Editing Swedish language (section)

===Old Swedish===
[[File:Västgötalagen blad 21.jpg|thumb|right|The initial page of the first complete copy of ''[[Västgötalagen]]'', the [[code of law|law code]] of [[Västergötland]], from {{circa|1280}}. It is one of the earliest texts in Swedish written in the [[Latin script]].]]
{{Main|Old Swedish}}
Old Swedish (Swedish: ''fornsvenska'') is the term used for the [[medieval]] Swedish language. The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that ''[[Västgötalagen]]'' ("the Västgöta Law") is believed to have been compiled for the first time.<ref>The oldest dated fragments are from 1250 and the oldest complete manuscript is from {{Circa|1280}}</ref> It is among the most important documents of the period written in [[Latin script]] and the oldest Swedish [[code of law|law codes]]. Old Swedish is divided into ''äldre fornsvenska'' (1225–1375) and ''yngre fornsvenska'' (1375–1526), "older" and "younger" Old Swedish.<ref>Lars-Erik Edlund, "Språkhistorisk översikt" in {{harvnb|Dahl|Edlund|2010|pp=28–29}}</ref> Important outside influences during this time came with the firm establishment of the [[Roman Catholic Church|Christian church]] and various [[Monasticism|monastic]] orders, introducing many [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] loanwords. With the rise of [[Hanseatic league|Hanseatic]] power in the late 13th and early 14th century, [[Middle Low German]] became very influential. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of [[Low German]]-speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their native languages into the vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish (at the time Swedish and Danish were much more similar than today).<ref name=Edlund2010p29,31>Lars-Erik Edlund, "Språkhistorisk översikt" in {{harvnb|Dahl|Edlund|2010|pp=29, 31}}</ref>

Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex [[case (linguistics)|case]] structure and also retained the original Germanic three-[[gender (grammar)|gender]] system. [[Noun]]s, [[adjective]]s, [[pronoun]]s and certain [[Grammatical number|numerals]] were inflected in four cases; besides the extant [[Nominative case|nominative]], there were also the [[Genitive case|genitive]] (later [[possessive case|possessive]]), [[Dative case|dative]] and [[Accusative case|accusative]]. The gender system resembled that of modern [[German language|German]], having masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into a ''common gender'' with the [[Definiteness|definite suffix]] ''-en'' and the [[definite article]] ''den'', in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents ''-et'' and ''det''. The verb system was also more complex: it included [[subjunctive]] and [[Imperative mood|imperative]] [[mood (grammar)|moods]] and verbs were conjugated according to [[person (grammar)|person]] as well as [[number (grammar)|number]]. By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to the two cases and two genders of modern Swedish.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pettersson|1996|pp=150–157}}</ref>

A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered a<sup>o</sup>, and "oe" became o<sup>e</sup>. These three were later to evolve into the separate letters [[ä]], [[å]] and [[ö]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Pettersson|1996|p=139}}</ref> The first time the new letters were used in print was in ''Aff dyäffwlsens frästilse'' ("By the Devil's temptation") published by [[Johan Gerson]] in 1495.<ref>Lars-Erik Edlund, "Språkhistorisk översikt" in {{harvnb|Dahl|Edlund|2010|p=29}}</ref>