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Rh Bugge's ingenious interpretation and grammatical treatment of some of the most remarkable inscriptions. Old Swedish literature has also been made the object of grammatical researches. A first outline of a history of the Swedish language is to be found in the work of N. M. Petersen (1830) mentioned above (p. 370), and a scheme of an Old Swedish grammar in P. A. Munch's essay, Fornswenskans och Fornnorskans språkbyggnad (1849); but Old Swedish grammar was never treated as an independent branch of science until the appearance of J. E. Rydqvist's († 1877) monumental work Svenska språkets lagar (in 6 vols., 1850-83), which was followed in Sweden by a whole literature on the same subject. Thus phonetics, which were comparatively neglected by Rydqvist, have been investigated with great success, especially by L. F. Leffler and A. Kock; while the other parts of grammar have been treated of above all by K. F. Söderwall, the chief of contemporary Old Swedish scholars. His principal work, Ordbok öfver Svenska medeltidsspråket (1884 sq.), now in course of publication, gives the list of words in the later Old Swedish language, and—taken along with the Ordbok till samlingen af Sveriges gamla lagar (1877), by C. J. Schlyter, the well-known editor of Old Swedish texts, which contains the vocabulary of the oldest literature—it worthily meets the demand for an Old Swedish dictionary. An Old Swedish grammar, answering the requirements of modern philology, is still needed.

2. Modern Swedish.—The first complete translation of the Bible, edited in 1541 by the brothers Olaus and Laurentius Petri, and generally called the Bible of Gustavus I., may be regarded as the earliest important monument of this. Owing to religious and political circumstances, and to the learned influence of humanism, theological and historico-political works preponderate in the Swedish literature of the following period, which therefore affords but scanty material for philological research. It is not until the middle of the 17th century that Swedish literature adequately exemplifies the language, for at that period literature first began to be cultivated as a fine art, and its principal representatives, such as Stiernhielm, Columbus, and Spegel, were in reality the first to study it as a means of expression and to develop its resources. Amongst the authors of the 18th century we have to mention in the first place Dalin, who was to some extent the creator of the prose style of that epoch; while of the end of the century Kellgren and Bellman are the most noteworthy examples, representing the higher and the more familiar style of poetry respectively. The language of the 19th century, or at any rate of the middle of it, is best represented in the works of Wallin and Tegnér, which, on account of their enormous circulation, have had a greater influence than those of any other authors.

As to the language itself the earliest Modern Swedish texts, as Gustavus I.'s Bible, differ considerably from the latest Old Swedish ones. We find a decided tendency to exterminate Danisms and reintroduce native and partially antiquated forms. At the same time there appear several traces of a later state of the language: all genitives (singular and plural), e.g., end in -s, which in earlier times was the proper ending of only certain declensions. In spite of the archaistic efforts of many writers, both in forms and in vocabulary, the language nevertheless underwent rapid changes during the 16th and 17th centuries. Thus sj and stj (original as well as derived from sk before a palatal vowel) assimilate into a simple sh-sound; dj (original as well as derived from g before a palatal vowel), at least at the end of the 17th century, dropped its d-sound (compare such spellings as diufwer, giättar, envogé, for jufver, udder, jättar, giants, envoyé, envoy); hj passes into j (such spellings are found as jort for hjort, hart, and hjärpe for järpe, hazel grouse); b and p inserted in such words as himblar, heavens, hambrar, hammers, jämpn, even, sampt, together with (see above, p. 371), are dropped; the first person plural of the verb takes the form of the third person (as vifara, foro, for vifarom, forom, we go, went); by the side of the pronoun I, you, there arises a secondary form Ni, in full use in the spoken language about 1650; the adjective gradually loses all the case-inflexions; in substantives the nominative, dative, and accusative take the same form as early as the middle of the 17th century; in the declension with suffixed article the old method of expressing number and case both in the substantive and the article is changed, so that the substantive alone takes the number-inflexion and the article alone the case-ending; neuter substantives ending in a vowel, which previously had no plural ending, take the plural ending -n, some -er,—as bi-n, bees, bageri-er, bakeries. About the year 1700 the Old Swedish inflexion may, in general, be considered as almost completely given up, although a work of such importance in the history of the language as Charles XII.'s Bible (so-called) of 1703 (edited by Bishop J. Svedberg), by a kind of conscious archaism has preserved a good many of the old forms. To these archaistic tendencies of certain authors at the end of the 17th century we owe the great number of Old Swedish and Icelandic borrowed words then introduced into the language,—as fager, fair, härja, to ravage, later, manners, snille, genius, tarna, girl, tima, to happen, &c. In addition to this, owing to humanistic influence, learned expressions were borrowed from Latin during the whole 16th and 17th centuries; and from German, chiefly at the Reformation and during the Thirty Years' War, numberless words wore introduced, as språk, language, tapper, brave, prakt, magnificence, hurtig, brisk, &c.; among these may be noted especially a great number of words beginning in an-, er-, för-, and ge-. Owing to the constantly increasing political and literary predominance of France French words were largely borrowed in the 17th century, and to an equally great extent in the 18th; such are affär, business, respekt, respect, talang, talent, charmant, charming, &c. In the 19th century, again, especially about the middle of it, we anew meet with conscious and energetic efforts after purism both in the formation of new words and in the adoption of words from the old language (id, diligence, mäla, to speak, fylking, battle-array, &c.), and from the dialects (bliga, to gaze, flis, flake, skrabbig, bad, &c. ). Consequently, the present vocabulary differs to a very great extent from that of the literature of the 17th century. As for the sounds and grammatical forms, on the other hand, comparatively few important changes have taken place during the last two centuries. In the 18th century, however, the aspirates dh and gh passed into d and g (after l and r into j), as lag for lagh, law, bröd for brödh, bread; hv passed into v (in dialects already about the year 1600), as valp for hvalper, whelp; lj likewise into j,—thus ljuster, leister, occurs written juster. In our time rd, rl, rn, rs, and rt are passing into simple sounds ("supradental" d, l, n, s, and t), while the singular of the verbs is gradually supplanting the plural. A vigorous reform, slowly but firmly carried on almost uniformly during all periods of the Swedish language, is the throwing back of the principal accent to the beginning of the word in cases where previously it stood nearer the end, a tendency that is characteristic of all the Scandinavian languages, but no doubt especially of Swedish. In the primitive Scandinavian age the accent was removed in most simple words; the originally accented syllable, however, preserved a musically high pitch and stress. Thus there arose two essentially different accentuations,—the one, with unaccented final syllable, as in Icel. stígr (Gr. ), thou goest, the comparative betre (cf. Gr. from ), better, the other, with secondary stress and high pitch on the final, as in Icel. pret. plur. buðom (Sanskr. bubudhimá), we bade, part. pret. bitenn (Sanskr. bhinnás), bitten. The same change afterwards took place in those compound words that had the principal accent on the second member, so that such contrasts as German úrteil and ertheílen were gradually brought into conformity with the former accentuation. At the present day it is quite exceptionally (and chiefly in borrowed words of later date) that the principal accent in Swedish is on any other syllable than the first, as in lekámen, body, välsígna, to bless.

The scientific study of Modern Swedish dates from Sweden's glorious epoch, the last half of the 17th century. The first regular Swedish grammar was written in 1684 (not edited till 1884) in Latin by Er. Aurivillius; the first in Swedish is by N. Tiallman, 1696. Nothing, however, of value was produced before the great work of Rydqvist mentioned above, which, although chiefly dealing with the old language, throws a flood of light on the modern also. Among the works of late years we must call special attention to the researches into the history of the language by K. F. Söderwall, F. A. Tamm, and A. Kock. But little study, and that only in isolated parts, has been devoted to the grammar of the modern language, if the advanced state of philology is considered. A good though short abstract is given in H. Sweet's essay on "Sounds and Forms of Spoken Swedish" (Trans. Phil. Soc., 1877-79). Attempts to construct a dictionary were made in the 16th century, the earliest being the anonymous Variarum Rerum Vocabula cum Sueca Interpretatione, in 1538, and the Synonymorum Libellus by Elavus Petri Helsingius, in 1587, both of which, however, followed German originals. The first regular dictionary is by H. Spegel, 1712; and in 1769 Joh. Ihre († 1780), probably the greatest philological genius of Sweden, published his Glossarium Sviogoticum, which still remains the most copious Swedish dictionary in existence. In the present century the diligent lexicographer A. F. Dalin has published several useful works. At present the Swedish Academy has in preparation a gigantic dictionary on about the same plan as Dr Murray's New English Dictionary; there will also appear as soon as possible a complete list (with grammatical and etymological notes), drawn up by A. Andersson, Ad. Noreen, and F. A. Tamm, of the words in use in the present language. The characteristic differences between the Swedish literary language used in Finland and that of Sweden are exhibited in the Finsk Tidskrift, vol. xix. pts. 5, 6, 1885 ("Studier på Svensk språkbotten i Finland," by Karl Lindström).