All About The Swedish Letters “Å”,

“Ä”, and “Ö”

The Swedish Alphabet

The Swedish alphabet includes three more letters than the English alphabet: Å, Ä, and Ö (in that order). These three letters appear at the end of the alphabet, following the letter Z. The Swedish alphabet: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÅÄÖ. Mind you: Å and Ä are not embellished or fancy A's. And Ö is not an embellished or fancy O. So, in the Swedish language, Å, Ä, and Ö are distinct letters. This means that the letters Å and Ä are not interchangeable with the letter A, and the letter Ö is not interchangeable with the letter O. Further, both letters Å and Ä represent sounds that are different from the sound represented by the letter A. Likewise, the sound that represents the letter Ö is different from the sound that represents the letter O. In other words, letters Å, Ä, Ö, A, and O are all pronounced differently. For example, the surname Jonsson is not pronounced in the same way as the surname Jönsson. Both of these surnames are prevalent in Sweden, but they are distinct names. So, if you have an ancestor named Jönsson and list him as Jonsson in your family tree, you have renamed this person's name to something other than what he actually carried. Similarly, if you have an ancestor who was born in Böda, located on the island of Öland, and you register his place of birth as Boda, located in Småland, you have given him a completely different place of birth. If you arrive in Sweden with the intention of visiting Böda and show a piece of paper where you have written down Boda (instead of Böda) and ask for directions to this place, you will end up in the wrong place. The same thing will happen if you verbally ask for directions to Boda (unaware that Böda is not pronounced like Boda). Another example is the two places Hallaryd and Hällaryd. Both these two places exist, but one is spelled with an "ä" and the other with an "a". Other examples of distinct names of people that will be inaccurate if spelled with an “a” or “o” instead of “å”,”ä”, or “ö” are Mollberg vs Möllberg, Hallberg vs Hällberg, Marta vs Märta, etc. So, please be careful with the letters Å, Ä, and Ö. They are NOT interchangeable with letters A and O! If you replace Ö with O, like when Jönsson becomes Jonsson, you have an error in your genealogy since you have changed his surname into a name he didn’t carry. If you're lucky, changing the spelling of Sjöberg to Sjoberg results in the creation of a name that does not already exist. A native Swede will recognize Sjoberg as an error, and we will conclude that you most likely meant Sjöberg. Changing people's names in this way is analogous to a Swede researching his family in the United States and discovering a relative named Brown and then listing his name as Green in the family tree with the excuse that both names are colors. So, use Å, Ä, and Ö when you encounter them in Swedish proper names or place names. Don't replace them with A, or O; it doesn't work! It's really no excuse that you only have an English keyboard. It's relatively easy to type "å," "ä," and "ö" even on an English keyboard. Take advantage of that option. Replacing å, ä, or ö with a or o gives incorrect information and causes confusion about what you mean.

How Å, Ä, and Ö is sorted

As mentioned above, letters Å, Ä, and Ö appear at the end of the alphabet, following the letter Z, in this order. For example, if we have the surnames Andersson, Ågren, Högman, Holmgren, Älmgren, Söderberg, Solberg, Öhman, Jonsson, Jönsson, Julander, and Sundberg and order them alphabetically in ascending order, it will be as follows: 1. Andersson 2. Holmgren 3. Högman 4. Jonsson 5. Julander 6. Jönsson 7. Solberg 8. Sundberg 9. Söderberg 10. Ågren 11. Älmgren 12. Öhman If we look at the names beginning with “S”, i.e., Solberg, Sundberg, and Söderberg, we see that Solberg comes first and Söderberg last. So, “O” and “Ö” are sorted differently.

Words spelled with the letters Å, Ä, and Ö

take on different meanings if they are

replaced with A or O.

If we, for example, take the word “bar” and spell it like the following, we get different meanings of the word: • Bar (where you can have a drink) • Bår Stretcher • Bär Berries • Bor Live • Bör Should So, regarding the letters A, O, Å, Ä, and Ö, there are many words with similar spelling but with a totally different meaning: For example:

How are the letters Å, Ä, and Ö

pronounced?

How can one phonetically write how the Swedish letters Å, Ä, and Ö are pronounced so that a native English speaker can understand this? That's a bit tricky! Since English does not have exact equivalents to the Swedish vowels Å, Ä, and Ö, the best way to describe them is by comparing them to similar English sounds and explaining the position of the lips. Here’s a phonetic and descriptive guide:

Letter Å / å

• IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) $/ɔ/ • Phonetics (English comparison): “AWE” (as in the words “AWE”-some, or “SAW”). • Shorter, common equivalent: The "O" sound in the British pronunciation of 'HOT' or "POT." • Lip position: The lips should be rounded, as if you were about to whistle, but with a slightly wider gap. The tongue is held low. • Example word: Ål (Eel)—pronounced as “AWL”. • Avoid pronouncing it like the English “O” in “GO” (which is a diphthong, $/oʊ/).

Letter Ä / ä

• IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) $/$ɛ$/ • Phonetics (English comparison): Such as the “E” in the words “GET,” “BED,” or ‘MEN’ (as in “the men”). • Shorter, common equivalent: Exactly the same sound as the short English “E”. • Lip position: The lips are neutral/spread. The mouth is open. • Example word: Äta (Eat)—pronounced “EHT-ah” (where EHT sounds like the ‘et’ in “get”). • Avoid pronouncing it as “AY” in “SAY” or ‘A’ in “CAT” (the latter is a more open sound, $/$æ$/).

Letter Ö / ö

• IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) $/$ø$/ or $/$œ$/ • Phonetics (English comparison): This sound does not exist in standard English! It is a mixture of a “U” and an “E”. • Instruction: Say the long English “I” sound (as in “BIRD” or ‘TURN’—the American $/$ɝ$/-sound, but without the R) while keeping your lips rounded, as if you were saying the Swedish “Å” or English “OH”. • Alternative comparison: It is close to the French “EU” in the word bleu or the German “Ö” in schön. • Lip position: The lips should be very rounded (like a small O), but the tongue should be in position to say an E (as in “bed”). • Example word: Öga (Eye)—pronounced “OE-gah” (where OE is the round E sound). Summary for learning the three letters: • Å: Like AWE, with rounded lips. • Ä: Like E in MEN, with neutral lips. • Ö: Like I in BIRD, but with rounded lips.

Acute Accent - é

The acute accent marks the stressed vowel of a word in several languages. In Swedish the acute accent is used to indicate that a terminal syllable with the vowel e is stressed. Often this is used for Swedish word with a French origin. For example: • Filé – Fillet [of beef] • Café – Coffee bar • Paté - Paté This is also the case with some names of people: • André (a first name) • Iréne (a first name) • Rahmé (a last name) However, in some words the acute accent is also needed to differentiate two words from each other. For Example • Armen (first syllable stressed) – The arm (body part) • Armén – The Army • Ide (first syllable stressed) – A bear’s winter quater • Idé - Idea Because keyboards have only a limited number of keys, English keyboards do not have keys for accented characters.

Sounds that differ in Swedish

from English

There are letter sounds that differ in Swedish from English. A few examples of such sounds:

The Swedish J sound

A while ago, an American posted a query at a Swedish genealogy group on Facebook, where he wondered why the Swedish language did not have a J sound. This was a bit of an odd and remarkable question. Of course we have a J sound in the Swedish language, but it is different from the English J sound. The English J sound is clearly not the only J sound in the world. The Swedish J sound is closer to the English Y sound. For example, if a Swedish guy by the name of Johnny introduces himself, it would sound like “Yohnny” in the ears of an American. Germanic languages, such as German and the Nordic languages, borrowed the letter J from Latin and preserved its original pronunciation (/j/), but English borrowed it again from Old French, resulting in the distinction. However, we do have a sound similar to the English J-sound in Swedish, and that is in Swedish words whose spelling begins with the letters “DJ.” For example: Djur, Djup etc.

The Swedish V/W sound

The Swedish V sound is distinct from the English V sound. The letters V and W are pronounced the same way in Swedish, so Vallberg and Wallberg are pronounced in exactly the same way. Actually, W is just a fancy V. The Swedish V sound is closer to the English W sound. So, when a Swede says “Volvo,” it would sound like “Wolvo” to an American.

No TH sound in Swedish

The Swedish language doesn’t have a TH sound. When a “T” is followed by an “H,” the “H” is silent. The “H” doesn’t change the pronunciation of the word. “TH” in Swedish is just a posh way of spelling names that could have been spelled with just a “T.” For example, Artur and Arthur are pronounced in the same manner, and that is like “Artur.” Similarly, Elisabet and Elisabeth are pronounced in the same manner, and that is like “Elisabet.” Scandinavians tend to pronounce English words with “TH” in the middle of the word as a “D”, i.e. Father is pronounced more like “Fader”. I’m sure that many Minnesotans with Swedish ancestry can recognize this. There is a city in northeastern Minnesota called Duluth. The Swedish settlers commonly pronounced the city's name as Delut.

How to type Å, Ä, and Ö on the

keyboard—Windows:

Keyboards

Note: Keyboards themselves do not produce characters—they produce codes that can be interpreted differently depending on the operating system, settings, and computer programs used. The appearance of the keyboard may vary between languages, countries, and writing systems. The most common keyboard layout for English-speaking and Northern European countries is called qwerty. The letters A to Z are usually in the same place on all QWERTY keyboards, while the placement of other letters and characters varies between different language areas. Keyboard designs may also differ slightly between computers for different uses or for different operating systems. Laptops often lack the numeric keypad section. Swedish keyboards designed for newer versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system have 105 keys, while English keyboards have 104 keys.

Windows PCs with a numeric keypad

On Windows computers, these letters can be created by holding down the Alt key and typing in a three- or four-number code (ASCII character code) corresponding to the vowel you want (as shown below). These number codes are typed on the numeric keypad to the right of the keyboard before releasing the Alt key. Note, The Num Lock key must be on. • å: Alt key + 134 or Alt + 0229 • Å: Alt key + 143 or Alt + 0197 • ä: Alt key + 132 or Alt + 0228 • Ä: Alt key + 142 or Alt + 0196 • ö: Alt key + 148 or Alt + 0246 • Ö: Alt key + 153 or Alt + 0214 • é: Alt key + 130 or Alt + 0233 • É: Alt key + 144 or Alt + 0201 Windows PCs without a numeric keypad Modern Windows laptops usually lack a numeric keypad. Typing the Swedish vowels Å, Ä, and Ö on a laptop is a common problem for genealogists who switch from a desktop computer to a laptop! Unfortunately, those ALT codes only work with the numeric keypad. However, the Fn key can be used to turn certain keys into a numeric keypad. There is normally a key called [Num Lock] that allows you to 'shift' particular keys so that they act as if they were the numeric keypad keys. Holding down the Function key activates blue-labeled keys, as indicated by the blue letters. The methods vary from one brand to another. To type Swedish vowels using blue numbers, hold down the Fn and Alt keys and then enter the desired number code. The graphic depicts a typical Swedish Windows keyboard layout (QWERTY). Image: Wikipedia. 1. Windows Emoji Panel However, the easiest way is probably to use the Windows Emoji Panel. This is the fastest way to get rarely used characters without changing any settings: 1. Hold down the Windows key and press the period key (.). An emoji/symbol window will appear. 2. Click on the Symbol icon (see below) at the top of the panel to switch to character mode. 3. Then select the Latin Symbols category (Scroll right to find it.) 4. Scroll down to find the Swedish letter: Å, Ä, Ö, å, ä, and ö. 5. Click the desired letter to directly insert it into your document or family tree software. I use the Swedish version of Windows 11; thus, the examples below show the various panels in Swedish. However, the corresponding content is available for English Windows.

Source References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_alphabet • Augustana College • http://swedish.typeit.org/ • https://www.autohotkey.com/ Top of page

2. US International Keyboard Layout The best solution for Americans that frequently type Swedish characters, though, is to install the US International Keyboard Layout. It provides shortcut key combinations directly on the English keyboard. Windows 11 laptop: 1. Go to Settings: Open Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region. 2. Find English (United States), click the three dots (...) and select Language options. 3. Under "Keyboards," click Add a keyboard and select United States-International. 4. You can now switch between the "Standard" and "International" keyboard by pressing Windows Key + Spacebar. You must now select the international keyboard. How to use it (once selected): • To get Ä / ä: Press the Quotation mark (") then press a. • To get Ö / ö: Press the Quotation mark (") then press o. • To get Å / å: Hold the AltGr key and press w. For the first two: First, a “dead character” is written that modifies the next letter. The AltGr key is located on the right side of the space bar. With some keyboard mappings (such as US- International), the right Alt key can be reconfigured to function as an AltGr key. Ctrl + Alt is treated as AltGr by Windows. 3. Using a Software There is various software that you can use to automate the typing of the three extra Swedish characters, Å, Ä, and Ö. One such software is AutoHotKey, which lets you create keyboard macros. For example, the keystrokes CTRL-a can be used for å, ALT-a for ä, and ALT-o for ö. Similarly, Shift-CTRL-A can be used for Å, and Shift- ALT-A for Ä, and Shift-ALT-O for Ö. AutoHotKey can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

How to type Å, Ä, and Ö on the

keyboard—Mac:

• å: Press Option and the letter "a" for lower case å • Å: Press Option, Shift, and the letter "a" for a capital Å • ä: Press and release Option and the letter "U". Press the letter "a" for a lower case ä • Ä: Press and release Option and the letter "U". Press Shift and the letter "a" for an upper case Ä • ö: Press and release Option and the letter "U". Press the letter "o" for a lower case ö • Ö: Press and release Option and the letter "U". Press Shift and the letter o for an upper case Ö • é: Hold down the Option key and type an "e", release the keys, and type another "e". • É: Hold down the Option key and type an "e", release the keys, hold down the Shift key and type another "e".