Like those of many other Romance languages, the Catalan alphabet derives from the Latin alphabet and is largely based on the language’s phonology.[1] The Catalan alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet:
| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||
| The Catalan/Valencian cultural domain |
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Geo-political divisions
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Traditions and Symbols
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In addition, the following characters with diacritics are used: À, É, È, Í, Ï, Ó, Ò, Ú, Ü and Ç. These are not, however, treated as independent letters in collation, nor do they have entries of their own in Catalan dictionaries. When two words differ only in the presence or absence of a diacritic, the one without it is collated first.
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Catalan is a pluricentric language, the pronunciation of some of the letters is different in Eastern Catalan (IEC) and Valencian (AVL). Apart from these variations, the pronunciation of most consonants is fairly straightforward, and similar to French, Occitan or Portuguese pronunciation.
| Letter | Catalan | Valencian | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name (IEC) | Pronunciation | Phonetic values | Name (AVL) | Pronunciation | Phonetic values | |
| A a | a | /ˈa/ | [a], [ə] | a | /ˈa/ | [a] |
| B b | be (alta) | /ˈbe (ˈaltə)/ | [b], [β], [p] | be | /ˈbe/ | [b], [β], [p] |
| C c | ce | /ˈse/ | [k], [s], [g] | ce | /ˈse/ | [k], [s], [g] |
| D d | de | /ˈde/ | [d], [ð], [t] | de | /ˈde/ | [d], [ð], [t] |
| E e | e | /ˈe/ | [ɛ], [e], [ə] | e | /ˈe/ | [e], [ɛ] |
| F f | efa | /ˈefə/ | [f], [v] | efe or ef | /ˈef(e)/ | [f], [v] |
| G g | ge | /ˈʒe/ | [ɡ], [ɣ], [k], [ʒ], [dʒ], [tʃ] | ge | /ˈdʒe/ | [ɡ], [ɣ], [k], [dʒ], [tʃ] |
| H h | hac | /ˈak/ | ∅ | hac | /ˈak/ | ∅ |
| I i | i | /ˈi/ | [i], [j] | i | /ˈi/ | [i], [j] |
| J j | jota | /ˈʒɔtə/ | [ʒ] | jota | /ˈdʒɔta/ | [dʒ] |
| K k | ca | /ˈka/ | [k] | ca | /ˈka/ | [k] |
| L l | ela | /ˈelə/ | [ɫ], [ʎ] | ele or el | /ˈel(e)/ | [l], [ɫ], [ʎ] |
| M m | ema | /ˈemə/ | [m] | eme or em | /ˈem(e)/ | [m] |
| N n | ena | /ˈenə/ | [n], [m], [ɲ], [ŋ] | ene or en | /ˈen(e)/ | [n], [m], [ɲ], [ŋ] |
| O o | o | /ˈo/ | [ɔ], [o], [u], [w] | o | /ˈo/ | [ɔ], [o] |
| P p | pe | /ˈpe/ | [p], [b] | pe | /ˈpe/ | [p], [b] |
| Q q | cu | /ˈku/ | [k] | cu | /ˈku/ | [k] |
| R r | erra | /ˈɛrə/ | [r], [ɾ] | erre or er | /ˈɛre/, /ˈɛɾ/ | [r], [ɾ] |
| S s | essa | /ˈesə/ | [s], [z] | esse or es | /ˈes(e)/ | [s], [z] |
| T t | te | /ˈte/ | [t], [d] | te | /ˈte/ | [t], [d] |
| U u | u | /ˈu/ | [u], [w] | u | /ˈu/ | [u], [w] |
| V v | ve (baixa) | /ˈbe ˈbaʃə/, /ˈve/ | [b], [β] ~ [v], [f][2] | ve | /ˈve/ | [v], [f] |
| W w | ve doble | /ˈbe ˈdobːlə/, /ˈve ˈdobːlə/ | [w], [b], [β] ~ [v] | ve doble | /ˈve ˈdoble/ | [w], [v] |
| X x | ics, xeix | /ˈiks/, /ˈʃeʃ/ | [ʃ], [ʒ], [ks], [gz] | ics, xeix | /ˈiks/, /ˈʃeiʃ/ | [tʃ], [ʃ], [ʒ], [ks], [gz] |
| Y y | i grega | /ˈi ˈgɾegə/ | [i], [j] | i grega | /ˈi ˈgɾega/ | [i], [j] |
| Z z | zeta | /ˈzetə/ | [z], [s] | zeta | /ˈzeta/ | [z], [s] |
| Digraphs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Grapheme | Pronunciation | Usage |
| ll | /ʎ/ | initial, intervocalic & syllable-final position |
| ny | /ɲ/ | initial (rare), intervocalic & syllable-final position |
| rr | /r/ | intervocalic position |
| ss | /s/ | intervocalic position |
| ix | /ʃ/ | intervocalic & syllable-final position |
| tx | /tʃ/ | initial (in loanwords), intervocalic & syllable-final position |
| ig | syllable-final position[3] | |
| ds | /ts/ | intervocalic & syllable-final position |
| ts | initial (in loanwords), intervocalic & syllable-final position | |
| tz | /dz/ | intervocalic position |
| dj | /dʒ/ | intervocalic position |
| tg | intervocalic position before front vowels | |
| tj | intervocalic position before central & back vowels | |
| gu | /g/ | initial & intervocalic position before front vowels |
| qu | /k/ | initial & intervocalic position before front vowels |
| ch* | syllable-final position | |
| Compound letters | ||
| Grapheme | Pronunciation | Usage |
| l·l | /lː/ | intervocalic position |
| tl | intervocalic position | |
| tll | /ʎː/ | intervocalic position |
| tm | /mː/ | intervocalic position |
| tn | /nː/ | intervocalic position |
Catalan also uses the acute accent (⟨é í ó ú⟩) to mark stressed close vowels and the grave accent (⟨à è ò⟩) to mark stressed open vowels,[4] examples:
Standard rules governing the presence of accents are based on word endings and the position of the stressed syllable. In particular, accents are expected for:
Since there is no need to mark the stressed syllable of a monosyllabic word, most of them do not have an accent. Exceptions to this are those with a diacritical accent that differentiates some cases of words that would otherwise be homographic. Example: es [əs] ('it' impersonal) vs és [ˈes] ('s/he is'), te [tə] ('you' clitic) vs té [ˈte] ('s/he has'), mes [ˈmɛs] ('month') vs més [ˈmes] ('more'), dona [ˈdɔnə] ('woman') vs dóna [ˈdonə] ('s/he gives'). In most cases, the word bearing no accent is either unstressed (as in the case of 'es' and 'te'), or the word with the accent is more common, usually a function word.
The different distribution of open e vs closed e between Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan is reflected in some orthographic divergences between standard Catalan and Valencian norms, example: anglès [əŋˈɡɫɛs] (Catalan) vs anglés [aŋˈɡɫes] (Valencian) ('English').
The diaeresis has two different uses: to mark hiatus over ⟨ï, ü⟩, and to mark that ⟨u⟩ is not silent in the groups ⟨gü, qü⟩.
If a diaeresis appears over an ⟨i⟩ or ⟨u⟩ that follows another vowel, it denotes a hiatus, examples:[5]
This diaeresis is not used over a stressed vowel that already should have an accent. Examples: suís [suˈis] ('Swiss' masculine), but suïssa [suˈisə] ('Swiss' feminine), suïs [ˈsuis] ('that you sweat' subjunctive) (without the diaeresis, this last example would be pronounced [ˈsujs], i.e. as only one syllable, like reis [ˈrejs] 'kings').
In addition to this, ⟨ü⟩ represents [w] after a velar velar consonant /ɡ/ or /k/ and a front vowel (⟨gu⟩ and ⟨qu⟩ are used to represent a hard (i.e. velar) pronunciation before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩).[6]
Catalan ce trencada (Ç ç), literally in English 'broken cee', is a modified ⟨c⟩ with a cedilla mark ( ¸ ), it is only used before ⟨a u o⟩ to indicate a "soft c" /s/, much like in Portuguese, Occitan or French (e.g. compare coça [ˈkosə] 'kick', coca [ˈkokə] 'cake' and cosa [ˈkɔzə] 'thing'). In Catalan, ce trencada also appears word finally after any vowel (e.g. feliç [fəˈɫis] 'happy'), but note word final ⟨ç⟩ may be voiced to [z] before vowels and voiced consonants, e.g. feliçment [fəˈɫizˌmen] ('happily') and braç esquerre [ˈbɾaz əsˈkɛrə] ('left arm').
The so called punt volat or middot is only used in the group ⟨l·l⟩ (called ela or el(e) geminada, 'geminate el') to represent a geminated sound /lː/, as ⟨ll⟩ is used to represent the palatal lateral /ʎ/. This usage of the middot sign is a recent invention from the beginning of twentieth century (in medieval and modern Catalan, before Fabra's standardization, this symbol was sometimes used to note certain elisions, especially in poetry). The only (and improbable) case of ambiguity in the whole language that could arise is the pair cel·la [ˈsɛɫɫə] ('cell') vs cella [ˈsɛʎə] ('eyebrow').
The distribution of the two rhotics /r/ and /ɾ/ closely parallels that of Spanish. Between vowels, the two contrast but they are otherwise in complementary distribution: in the onset, an alveolar trill, [r], appears unless preceded by a consonant; different dialects vary in regards to rhotics in the coda with Western Catalan generally featuring an alveolar tap, [ɾ], and Central Catalan dialects like those of Barcelona or Girona featuring a weakly trilled [r] unless it precedes a vowel-initial word in the same prosodic unit, in which case [ɾ] appears.[7]
In Eastern Catalan and North Western Catalan most instances of word-final ⟨r⟩ are silent, but there are plenty of unpredictable exceptions (e.g. in Central Eastern Catalan por [ˈpo] 'fear' but mar [ˈmar] 'sea'). In Central Eastern Catalan monosyllabic words with a pronounced final ⟨r⟩ get a reinforcement final consonant [t] when in absolute final position (e.g. final ⟨r⟩ of cor ('heart') in reina del meu cor [ˈrejnə ðəɫ ˈmew ˈkɔrt] 'queen of my heart' vs el cor es mou [əɫ ˈkɔɾ əs ˈmɔw] 'the heart is moving').
In Valencian, most instances of word-final ⟨r⟩ are pronounced.