Danish phonology

The phonology of Danish is similar to that of the other closely related Scandinavian languages, Swedish and Norwegian, but it also has distinct features setting it apart. For example, Danish has a suprasegmental feature known as stød which is a kind of laryngeal phonation that is used phonemically. It also exhibits extensive lenition of plosives, which is noticeably more common than in the neighboring languages. Because of these and a few other features, spoken Danish can be challenging for Norwegians and Swedes to understand without training, although they can easily read written Danish. Danish has at least 17 consonant phonemes: /p, t, k, h/ occur only syllable-initially and [ŋ, ð, w] only syllable-finally. [ɕ] is phonemically /sj/ and [w] is the syllable-final allophone of /v/. [w] also occurs syllable-initially in English loans, along with ɹ̠, but syllable-initial [w] is in free variation with [v] and these are not considered part of the phonological inventory of Danish. /ŋ/ occurs only before short vowels and stems morphophonologically, in native words, from nɡ or n preceding k and, in French loans, from a distinct ŋ. Beyond morphological boundaries, [ŋ] may also appear as the result of an optional assimilation of /n/ before /k, ɡ/. /n, t, d, s, l/ are apical alveolar [n̺, t̺s̺h, t̺, s̺, l̺], although some speakers realize /s/ dentally (s̪). /p, t, k/ are voiceless aspirated, with /t/ also affricated: [ph, tsh, kh]. The affricate [tsh] is often transcribed with ts. In some varieties of standard Danish (but not the Copenhagen dialect), /t/ is just aspirated, without the affrication. /b, d, ɡ/ are voiceless unaspirated [p, t, k]. In syllable codas, weak, partial voicing may accompany them especially when between voiced sounds. In spontaneous speech recorded in 1996, 38% of intervocalic /b, d, ɡ/ were voiced. Utterance-final /b, d, ɡ/ may be realized as [ph, t(s)h, kh], particularly in distinct speech. Intervocalic /d/ may be realized as a voiced flap ɾ, as in nordisk [ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk] 'Nordic'. /h/ is only weakly fricated.