Norwegian Phonology - Consonants

Consonants

Most of the retroflex (and postalveolar) consonants are mutations of +any other alveolar/dental consonant; rn /ɾn/ >, rt /ɾt/ >, rl /ɾl/ >, rs /ɾs/ >, etc. /ɾd/ across word boundaries (“sandhi”), in loanwords and in a group of primarily literary words may be pronounced, e.g., verden, but it may also be pronounced in some dialects. Most of the dialects in Eastern, Central and Northern Norway use the retroflex consonants. Most Southern and Western dialects do not have these retroflex sounds.

In Southern and Western Norwegian a guttural realizations of the /r/ phoneme is commonplace, and seems to be expanding. Depending on phonetic context voiceless or voiced uvular fricatives are used. (See map at right.)

The retroflex flap, known to Norwegians as tjukk l ("thick l"), is not an independent phoneme, but an allophone of /ɭ/. Although traditionally an Eastern Norwegian dialect phenomenon, it was considered vulgar, and for a long time it was avoided. Nowadays it is considered standard.

Some speakers (especially in Bergen (where it is an established dialect phenomenon) and Oslo) do not use the voiceless palatal fricative, using instead the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ in contexts where the voiceless palatal fricative would commonly be used. This is a development which seem to be on the rise in spoken Norwegian.

Another allophone of /l/, in addition to being the standard pronunciation of it in some dialects of Norwegian, the velarized alveolar lateral approximant (also known as “dark L”) appears after, and, except when followed by a stressed vowel, where the /l/ connects to its succeeding syllable and thus the standard is used: ball (“ball”), påle (“pole”), fotball (“football”); but palass (“palace”).

The voiceless stops are typically aspirated.

Some loanwords and onomatopoeia are pronounced with external sounds, not used in proper Norwegian words: gin, wow! and bzzzzz! (imitation of the sound of a bee).