Phonetic Swedish

March 16, 2005 12:41 AM

Phonetic Swedish: How do I pronounce the words of this song?

I'm singing this in a couple of weeks time, and I have no idea where to begin with the pronunciation (I don't know quite what it means either, but that's kind of secondary)...

Halleluja

Han lever, o min ande,

känn Din Herre och din Gud igen!

Han lever, Han lever

Han lämnat har sitt vilorum,



Och rösten höres,

som var stum,

Och handen räckes,

som var kall.



Han lever, Han lever, Han lever,

och du leva ú skall!

posted by monkey closet to writing & language (4 comments total)

This is the first verse from an easter psalm by Johan Olof Wallin from 1819. Full text and more details are available in Swedish.


I'm quite bad at explaining Swedish pronounciation in English text, so I'm hoping that someone else will help you with that. I can give you a quick translation though:

He lives, Oh my spirit,
Know your lord and your God again,
He lives, he lives,
He has left his resting place,
And the voice was heard,
that was silent,
And the hand was reached,
that was cold,
He lives, he lives, he lives,
and you shall live

If you really need to know and no one else have helped you, I might give it a try or create an mp3 of me reading it (I have no idea of the melody) later today. But I rather not since I don't particular like hearing my own voice...
posted by rpn at 2:40 AM on March 16, 2005

Really, easiest way is to call you in person and explain and "train" you. If interested, email me in the adress in my profile. We're both from the UK judging from your profile so no huge telephone bills involved.
posted by keijo at 4:01 AM on March 16, 2005

Here is a take on pronounciation for an English speaker. Swedish has some sounds that are not readily available to English speakers at first, including å, ä, ö, sk, tj, etc, so I tried to use the nearest English equivilent. The Swedish "A" sounds kind of like "ah". The "O" in "och" is pronounced somewhere between "oak" and "talk", similiar to the "ock" in "rock" with a touch more "oh".

This is not a substitute for hearing the piece in Swedish, but might be good cheat sheet after you've heard it.

Halleluja

Han leever, oh meen ahn-da
shen deen Herr-ra ock deen G-ew-d ee-yen
Han leever, han leever
Han lahm-naht ha-r seet vee-lor-oom

ock rohst-in whore-res
som var stew-m
ock handen wreck-es
so-m var kal

Han leever, Han leever, Han leever,
ock do leeva u ska-l
posted by McGuillicuddy at 6:35 AM on March 16, 2005

McG:s answer looks ok. the "ee" sound should be pronounced like the ea in "fear", not like in "leave".
posted by mr.marx at 6:11 PM on March 16, 2005