Old Norse
Old Norse was spoken during the Viking Ages by Scandinavians. Prior to Old Norse, Proto-Norse was spoken. The transition from Proto-Norse and Old Norse was completed by the 700's. Speakers of Old Norse called their language the "Danish tongue". Angles and Saxons in England were able to understand Old Norse as it was closely related to English.
Old East Norse and Old West Norse were the two main dialects, although the majority of people spoke in Old East Norse. The Old West Norse dialect was located in western Sweden. A third lesser-known dialect, Old Gutnish, had features in common with Old East Norse and Old West Norse but also had unique characteristics of its own.
Runic inscriptions, which are extant from 600 BCE, give insight into the early history of the Swedish language. The runic alphabet continued to be used until the 15th century. The Latin alphabet was introduced in the 11th century when Christianity emerged. Old Norse sagas and religious texts were written in the Latin alphabet from that time until the 15th century.
Old Swedish
Old Swedish is the language spoken during medieval times. The Roman Catholic Church had primary influence on the Swedish language at this time, importing Greek and Latin words.
The rise in power of the Hanseatic League during the 13th and 14th centuries brought German and Dutch immigrants, some of whom became important figures in society. Thus, Middle Low German loanwords were adopted into Old Swedish.
Fragments of the law codes, Västgötalagen, exist from 1250. The law codes were written in Latin script. Old Swedish had a gender system of masculine, feminine and neuter. A case structure of four cases existed for nouns, adjective, pronouns and some numerals. The case structure and gender system remained in this form until the 18th century.
Modern Swedish
Modern Swedish was ushered in with the arrival of the printing press. It was further augmented by a Swedish translation of the New Testament published in 1526 by order of King Gustav Vasa. A full translation of the Bible (known as the "Vasa Bible") was published in 1541.
The Vasa Bible translation founded the vowels, "å", "ä" and "ö". The double consonants "kk" were replaced by "ck". The translation was highly regarded as it distinguished itself from the Danish Bible, and incorporated a traditional, yet not too conservative, version based on original liturgical scripts written by monks.
Despite the Vasa Bible, spelling consistency deteriorated until the 17th century when the first grammars were produced. The Swedish Academy was created by King Gustav III in 1786. Its function was to actively oversee the Swedish Language.
The spoken language became based on the Svea dialect of Stockholm, with some characteristics of southern Sweden included.
Contemporary Swedish
The Contemporary Swedish language phase begins at the close of the 19th century. The written language became closer to the spoken language. Swedish literature had a large influence on the national language.
During the 20th century, all Swedes finally had access to a common standardized language. A spelling reform in 1906 cemented a standard orthographic system.
Plural verb forms were abolished in the 1950's and an important change in the forms of address between classes of society in the late 1960's. The formal formula previously in existence was replaced with a more relaxed method, which simplified the spoken Swedish language.
Standard Swedish is now spoken by the majority of people, although some dialects are spoken by elder citizens in rural areas.