The Swedish Chef on The Muppet Show gives you a good idea of how Swedish sounds. But not perfectly, for one thing, he speaks with his tongue way too far back in his mouth! Perhaps this guide will be of some help.
Perhaps this MP3 file will also help explaining how we pronounce the names of the aircraft.
The "i" is long, so it's approximately Gree-pen, like the "gree" in "green" and "pen" as in "pen". But the "r" should be more rolling, so the "Gr" should be something like in "gringo".
There is a slight stress on the first syllable, and the "eh" in the last syllable is sometimes half swallowed, so you could hear something like "greep'n".
A grip is a griffon, however there's another word in Swedish which is written and spelt the same way as Gripen, which means "arrested", which is why a net search could turn up irrelevant documents.
The "i" is short, so "Vi" is like in "Vincent", the "gg" sounds like in "go". The "en" is like in Gripen, making something like Vigg-en.
Slight stress on first syllable.
A vigg is a thunderbolt, but there's also a black and white seabird with the same name.
The "Dr" is sort of like in English, but with the tongue near the front teeth for the "d" and a rolling "r". The "a" is long, but not exaggerated, and probably the most difficult sound to get right (apart from the Swedish pronounciation of B 17 which I'm not even going to attempt explaining), because there isn't such an "a" in most languages. It's something like what a sheep sounds like when it says "Ba-a-ah". "Ken" is like "Ken". Slight stress on first syllable: Drah-ken.
Drake means dragon, but also kite. The suffix "n" corresponds to prefix "the".
The "L" is ordinary, but with the tongue close to the front teeth, the "a" is short and like the first one in "aha!", making the pronounciation Lahns-enn with a slight stress on the first syllable.
A lans is a lance.
The "T" should be said with the tongue close to the front teeth. The "u" is short and close to the "u" in "carburettor", or like a chimpanzee saying "uh-uh-uh!". The "n"s are pronounced with the tongue close to the front teeth, the "a" short and like in Lansen. Tuh-nann
A tunna is a barrel.
More on Swedish military aviation
Text last updated 1998 Apr 05, soundclip added
1999 Dec 20, document last modified 1999 Dec 20
by Urban Fredriksson