Catalan alphabet
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The Catalan alphabet comes from the Roman alphabet.
Today the official version has these letters:
- A a [Pronunciation: /a/, /ə/]
- B b [Pronunciation: /b/, /β/, /bb/]
- C c [Pronunciation: /k/, /s/]
- D d [Pronunciation: /d/, /δ/]
- E e [Pronunciation: /e/, /ε/, /ə/]
- F f [Pronunciation: /f/]
- G g [Pronunciation: /g/, /γ/, /ʒ/, /ʝ/]
- H h (mute letter)
- I i [Pronunciation: /i/, /j/]
- J j [Pronunciation: /ʒ/]
- K k (Only for foreign words) [Pronunciation: /k/]
- L l [Pronunciation: /l/ /ɫ/]
- M m [Pronunciation: /m/]
- N n[Pronunciation: /n/,/ɱ/]
- O o [Pronunciation: /o/, /u/, /ɔ/]
- P p [Pronunciation: /p/, /pp/]
- Q q [Pronunciation: /k/]
- R r [Pronunciation: /r/, /ρ/]
- S s [Pronunciation: /s/, /z/]
- T t [Pronunciation: /t/]
- U u [Pronunciation: /u/, /w/]
- V v [Pronunciation: /v/, /b/, /β/]
- W w (Only for foreign words) [Pronunciation: /w/, /b/] (e.g. web [w] but wàter [b])
- X x [Pronunciation: /ks/, /gz/, /ʃ/]
- Y y (Only in the "ny" combination) [Pronunciation: doesn't exist alone]
- Z z [Pronuciation: /z/]
Note that usually Catalan has the rule one-letter-one-sound (but not one-sound-one-letter) but there are special combinations of letters with more sounds. The most importants are: ll (/ʎ/), ny (/ɲ/), l·l or ela geminada /ɫɫ/, rr (/r/), ss (/s/). Digraphs rr and ss are used only between vowels.