Swedish alphabet

Modern Swedish is written with a 29-letter Latin alphabet:

Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital 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

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 (The Swedish Academy's Orthographic Dictionary) in 2006, the letters <v> and <w> were collated together.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

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⟩,^[6] 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^[7] so immigrants with other Latin letters in their names have had their diacritic marks stripped (and æ/ø converted to ä/ö).

Contents 1 Spellings for the sje-phoneme /ɧ/ 2 Notes 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Spellings for the sje-phoneme /ɧ/

Due to several phonetic combinations coalescing over recent centuries, the spelling of 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 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 front (⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩) and back vowels (⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨å⟩);
• ⟨sk⟩ in native Swedish words before the front vowels ⟨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 (pronounced /ɧon/) 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 Växjö;
• ⟨sti⟩ occurs only in the place-name Kristianstad;

Notes

See also

• Letter Å, Letter Ä, Letter Ö
• Finnish alphabet
• German alphabet
• Swedish phonology
• Danish and Norwegian alphabet
• Futhark

References

• Garlén, Claes (1988), Svenskans fonologi i kontrastiv och typologisk belysning Studentlitteratur, Lund. 1988. ISBN 91-44-28151-X

External links

• Swedish alphabet pronounced by a native speaker (youtube)

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