<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <text x="40" y="60" font-size="28">Hello World!</text>
</svg>

The x and y coordinate specifies the position of the bottom-left corner of the text (unless text-anchor has been modified).

Using the baseline-shift parameter, you can specify super- or subscript. But this is not supported by all major browsers.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <text x="10" y="20">x<tspan baseline-shift="super">2</tspan></text>
    <text x="10" y="60">f<tspan baseline-shift="sub">x</tspan></text>
</svg>

For a cross-browser solution, you can use dy, dx and relative font size.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <text x="10" y="40">x<tspan dy="-7" font-size=".7em">2</tspan></text>
    <text x="10" y="80">f<tspan dy="3" font-size=".7em">x</tspan></text>
</svg>

The rotate property rotates each character by the specified angle.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <text x="10" y="20" rotate="30">Each character is rotated</text>
</svg>

To rotate the whole text element, you have to use the transform property.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <text transform="translate(10, 60) rotate(30)">The whole text is rotated</text>
</svg>

<svg width="400px" height="200px"> 
 <text x="1em, 2em, 3em, 4em, 5em" y="3em, 4em, 5em">
    Individually Spaced Text
  </text>
</svg>

The Text element supports individual placement of letters by accepting an array of values for x and y.