IPA for Danish | [u]dtaleordbog.dk

Udtaleordbog.dk uses IPA for phonetic transcriptions. The transcriptions are in accordance with modern definitions and principles of the IPA rather than traditional Danish transcription standards. The IPA chart can be seen here.

In this article the essentials of Danish phonology are explained. One can spend a lifetime studying the details of a language. Consequently, a lot of details are omitted here.

The examples provided are based on 30-50 year old Copenhagen speakers.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	pʰ p		t			kʰ k
Affricate			ts	tɕ
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Fricative		f	s	ɕ				h
Fricative/ approximant		v			j		ʁ
Lateral			l

Danish has 18 distinctive consonants. The most remarkable is perhaps the lack of voiced plosives, /b d g/. Instead, Danish has a contrast between tenuis and aspirated/affricated plosives, /p t k/ vs. /pʰ ts kʰ/.

If the BDG-standard is seleceted, plosives will be shown with /b d g p t k/ rather than /p t k pʰ ts kʰ/. This pre-1999 standard will perhaps seem more intuitive to some users.

Plosives and affricates

pʰ	pʰæːɐ	pære
p	pæːɐ	bære
t	tæːɐs	deres
kʰ	kʰæːɐ	kære
k	kæːɐ	gære
ts	tsæːɐ	tære
tɕ	tɕæːɐ	tjære

Nasals

m	hɛmə	hæmme
n	hɛnə	hænde
ŋ	hɛŋə	hænge

Fricatives

f	fæːɐ	færre
s	sæːɐ	sære
ɕ	ɕæt	sjat
h	hæːɐ	hære

Approximants

v	væːɐ	være
ʁ	ʁæːʊ	ræve
j	jæːɐ	jager
l	læːɐ	lære

Vowels

The vowels are divided into strong and weak vowels (sometimes refered to as full vowels vs. non-full vowels. Stressed syllables always contain one of the strong vowels, while unstressed syllables typically contrast one of the weak vowels or syllabic sonorants. Loanwords can have any strong vowel in unstressed syllables as well.

Strong vowels

Danish has 13 distinctive strong vowels. There are five unrounded front vowels, four rounded front vowels, and four back vowels. Only /a/ is fully open.

All 13 vowels can be short and long. Short vowels are typically slightly more open than corresponding long vowels. The difference is larger for the near-open vowels /æ ɒ/. However, this difference is not consistent, and it is not distinctive. Therefore, it is not displayed on udtaleordbog.dk.

	front unrounded	front rounded	back
close	i	y	u
	e	ø	o
	ɛ	œ	ɔ
	æ	ɶ	ɒ
open	a

Unrounded front vowels

i	viːnə	vine	kʰik	kig
e	veːnə	vene	hek	hik
ɛ	vɛːnə	væne	hɛk	hæk
æ	væːnə	vane	hæk	hack
a	vaːmə	varme	hak	hak

Rounded front vowels

y	kʰyːlə	kyle	fyːɐ	fyre
ø	kʰøːlə	køle	føːɐ	føre
œ	kʰœːlə	curle
ɶ			fɶːɐ	fyrre

Back vowels

u	muːsə	muse	uɤ̰	ud
o	moːsə	mose	foɤ̰	fod
ɔ	mɔːsə	måse	ɔɤ̰	åd
ɒ	mɒːsə	morse	ɒɤ̰	od

Weak vowels

In unstressed syllables only five vowels and four syllabic sonorants are distinguished in most native Danish words. These weak vowels can vary quite a bit, and they may overlap with some strong vowels. The vowel /ɪ/ may vary between /i/ and /e/, a /ɐ/ can vary between /a/ and /ɒ/ etc. The weak vowels are shown with distinct symbols in order to differentiate them from the strong vowels, that doesn't display the same variance.

ə	fætə	fatte
ɐ	fætɐ	fatter
ɪ	fætɪ	fattig	vaːɪ	veje
ɤ	fætɤ	fattet	vaːɤ	varet
ʊ			faːʊ	farve
n	kʰætn	katten
m	kʰapm	kappen
ŋ	pʰakŋ	pakken
l	sykl	cykel

The weak vowels /ɐ ɤ ɪ ʊ/ originates from historical r d g v. They may occur as the single vowel in an unstressed syllable, or they may form diphthongs with a preceding strong vowel.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are displayed with a combination of strong+weak vowel, e.g. /haʊ haɪ moɐ mæɤ/ hav, hej, mor, mad. All strong vowels can form a diphthong with one or more weak vowels. However, not all combinations of strong and weak vowels exist in the language.

Suprasegmentals

The distinctive suprasegmentals in Danish are stress, length and creaky voice (trad. called stød).

Stress

Stress on first syllable:	ˈfeskəʁḭː	fiskerig
Stress on first syllable:	feskəˈʁḭː	fiskeri

In isolation, all words have a stressed syllable. A small group of words have two stressed syllables, and a handful of words have three stressed syllables. Stress may occur on the ultimate, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable in morphologically simple words. In connected speech, most word lose stress.

The stress patterns are mostly predictable, although quite complex.

Length

Short vowel:	ˈfulə	fulde
Long vowel:	ˈfuːlə	fugle

All strong vowels can be short or long. Weak vowels are always short.

Creaky voice

With creaky voice:	pɶn̰ɐ	bønder
Without creaky voice:	pɶnɐ	bønner

Quite a lot of Danish words feature a glottal accent (traditionally called 'stød'). The specific pronunciation of the glottal accent vary quite a lot depending on speaker, dialect, style and context. The default pronunciation in Copenhagen Danish is considered creaky voice, which is also the standard notation chosen on udtaleordbog.dk. It may also be pronounced as a glottal stop, /ʔ/, or, especially in Jutland, a tonal accent. Some dialects don't have this feature at all. As such it can be omitted, with no real impact on intelligibility.

The glottal accent is highly predictable from the phontactics and morphology. As such, it is only marginally distinctive.

In unstressed context and less distinctive speech, as well as in singing, the glottal accent is often omitted.

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Overview of IPA for Danish