What are Scandinavian word tones in Norwegian and Swedish?

In most of Norway and Sweden, the Scandinavian languages utilize a special word tone, often referred to as a pitch accent, to distinguish between words based on their historical origins.

This system functions by differentiating between words that were historically monosyllabic and those that were historically polysyllabic:

• First Pitch Type: Typically associated with old monosyllables, this tone generally features a high or low pitch on the stressed syllable, similar to the patterns found in other Germanic languages.
• Second Pitch Type: Associated with old polysyllables, this tone is more complex and exhibits significant regional variation across Norway and Sweden.

In contrast, this tonal distinction has been lost in Danish, where it has been replaced by glottalization in instances where Norwegian and Swedish maintain the first pitch type.1