Swedish Research: Tips for Beginners: Difference between revisions

Swedish Research: Tips for Beginners (view source)

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Pronunciation assistance - showing how Swedish diacritic letters can affect people and place names.

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 === Think Phonetically  ===
-You may have from family or other sources the name(s)&nbsp;of the place(s) in Sweden where your ancestor lived or came from.&nbsp; However, when you&nbsp;try to find that in a place list&nbsp;such as the parish listing for Sweden, or, a gazetteer, it doesn't show up.&nbsp; What then?&nbsp; Remember that an "American language" ear heard what your Swedish ancestor was trying to say in his "Americanized Swedish," or not.
+You may have from family or other sources the name(s)&nbsp;of the place(s) in Sweden where your ancestor lived or came from.&nbsp; However, when you&nbsp;try to find that in a place list&nbsp;such as the parish listing for Sweden, or, a gazetteer, it doesn't show up.&nbsp; What then?&nbsp; Remember that an "American language" ear heard what your Swedish ancestor was trying to say in his/her "Americanized Swedish,"&nbsp;
+There are letters beyond "z" in the Swedish alphabet, which are also used in the middle of words, and in people and place names.&nbsp;Their sounds must be taken into account when trying to figure out what people and place names really are.&nbsp; Those letters are&nbsp;Å å&nbsp;&nbsp;Ä&nbsp;ä,&nbsp;Ö ö, ocurring in both upper&nbsp;and lower case.&nbsp;
+The Å å or two a's together are pronounced with a long english "o" sound. The Ä ä is pronounced like "eh." The Ö ö is pronounced like "oooh." In older usage, the Ä ä might have been replaced by "E e" i.e. Elfsborg County instead of Älvsborg.
+If a personal or place name begins with one of these letters, they will be alphabetized totally after "Z" in any indexes or alphabetical listings using the Swedish alphabet.&nbsp; If one of the above letters is used within a personal or place name listing, it could affect the alphabetical filing order up to three spaces over.&nbsp; For example:
+Ivar
+Iåna
+Zulu
+Zuzyanna
+Zuzånna
+Zörro
+The above letters' placement in a personal or place name affects the pronunciation of what is said and consequently, what is heard.
+A good case in point follows:&nbsp; A patron wrote saying their ancestor came from, "S''haista, Jonskoping, South Smoland, Sweden.''&nbsp; Neither their&nbsp;"Google" search, nor a Swedish place name search brought satisfaction.&nbsp;
+Given the pronunciation of the above letters, the places turn out to be the following:
+Skärstad, Jönköping, South Småland, Sweden.&nbsp; The "Skä-" would be pronounced as ''Shear-&nbsp; ''The''-sta ''is''"stad" ''with a very soft, dropped off "d."&nbsp; Roll that around on your tongue, and you can easily see how the family and/or the American record keeper got what they did.
+The ''"-kö-" ''in "Jönköping is pronounced with a "ssho" sound.&nbsp; Again, rolling that around on the tongue easily comes up with the family spelling.
+As indicated, the&nbsp;''å ''is pronounced with a long "o" sound, so "Smoland" is perfect for the phonics listed.
+To help you learn a little more about the sounds, go online and find a Swedish/English dictionary, with pronounciation marks.&nbsp; And, always roll names around on your tongue and see what you come up with.&nbsp; Many times, you'll get it right!
+&nbsp;
-There are letters beyond "z" in the Swedish alphabet, and their sounds must be taken into account when trying to figure what people and place names really are.&nbsp; Those letters are &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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