a blog by Peter Leonard
Students in my Swedish 101 class had their first test last Friday. Overall, they did very well, especially having only had eight days of instruction in a totally new foreign language.
One of the parts of the test was to listen to me reading a few sentences describing three fictional Swedes: what their name was, where they were from, where they lived, and what languages they spoke. The names were pretty easy for the students to grasp, but some of the Swedish place-names were obviously totally unfamiliar. What's interesting is the strategies the students used to try and transcribe what I was saying, using their basic understanding of Swedish vowels and consonants. Here are some examples:
Mariefred: Mariefrya, Mariefria, Imorfried, Maria Freia, Konefriska, Marifrir, Fya, Fria, Fresno, Marifreia, Marifriä, Marie Fria, Marinfrö, Mariefre.
Jönköping: Nynköping, Skörnköpring, Jonkopping, Kenscheping, Jensjeppen, Yanköping, Chapane, Yensheping, Jönjoping, Yansherping, Enköping, Yurinshurpin, Jinköping, Görkopping, Eurenköping, Yrnsherping, Jönkörping, Giödkoping, Görköping, Jonkoping.
Göteborg: Göthenborg, Ettabori, Jetibörig, Yetabori, Bori, Etterborie, Bore, Boria, Yetabor, Berit, Ett Börj, Ettebore, Gotebörg, Yetteborig, Etebori, Tabory, Getiborg, Göteberg. (This city's English name is Gothenburg.)
Malmö: Malmer, Malme, Manmur, Mälma, Malmur, Malmar, Malimö, Malimou, Malimår.
Obviously I'm not counting spelling in this part of the test -- the goal is to have the students extract relevant information from a spoken stream of sounds, not to be familiar with the complicated rules for hard and soft 'G', for example. I explained this to them before I gave the oral part of the test, so that may have influenced their behavior towards phonetic transcription rather than trying to remember how these cities were spelled.
Nevertheless, it's clear that some already know some basic rules about the relationship between sounds and letters in Swedish, and those strategies -- coupled with their much better knowledge of English orthography -- highlight the sometimes tenuous relationship between sounds and their transcription in a written language.