ISO basic Latin alphabet

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) basic Latin alphabet consists of the following 26 letters:[1][2]

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

By the 1960s it became apparent to the computer and telecommunications industries in the First World that a non-proprietary method of encoding characters was needed. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) encapsulated the Latin script in their (ISO/IEC 646) standard. To achieve widespread acceptance, this encapsulation was based on popular usage. As the United States held a pre-eminent position in both industries during the 1960s, the standard was based on the already published American Standard Code for Information Interchange, better known as ASCII, which included in the character set the 26 × 2 letters of the English alphabet. Later standards issued by the ISO, for example ISO/IEC 10646 (Unicode Latin), have continued to define the 26 × 2 letters of the English alphabet as the basic Latin script with extensions to handle other letters in other languages.[1]

Alphabets that are equivalent in the sense that they consist of the same 26 letters – possibly also used in combination with diacritics, provided that letters thereby modified are not considered distinct letters of the alphabet:

English and Dutch are unique among major modern European languages in requiring no diacritics for native words (although a diaeresis is used by some publishers in words such as "coöperation").[3][4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Internationalisation standardization of 7-bit codes, ISO 646". Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA). http://www.terena.org/activities/multiling/euroml/section04.html. Retrieved 3 October 2010. 
  2. ^ "RFC1815 – Character Sets ISO-10646 and ISO-10646-J-1". http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1815.html. Retrieved 3 October 2010. 
  3. ^ As an example, an article containing both a diaeresis "coöperate" and a cedilla in "façades" (Grafton, Anthony (October 23, 2006). "Books: The Nutty Professors, The history of academic charisma". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023crbo_books?currentPage=all. )
  4. ^ http://dscriber.com/news/121-the-new-yorkers-odd-mark-the-diaeresis
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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