#4 The KJ sound: it's time to nail it! [pronunciation] [uttale]

Norwegian teacher Silje provides a detailed guide to mastering the challenging KJ sound in Norwegian with three practical techniques and plenty of practice examples. The tutorial includes both the technical aspects of tongue positioning and real-world context about how this sound is evolving in modern Norwegian speech.

• The KJ sound can be written as KJ, K+I, K+Y, and sometimes TJ.
• Unlike English "sh," the KJ sound requires that the tongue lies flat.
• First tip: prolong a K sound and let air pass through while relaxing the tongue.
• Second tip: start with "h" then whisper it,
• Third tip: Avoid associating the KJ sound with the English "sh" sound in your mind.
• Being able to pronounce the sound correctly helps you hear the difference better!

Good luck with your practice! And please tell me how it went!

Chapters

• 0:12 Introduction to KJ Sound
• 0:56 First Tip: Prolonging K
• 1:39 Proper Tongue Positioning
• 3:16 Practice Words and Examples
• 4:20 Reality of Sound Evolution
• 8:15 Final Encouragement

Transcript

Silje: 0:12

How do you pronounce the KJ sound in Norwegian? My name is Silje, I'm a Norwegian teacher and I'm going to give you three tips on this sound. I'm a Norwegian teacher and I'm going to give you three tips on this sound. So there, first of all, there are three general ways to write this sound. You have KJ, K in front of I, k in front of Y in many cases, not always, and in a few words you also have T-J. So you have K-J, k-i or K-Y and T-J.

Silje: 1:14

The first tip that I have given a lot is to start with a K and prolong it. So instead of saying k, k, you try to relax and make the ear pass when you say it. Then you get it. If the sound gets a little bit weird, if it sounds more like this, then you have to move your tongue a little bit forward. If you find this hard.

Silje: 1:39

Another way is to start with ", so with an H, he, he, and then you try to whisper it instead he, he, he. So the trick is that you want to pronounce this sound in the back of your mouth, with the back of your tongue towards the palate mouth, with the back of your tongue towards the palate. You don't want to have the tip of your tongue going upwards against the palate, as it normally does when you say shh, as in English. Try to make that sound English shh and see how the tip of your tongue actually goes up. And see how the tip of your tongue actually goes up behind the upper teeth. It should lie flat in your mouth and only the back of your tongue should go up towards the palate.

Silje: 2:36

There are two things you can think about. Don't think about the H sound, the KJ sound, as a SH sound. So don't associate those two sounds, because when you speak your brain is not thinking about how to pronounce the sounds of a language. It just follows the patterns that it has already learned. And if in your head those two sounds are the same, you will very likely want to pronounce the sound that you're already used to pronouncing. So if instead you look at it as a K sound, like a variation of K or a variation of H, then it will probably make it easier to remember how to pronounce it and to feel comfortable pronouncing it. I think If, despite this, you still take the tongue up every time you want to say that sound, then maybe use a spoon or something to try to force your tongue down, to really get used to having your tongue lie flat. Give it a go. I'm going to give you some words

Silje: 3:47

You can practice on words that have two variations, so one with a KJ KJ sound and one with the SJ sound, sj, sk and SKJ. Those three ways, those are the three ways you generally can write the English sh sound, s-j, s-k-j and S-K. And in some rare cases we also have some imported words with theG taken from French, because we don't have the sound that they have in French. So we say " instead, just like in English Okay, here comes today's listening practice.

Silje: 4:38

I highly recommend to repeat after me, following my instructions. When you feel comfortable pronouncing it, I also want you to listen again and really pay attention to the pronunciation and see if you're able to hear the difference, because when you're able to pronounce it correctly, you are more likely able to hear the difference, which might sound a little bit counterintuitive, but it's true. You can test yourself. You can listen first and see if you can hear the difference and then, when you repeat after me, focusing on the rules that I gave you, and see after if you're better at hearing the difference after you've practiced pronouncing it, okay, here we go. Okay, here we go.

Silje: 6:01

Kylling - skylling, tjue - sju, kjenne, skjenne

Silje: 6:11

Kylling - skylling, tjue - sju, kjenne - skjenne

Silje: 6:38

Now, I know the difference between the two sounds is very subtle and it will take time for your brain to hear it, and you might not always hear it, because people have variations of this sound. The more you pronounce it forward in your mouth, the smaller the difference will be. I cannot always hear the difference between the two sounds and it is really a sound that might disappear by itself gradually with time. Young people nowadays they struggle with this sound. Many people do not really pronounce it at all. They will use the English sh sound instead. So if you do not pronounce it correctly, it's not that big a deal. It's a natural change that is happening in the language because the difference between the two sounds is so subtle.

Silje: 7:40

I actually, since I come from Bergen originally, I have a dialect where a lot of people don't really differentiate. So that dialect is famous for that the fact that people do not differentiate between sj and kj, and I had to learn it as an adult when I started teaching Norwegian. So I know it can be hard both to hear the difference and to say it correctly. But when you learn to say it correctly, you will hear the difference much better, because you know how the sound is made, so you can hear that subtlety much better. So I wish you good luck. Tell me how it went. And yeah, good luck. Ha en fin dag."