english language “insticts” are a terrible place to start for most languages using latin letters. if you start from what the letters meant in latin and know a little bit of what the hell went on in the middle ages (or are at least vaguely familiar with the spelling of a few european languages), these arent that odd. okay, the å is, because that’s a uniquely nordic replacement for “aa”, the older spelling. and the pronunciation has shifted over the centuries to an o-like sound.
but ä/ö are pretty standard forms for what used to be ‘ae’ and ‘oe’ (or æ and œ). they sound pretty similar to german or finnish (or a bunch of others) ä/ö, even when they’re not identical.
swedish tips:
ä is pronounced “ehhhh”
ö is pronounced “uhhhh”
å is pronounced “oh!”
i wish the letters matched with how they’re pronounced 😭😭
ä and ö sound so differently outside of northern europe
i’d never think å would sound like “oh!” since it has “a” in it
the letters do match with how they’re pronounced though…
i meant like i wished that the letters matched with how they’d LOOK like they’d be pronounced. sorry, english language moment.
i used to think that ä = a pronounced twice (so like “aa”). but TIL that apparently in swedish ä has a different pronunciation.
english language “insticts” are a terrible place to start for most languages using latin letters. if you start from what the letters meant in latin and know a little bit of what the hell went on in the middle ages (or are at least vaguely familiar with the spelling of a few european languages), these arent that odd. okay, the å is, because that’s a uniquely nordic replacement for “aa”, the older spelling. and the pronunciation has shifted over the centuries to an o-like sound.
but ä/ö are pretty standard forms for what used to be ‘ae’ and ‘oe’ (or æ and œ). they sound pretty similar to german or finnish (or a bunch of others) ä/ö, even when they’re not identical.
It’s got a tiny lil o up there too though!
(easier to notice in actual print than on a zoomed out computer screen)
yes, but before this i’d think it was pronounced like “a” and “o” combined lol
Are you sure? I’ve always struggled with how to explain the ö sound to English speakers
I’d say it’s kind of sort of like the ir in “whirlwind” if you dropped the r sound but even that’s not too close
For extra hard mode: try to teach English speakers the Finnish “u” and “y”
Sure, next you’ll be telling me the Swedes don’t call their country Sweden