List of Latin-script alphabets
The tables below summarize and compare the letter inventory of some of the Latin-script alphabets. In this article, the scope of the word "alphabet" is broadened to include letters with tone marks, and other diacritics used to represent a wide range of orthographic traditions, without regard to whether or how they are sequenced in their alphabet or the table.
Letters contained in the ISO basic Latin alphabet
Alphabets that contain all ISO basic Latin letters
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) includes all 26 letters in their lowercase forms, although g is always single-storey (ɡ) in the IPA and never double-storey (
).
Among alphabets for natural languages the Afrikaans,[54] Aromanian, Aymara, Basque,[4] Breton, British, Catalan,[6] Cornish, Czech,[8] Danish,[9] Dutch,[10] Emilian-Romagnol, English,[36] Estonian, Extremaduran, Fala, Filipino,[11] Finnish, French,[12], Fula,[41] Galician,[33] German,[13] Greenlandic, Hungarian,[15] Indonesian, Inari Sami, Iranian Turkic, Italian, Karakalpak,[23] Kazakh,[38] Kurdish, Modern Latin, Lule Sami, Malay, Mirandese, Norwegian,[9], Portuguese, Quechua, Rhaeto-Romance, Romanian, Skolt Sami, Slovak,[24], Southern Sami, Spanish,[25] Swedish, Tswana,[52] Tunisian Arabic,[58] Venda,[51] Võro, Walloon,[27] West Frisian, Xhosa, Zazaki, and Zulu alphabets include all 26 letters, at least in their largest version.
Among alphabets for constructed languages the Ido, Interglossa, Interlingua, Occidental alphabets include all 26 letters.
Alphabets that do not contain all ISO basic Latin letters
This list is based on official definitions of each alphabet. Still, missing letters might occur in non-integrated loan words and place names.
| 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 | Z | 24 | ||
| 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[53] | 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 | |
| Bambara[39] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | Z | 23 | |||
| 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 | |||
| Bislama[45] | A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | 22 | ||||
| Chamorro[43] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | Y | 20 | ||||||
| Chewa | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z | 25 | ||
| 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 | ||||
| Dakelh | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | R | S | T | U | W | Y | Z | 22 | ||||
| Cypriot Arabic[59] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 23 | ||
| Dakota | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | M | N | O | P | S | T | U | W | Y | Z | 20 | |||||
| Dalecarlian | A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | 22 | ||||
| Dinka[40] | A | B | C | D | E | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | T | U | W | Y | 20 | ||||||
| Esperanto | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Z | 22 | ||||
| Traditional Fala | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Z | 23 | |||
| 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 | ||||
| Gagauz | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Y | Z | 23 | |||
| Traditional 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 | ||||||||||||||
| Traditional Greenlandic | A | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | 19 | |||||||
| Glosa | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Z | 25 | |
| Guaraní[14] | A | B | C | D | E | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Y | 18 | |||||
| Hän | A | B | C | D | E | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | Z | 22 | ||||
| Haitian | 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 | ||
| 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 | ||||
| Igbo[42] | 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 | ||
| Irish[16] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Z | 20 | ||||||
| Traditional Italian[17] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | Z | 21 | |||||
| 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 | Y | Z | 23 | |||
| 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 | |||
| Livonian[46] | A | B | 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 | ||||||||||||
| Marshallese[47] | A | B | D | E | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | T | U | W | Y | 17 | |||||||||
| Traditional Mirandese | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | X | Y | Z | 23 | |||
| Mohawk[35] | A | E | H | I | K | N | O | R | S | T | W | Y | 12 | ||||||||||||||
| Montenegrin[7] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Z | 22 | ||||
| Na'vi[57][2] | A | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 21 | |||||
| Navajo | A | B | C | D | E | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | S | T | W | X | Y | Z | 20 | ||||||
| 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 | ||||
| Nuxalk | A | C | H | I | K | L | M | N | P | Q | S | T | U | W | X | Y | 16 | ||||||||||
| Occitan | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Z | 23 | |||
| 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 | ||
| Piedmontese | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | Z | 22 | ||||
| Pirahã | A | B | G | H | I | K | O | P | S | T | X | 11 | |||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||
| Rotokas | A | E | G | I | K | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | 12 | ||||||||||||||
| Samoan | A | E | F | G | I | L | M | N | O | P | S | T | U | V | 14 | ||||||||||||
| Sardinian | 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 | ||
| 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 | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z | 24 | ||
| 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 | |||||||
| Tahitian | A | E | F | H | I | M | N | O | P | R | T | U | V | 13 | |||||||||||||
| Tetum | A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Z | 23 | |||
| 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[55] | A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | Z | 22 | ||||
| Ulithian[49] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | 21 | |||||
| Uzbek[25] | 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 | |
| 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 | 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 | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | W | X | Y | 24 | ||
| Yapese[50] | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | W | Y | 23 | |||
| Yoruba[44] | A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | 21 | |||||
| count | 72 | 64 | 54 | 62 | 70 | 59 | 67 | 69 | 72 | 52 | 58 | 65 | 69 | 70 | 70 | 65 | 23 | 65 | 68 | 71 | 67 | 47 | 30 | 24 | 44 | 50 |
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.
Statistics
The chart above lists a variety of alphabets that do not officially contain all 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. In this list, two letters are used by all of them: A and I. For each of the 26 basic ISO Latin alphabet letters, the number of alphabets in the list above using it is as follows:
| Letter | A | I | T | E | N | O | H | M | S | G | U | L | P | R | B | D | F | K | C | J | Z | V | Y | W | X | Q |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabets | 72 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 69 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 67 | 65 | 65 | 65 | 64 | 62 | 59 | 58 | 54 | 52 | 50 | 47 | 44 | 30 | 24 | 23 |
Letters not contained in the ISO basic Latin alphabet
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.
Additional letters by type
Independent letters and ligatures
| Additional base letters | Æ | Ɑ | Ꞵ | Ð | Ǝ | Ə | Ɛ | Ɣ | I | IJ | Ɩ | Ŋ | Œ | Ɔ | Ʊ | (K‘) | ẞ[13] | Ʃ[13] | Þ | Ʋ | Ƿ | Ȝ | Ʒ | ʔ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| æ | ɑ | ꞵ | ð | ǝ | ə | ɛ | ɣ | ı | ij | ɩ | ŋ | œ | ɔ | ʊ | ĸ | ß | ʃ | þ | ʋ | ƿ | ȝ | ʒ | ʔ | |
| Anglo-Saxon | Æ | Ð | Œ | Þ | Ƿ | Ȝ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Azeri[53] | Ə | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bambara[39] | Ɛ | Ŋ | Ɔ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Berber | Ɛ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crimean Tatar | ı | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dalecarlian | Ð | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Danish[9] Norwegian[9] Swedish[21] Southern Sami (Norway) |
Æ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dinka | Ɛ | Ɣ | Ŋ | Ɔ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dutch[10] | IJ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Faroese | Æ | Ð | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Greenlandic | Æ | ĸ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| German[13] Luxembourgish |
ß | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Icelandic Norn |
Æ | Ð | Þ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Iranian Turkic | Ə | Ŋ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Celtic British English[36] French[12] Latin[2] |
Æ | Œ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inari Sami Northern Sami Fula[41] |
Ŋ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skolt Sami | Ŋ | Ʒ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pan-Nigerian | Ǝ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turkish | ı | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Cameroon | Æ | Ɑ | Ə | Ɛ | Ŋ | Œ | Ɔ | |||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Benin | Ǝ | Ɛ | Ɣ | Ŋ | Ɔ | Ʊ | Ʋ | |||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Burkina Faso | Ǝ | Ɛ | Ɩ | Ŋ | Ɔ | Ʋ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Chad | Ə | Ɛ | Ŋ | Ɔ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Côte d'Ivoire | Ɛ | Ɩ | Ŋ | Ɔ | Ʊ | ʔ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific Alphabet of Gabon | Ꞵ | Ð | Ǝ | Ɛ | Ɣ | Ŋ | Ɔ | Ʃ | Ʒ | ʔ | ||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Mali | Ǝ | Ɛ | Ɣ | Ŋ | Ɔ | ʔ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Niger | Ǝ | Ɣ | Ŋ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabet of Zaïre | Ɛ | Ɔ |
Letter–diacritic combinations: connected or overlaid
Other letters in collation order
Note: The tables below are a work in progress. Eventually, table cells with light blue shading will indicate letter forms which do not constitute distinct letters in their associated alphabets. Please help with this task if you have the required linguistic knowledge and technical editing skill.
For the order in which the characters are sorted in each alphabet, see Collating sequence.
Letters derived from A–H
Letters derived from I–O
Letters derived from R–Z
Notes
- ↑↑↑↑ 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.
- ↑↑↑↑ In Afrikaans, C and Q are only (and X and Z almost only) used in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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.
- ↑↑↑↑ A with diaeresis is used only as a replacement character for schwa if the latter cannot be used (it was replaced by the schwa one year later because it is the most common letter). These cases should be avoided!
- ↑↑↑↑ 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. C, Ç, Q, V, W, Y are used in foreign words and are not usually considered part of the alphabet.
- ↑ Bambara also has the digraphs: kh(only present in loanwords), sh (also written as ʃ; only present in some dialects). Historically, è was used instead of ɛ, ny was used instead of ɲ, and ò was used instead of ɔ in Mali
- ↑↑↑↑ Belarusian also has several digraphs: ch, dz, dź, dž.
- ↑↑↑↑ Bislama also has the digraph ng.
- ↑↑↑↑ Breton also has the digraphs ch, c'h, zh. C, Q, X are used in foreign words or digraphs only.
- ↑↑↑ Catalan also has a large number of digraphs: dj, gu, gü, ig, ix, ll, l·l, ny, qu, qü, rr, ss, tg, tj, ts, tx, tz. The letters K, Ñ, Q W, and Y are only used in loanwords or the digraphs mentioned.
- ↑↑↑ Chamorro also has the digraphs ch, ng. C used only in digraphs.
- ↑↑↑↑ Corsican has the trigraphs: chj, ghj.
- ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ 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).
- ↑↑ Cypriot Arabic also has the letters Θ and Δ.
- ↑↑↑↑ Czech also has the digraph ch, which is considered a separate letter and is sorted between h and i. While á, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ť, ú, ů, and ý are considered separate letters, in collation they are treated merely as letters with diacritics. However, č, ř, š, and ž are actually sorted as separate letters. Q, W, X, Ö occur only in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑↑↑↑ 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.
- ↑ Dinka also has the digraphs: dh, nh, ny, th. H is only present in these digraphs. Dinka also used the letters Ää, Ëë, Ïï, Öö, Ɛ̈ɛ̈, Ɔ̈ɔ̈ (the last two which do not exist as precomposed characters in Unicode)
- ↑↑↑ The status of ij as a letter, ligature or digraph in Dutch is disputed. C (outside the digraph ch) Q, X, and Y occur mostly in foreign words. Letters with grave and letters with circumflex occur only in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑ English generally now uses extended Latin letters only in loan words, such as fiancé, fiancée, and résumé. Rare publication guides may still use the dieresis on words, such as "coöperate", rather than the now-more-common "co-operate" (UK) or "cooperate" (US). 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, an é or è is sometimes used in poetry to show that a normally silent vowel is to be pronounced, as in "blessèd".
- ↑↑↑↑ Filipino also known as Tagalog also uses 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). Only ñ is required for everyday use (only in loanwords). The accented vowels are used in dictionaries to indicate pronunciation, g with tilde is only present in older works.
- ↑↑↑ Uppercase diacritics in French are often (incorrectly) thought of as being optional, but the official rules of French orthography designate accents on uppercase letters as obligatory in most cases. 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). Y with diaeresis and U with diaeresis are only used in certain geographical names and proper names plus their derivatives, or, in the case of U with diaeresis, newly proposed reforms. Eg. capharnaüm `shambles' is derived from the proper name Capharnaüm. Æ occurs only in Latin or Greek loanwords.
- ↑ Fula has X as part of the alphabet in all countries except Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (used only in loanwords in these countries). Ɠ, which is used only in loanwords (but still part of the alphabet), is used in Guinea only. Fula also uses the digraphs mb (In Guinea spelled nb), nd, ng, and nj. aa, ee, ii, oo, and uu are part of the alphabet in all countries except Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Ƴ is used in all countries except for Nigeria, where it is written ('y). Ŋ is used in all countries except for Nigeria. Ɲ is used in Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso, Ñ is used in Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and the digraph ny is used in Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, and Nigeria. The apostrophe is a letter (representing the glottal stop) in Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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, ck, st, sp, th, (ph, rh) and qu digraphs. Q only appears in the sequence qu and in loanwords, while x and y are found almost only in loan words. The capital ß (ẞ) is almost never used, ß is replaced with SS when writing all-caps. The accented letters (other than the letters ä, ö, ü, and ß) are used only in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑↑ Guaraní also uses digraphs ch, mb, nd, ng, nt, rr and the glottal stop ' . B, C, and D are only used in these digraphs.
- ↑↑↑↑ Hausa has the digraphs: sh, ts. Vowel length and tone are usually not marked. Textbooks usually use macron or doubled vowel to mark the length, grave to mark the low tone and circumflex to mark the falling tone. Therefore, in some systems, it is possible that macron is used in combination with grave or circumflex over a, e, i, o or u.
- ↑↑↑↑ Hungarian also has the digraphs: cs, dz, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs; and the trigraph: dzs. Letters á, é, í, ó, ő, ú, and ű are considered separate letters, but are collated as variants of a, e, i, o, ö, u, and ü.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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. V only occurs in onomotopoeia, such as vácarnach, vác, or vrác, or in rare alternative spellings víog and vís (usually spelled bíog and bís), or in loanwords. Z only occurs in the West Muskerry dialect in the digraph zs (a rare eclipsis of s, spelled s in other dialects and the language proper) or in loanwords.
- ↑ Igbo writes Ṅṅ alternatively as N̄n̄. Igbo has the digraphs: ch, gb, gh, gw, kp, kw, nw, ny, sh. C is only used in the digraph before. Also, vowels take a grave accent, an acute accent, or no accent, depending on tone.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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. While it does not occur in ordinary running texts, geographical names on maps are often written only with acute accents. The circumflex is used on an -i ending that was anciently written -ii (or -ji, -ij, -j, etc.) to distinguish homograph plurals and verb forms: e.g. e.g. principî form principi, genî from geni.
- ↑ Karakalpak also has the digraphs: ch, sh. A', G', I', N', O', U' are considered as letters. C, F, V are used in foreign words.
- ↑ Kazakh also has the digraphs: ya, yo, yw. C, Ç, É, F, H, V, X and the digraph yo are used in foreign words.
- ↑↑↑↑ Latvian also has the digraphs: dz, dž, ie. 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. Ō, Ŗ, and the digraphs CH (only used in loanwords) and UO are no longer part of the alphabet, but are still used in certain dialects and newspapers that use the old orthography. Y is used only in certain dialects and not in the standard language. F and H are only used in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑↑ Lithuanian also has the digraphs: ch, dz, dž, ie, uo. However, these are not considered separate letters of the alphabet. F, H, and the digraph CH are only used in loanwords. Demanding publications such as dictionaries, maps, schoolbooks etc need additional diacritical marks to differentiate homographs.Using grave accent on A, E, I, O, U, acute accent on all vowels, and tilde accent on all vowels and on L, M, N and R. Small E and I (also with ogonek) must retain the dot when additional accent mark is added to the character; the use of ì and í (note the missing dot) is considered unacceptable.
- ↑↑↑↑ In Livonian, the letters Ö, Ȫ, Y, Ȳ were used by the older generation, but the younger generation merged these sounds; Around the late 1990's, these letters were removed from the alphabet.
- ↑↑↑↑ Marshallese often uses the old orthography (because people did not approve of the new orthography), which writes ļ as l, m̧ as m, ņ as n, p as b, o̧ as o at the ends of words or in the word yokwe (also spelled iakwe under the old orthography; under the new orthography, spelled io̧kwe), but a at other places, and d as dr before vowels, or r after vowels. The old orthography writes ā as e in some words, but ā in others; it also writes ū as i between consonants. The old orthography writes geminates and long vowels as two letters instead. Allophones of /ɘ/, written as only e o ō in the new orthography, are also written as i u and very rarely, ū. The letter Y only occurs in the words yokwe or the phrase yokwe yuk (also spelled iakwe iuk in the old orthography or io̧kwe eok in the new orthography).
- ↑↑↑↑ Maltese also has the digraphs: ie, għ.
- ↑ Māori uses g only in ng digraph. Wh is also a digraph.
- ↑ 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 :.
- ↑ [Na'vi] uses the letters ~ and ʼ and the digraphs aw, ay, ew, ey, kx, ll, ng (sometimes written as G), px, rr, ts (sometimes written as C), tx. G (in standard orthography) and X used only in digraphs.
- ↑ 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].
- ↑↑↑↑ Pinyin has four tone markers that can go on top of 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.
- ↑↑↑↑ Polish also has the digraphs: ch, cz, dz, dż, dź, sz, rz.
- ↑↑↑↑ Portuguese also uses the digraphs ch, lh, nh, rr, ss. The trema on ü was used in Brazilian Portuguese before 2009. The grave accent was used on e, i, o, and u, until 1973. The letters èand ò are used in geographical names outside Europe and not part of the language proper. The now abandoned practice was to indicate underlying stress in words ending in -mente -- sòmente, ùltimamente etc. Neither the digraphs nor accented letters are considered part of the alphabet.
- ↑ 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. K, Q, W, X, and Y occur only in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑↑ Romani has the digraphs: čh, dž, kh, ph, th.
- ↑↑↑ Slovak also has the digraphs dz, dž, and ch, which are considered separate letters. While á, ä, ď, é, í, ĺ, ň, ó, ô, ŕ, ť, ú, and ý are considered separate letters, in collation they are treated merely as letters with diacritics. However, č, ľ, š, and ž, as well as the digraphs, are actually sorted as separate letters. Q, W, X, Ě, Ö, Ř, Ü occur only in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑ Spanish uses several digraphs to represent 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. While cedilla is etymologically Spanish diminutive of ceda (z) and Sancho Pança is the original form in Cervantes books, C with cedilla ç is now completely displaced by z in contemporary language. In poetry, the diaeresis may be used to break a diphthong into separate vowels. Regarding that usage, Ortografía de la lengua española states that "diaeresis is usually placed over the closed vowel [i.e. 'i' or 'u'] and, when both are closed, generally over the first". In this context, the use of ï is rare, but part of the normative orthography.
- ↑ 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, and ë are used for names only, but exist in Swedish names. For foreign names ó, ç, 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.
- ↑↑↑ Tunisian Arabic also uses the digraph: għ. Usually Tunisian Arabic is written in the Arabic script; this Latin alphabet, which is based on Maltese, was not created until 2015.
- ↑↑↑↑ Tswana also has the digraphs: kg, kh, ng, ph, th, tl, tlh, ts, tsh, tš, tšh. The letters C, Q, and X only appear in onomotopeia and loanwords. The letters V and Z only appear in loanwords.
- ↑↑↑↑ Turkmen had a slightly differrent alphabet before 1993 (which used some unusual letters) Ýý was written as ¥ÿ, Ňň was written as Ññ, and Şş was written as $¢, and Žž was written £⌠ (so that all characters were available in Code page 437). In the new alphabet, all characters are available in ISO/IEC 8859-2.
- ↑↑↑ Ulithian also has the digraphs: ch, [l'], mw, ng. C used only in digraphs.
- ↑ Uzbek also has the digraphs: ch, ng, sh considered as letters. C used only in digraphs. G', O' and apostrophe (') are considered as letters. These letters have preferred typographical variants: Gʻ, Oʻ and ʼ respectively.
- ↑↑↑↑ Venda also has the digraphs and trigraphs: bv, bw, dz, dzh, dzw, fh, hw, kh, khw, ng, ny, nz, ṅw, ph, pf, pfh, sh, sw, th, ts, tsh, tsw, ty, ṱh, vh, zh, zw. C, J, Q are used in foreign words.
- ↑↑↑↑ Vietnamese has seven additional base letters: ă â đ ê ô ơ ư. It uses 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 several digraphs and trigraphs – ch, gh, gi, kh, ng, ngh, nh, ph, th, tr – but they are no longer considered letters.
- ↑↑↑↑ Walloon has the digraphs and trigraphs: ae, ch, dj, ea, jh, oe, oen, oi, sch, sh, tch, xh. The letter X outside the digraph xh is in some orthographies, but not the default two. The letter Q is in some orthographies (including one default orthography), but not in the other default orthography. Also in some orthographies are À, Ì, Ù, Ë, Ö, and even E̊ (which is not available as a precomposed character in Unicode)
- ↑↑↑↑ 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.
- ↑↑↑↑ 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, nc, ndl, ndz, ng, ng', 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.
- ↑↑↑ Yapese has the digraphs and trigraphs: aa, ae, ch, ea, ee, ii, [k'], [l'], [m'], [n'], ng, [ng'], oe, oo, [p'], [t'], th, [th'], uu, [w'], [y']. Q, representing the glottal stop, is not used. Often an apostrophe is used to represent the glottal stop instead. C used only in digraphs. H used only in digraphs and loanwords. J used only in loanwords.
- Yoruba uses the digraph gb. Also, vowels take a grave accent, an acute accent, or no accent, depending on tone. Although the "dot below" diacritic is widely used, purists prefer a short vertical underbar (Unicode COMBINING VERTICAL LINE BELOW U+0329) - this resembles the IPA notation for a syllabic consonant, attached to the base of the letter (E, O or S). The seven Yoruba vowels (A, E, E underbar, I, O, O underbar, U) can be uttered in three different tones: high (acute accent); middle (no accent) and low (grave accent). The letters M and N, when written without diacritics, indicate nasalisation of the preceding vowel. M and N also occur as syllabics - in these circumstances, they take acute or grave tonal diacritics, like the vowels. Middle tone is marked with a macron to differentiate it from the unmarked nasalising consonants. A tilde was used in older orthography (still occasionally used) to indicate a double vowel. This is tonally ambiguous, and has now been replaced by showing the paired vowels, each marked with the appropriate tones.
However, where a double vowel has the tonal sequence high-low or low-high, it may optionally be replaced by a single vowel with a circumflex (high-low) or caron (low-high), eg. á + à = â; à + á = ǎ.
Miscellanea
- Africa Alphabet
- African reference alphabet
- Beghilos
- Dinka alphabet
- Gaj's Latin alphabet, is the only script of the Croatian and Bosnian standard languages in current use, and one of the two scripts of the Serbian standard language.
- Hawaiian alphabet
- Initial Teaching Alphabet
- International Phonetic Alphabet
- Łatynka for Ukrainian
- Leet (1337 alphabet)
- Romanization schemes
- Romany alphabet for most Romany languages
- Sámi Latin alphabet
- Standard Alphabet by Lepsius
- Tatar alphabet, similar to Turkish alphabet and Jaꞑalif as a part of Uniform Turkic alphabet
- Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
See also
- Diacritic
- Latin-script alphabet
- Latin-script multigraph
- Latin characters in Unicode
- List of Latin letters
- List of precomposed Latin characters in Unicode
- Romanization
- Typographical ligature
- Writing systems of Africa
- Categories
- Uncommon Latin letters
- Specific letter-diacritic combinations
- Latin-script ligatures
- Phonetic transcription symbols
Footnotes
- ↑ 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.
- ↑
External links
- Michael Everson's Alphabets of Europe
- Typo.cz Information on Central European typography and typesetting
- Letter database of the Institute of Estonian Language
- Unicode language coverage tables
- Diacritics Project – All you need to design a font with correct accents
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