Latin-derived alphabet

A Latin alphabet is an alphabetical writing system that uses letters of the original Roman Latin alphabet and often various extensions, the Latin script. Extension can be by adding diacritics to existing letters, joining multiple letters together to make ligatures, creating completely new forms, or assigning a special function to pairs or triplets of letters.

These new characters are often given a place in the alphabet by defining an alphabetical order or collation sequence, which can vary with the particular alphabet. Some, especially those with diacritics, are not considered distinct letters: French é and German ö, for example, are not used in the commonly quoted alphabet sequences.

The basic modern Latin alphabet is the best-known Latin alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet is also Latin-derived.

The tables below summarize and compare some of the alphabets. In this article, the word "alphabet" is intentionally broadened to include letters with tone marks and other diacritics used to represent a wide range of orthographic traditions found in modern and classical literature, without special regard as to whether the modified letters have their own traditional alphabetic place or are interfiled, or whether the letters are in the sequence in the table or elsewhere. Peculiarities of the particular alphabet in question may be noted in footnotes, in other Wikipedia articles, or elsewhere on the Internet.

Contents

Basic Modern Latin alphabet

Main article: Basic modern Latin alphabet

The Afrikaans, Basque,[4] Breton, Catalan,[6] Czech,[8] Danish,[9] Dutch,[10] English,[36] Estonian, Filipino,[11] Finnish, French,[12] German,[13] Hungarian,[15] Interlingua, Kurdish, Modern Latin, Malay, Norwegian,[9] Pan-European, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak,[24] Spanish,[25] Swedish, Võro, Xhosa, and Zulu alphabets include all 26 letters, at least in their largest version.

The International Phonetic Alphabet includes all 26 letters in their lowercase forms.

Reduced usage of basic Modern Latin letters[1] (A–Z) in various alphabets:
Alphabet A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
Classical Latin [2] A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z 23
Albanian [3] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z 25
Anglo-Saxon A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U X Y Z 23
Arbëresh A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z 25
Asturian A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z 23
Azeri A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z 25
Belarusian [5] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Y Z 23
Berber A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Q R S T U W X Y Z 23
Bosnian [7] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
British A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z 23
Chamorro A B D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U Y 19
Corsican [31] A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V Z 22
Crimean Tatar A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V Y Z 24
Croatian [7] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
Dalecarlian A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y 23
Esperanto A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
Faroese A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Y 21
Friulian A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V Z 22
Galician [33] A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V X Z 22
Gilbertese A B E I K M N O R T U W 12
Greenlandic A E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V 19
Guaraní [14] A E G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Y 18
Hausa [30] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O R S T U W Y Z 22
Hawaiian A E H I K L M N O P U W 12
Icelandic A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V X Y 22
Irish [16] A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U 18
Italian [17] A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V Z 21
Karakalpak  A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 25
Kashubian A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z 23
Latvian [18] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
Leonese A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z 24
Lithuanian [19] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Y Z 23
Malagasy A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T V Y Z 21
Maltese [20] A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Z 24
Māori [34] A E G H I K M N O P R T U W 14
Mohawk [35] A E H I K N O R S T W Y 12
Northern Sami A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
Pan-Nigerian A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z 24
Pinyin [32] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U W X Y Z 25
Polish [22] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z 23
Traditional Portuguese A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V X Z 23
Romani [29] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V X Z 23
Sardinian A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V X Z 23
Scots Gaelic A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U 18
Serbian [7] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
Shona A B C D E F G H I J K M N O P R S T U V W Y Z 23
Sicilian A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V Z 22
Slovenian A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Z 22
Somali A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Q R S T U W X Y 23
Sorbian A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z 23
Swahili A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z 24
Tagalog [11] A B D E G H I K L M N O P R S T U W Y 19
Tetum A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V X Z 22
Tongan A E F G H I K L M N O P S T U V 16
Turkish A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Y Z 23
Turkmen A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z 22
Uzbek  A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 25
Vietnamese [26] A B C D E G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y 22
Volapük A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V X Y Z 24
Walloon [27] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Z 25
Welsh [28] A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T U W Y 21
Wolof A B C D E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U W X Y 23
count 63 57 45 56 63 56 60 61 63 47 53 59 62 63 62 58 25 61 60 62 59 44 25 27 39 45

The chart above lists a variety of alphabets that do not officially contain all 26 letters of the modern Latin alphabet. In this list, four letters are used by all of them: A, E, I, and N. For each of the 26 basic modern Latin letters, the number of alphabets in the list above using it is as follows:

Letter A E I N M O T H R G S L U P B D F K J C Z V Y X W Q
Alphabets 63 63 63 63 62 62 62 61 61 60 60 59 59 59 57 56 56 53 47 45 45 44 39 29 25 25

Note: The I is used in two distinct versions in Turkic languages, dotless (I ı) and dotted (İ i). They are considered different letters, and case conversion must take care to preserve the distinction. Note that Irish traditionally does not write the dot, or tittle, over the small letter i, but the language makes no distinction here if a dot is displayed, so no specific encoding and special case conversion rule is needed like for Turkic alphabets.

Extended Latin alphabet

See also: List of Latin letters: Extensions

Some languages have extended the Latin alphabet with ligatures, modified letters, or digraphs. These symbols are listed below. The characters in the following tables may not all render, depending on which operating system and browser version are used, and the presence or absence of Unicode fonts.

All extended Latin letters by type

Additional base letters or ligatures

Additional base letters Æ Ð Ǝ Ə Ɛ Ɣ IJ Ŋ Œ (K‘) (S) ẞ [13] Þ Ƿ Ȝ
æ ð ǝ ə ɛ ɣ ij ŋ œ ĸ ſ ß þ ƿ ȝ
Danish [9]
Norwegian [9]		 Æ
Faroese Æ Ð
Pan-European Æ Ð IJ Ŋ Œ ĸ ſ ß Þ
Anglo-Saxon Æ Ð Œ Þ Ƿ ȝ
Icelandic
Norn		 Æ Ð Þ
Latin [2]
Celtic British
English [36]
French [12]		 Æ Œ
Greenlandic Æ ĸ
German [13] ß
Dalecarlian Ð
Pan-Nigerian Ǝ
Azeri Ə
Berber Ɛ Ɣ
Dutch [10] IJ
Northern Sami Ŋ

Letters with overlaying or attached combining diacritics

Modified letters Ą Ɓ Ç Đ Ɗ Ę Ħ Į Ƙ Ł Ǫ Ø Ơ Ş Ţ Ŧ Ų Ư Y̨ Ƴ
ą ɓ ç đ ɗ ę ħ į ƙ ł ǫ ø ơ ş ţ ŧ ų ư y̨ ƴ
Pan-European Ą Ç Đ Ę Ħ Į Ł Ø Ş Ţ Ŧ Ų
Hän
Navajo		 Ą Ę Į Ł Ǫ
Lithuanian [19] Ą Ę Į Ų
Dalecarlian Ą Ę Į Ų Y̨
Polish [22] Ą Ę Ł
Kashubian Ą Ł
Pan-Nigerian Ɓ Ɗ Ƙ
Hausa [30] Ɓ Ɗ Ƙ Ƴ
Albanian [3]
Arbëresh
Catalan [6]
English [36]
French [12]
Friulian
Portuguese [23]
Walloon [27]		 Ç
Azeri
Crimean Tatar
Kurdish
Turkish
Turkmen		 Ç Ş
Croatian [7]
Serbian [7]		 Đ
Northern Sami Đ Ŧ
Vietnamese [26] Đ Ơ Ư
Maltese [20] Ħ
Belarusian [5]
Sorbian		 Ł
Danish [9]
Faroese
Greenlandic
Norn
Norwegian [9]		 Ø
Romanian [10] Ş Ţ

Letters with detached combining diacritics

All extended Latin letters in collation order

For the order in which the characters are sorted in each alphabet, see Collating sequence.

Letters associated with A-G

Derived & Extended Latin letters in various alphabets (A–G)
Alphabet Á À Â Ä Ǎ Ă Ā Ã Å Ǻ Ą Æ Ǽ Ǣ Ɓ Ć Ċ Ĉ Č Ç Ď Ḍ Đ Ɗ Ð É È Ė Ê Ë Ě Ĕ Ē Ę Ẹ Ǝ Ə Ɛ Ġ Ĝ Ǧ Ğ Ģ Ɣ
á à â ä ǎ ă ā ã å ǻ ą æ ǽ ǣ ɓ ć ċ ĉ č ç ď ḍ đ ɗ ð é è ė ê ë ě ĕ ē ę ẹ ǝ ə ɛ ġ ĝ ǧ ğ ģ ɣ
Latin [2] Ă Ā Æ Ĕ Ē
Afrikaans Á É È Ê Ë
Albanian [3] Ç Ë
Alemannic Á À Â Ä Å É È Ê
Anglo-Saxon Ā Æ Ǣ Ð Ē
Arbëresh Á Ç É Ë
Asturian Á É
Austro-Bavarian Á À Â Ä Å É È Ê
Azeri Ç Ə Ğ
Belarusian [5] Ć Č
Berber Â Č Ḍ Ɛ Ġ Ǧ Ɣ
Breton Â É Ê
Cantabrian Á É
Catalan [6] À Ç É È
Celtic British Ă Ā Æ Ĕ Ē
Corsican [31] À È
Crimean Tatar Â Ç Ğ
Croatian [7] Ć Č Đ
Czech [8] Á Č Ď É Ě
Dalecarlian Ä Å Ą Ð Ę
Danish [9] Å Æ
Dutch [10] Á À Â Ä É È Ê Ë
English [36] À Â Ä Å Æ Ç É È Ê Ë
Esperanto Ĉ Ĝ
Estonian Ä
Faroese Á Æ Ð
Filipino [11] Á À Â É È Ê
Finnish Ä Å
French [12] À Â Æ Ç É È Ê Ë
Friulian À Â Ç È Ê
Galician [33] Á É
German [13] Ä
Greenlandic Å Æ
Guaraní [14] Á Ã É
Hän À Â Ä Ǎ Ą È Ê Ë Ě Ę
Hausa [30] Ɓ Ɗ
Hungarian [15] Á É
Icelandic Á Æ Ð É
Irish [16] Á É
Italian [17] À É È
Kashubian à Ą É Ë
Kurdish Ç Ê
Kurdish (IS) É
Latvian [18] Ā Č Ē Ģ
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 Á É
Lithuanian [19] Ą Č Ė Ę
Luxembourgish Ä É Ë
Malagasy À Â Ê
Maltese [20] À Ċ È Ġ
Māori Ā Ē
Mirandese É
Mohawk Á À É È
Navajo Á Ą É Ę
Norn Á Å Æ Ð É
Northern Sami Á Č Đ
Norwegian [9] Á À Â Å Æ É È Ê
Pan-European Á À Â Ä Ă Ā Ã Å Ǻ Ą Æ Ǽ Ć Ċ Ĉ Č Ç Ď Đ Ð É È Ė Ê Ë Ě Ĕ Ē Ę Ġ Ĝ Ğ Ģ
Pan-Nigerian Ɓ Ɗ Ẹ Ǝ
Piedmontese [37] À É È Ë
Pinyin [32] Á À Ǎ Ā É È Ě Ē
Polish [22] Ą Ć Ę
Portuguese [23] Á À Â Ã Ç É Ê
Romani [29] Č
Romanian  Ă
Sardinian Á À È
Scots Gaelic À È
Serbian [7] Ć Č Đ
Sicilian À Â È Ê
Slovak [24] Á Ä Č Ď É
Slovenian Č
Sorbian Ć Č Ě
Spanish [25] Á É
Swedish [21] Á Ä Å É È
Tetum Á É
Tongan Á Ā É Ē
Turkish Â Ç Ğ
Turkmen Ä Ç
Vietnamese [26] Á À Â Ă Ã Đ É È Ê Ẹ
Volapük Ä
Võro Ä
Walloon [27] Â Å Ç É È Ê
Welsh [28] Á À Â Ä É È Ê Ë
Wolof À É Ë
Xhosa Á À Â Ä É È Ê Ë

Letters associated with H-Q

Derived & Extended Latin letters in various alphabets (H–Q)
Alphabet Ĥ ‹The template Dab button is being considered for deletion.› 

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 Ħ I Í Ì İ Î Ï Ǐ Ĭ Ī Ĩ Į Ị IJ Ĵ Ķ Ƙ (K‘) Ĺ Ļ Ł Ľ Ŀ ʼN Ń N̈ Ň Ñ Ņ Ŋ Ó Ò Ô Ö Ǒ Ŏ Ō Õ Ő Ǫ Ọ Ø Ǿ Ơ Œ
ĥ ḥ ħ ı í ì i î ï ǐ ĭ ī ĩ į ị ij ĵ ķ ƙ ĸ ĺ ļ ł ľ ŀ ʼn ń n̈ ň ñ ņ ŋ ó ò ô ö ǒ ŏ ō õ ő ǫ ọ ø ǿ ơ œ
Latin [2] Ĭ Ī Ŏ Ō Œ
Afrikaans Í Î Ï ʼn Ó Ô
Albanian [3] Î Ô
Alemannic Í Ì Î Ó Ò Ô Ö
Anglo-Saxon Ī Ō
Arbëresh Í Ó Ò
Asturian Ḥ Í Ḷ Ñ Ó
Austro-Bavarian Í Ì Î Ó Ò Ô Ö
Azeri ı İ Ö
Basque [4] Ñ
Belarusian [5] Ł Ń
Berber Ḥ Ĵ
Breton Î Ñ Ô
Cantabrian Ḥ Í Ñ Ó
Catalan [6] Í Ï Ŀ Ó Ò
Celtic British Ĭ Ī Ŏ Ō Œ
Corsican [31] Ì
Crimean Tatar İ Ñ Ö
Czech [8] Í Ň Ó
Dalecarlian Į Ö
Danish [9] Ø
Dutch [10] Í Ì Î Ï IJ Ó Ò Ô Ö
English [36] Î Ï Ó Ô Ö Œ
Esperanto Ĥ Ĵ
Estonian Ö Õ
Extremaduran Ñ
Fala Í
Faroese Í Ó Ø
Filipino [11] Í Ì Î Ñ Ó Ò Ô
Finnish Ö
French [12] Î Ï Ô Œ
Friulian Ì Î Ò Ô
Galician [33] Í Ï Ñ Ó
German [13] Ö
Greenlandic Ø
Guaraní [14] Í Ĩ Ñ Ó Õ
Hän Ì Î Ǐ Į Ò Ô Ǒ Ǫ
Hausa [30] Ƙ
Hungarian [15] Í Ó Ö Ő
Icelandic Í Ó Ö
Irish [16] Í Ó
Italian [17] Ì Î Ò
Karakalpak ı İ
Kashubian Ł Ń Ó Ò Ô
Kurdish Î
Latvian [18] Ī Ķ Ļ Ņ
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 Í Ï Ñ Ó
Lithuanian [19] Į
Malagasy N̈ Ñ Ô
Maltese [20] Ħ Ì Ò
Māori Ī Ō
Mohawk Í Ì Ó Ò
Navajo Í Į Ó Ǫ
Norn Í Ó Ø
Northern Sami Ŋ
Norwegian [9] Í Ì Î Ó Ò Ô Ø
Pan-European Ĥ Ħ I Í Ì İ Î Ï Ĭ Ī Ĩ Į IJ Ĵ Ķ ĸ Ĺ Ļ Ł Ľ Ŀ ʼn Ń Ň Ñ Ņ Ŋ Ó Ò Ô Ö Ŏ Ō Õ Ő Ø Ǿ Œ
Pan-Nigerian Ị Ƙ Ọ
Piedmontese[37] Ì Ò
Pinyin [32] Í Ì Ǐ Ī Ó Ò Ǒ Ō
Polish [22] Ł Ń Ó
Portuguese [23] Í Ó Ô Õ
Romanian Î
Sardinian Í Ó Ò
Scots Gaelic Ì Ò
Sicilian Ì Î Ò Ô
Slovak [24] Í Ĺ Ľ Ň Ó Ô
Sorbian Ł Ń Ó
Spanish [25] Í Ï Ñ Ó
Swedish [21] Ö
Tetum Í Ñ Ó
Tongan Í Ī Ó Ō
Turkish ı İ Î Ö
Turkmen Ň Ö
Vietnamese [26] Í Ì Ĩ Ị Ó Ò Ô Õ Ọ Ơ
Volapük Ö
Võro Ö Õ
Walloon [27] Î Ô
Welsh [28] Í Ì Î Ï Ó Ò Ô Ö
Wolof Ñ Ó
Xhosa Í Ì Î Ï Ó Ò Ô Ö

Letters associated with R-Z

Derived & Extended Latin letters in various alphabets (R–Z)
Alphabet Ŕ Ř Ŗ (S) Ś Ŝ Š Ş Ș Ṣ ẞ Ť Ţ Ṭ Ŧ Þ Ú Ù Û Ü Ǔ Ŭ Ū Ũ Ű Ů Ų Ụ Ư Ẃ Ẁ Ŵ Ẅ Ƿ Ý Ỳ Ŷ Ÿ Ȳ Ỹ Ƴ Ź Ż Ž Ẓ
ŕ ř ŗ ſ ś ŝ š ş ș ṣ ß ť ţ ṭ ŧ þ ú ù û ü ǔ ŭ ū ũ ű ů ų ụ ư ẃ ẁ ŵ ẅ ƿ ý ỳ ŷ ÿ ȳ ỹ ƴ ź ż ž ẓ
Latin [2] Ŭ Ū
Afrikaans Ú Û Ý
Albanian [3] Û Ŷ
Alemannic Ú Ù Û Ü
Anglo-Saxon Þ Ū Ƿ Ȳ
Arbëresh Ú Ù Û
Asturian Ú Ü
Austro-Bavarian Ú Ù Û Ü
Azeri Ş Ü
Basque [4] Ü
Belarusian [5] Ś Š Ŭ Ź Ž
Berber Ṣ Ṭ Ẓ
Breton Ù Û Ü
Cantabrian Ü
Catalan [6] Ú Ü
Celtic British Ŭ Ū
Corsican [31] Ù
Crimean Tatar Ş Ü
Croatian [7] Š Ž
Czech [8] Ř Š Ť Ú Ů Ý Ž
Dalecarlian Ų
Dutch [10] Ú Ù Û Ü
English [36] Û Ü
Esperanto Ŝ Ŭ
Estonian Š Ü Ž
Faroese Ú Ý
Filipino [11] Ú Ù Û
Finnish Š Ž
French [12] Ù Û Ü Ÿ
Friulian Ù Û
Galician [33] Ú Ü
German [13] ß Ü
Guaraní [14] Ú Ű Ý Ỹ
Hän Ù Û Ǔ Ų
Hausa [30] Ƴ
Hungarian [15] Ú Ü Ű
Icelandic Þ Ú Ý
Irish [16] Ú
Italian [17] Ù
Kashubian Ù Ż
Kurdish Ş Û
Latvian [18] Š Ū Ž
Lithuanian [19] Š Ū Ų Ž
Maltese [20] Ù Ż
Māori Ū
Mirandese Ũ
Navajo Ú Ų
Norn Þ Ú Ý
Northern Sami Š Ŧ Ž
Norwegian [9] Ú Ù Û Ü Ý Ỳ Ŷ
Pan-European Ŕ Ř Ŗ ſ Ś Ŝ Š Ş ß Ť Ţ Ŧ Þ Ú Ù Û Ü Ŭ Ū Ũ Ű Ů Ų Ẃ Ẁ Ŵ Ẅ Ý Ỳ Ŷ Ÿ Ź Ż Ž
Pan-Nigerian Ṣ Ụ
Pinyin [32] Ú Ù Ü Ǔ Ū
Polish [22] Ś Ź Ż
Portuguese [23] Ú
Romani [29] Š Ž
Romanian [10] Ş Ș Ţ Ț
Sardinian Ú Ù
Scots Gaelic Ù
Serbian [7] Š Ž
Sicilian Ù Û
Slovak [24] Ŕ Š Ť Ú Ý Ž
Slovenian Š Ž
Sorbian Ŕ Ř Ś Š Ź Ž
Spanish [25] Ú Ü
Swedish Ü
Tetum Ú
Tongan Ú Ū
Turkish Ş Û Ü
Turkmen Ş Ü Ý Ž
Vietnamese [26] Ú Ù Ũ Ụ Ư Ý Ỳ Ỹ
Volapük Ü
Võro Š Ü Ž
Walloon [27] Û
Welsh [28] Ú Ù Û Ü Ẃ Ẁ Ŵ Ẅ Ý Ỳ Ŷ Ÿ
Xhosa Ú Ù Û Ü

Notes

  1. ↑↑↑↑ In classical Latin, the digraphs CH, PH, RH, TH were used in loanwords from Greek, but they were not included in the alphabet. The ligatures Æ, Œ and W, as well as lowercase letters, were added to the alphabet only in Middle Ages. The letters J and U were used as typographical variants of I and V, respectively, roughly until the Enlightenment.
  2. ↑↑↑↑ Albanian officially has the digraphs dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh, which is sufficient to represent the Tosk dialect. The Gheg dialect supplements the official alphabet with 6 nasal vowels, namely â, ê, î, ô, û, ŷ.
  3. ↑↑↑↑ Arbëresh apparently requires the digraphs dh, gj, hj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh. Arbëresh has the distinctive hj, which is considered as a letter in its own right.
  4. ↑↑↑↑ Basque has several digraphs: dd, ll, rr, ts, tt, tx, tz. The ü, which is pronounced as /ø/, is required for various words in its Zuberoan dialect.
  5. ↑↑↑↑ Belarusian also has several digraphs: ch, dz, dź, dž.
  6. ↑↑↑↑ Breton also has the digraphs ch, c'h, zh.
  7. ↑↑↑ Catalan also has a large number of digraphs: dj, gu, ig, ix, ll, l·l, ny, qu, rr, ss, ts, tx, tz.
  8. ↑↑↑↑ Corsican has the trigraphs: chj, ghj.
  9. ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ Croatian also has the digraphs: dž, lj, nj. It can also be written with four tone markers above on top of the vowels. Note that Croatian Latin is the same as Serbian Latin and they both map 1:1 to Serbian Cyrillic, where the three digraphs map to Cyrillic letters џ, љ and њ, respectively. Rarely and non-standardly, digraph dj is used instead of đ (Cyrillic ђ).
  10. ↑↑↑↑ Czech also has the digraph: ch.
  11. ↑↑↑↑↑↑ The Norwegian alphabet is currently identical with the Danish alphabet. C is part of both alphabets and is used in native Danish, but not in native Norwegian. Norwegian and Danish uses é in "én" and more uses, although é is considered a diacritic mark, while å, æ and ø are letters. Q, w, x, z are not used except for names and some foreign words.
  12. ↑↑↑ The status of ij as a letter, ligature or digraph in Dutch is disputed.
  13. ↑↑↑ English generally now uses extended Latin letters only in loan words. Rare publication guides may still use the dieresis on words, such as "coöperate", rather than the now-more-common "co-operate". For a fuller discussion, see articles branching from Lists of English words of international origin, which was used to determine the diacritics needed for more unambiguous English. However, a é or è is sometimes used in poetry to show that a normally silent vowel is to be pronounced, as in "Blessèd".
  14. ↑↑↑↑ Filipino and Tagalog also use the digraph ng, even originally with a large tilde that spanned both n and g (as in n͠g) when a vowel follows the digraph. (The use of the tilde over the two letters is now rare).
  15. ↑↑↑ Uppercase diacritics in French are often thought as being dispensable, while they are obligatory. Many pairs or triplets are read as digraphs or trigraphs depending on context, but are not treated as such lexicographically: consonants ph, (ng), th, gu/gü, qu, ce, ch/(sh/sch), rh; vocal vowels (ee), ai/ay, ei/ey, eu, au/eau, ou; nasal vowels ain/aim, in/im/ein, un/um/eun, an/am, en/em, om/on; the half-consonant -(i)ll-; half-consonant and vowel pairs oi, oin/ouin, ien, ion. When rules that govern the French orthography are not observed, they are read as separate letters, or using an approximating phonology of a foreign language for loan words, and there are many exceptions. In addition, most final consonants are mute (including those consonants that are part of feminine, plural, and conjugation endings).
  16. ↑↑↑↑ Galician. The standard of 1982 set also the digraphs gu, qu (both always before e and i), ch, ll, nh and rr. In addition, the standard of 2003 added the grapheme ao as an alternative writing of ó. Although not marked (or forgotten) in the list of digraphs, they are used to represent the same sound, so the sequence ao should be considered as a digraph. Note also that nh represents a velar nasal (not a palatal as in Portuguese) and is restricted only to three feminine words, being either demonstrative or pronoun: unha ('a' and 'one'), algunha ('some') and ningunha ('not one'). The Galician reintegracionismo movement uses it as in Portuguese.
  17. ↑↑↑↑ German also retains most original letters in French loan words. Swiss German does not use ß any more. The long s (ſ) was in use until the mid-20th century. Sch is usually not treated like a true trigraph, neither are ch and qu digraphs. Q only appears in the sequence qu, while y is found only (and x almost only) in loan words. The capital ß (ẞ) is almost never used, ß is replaced with SS when writing all-caps.
  18. ↑↑↑↑ Guaraní also uses tilde over e, i, y, and g (the last one not available precomposed in Unicode), as well as digraphs ch, mb, nd, ng, nt, rr and the glottal stop ' .
  19. ↑↑↑↑ Hausa has the digraphs: sh, ts.
  20. ↑↑↑↑ Hungarian also has the digraphs: cs, dz, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs; and the trigraph: dzs.
  21. ↑↑↑↑ Irish formerly used the dot diacritic in ḃ, ċ, ḋ, ḟ, ġ, ṁ, ṗ, ṡ, ṫ. These have been replaced by the digraphs: bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, ph, sh, th except for in formal instances.
  22. ↑↑↑↑ Italian also has the digraphs: ch, gh, gn, gl, sc. J, K, W, X, Y are used in foreign words. X is also used for native words derived from Latin and Greek; J is also used for just a few native words, mainly names of persons (as in Jacopo) or of places (as in Jesolo and Jesi), in which is always pronounced as letter I.
  23. ↑ Karakalpak also has the digraphs: ch, sh. C used only in digraphs. A', N', O', U' are considered as letters. ı is lower case of I and İ is upper case of i. F, H, V, X are used in foreign words.
  24. ↑↑↑↑ Latvian also has the digraphs: dz, dž, ie, as well as the triphthongal letter o. Dz and dž are occasionally considered separate letters of the alphabet in more archaic examples (which have been published as recently as the 1950s,) however modern alphabets and teachings discourage this due to an ongoing effort to set decisive rules for Latvian (and eliminate barbaric words accumulated during the Soviet occupation.) The digraph "ie" is never considered a separate letter. The Latvian o is also the only single-letter triphthong in any language—in one letter it has the three vowel sounds u, o, and a, which combine into uoa.
  25. ↑↑↑↑ Lithuanian also has the digraphs: ch, dz, dž, ie, uo. However, these are not considered separate letters of the alphabet.
  26. ↑↑↑↑ Maltese also has the digraphs: ie, għ.
  27. ↑ Māori uses g only in ng digraph. Wh is also a digraph.
  28. ↑ Some Mohawk speakers use orthographic i in place of the consonant y. The glottal stop is indicated with an apostrophe ’ and long vowels are written with a colon :.
  29. ↑ Piedmontese also uses the letter n- to indicate a velar nasal N-sound (pronounced as the gerundive termination in going), which usually precedes a vowel, as in lun-a [moon].
  30. ↑↑↑↑ Pinyin has four tone markers that can go on top of the any of the six vowels (a, e, i, o, u, ü); e.g.: macron (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ), acute accent (á, é, í, ó, ú, ǘ), caron (ǎ, ě, ǐ, ǒ, ǔ, ǚ), grave accent (à, è, ì, ò, ù, ǜ). It also uses the digraphs: ch, sh, zh.
  31. ↑↑↑↑ Polish also has the digraphs: ch, cz, dz, dż, dź, sz, rz.
  32. ↑↑↑↑ Portuguese also uses the digraphs ch, lh, nh, rr, ss. The trema on ü was used in Brazilian Portuguese before 2009. Neither the digraphs nor accented letters are considered part of the alphabet.
  33. ↑ Romanian normally uses a comma diacritic below the letters s and t (ș, ț), but it is frequently replaced with an attached cedilla below these letters (ş, ţ) due to past lack of standardization.
  34. ↑↑↑↑ Romani has the digraphs: čh, dž, kh, ph, th.
  35. ↑↑↑ Slovak also has the digraphs: dz, dž, ch.
  36. ↑↑↑ Spanish uses several digraphs to represented single sounds: ch, gu (preceding e or i), ll, qu, rr; of these, the digraphs ch and ll were traditionally considered individual letters with their own name (che, elle) and place in the alphabet (after c and l, respectively), but in order to facilitate international compatibility the Royal Spanish Academy decided to cease this practice in 1994 and all digraphs are now collated as combinations of two separate characters. The c-cedilla ç used earlier has been replaced completely by z.
  37. ↑ Swedish uses é in well integrated loan words like idé and armé, although é is considered a modified e, while å, ä, ö are letters. á and à are rarely used words. W and z are used in some integrated words like webb and zon. Q, ü, è are used for names only, but exist in Swedish names. For foreign names ó, ë, ñ and more are sometimes used, but usually not. Swedish has many digraphs and some trigraphs. ch, dj, lj, rl, rn, rs, sj, sk, si, ti, sch, skj, stj and others are usually pronounced as one sound.
  38. ↑ Uzbek also has the digraphs: ch, ng, sh considered as letters. C used only in digraphs. G`, O` and apostrophe (') are considered as letters. Latters has typographical variants: Gʻ, Oʻ and ʼ respective.
  39. ↑↑↑↑ Vietnamese has five tone markers that can go on top (or below) any of the 12 vowels (a, ă, â, e, ê, i, o, ô, ơ, u, ư, y); e.g.: grave accent (à, ằ, ầ, è, ề, ì, ò, ồ, ờ, ù, ừ, ỳ), hook above (ả, ẳ, ẩ, ẻ, ể, ỉ, ỏ, ổ, ở, ủ, ử, ỷ), tilde (ã, ẵ, ẫ, ẽ, ễ, ĩ, õ, ỗ, ỡ, ũ, ữ, ỹ), acute accent (á, ắ, ấ, é, ế, í, ó, ố, ớ, ú, ứ, ý), and dot below (ạ, ặ, ậ, ẹ, ệ, ị, ọ, ộ, ợ, ụ, ự, ỵ). It also uses the digraphs and trigraphs: ch, gi, kh, ng, ngh, nh, ph, th, tr, but they are no longer considered letters.
  40. ↑↑↑↑ Walloon has the digraphs and trigraphs: ae, ch, dj, ea, jh, oe, oen, oi, sch, sh, tch, xh; the letter x is only used in xh digraph, the letter j is almost only used in dj and jh digraphs
  41. ↑↑↑↑ Welsh has the digraphs ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th. It also occasionally uses circumflexes, diaereses, acute accents and grave accents on its seven vowels (a, e, i, o, u, w, y), but accented characters are not regarded as separate letters of the alphabet.
  42. ↑↑↑↑ Xhosa has a large number of digraphs, trigraphs, and even one tetragraph are used to represent various phonemes: bh, ch, dl, dy, dz, gc, gq, gr, gx, hh, hl, kh, kr, lh, mb, mf, mh, n', nc, ndl, ndz, ngc, ngh, ngq, ngx, nh, nkc, nkq, nkx, nq, nx, ntl, ny, nyh, ph, qh, rh, sh, th, ths, thsh, ts, tsh, ty, tyh, wh, xh, yh, zh. It also occasionally uses acute accents, grave accents, circumflexes, and diaereses on its five vowels (a, e, i, o, u), but accented characters are not regarded as separate letters of the alphabet.

Miscellanea

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ As defined in ISO/IEC 646 based on ASCII which was based on the 26 letters of the English alphabet and previous telecommunications standards, and used in later ISO standards, see Latin characters in Unicode.
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
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External links