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INTRODUCTION.
ix
the Resolutions of the Conference, whose leading aim was to purify the northern sister-tongues from foreign elements as far as existing conditions admitted of their elimination, and to revert as far as possible to the forms of the Old Northern, from which they have in common derived their descent.
In conformity with this principle, the spelling of modern Swedish is being greatly simplified. The double and mute letters of older times are being discarded, and while derivations and inflections are being made to agree orthographically with their roots and stems, the use of vowels is being brought into closer harmony with the sounds of which these characters are written representatives.
