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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]
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 Å (å in lower case) represents various (although often similar) sounds in several languages. It is a separate letter in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, North Frisian, Low Saxon, Transylvanian Saxon, Walloon, Chamorro, Lule Sami, Pite Sami, Skolt Sami, Southern Sami, Ume Sami, Pamirian languages, and Greenlandic alphabets.
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.
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).
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.
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The following is the chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet, a standardized system of phonetic symbols devised and maintained by the International Phonetic Association.