ABSTRACT
The Swedish lilt has often been compared with the Chinese. The reason for this is that in Swedish— and in Norwegian— certain words may have two meanings according to the intonation. The keynote of the Swedish pitch should be slightly higher than the American. The word emphasis has already been discussed in the preceding section. But in the syllabic emphasis, also, the Swedish dialect is distinctive in that, generally, it is the first syllable of a word that receives the emphasis. Before going into the vowel changes, it will be necessary first to discuss the all-important Swedish umlaut treatment of certain of its vowel sounds. There are few actual grammar changes in the Swedish dialect that are typical of the Swedish language which is constructed, grammatically, like the American. There are few actual grammar changes in the Swedish dialect that are typical of the Swedish language which is constructed, grammatically, like the American.
