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The letter z is rare, used in names and a few loanwords such as zon "zone". z historically represented /ts/. By 1700, this had merged with /s/. As a result, z was replaced by s in 1700. z was instead used in loanwords for historical /z/. z is the second least used letter in Swedish, before q . [11]
The Å-sound originally had the same origin as the long /aː/ sound in German Aal and Haar (Scandinavian ål, hår).. Historically, the å derives from the Old Norse long /aː/ vowel (spelled with the letter á), but over time, it developed into an [] sound in most Scandinavian language varieties (in Swedish and Norwegian, it has eventually reached the pronunciation []).
Swedish has a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree in quantity, making 18 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Another notable feature is the pitch accent, a development which it shares with Norwegian. Swedish pronunciation of most consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages.
The letter Ä arose in German and later in Swedish from originally writing the E in AE on top of the A, which with time became simplified as two dots, consistent with the Sütterlin script. In the Icelandic , Faroese , Danish and Norwegian alphabets, " Æ " is still used instead of Ä.
It is a distinct letter in the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Walloon, and Chamorro alphabets. For example, the 29-letter Swedish alphabet begins with the basic 26 Latin letters and ends with the three letters Å, Ä, and Ö.
The Swedish sound can also be spelled several different ways, including dj , g , gj , hj , j , or lj , similarly to the tj-sound which can be spelled with ch (in some loanwords), k , kj , or tj . Traditional spelling therefore often results in a large difference between written and spoken language (deep orthography).
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The Sweden pronunciation is based primarily on Central Standard Swedish, and the Finland one on Helsinki pronunciation. Recordings and example transcriptions in this help are in Sweden Swedish, unless otherwise noted. See Swedish phonology and Swedish alphabet § Sound–spelling correspondences for a more thorough look at the sounds of Swedish.