Page:A Danish and Dano-Norwegian grammar.djvu/50

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36
NORWEGIAN SOUNDS.

The sound of öi is in some foreign words represented by eu: Farmaceut (pron. söit) pharmacist, Lieutenant (pron. and now regularly spelt löitnant), neutral (öi) neuter, Eugen (pron. öisjnén).

97. œu has a sound that comes very near the Cockney pronunciation of ou in “house.” Orthographical sign au. Ex.: taus silent, August, Taug rope.

This diphthong is written eu in Europa. (But in Greek names Zeus etc. eu is pronounced ev).


NORWEGIAN CONSONANTS.


98. p as in English; Ex.: Pave pope, Penge money, Pil arrow, op up.

Note 1. Vulgar is a tendency to pronounce p before t as f; Ex.: kaftein for Kaptein Captain, skaft for skapt (written skabt) shaped.

Note 2. The sound of p is written b in the following cases:

1) after short vowel before, mostly inflective, t and s: skabt (p) shaped, raabt (pron. ropt) called, Krebs (p) crawfish, Skibshund (p) ship’s dog, Labskaus (p) lobcscouse: Læbe lip is often pronounced læppe, with short vowel.

2) after a long vowel when p either ends a word or is followed by ə (see § 6 in fine); Ex.: Gab (p) yawn, gale () to yawn, Skrab (p) trash, skrabe (p) to scrape, Skab (p) wardrobe, Tab (p) loss, tabe (p) to lose, Kaabe (p) cloak, taabelig (b or p) foolish, krybe (p) to creep. Among the younger generation of authors it is getting always more common to spell these words in accordance with the Norwegian pronunciation. It is only in a small part of the coast districts in the southernmost part of Norway that b in these words is pronounced as written, similarly to the pronunciation in Danish (see § 4).