You knew it was coming. This is the bane of every non-Scandinavian-learning-a-Scandinavian-language's existence, and the best way to poke fun at utlänningar. I'm speaking, of course, about the diphthongs sj, kj, and sk.
When I first heard the letter 7 a shiver shot right down my spine. "How do these two letters make that sound," I thought, rethinking my passion for Sweden. A conversation with a Swede went like this (imagine Me bastardizing the word beyond recognition):
Me: Sju
Swede: No
M: Sju
S: No
M: sju
S: Ssssjjjjjjuuu
M: sju
S: sju
M: sju
s: sju
M: I give up.
S: Good.
I'm sure anyone who has asked a Swede about those letters had the same conversation. Left with a sense of despair, I would repeat, what I would name, "Satan's Sound" nonstop until I got tired. When I would read something in Swedish out loud and see the sj, kj, sk I would regard it with a look of contempt and skip it. I grumble and curse the language!
But alas! There is hope! During one of those nights when I can't sleep, I decided to do some research on the sound. Then I found this website. It's amazing. It gives you the English sh sound, then the Swedish sj/sk/kj/skj etc etc sound. I listened to the girl say, "Shoe, sju," about 80 different times. Now it's my mantra. I often lay around saying, "Shoe, sju. Shoe, sju. Sju shoe!" While my Korean housemate gives me a funny look and skurries off to the bathroom.
http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap9.htm#sjsound
I hope that site helps any learners out there. Keep strong my brothers and sisters. We'll pull through! We just have to stick together!
Adjö
p.s. If a Swedish reader can record them saying the tongue twister in the title, please post it online so that I can put a link to it on my blog. I think we'd all get a kick out of it.
(hopefully this time it will post!)
ReplyDeleteI'll record the tongue twister for you, if you'd like. I think it's fun to say!
I'll try to get to it as soon as I can, but these days I'm usually kept busy preparing for the ice-skating show I have. Though once I have a spare moment, or things are slightly calmer, I'll be glad to record it.
@SwedishSoprano Yep! It posted. I looked up the problem and it's blogspot's fault. I'm going to continue looking up how to fix the comment. I'll probably write a little thing about it in my next blog, so this won't happen for others.
ReplyDeleteThat would be wonderful! I've never heard someone say it, except myself. And that doesn't count when I'm saying one word per minute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQMYAyEoYFg
ReplyDeletewatch :)
I had much trouble with that sound as well until someone gave me directions, and havent had any problems since!:
1. Hold your breath with your mouth open so that the very back of your tongue automatically gets pressed upwards and prevents the air from coming out that way. (The same thing should also happened if you open you breathe through your nose with your mouth open.)
2. Slowly press the air through your throat so that your tongue gets lowered a fraction, just enough so that a throaty, hissing sound is created. The hissing sound is the same as the proper "sj"-sound.
3. Practice making the sound without holding your breath/breathing through your nose with your mouth open first. Try to do it backwards, i.e. breathe out slowly and lift up the back of your tongue so that the "sj"-sound is made. Try to make the sound as soft as you can.
4. Now try to say "sju", or any other word that starts with the "sj"-sound
@uomodo well if your directions are right, I've been saying it properly. woo me! That video was pretty cute. Then again, Asian women are adorable doing anything. Every time my Korean roommate sneezes I go, "D'aaaaaaw"
ReplyDeleteThis is the *best* Swedish tongue twister eeeever.
ReplyDelete