In 1869 the Nordiska rättstavningsmötet (Nordic meeting on correct spelling) set off movements for the modernisation of Swedish spelling. After lengthy debates the government decided on rättstavningsreformen (spelling reform) in 1906 - in parts opposed by the Svenska Akademin. This prescribed several major changes and a revised dictionary was published in 1921 but the new rules were used in most schools long before that.

1  This applies only to Nordic languages (see below)
2  Spelling changes over time
3  In the case of personal documents, spelling errors occur.
4  Danish and Norwegian languages are closely related. Denmark and Norway were one country for very long periods.
5  Norwegian language exists in two major variations bokmål and nynorsk.

A few other European languages use the letters used for identification here, e.g. Turkish uses ö, German uses ä and ö but not å etc.

NOTE: Your browser may not show the special letters in column 2 properly depending on the language settings in your computer.
"umlaut" means 2 dots at the top. "slash" means a "/" through the letter.