Swedish alphabet
Encyclopedia
Modern Swedish
is written with a 29-letter Latin alphabet:
Prior to the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens ordlista
(The Swedish Academy's Orthographic Dictionary) in 2006, the letters and were collated together.
In addition to the basic twenty-six letters, ⟨a⟩-⟨z⟩, the Swedish alphabet includes three additional letters in the final positions: ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ö⟩. These are considered distinct letters in Swedish and are sorted after ⟨z⟩ as shown above. Since they do not mark grammatical variation, as the umlaut
does in the German alphabet
, or separate syllables, as does the diaeresis, it is not correct to call them umlauts, despite the lack of a better term in English. The umlauted ⟨ü
⟩ is recognised, but is only used in names of German
origin. It is otherwise treated as a variant of ⟨y
⟩ and is called a "German Y". In Swedish, ⟨y⟩ is a vowel, and is pronounced as a consonant only in certain loanwords as a variant of ⟨j⟩.
The characters ⟨à⟩ (which is used only in the loanword à, from French) and ⟨é⟩ (used in some integrated loan words like idé and armé) are regarded simply as variants of ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩, respectively.
The letter ⟨q⟩ is only used for a few loanwords, like queer
, quisling, squash and quilting
, student terms such as gasque in Swedish, or for rare family names, and foreign geographic names, like Qatar
. The letters ⟨w⟩ and ⟨z⟩ are used for names, and also for a few loanwords. á is a Swedish (old-fashioned) word, while ⟨à⟩ is used for a few rare non-integrated loanwords. For Swedish native personal names, ⟨ü⟩ and ⟨è⟩ and others are also used. For foreign names, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨í⟩, ⟨õ⟩, ⟨ñ⟩ and many others might be used, but are usually converted to ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, etc.
Swedish newspapers and magazines have a tendency only to use letters available on the keyboard. ⟨à⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨í⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, etc. are available on Swedish keyboards with a little effort, but usually not ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ø⟩ (used in Danish and Norwegian), so ⟨ae⟩ or ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩ are usually substituted. The news agency TT
follows this usage since some newspapers have no technical support for ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ø⟩, although there is a recommendation to use ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ø⟩.
The national population register has traditionally only used the letters ⟨a⟩~⟨z⟩, ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨ü⟩, ⟨é⟩, although recently more diacritics have been allowed so immigrants with other Latin letters in their names have had their diacritic marks stripped (and æ/ø converted to ä/ö).
is very eclectic. Some estimates claim that there are over 50 possible different spellings of the sound, though this figure is disputed. Garlén (1988) gives a list of 22 spellings (⟨ch⟩, ⟨che⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨ge⟩, ⟨gi⟩, ⟨ige⟩, ⟨j⟩, ⟨je⟩, ⟨sc⟩, ⟨sch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨shi⟩, ⟨si⟩, ⟨sj⟩, ⟨sk⟩, ⟨skj⟩, ⟨ssi⟩, ⟨ssj⟩, ⟨stg⟩, ⟨sti⟩, ⟨stj, ⟨ti⟩), but many of them are confined to only a few words, often loan words, and all of them can correspond to other sounds or sound sequences as well. Some spellings of the sje-sound are as follows:
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
is written with a 29-letter Latin alphabet:
| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... |
B B B is the second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds , most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.-History:... |
C C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... |
D D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... |
E E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... |
F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... |
G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... |
I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... |
J J Ĵ or ĵ is a letter in Esperanto orthography representing the sound .While Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for its four postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets, the base letters are Romano-Germanic... |
K K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... |
L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... |
M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... |
N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... |
O O O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a... |
P P P is the sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Usage:In English and most other European languages, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. Both initial and final Ps can be combined with many other discrete consonants in English words... |
Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... |
R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... |
T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... |
U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... |
V V V is the twenty-second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Letter:The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y. See F for details.... |
W W W is the 23rd letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.In other Germanic languages, including German, its pronunciation is similar or identical to that of English V... |
X X X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Uses:In mathematics, x is commonly used as the name for an independent variable or unknown value. The usage of x to represent an independent or unknown variable can be traced back to the Arabic word šay شيء = “thing,” used in Arabic... |
Y Y Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound... |
Z Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... |
Å Å Å represents various sounds in several languages. Å is part of the alphabets used for the Alemannic and the Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German... |
Ä Ä "Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :... |
Ö Ö "Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut... |
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | å | ä | ö |
Prior to the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens ordlista
Svenska Akademiens Ordlista
Svenska Akademiens ordlista, or SAOL for short, is a dictionary published every few years by the Swedish Academy. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of Swedish spelling...
(The Swedish Academy's Orthographic Dictionary) in 2006, the letters
In addition to the basic twenty-six letters, ⟨a⟩-⟨z⟩, the Swedish alphabet includes three additional letters in the final positions: ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ö⟩. These are considered distinct letters in Swedish and are sorted after ⟨z⟩ as shown above. Since they do not mark grammatical variation, as the umlaut
Umlaut (diacritic)
The diaeresis and the umlaut are diacritics that consist of two dots placed over a letter, most commonly a vowel. When that letter is an i or a j, the diacritic replaces the tittle: ï....
does in the German alphabet
German alphabet
The modern German alphabet is an extended Latin alphabet consisting of 30 letters – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet plus four extra letters.In German, the individual letters have neuter gender: das A, das B etc....
, or separate syllables, as does the diaeresis, it is not correct to call them umlauts, despite the lack of a better term in English. The umlauted ⟨ü
Ü
Ü, or ü, is a character which can be either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter U with an umlaut or a diaeresis...
⟩ is recognised, but is only used in names of German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
origin. It is otherwise treated as a variant of ⟨y
Y
Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound...
⟩ and is called a "German Y". In Swedish, ⟨y⟩ is a vowel, and is pronounced as a consonant only in certain loanwords as a variant of ⟨j⟩.
The characters ⟨à⟩ (which is used only in the loanword à, from French) and ⟨é⟩ (used in some integrated loan words like idé and armé) are regarded simply as variants of ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩, respectively.
The letter ⟨q⟩ is only used for a few loanwords, like queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
, quisling, squash and quilting
Quilting
Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system.The process of quilting uses...
, student terms such as gasque in Swedish, or for rare family names, and foreign geographic names, like Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
. The letters ⟨w⟩ and ⟨z⟩ are used for names, and also for a few loanwords. á is a Swedish (old-fashioned) word, while ⟨à⟩ is used for a few rare non-integrated loanwords. For Swedish native personal names, ⟨ü⟩ and ⟨è⟩ and others are also used. For foreign names, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨í⟩, ⟨õ⟩, ⟨ñ⟩ and many others might be used, but are usually converted to ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, etc.
Swedish newspapers and magazines have a tendency only to use letters available on the keyboard. ⟨à⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨í⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, etc. are available on Swedish keyboards with a little effort, but usually not ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ø⟩ (used in Danish and Norwegian), so ⟨ae⟩ or ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩ are usually substituted. The news agency TT
Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå
Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå – The Newspapers' Telegram Bureau – is a Swedish news agency, the largest in Scandinavia, owned jointly by the country's newspapers and the media groups behind them. TT's services are used as the exclusive source of national news by many local media outlets...
follows this usage since some newspapers have no technical support for ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ø⟩, although there is a recommendation to use ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ø⟩.
The national population register has traditionally only used the letters ⟨a⟩~⟨z⟩, ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨ü⟩, ⟨é⟩, although recently more diacritics have been allowed so immigrants with other Latin letters in their names have had their diacritic marks stripped (and æ/ø converted to ä/ö).
Spellings for the sje-phoneme /ɧ/
Due to several phonetic combinations coalescing over recent centuries, the spelling of the Swedish sje-soundVoiceless palatal-velar fricative
In Swedish phonology, the sj-sound is a voiceless fricative phoneme found in most dialects. It has a variety of realisations, whose precise phonetic characterisation is a matter of debate...
is very eclectic. Some estimates claim that there are over 50 possible different spellings of the sound, though this figure is disputed. Garlén (1988) gives a list of 22 spellings (⟨ch⟩, ⟨che⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨ge⟩, ⟨gi⟩, ⟨ige⟩, ⟨j⟩, ⟨je⟩, ⟨sc⟩, ⟨sch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨shi⟩, ⟨si⟩, ⟨sj⟩, ⟨sk⟩, ⟨skj⟩, ⟨ssi⟩, ⟨ssj⟩, ⟨stg⟩, ⟨sti⟩, ⟨stj, ⟨ti⟩), but many of them are confined to only a few words, often loan words, and all of them can correspond to other sounds or sound sequences as well. Some spellings of the sje-sound are as follows:
- ⟨sj⟩ in native Swedish words, before both frontFront vowelA front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
(⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩) and back vowelBack vowelA back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
s (⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨å⟩); - ⟨sk⟩ in native Swedish words before the front vowelFront vowelA front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
s ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩; - ⟨stj⟩ in five words only, all enumerated in the phrase Det är lättare att stjäla en stjälk än att stjälpa en stjärna med stjärten. ("It is easier to steal a stalk than to overturn a star with your behind.");
- ⟨skj⟩ in five words only, four of which are enumerated in the phrase I bara skjortan skjuter han skjutsen in i skjulet. ("In just his shirt he pushes the vehicle into the shed.") The fifth word is skjuvning ("shear");
- ⟨stg⟩ in three words only: västgöte, östgöte, gästgiveri. This is dialectal, each of these has an alternative pronunciation with /stj/ used in television. These are all compound words: väst+göte (person from Western Gothia) öst-göte (person from Eastern Gothia) and gäst+giveri (roadside tavern);
- ⟨sch⟩ in all positions in a large number of German loanwords;
- ⟨sh⟩ in all positions in a large number of English loanwords;
- ⟨ch⟩ in most French loan words, but in final position often respelled ⟨sch⟩; note that English loan words with this spelling usually use the tje-sound;
- ⟨ge⟩ mostly in the end of the word in a large number of French loanwords, like garage, prestige;
- ⟨j⟩ in French loanwords, for example jalusi;
- -tion, -sion, -ssion in a large number of words of Latin origin; in a few of these words, the sje-sound is preceded by a /t/ (e.g. nation, rationell);
- ⟨xj⟩ for the sequence /kɧ/ occurs only in the place-name VäxjöVäxjöVäxjö is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 64 200 inhabitants in 2010. It is the administrative, cultural and industrial centre of Kronoberg County. Furthermore it is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Växjö. It has a population of about 64 200, out of a...
; - ⟨sti⟩ occurs only in the place-name KristianstadKristianstadKristianstad is a city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 35,711 inhabitants in 2010.-History:The city was founded in 1614 by King Christian IV of Denmark, the city's name literally means 'Town of Christian', as a planned city after the burning of the town of Vä...
;
See also
- Letter ÅÅÅ represents various sounds in several languages. Å is part of the alphabets used for the Alemannic and the Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German...
, Letter ÄÄ"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
, Letter ÖÖ"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut... - Finnish alphabetFinnish alphabetThe Finnish alphabet is based on the Latin script, and especially the Swedish alphabet. Officially it comprises 28 letters:A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö...
- German alphabetGerman alphabetThe modern German alphabet is an extended Latin alphabet consisting of 30 letters – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet plus four extra letters.In German, the individual letters have neuter gender: das A, das B etc....
- Swedish phonologySwedish phonologyThe phonology of Swedish is notable for having a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree quantity, making 17 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Swedish pronunciation of consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages...
- Danish and Norwegian alphabetDanish and Norwegian alphabetThe Danish and Norwegian alphabet is based upon the Latin alphabet and has consisted of the following 29 letters since 1917 and 1955 , although Danish did not officially recognize the W as a separate letter until 1980....
- FutharkRunic alphabetThe runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...