Swedish alphabet

The Swedish alphabet (Swedish: Svenska alfabetet) is a basic element of the Latin writing system used for the Swedish language. The 29 letters of this alphabet are the modern 26-letter basic Latin alphabet (⟨a⟩ to ⟨z⟩) plus ⟨å⟩, ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩, in that order. It contains 20 consonants and 9 vowels (⟨a e i o u y å ä ö⟩). The Latin alphabet was brought to Sweden along with the Christianization of the population, although runes continued in use throughout the first centuries of Christianity, even for ecclesiastic purposes, despite their traditional relation to the Old Norse religion. The runes underwent partial "latinization" in the Middle Ages,^[1] when the Latin alphabet was completely accepted as the Swedish script system, but runes still occurred, especially in the countryside, until the 18th century, and were used decoratively until mid 19th century.^[1]