedda Tesman, and Hedda Gabler is her maiden name.

The play begins with Hedda's return to her villa in Olso from her honeymoon. Her husband is Jørgen Tesman, who continued his research during the honeymoon. It is clear that Hedda is not in love with him.

Eilert Løvborg is Jørgen Tesman's academic rival, a writer who just published a bestseller. In a relationship with Hedda's old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted, he shows signs of rehabilitation from his alcoholism. When Hedda and Eilert speak together privately, it becomes clear that they are former lovers.

Eilert is a competitor for the university position Jørgen has been expecting. Jørgen and Hedda have financial problems, and Jørgen tells Hedda that he cannot provide her with a regular housekeeper. When they meet Eilert, they learn he has no intention of competing for the university position, but he has spent years working on his masterpiece, the continuation of his recently published work.

Jealous of Thea's relationship with Eilert, Hedda hopes to come between them. Despite his drinking problem, she encourages him to accompany Jørgen and Jørgen's friend Judge Brack to a party. Jørgen returns from the party and reveals that he found the complete manuscript of Eilert's masterpiece, which Eilert lost while he was drunk.

Jørgen later visits his aunt, and the manuscript is in Hedda's possession. When Eilert sees Hedda and Thea, he tells them that he deliberately destroyed the manuscript. Thea is horrified, and the reader learns that the work was a collaborative effort by Eilert and herself. Hedda says nothing to them. After Eilert leaves, Hedda encourages Eilert to commit suicide, and she gives him a gun that was her father's. Then she burns the manuscript and tells Jørgen she destroyed it to secure their future.

With the news that Eilert killed himself, Jørgen and Thea try to reconstruct the manuscript from Eilert's notes, which Thea kept. Hedda is shocked to learn that Eilert's death was in a brothel, and probably accidental. His painful death contrasts with the beautiful one she had imagined. Another problem is that Judge Brack knows the origins of the pistol. He tells her that if he reveals what he knows, there will probably be a scandal. 

She realizes that he is in a position of power over her.  Hedda then decides to go to a small room and shoot herself in the head. The others assume that Hedda is just firing shots and decide to investigate. The play ends with Jørgen, Thea and Judge Brack discovering her body.

Henrik Ibsen's play explores mental illness. Hedda Gabler, a neurotic woman, is very manipulative. However, the moment Judge Brack assumes a position of power over her, she cannot accept her new circumstances and takes her own life.

Speakers of Six Swedish Dialects

Swedish has many dialects. Many linguists divide the language into six. They are Central Swedish, Western Swedish, Southern Swedish, Northern Swedish, Eastern Swedish and Gotlandic. Gotlandic is spoken on the island of Gotland, and Eastern Swedish is spoken in Finland.

Here are the six dialects with the approximate percentage of speakers:

Central Swedish 39%

Western Swedish 28%

Southern Swedish 18%

Northern Swedish 11%

Eastern Swedish 3%

Gotlandic 1%

Central Swedish is the dialect with the most speakers. It is spoken in the capital city of Stockholm and also in Uppsala. Western Swedish is spoken in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, and Southern Swedish is spoken in Malmo, the third largest city.

Northern Swedish is spoken in an area that covers more than half of Sweden, but it has a relatively small population. Eastern Swedish is spoken by approximately 5% of the population of Finland, and Gotlandic is spoken by less than 1% of Swedish speakers. The Gotlandic dialect has been influenced by Gutian, a language that is now extinct.

The Central and Western dialects are spoken by more than half of all Swedish speakers. It is important to note that many Swedish speakers use a standard form of the language but retain traces of their dialect in their pronunciation and vocabulary. Though most Swedes speak a variety of Swedish that is close to Standard Swedish, the language can be classified into six main dialects.

Florianopolitan Dialect

The Florianopolitan dialect of Brazilian Portuguese is spoken in the city of Florianopolis. It originated with immigrants from the Azores. Their isolation made the dialect distinct from other varieties of Brazilian Portuguese.

The dialect is not uniform. For example, many older speakers use an alveolar trill for the post-vocalic r, but younger speakers mostly use the glottal fricative /h/. However, the r can also be a uvular trill, velar fricative or uvular fricative.

Unlike in most varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, the s is a voiceless alveopalatal fricative in words such as dois (two), festa (party) and mas (but). The d and t are always plosives and not affricatives before the vowel /i/, as is the case in most of Brazil. Also, word-final l is a velarized lateral and never vocalized, the same as in Portugal.

The r in words such as arte (art), forno (oven) and porta (door) is a glottal fricative for most speakers. In word-final position, it is usually deleted. The exception is if the next word is spoken without a pause and begins with a vowel. The word mar (sea) is pronounced without the r, but in the phrase o mar e o sol (the sea and the sun), the r is pronounced.

The dialect spoken in Florianopolis differs significantly from other varieties of Brazilian Portuguese. Features of the dialect include the velarized lateral, the pronunciation of the s before consonants and at the end of words, and the lack of affrication of the d and t. It is one of the most distinctive dialects of Brazilian Portuguese.

Schwa in Pairs with Affixation

The schwa in English is restricted to unstressed syllables. It is a phonetic variant of English vowel phonemes. It appears in many word pairs. This is illustrated with the following ten pairs:

abolish abolition

biology biological

commerce commercial

drama dramatic

family familiar

generous generosity

moderate moderation

personal personality

photo photographer

prophet prophetic

In the word abolish, the schwa appears in the first syllable. In the noun abolition, however, the schwa is in the second syllable. The stress is in different syllables, but in both words it is penultimate.

With biology/biological, the schwa also appears in different syllables. In the first word, it is in the third syllable, and in the second word, it appears in both the second and fifth syllables. The front high vowel does not become a schwa.

In the third pair, the schwa appears in the first syllable of commercial. It appears in the final syllable of drama and in the first syllable of dramatic. The first syllable of family has no schwa, but the first syllable of familiar does.

The schwa appears in the second and third syllables of generous. However, in the word generosity, the schwa appears in the second syllable, but not in the third. The fourth syllable can be pronounced with a schwa or with a high front unrounded law vowel.

In the pair moderate/moderation, the schwa appears in the second syllable of both words. However, the third syllable of moderate is a schwa in the adjective but not in the verb. The noun moderation has no schwa in the third syllable.

The second and third syllables of personal have the schwa. In the word personality, the schwa occurs in the second syllable, but not in the third. It cannot appear in the third syllable because it is stressed.

No schwa occurs in the word photo. Though the second syllable is unstressed, it remains a diphthong. However, the schwa occurs in the first and third syllables of photographer.

With the word pair prophet/prophetic, the schwa occurs in the second syllable of prophet and the first syllable of prophetic. The third syllable of prophetic is a not a schwa but a high front unrounded lax vowel. Both words have penultimate stress.

The schwa is a very common vowel of English. In related words, the schwa often occurs in different syllables. The reason is that English stress is highly variable, and the schwa is restricted to unstressed syllables. From the examples it is clear that the position of the schwa often varies in related words.

Three English Prepositions

Three English prepositions which are used very frequently are at, on and in. They are used in a variety of situations such as for time and place. The word at is often used for the most specific point, on for an intermediate interval and in for the broadest period.

The prepositional phrases at Vancouver and in Vancouver are both possible. However, at Vancouver is used in a restricted sense. One example is Toronto is playing at Vancouver. In this instance, Vancouver is the home team and if it is a hockey game, it will be played in the rink used by Vancouver. The prepositional phrase in Vancouver has a much broader sense and can be used in a sentence such as The tournament will take place in Vancouver.

Sentences which illustrate the use of at include The exam is at one o'clock and They live at 221 Main Street. The preposition at is used for time and with street addresses. If the street address is not given, the preposition on is used instead and the sentence becomes They live on Main Street.

For months and years, the preposition in is used. Examples include The French Revolution was in 1789 and I was born in April. For days, the preposition is used as in The party is on Saturday.

The prepositions at, on and in are among the most common English prepositions. They serve many different functions. The examples illustrate that at is frequently used for the most specific time or place, on for an intermediate interval and in for the broadest period.

Spanish Word with Seven Pronunciations

Spanish is a language of many dialects. They can be divided into two, Peninsular and Latin American. However, there are many more.  Let us illustrate with seven pronunciations of the word español.

1) alveolar fricative

2) apicodental fricative

3) apicodental fricative and velarized lateral

4) glottal fricative instead of alveolar fricative

5) glottal fricative instead of alveolar fricative and also aspirated plosive

5) lengthened initial vowel and deleted fricative

6) lengthened initial vowel, deleted fricative and also aspirated plosive

The first pronunciation occurs in many countries. However, the second one is very common in northern and central Spain. The velarized lateral is common in northeastern Spain.

Many speakers in southern Spain and the Caribbean use the glottal fricative instead of the alveolar fricative. However, the aspirated plosive is especially common in southern Spain. Another pronunciation is the deletion of the alveolar fricative with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.

The Spanish language has many dialects. This can be illustrated with the word español. It can be pronounced in seven different ways.

Unique Morphemes

Unique morphemes are bound morphemes that do not have an independent meaning and have no grammatical function. However, they often occur in common words. Here is a list of ten English words with unique morphemes:

cranberry

hapless

inept

inevitable

lukewarm

mulberry

raspberry

twilight

uncouth

unkempt

The morpheme cran is actually derived from crane, but it is not obvious to English speakers. Words such as hapless and inevitable do not have antonyms such as careful/careless and active/inactive. For this reason they have the unique morphemes hap and evitable.

Morphemes can be free and bound. However, bound morphemes can also be unique. This means that they have no independent meaning and do not occur in other words.

Spelling of Compound Nouns

The spelling of  English compound nouns varies. They are sometimes one word and sometimes two. There are no rules to determine if they are one word or two.

Compound words written as one word often consists of two syllables. This is the case with words such as bookstore, textbook and football. However, words such as basketball, newspaper and sunflower have three syllables.

The word bookstore is one word, but shoe store is two. Though both compound nouns end with store, one is monosyllabic and one is not. The compound nouns hotcake and hot dog both begin with hot and have two syllables. However, one is one word and the other is two.

The compound noun nightclub is one word. However, health club is two. Though they both end with the word club, one is written as a single word and the other as two.

The compound noun grapefruit is one word, but passion fruit is two. The compound chocolate cake is two words, but cheesecake is only one. Both passion fruit and chocolate cake have three syllables. However, waterfall and rainfall are both single words even though waterfall has three syllables.

English has many compound nouns.The spelling of compound nouns varies. Unlike in languages such as German which write all compound nouns as one word, English does not. English compound nouns are sometimes written as one word and sometimes as two.

Names of European Countries in Finnish

The names of many European countries in Finnish may not be so easy to recognize. They are often quite different from their names in other languages. Here is a list of twelve European countries with their names in Finnish:

Kreikka (Greece)

Liettua (Lithuania)

Norja (Norway)

Puola (Poland)

Ranska (France)

Ruotsi (Sweden)

Saksa (Germany)

Suomi (Finland)

Sveitsi (Switzerland)

Tanska (Denmark)

Unkari (Hungary)

Venäjä (Russia)

The word for France begins with R because F is rare in Finnish, and the word for Greece begins with K because G is rare. The name for Switzerland is similar to the German word Schweiz and the name for Norway is similar to the Norwegian word Norge. Though the word for Finland is very different from that of other languages, in Estonian it is Soome.

Finnish is not an Indo-European language. It is a Uralic language and differs significantly from Indo-European languages. The names of European countries in Finnish are often quite different from the names in Indo-European languages.

Three Types of Propaganda

Propaganda can be classified into three types. These types are based on the transparency the of source and the intent of the message. The three types are black, grey and white.

Black propaganda is the most deceptive type. The source is hidden or attributed to false sources, and the message is deliberately false. The goal of black propaganda is to manipulate public opinion.

Grey propaganda has ambiguous sources and is a combination of true and false statements. The information is often distorted. As a result, it is difficult for the audience to determine the true intent of the message.

White propaganda is transparent and open. The source of the message is clearly identified, and the information is honest and accurate. However, it is biased towards the goals of the propagandist.  The goal is to present information in a manner that makes it likely to be accepted and believed.

Propaganda refers to the use of information to present a particular cause or view. It can be categorized into three types. They are black, grey and white.

Intervocalic s of Italian

In Italian the s is voiced between vowels. This is also the case in French and Portuguese. However, in southern Italian dialects, the intervocalic s is voiceless.

The following Italian words have an intervocalic s and are pronounced /z/ in northern and central Italy:

casa (house)

chiesa (church)

cosa (thing)

famoso (famous)

fase (phase)

mese (month)

naso (nose)

paese (country)

rosa (rose)

sposa (wife)

In southern Italy, the intervocalic s is voiceless. It is thus pronounced /s/. This is the same pronunciation that is used in Spanish.

One feature that distinguishes the Italian of northern and central Italy from southern Italy is the intervocalic s. It is voiced in the northern and central varieties, but it is not in the southern. The voiced pronunciation is considered standard.

English Syllable and Morpheme Boundaries

English syllable and morpheme boundaries are sometimes identical. The word friendly has two syllables and two morphemes. They are the word friend and the suffix -ly. However, in many cases, syllable and morpheme boundaries are different. Let us illustrate with examples.

Here are the morpheme boundaries of ten words:

coldest cold+est

nicely nice+ly

disagree dis+agree

unusual un+usual

soften soft+en

immature im+mature

acted act+ed

looked look+ed

given give+en

windy wind+y

Now we can examine the syllable boundaries:

coldest col.dest

nicely ni.cely

disagree di.sa.gree

unusual u.nu.su.al

soften so.ften

immature i.mma.ture

acted ac.ted

looked looked

given gi.ven

windy win.dy

From the examples it is clear that syllable and morpheme boundaries are often different. In many cases the number of syllables and morphemes also varies. The word looked has two morphemes but one syllable, and disagree has two morphemes but three syllables. Also, the final consonant of many morphemes is in the onset of the following syllable as is the case with windy. The result is that many syllable and morpheme boundaries are distinct from one another..

Words for Family in Hungarian

Hungarian makes distinctions in words of family that many languages do not. The Hungarian language has separate words for older brother, younger brother, older sister and younger sister. Other languages that make the distinction are Japanese and Korean.

The Hungarian word for brother is testvér. However, the language is even more specific and has words for older brother and younger brother. The word for older brother is báty and the word for younger brother is öcs.

In Hungarian the word for sister can also be  testvér. However, Hungarian is even more specific and has distinct words for older sister and younger sister. The word for older sister is nővér and younger sister is húg. 

The Hungarian language has separate words for older brother, younger brother, older sister and younger sister. In Hungarian it is natural to specify whether the brother and sister are older or younger. For example, Hungarians say sentences such as  I have an older brother and younger sister rather than I have a brother and sister.

Italian Plurals

Italian plurals have only two endings. They are -e and -i. Unlike in English and other Romance languages such as French, Portuguese and Spanish, the plural does not end in -s. Let us look at examples of plurals in Italian.

The word libro means book and the word for books is libri.  The same patterns occur with biscotto/biscotti (biscuit/biscuits) and gatto/gatti (cat.cats). However, with the words casa/case (house/houses), birra/birre (beer/beers) and tazza/tazze (cup/cups), the plural ending is -e.

In certain cases, the noun does not change. Examples include bar/bar (bar/bars), film/film (film/films) and città/città (city/cities). Nouns do not change if they end in a consonant or in a stressed vowel.

Italian plurals can end in -e and in -i. In certain cases, the noun is the same in both the singular and plural. Another Romance language that primarily forms plurals with -e and -i is Rumanian. Italian masculine nouns form the plural with -i and feminine nouns form the plural with -e.

New Zealand Stressed Schwa

The English schwa is very common in unstressed syllables. It occurs in the first and third syllables of the word banana. However, the English of New Zealand is distinct because the schwa also occurs in stressed syllables.

The following words are pronounced with the schwa in New Zealand English:

big

fish

hill

pillow

printer

six

skin

trick

swim

window

In other dialects of English, the words have the high front unrounded lax vowel. The same vowel exists in New Zealand English, but not in the words of the list. It exists in words such as friend and when. The schwa is used more extensively in New Zealand English than in other dialects. 

Hungarian Diminutives

The Hungarian language has many diminutives. Many diminutives are formed with the suffix variants -ka-/ke, but the word to which they are attached is sometimes modified. The suffix variant -ka is attached to words that end with back vowels, and the variant -ke is attached to words that end with front vowels. Let us look at a few examples.

The word cica means kitten. The diminutive is cicuska and means little kitten. The word egér means mouse, and the diminutive egérke means little mouse. However, to say little bird, the variant -ka is used because madár is bird and madárka is little bird.

The word for village is falu and small village is falucska. Notice the same pattern in the words szellő and szellőcske, words which mean breeze and small breeze. Since falu is a word with only back vowels, the variant is -cska, and since szellő has only front vowels, the variant is -cske.

With mese/mesécske, the final vowel is lengthened before the suffix. The words mean fairy tale and little fairy tale. Many Hungarian diminutives have the suffix variant -cska and -cske. Let us analyze a few more.

The word for wave is hullám and little wave is hullámocska. A similar pattern occurs with nyúl and nyulacska, words that mean rabbit and little rabbit. Notice that the vowel of nyúl shortens with suffixation.

In the next three examples, we can observe different linking vowels. The word for circle is kör and little circle is köröcske. The front rounded vowel of the root is present in the suffix variant. In the pair csepp/cseppecke, the linking vowel is the front unrounded vowel of the root. The two words mean drop and droplet. Finally, the word virág means flower and virágocska means little flower.

Diminutives are common in Hungarian. The examples illustrate the principle of vowel harmony. One set of suffix variants is for words that end in a back vowel, and the other is for words that end in a front vowel.

Modified Swedish Compounds

Swedish has many compound words. This is also the case in English and several other languages. Swedish compounds such as blåbär (blueberry) consist of the words blue blå (blue) and bär (berry). They are not modified. However, many Swedish compound words are. Here is a list of ten modified Swedish compound nouns:

bönegrupp (prayer group)

fiskekort (fishing licence)

gatubro (street bridge)

kvinnoarbete (women's work)

kyrkklocka (church bell)

nattetid (night time)

pennvässare (pencil sharpener)

skolbarn (school child)

stjärntecken (zodiac sign)

veckoslut (weekend)

Let us examine the individual words of each compound:

bönegrupp = bön (prayer) + grupp (group)

fiskekort = fisk (fish) + kort (card)

gatubro = gata (street) + bro (bridge)

kvinnoarbete = kvinna (woman) + arbete (work)

kyrkklocka = kyrka (church) + klocka (bell)

nattetid = natt (night) + tid (time)

pennvässare = penna (pencil) + vässare (sharpener)

skolbarn = skola (school) + barn (child)

stjärntecken = stjärna (star) + tecken (sign)

veckoslut = vecka (week) + slut (end)

Swedish compounds can be modified in different ways. Sometimes the letter e is added between the two words of the compound as in fiskekort. The final a can be changed to u as in gatubro, and the final a can also be dropped as in the word skolbarn. It is clear from the list of Swedish compound words that they can be modified in different ways.

Quality of Low Central and Back Vowels in German and Dutch

German and Dutch are both languages of the West Germanic language family. They share many similarities in vocabulary and grammar. However, their phonology is quite different. This can be observed in the quality of the low central and back vowels.

Both languages have short and long vowels. In Dutch the word raam (window) has a long vowel and appel (apple) has a short vowel. Likewise, the German word Sahne (cream) has a long vowel and Nacht (night) has a short vowel. However, the vowels of the words are different in the two languages.

The vowel in the word raam is a low central vowel, and in the word appel it is low back. The quality of the two vowels is different because the long vowel is low central and the short vowel is low back. They differ in backness. However, this is not the same in German.

The word Sahne has a long low central vowel, and the word Nacht has a short low central vowel. In both words the vowel quality is the same. The difference in the two vowels is quantitative. The only difference is in the duration of the two vowels.

The phonology of German and Dutch is not identical. The two languages both have short and long vowels, but the low central/low back vowels are different. In Dutch the short and long low vowels differ in vowel quality, but in German they differ in vowel quantity. The difference in the low vowels of German is thus quantitative, but in Dutch it is qualitative.

Sound Correspondence Between French/Portuguese and Spanish

Portuguese is more closely related to Spanish than to Portuguese, but the phonology of Portuguese is sometimes closer to that of French. The letter g can represent a voiced alveopalatal fricative in both languages, but only before the letters e and i. It is also the sound represented by the letter j. In Spanish, however, the sound is different- it is a voiceless velar fricative. Here is a list of ten French, Portuguese and Spanish words to illustrate the difference:

genuine genuino genuino (genuine)

génération geração generación (generation)

générosité generosidade generosidad (generosity)

geste gesto gesto (gesture)

girafe girafa girafa (giraffe)

jardin jardim jardín (garden)

jeu jogo juego (game)

jeune jovem joven (young)

justice justiça justicia (justice)

juge juiz juez (judge)

The words for genuine, gesture and giraffe are identical in Portuguese and Spanish. However, no French word is identical to the Portuguese and Spanish words. Many French and Portuguese words which are pronounced with a voiced alveopalatal fricative correspond to Spanish words pronounced with a voiceless velar fricative.

German Sharp s

The German sharp s is a letter that is found in no other language. The character for the letter is ẞ. It is used after long vowels and diphthongs. However, is it not used in Swiss German because Swiss German uses ss.

Here are ten German words with the letter:

drauẞen (outside)

dreiẞig (thirty)

Fuẞ (foot)

groẞ (big)

Gruẞ (greeting)

heiẞ (hot)

Spaẞ (fun)

Straẞe (street)

süẞ (sweet)

weiẞ (white)

Since the sharp s is not used in Switzerland, it is replaced with ss. The result is that words such as foot and white are spelt Fuss and weiss. German is the only language which has the sharp s. It can occur in the middle and end of words but never at the beginning. 

Macedonian

The Macedonian language is a Slavic language and is spoken predominantly in North Macedonia. It is most closely related to Bulgarian. Macedonian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Macedonian has five vowel phonemes. Two are front vowels, one is central and two are back. The tongue position of the mid vowels can vary significantly from one speaker to another. Unlike in Russian, the vowels are never reduced.

In words of three syllables or more, Macedonian usually has antepenultimate stress. In a trisyllabic word, it is the first syllable of the word that is usually stressed. In disyllabic words, it is usually the penultimate syllable. 

Macedonian words have a large number of vowels relative to consonants. This is in contrast to other Slavic languages such as Polish, languages which are known for their many consonant clusters. Macedonian is a South Slavic language, and one of the features of South Slavic languages is less palatalization than in other Slavic languages such as Russian, Slovak and Polish. Another is that word-final obstruents are not devoiced.

Macedonian has far fewer speakers than Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish and Ukrainian. This is probably the reason that is not a very well-known Slavic language. It is the official language of North Macedonia.

Puerto Rican /r/

The /r/ of Puerto Rico can be an alveolar flap or trill. This is the same in other varieties of Spanish. However, the /r/ can also be realized with a voiceless velar fricative. The use of the voiceless velar fricative for the /r/ is limited to Puerto Rico.

The voiceless velar fricative is a consonant of Spanish. It occurs in words such as gelatina (gelatin), jardín (garden) and juguete (toy). However, the same sound can be used in Puerto Rican Spanish for the /r/. In Puerto Rican Spanish, the voiceless velar fricative can occur in the following words:

carro (car)

hierro (iron)

perro (dog)

razón (reason)

rey (king)

río (river)

roca (rock)

rueda (wheel)

tierra (land)

torre (tower)

In Puerto Rico, the voiceless velar fricative can be used instead of the voiced alveolar trill. However, in words such as caro (gold), oro (gold) and pero (but), all Spanish dialects use the alveolar flap. The alveolar flap of Spanish only occurs intervocalically.

Puerto Rican Spanish is quite different from other varieties of Spanish. Many Puerto Ricans use the voiceless velar fricative instead of the voiced alveolar trill in words such as those in the list above. The use of the voiceless velar fricative in such words is distinctive of Puerto Rican Spanish.

Hungarian Word-Final Vowels

Hungarian has fourteen vowel phonemes. Certain dialects have fifteen, but the number is fourteen in the standard language. The fourteen vowel phonemes can be classified on the basis of length. Seven are short, and seven are long. The front vowels consist of four pairs, and the back vowels consist of three.

Word-final vowels can be short or long. However, the mid front rounded and mid back rounded vowels are always long when they are word-final. For example, the Hungarian word for snow is hó and the word for grape is szőlő. This restriction does not apply to the other vowels. The word for village is falu and the word for menu is menü.

The vowels of Hungarian can be divided into seven pairs that are short and long. These vowels can appear in all word-positions with the exception of two vowels, the mid front rounded short and mid back rounded short vowels. These two vowels never appear in word-final position. In word-final position, the vowel length of the Hungarian mid vowels is thus neutralized.