Swedish alphabet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Swedish alphabet consists of the following 29 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

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 "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" at least for sorting purposes, 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. W has nonetheless been an official letter in the Swedish alphabet, but sorted as if it were a V. The loanword "webb" is a word which has become rather common in Swedish since 1995.

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".

The above text relates to the formal status of the letters. Regarding actual usage, "q" is not used for any words in Swedish, only for rare family names, a few loanwords, like quesadilla, squash and quilting, and foreign geographic names, like Qatar. The letters "w" and "z" are used for names, and also for a few loanwords. The acute-accented "é" is used for well-integrated loan words like idé and armé. Also, "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 usually only "e", "i", etc.

The national population register can only use the letters A-Z,Å,Ä,Ö,Ü,É,ç and maybe a few others, so immigrants with other latin letters in their names will have the diacritic marks stripped.

[edit] Spellings for the sj-phoneme /ɧ/

Due to several phonetic combinations coalescing over recent centuries, the spelling of the the Swedish sje-sound 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 most of them (ch, che, g, ge, gi, ige, j, je, sc, sh, shi, si, sk, stg, sti, ti) 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 front (e, i, y, ä, ö) and back vowels (a, o, u, å);
sk in native Swedish words before front vowels (e, i, y, ä, ö);
stj in five words only, all enumerated in the word game "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 the BEHIND);
skj in five words only, of which four enumerated in the word game "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 (for example skjuvspänning = shear stress and skjuvtöjning = shear strain. Skjuvning can also mean pushing a vehicle, but somewhat discouraged to use);
stg in three words only: västgöte, östgöte, gästgiveri (each of these has an alternative pronunciation with /stj/);
sch in a large number of German (in all positions) loanwords;
sh in a large number of English (in all positions) loanwords;
ch in most French loan words (in final position though often -sch); note that English loan words with this spelling usually use the "tje"-sound;
-tion, -sion, -ssion in a large number of words with Latin origin; these words are spelt the same way in English; in a few of these words, the sje-sound is preceded by a t (e.g. nation, rationell); and
xj for the sequence /kɧ/ occurs only in the place-name Växjö;