About those peculiar letters å ä and ö

These are not to be regarded as a or o with accents, but letters in their own right, so there are 29 letters in the Swedish alphabet. Sometimes V and W are considered the same and then we have only 28.

Å å has a rather complicated history. Suffice it to say that this sound formerly often was written aa (can still be seen in older Norwegian and Danish); now you may think of the ring as a small version of the second a upon the first even if linguists are not sure if this is correct - it may have been an independent invention.

Ä ä was originally a diphtong ae also written as an ligature æ (as it still is in Norwegian and Danish). In Sweden the 'e' climbed on top of the 'a', in the course transforming itself into two dots.

Ö ö developed along the same course as ä. Thus the ligature œ (which became ø in Norway and Denmark) and the transformation of an e into two dots.

For further information you could search the net for e g the phrase "swedish alphabet".  My start page.

2003-10-23