Swedish retroflex consonants
From UniLang Wiki
The Swedish retroflex consonants (ʈ, ɖ, ʂ, ɭ, ɳ) are common in Indian languages like Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati and Malayalam, and in Australian Aboriginal languages like Warlpiri and Jingulu. In Swedish, the retroflex consonants are written with an r in front, which gets absorbed into the retroflex sound: [tuːɳ] = torn (tower) while [tuːn] is ton (tone).
In southern Sweden, retroflex sounds do not exist, thus both the r and the following consonant are pronounced normally. R in southern Sweden is often [ʀ] making "torn" [tuːʀn].
(In large parts of southern Sweden (Småland, Halland etc), the r is lost completely in the pronunciation: "torn" [tu:n].)
Examples of retroflex sounds changing significance
(tower) torn – ton (tone)
(barley) korn – kon (cone)
(murder) mord – mod (courage)
(table) bord – bod (shed)
(man) karl - kal (bare)
(speed) fart - fat (dish)
(greet) morsa - mossa (moss)
