Svenska Akademiens ordlista

Svenska Akademiens ordlista (Swedish: [²svɛnska akadɛˈmiːns ²ʊɖːlɪsta]), abbreviated SAOL, is a glossary published every few years by the Swedish Academy. It is a single volume that is considered the final arbiter of Swedish spelling. Traditionally it carries the motto of the Swedish Academy, "Snille och Smak" ("Talent and Taste"), on its blue cloth cover.

Whenever a new edition comes out lively discussions about new and changed entries erupt around the country. In some instances the Academy has been ahead of its times and has later had to change entries back to older spellings. Jos – juice is probably the most well-known instance. In 2015, the fourteenth edition (containing 126,000 entries) was published.

The history of SAOL is the history of orthography of the Swedish language. While Swedish spelling was an entirely personal business in the Catholic Middle Ages, its gradual standardization (known as Modern Swedish) started in 1526 with the translation of the New testament of the Bible (Gustav Vasa Bible), as part of the Lutheran reformation. The edition was revised in 1703, known as the Swedish Bible of Carolus XII. The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 with the task of caring for Swedish literature and language, including the publication of a grand dictionary. Spelling evolved slowly in the 18th century and was largely based on etymology. Because of its historic relationship to English heart and German Herz, this word was spelled hjerta in Swedish even though it's pronounced [ˈjɛrta]. The word for woman was spelled qvinna, similar to English queen. The question words hvad, hvar, hvilken had a silent H, like English what, where, which still have. In 1801 the Academy published an official orthography (Carl Gustaf af Leopold, Afhandling om svenska stafsättet, 266 pages). A shorter version for schools was published by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, Svensk Rättstafnings-Lära in 1829.

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