Swedish orthography is the set of rules and conventions used for writing Swedish. The primary authority on Swedish orthography is Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL), a spelling dictionary published by the Swedish Academy. The balance between describing the language and creating norms has changed with the years.[1]
Orthography uses three distinct principles: phonologically oriented spelling, morphology-focused spelling, and traditional spelling. Through the history of written Swedish, these principles have been applied to various extents. Swedish spelling was long unregulated, but beginning in the later part of the 1700s, efforts increased to regulate spelling. In 1801, the Swedish Academy commissioned Afhandling om Svenska stafsättet, a treatise on Swedish spelling by poet Carl Gustaf af Leopold. The goal of the treatise was to create a more homogeneous spelling system, based on traditional spellings. Leopold also aimed to create more phonetic spellings for French loanwords. A later advocate for uniform spelling was Esaias Tegnér Jr.[2]
- ^ SAOL Archived 2008-02-04 at the Wayback Machine, upplaga 13, Inledning, 2: Språkbruk och språknorm.
- ^ Tegnér, Esaias, d.y. (1886). Natur och onatur ifråga om svensk rättstavning Uppsala, s 43