Swedish alphabet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Swedish alphabet consists of the following 29 letters:
In addition to the commonly occurring letters of the Latin alphabet, A-Z, the Swedish alphabet has the three letters, "Å", "Ä" and "Ö". The letters "Å", "Ä" and "Ö" are considered distinct letters in Swedish and are sorted after Z as shown above (unlike the German umlauts in the German alphabet).
Since the additional letters do not mark grammatical variation, as in tense or mood, or syllable modification (diaeresis), they are not in function instances of diacritical marking. It is therefore not correct to refer to these characters as 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 (in contrast to English) "Y" is a vowel, and is pronounced as a consonant only in certain loanwords.
Until recently the letter "W" was treated as a variant form of "V" and this practice is still commonly encountered. However, in 2005 the Swedish Academy separated the two letters in conformity with international lexicographic practice. They appear under separate headings in the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens Ordlista, released on 10 April 2006.
The characters "à" (which is used only in the loanword à, from French) and "é" are regarded simply as variants of "a" and "e".
