Latin-script alphabet

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A Latin-script alphabet (Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet) is an alphabet that uses letters of the Latin script. The 21-letter archaic Latin alphabet and the 23-letter classical Latin alphabet belong to the oldest of this group. [1] The 26-letter modern Latin alphabet is the newest of this group.

Contents

Encoding

The 26-letter ISO basic Latin alphabet (adopted from the earlier ASCII) contains the 26 letters of the English alphabet. To handle the many other alphabets also derived from the classical Latin one, ISO and other telecommunications groups "extended" the ISO basic Latin multiple times in the late 20th century. More recent international standards (e.g. Unicode) include those that achieved ISO adoption.

Key types of differences

Apart from alphabets for modern spoken languages, there exist phonetic alphabets and spelling alphabets in use derived from Latin script letters. Historical languages may also have used (or are now studied using) alphabets that are derived but still distinct from those of classical Latin and their modern forms (if any).

The Latin script was typically slightly altered to function as an alphabet for each different language (or other use), although the main letters are largely the same. A few general classes of alteration cover many particular cases:

These often were given a place in the alphabet by defining an alphabetical order or collation sequence, which can vary between languages. Some of the results, especially from just adding diacritics, were not considered distinct letters for this purpose; for example, the French é and the German ö are not listed separately in their respective alphabet sequences. With some alphabets, some altered letters are considered distinct while others are not; for instance, in Spanish, ñ (which indicates a unique phoneme) is listed separately, while á, é, í, ó, ú, and ü (which do not; the first five of these indicate a nonstandard stress-accent placement, while the last forces the pronunciation of a normally-silent letter) are not. Digraphs in some languages may be separately included in the collation sequence (e.g. Hungarian CS, Welsh RH). New letters must be separately included unless collation is not practised.

Properties

Letter inventory

Coverage of the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet can be

and additional letters can be

Grapheme order

Most alphabets have the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet in the same order as that alphabet.

Multigraphs

Some alphabets regard digraphs as distinct letters, e.g. the Spanish alphabet from 1803 to 1994 had CH and LL sorted apart from C and L.

Diacritics and ligatures

Some alphabets sort letters that have diacritics or are ligatures at the end of the alphabet. Examples are the Scandinavian Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish alphabets.

New letter forms

Icelandic sorts a new letter form and a ligature at the end, as well as one letter with diacritic, while others with diacritics are sorted behind the corresponding non-diacritic letter.

Grapheme–sound correspondence

The phonetic values of graphemes can differ between alphabets.

Sound values of letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet in IPA and various Latin-script languages
Lowercase letter to Latin Alphabet IPA IPA for Classical Latin Alphabet IPA for English Alphabet IPA for French Alphabet [lower-alpha 1] IPA for Spanish Alphabet [lower-alpha 2] IPA for Malay Orthography IPA for Turkish Alphabet [lower-alpha 3]
a a , aː eɪ, æ , ɑː a
b b
c k k , s k , θ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
d d
e e , eː iː , ɛ ə , ɛ e e , ə e
f f
g g g , d͡ʒ g , ʒ g , x g g , ɟ
h h h , ∅ (silent)(silent) h
i i , iː , j aɪ, ɪ i
j (not used) d͡ʒ ʒ x d͡ʒ ʒ
k k k , ∅ k k , ʔ k , c
l l l , ɫ
m m
n n , ŋ
o o , oː oʊ, ɒ ɔ , o o
p p
q k (not used)
r r ɹ ʁ r , ɾ r ɾ
s s s , z s
t t
u (not used)juː, ʌ , ʊ , uː y u
v u , uː , w v b v
w (not used) w w , v w , b w (not used)
x ksks, z ksks, s , x ks(not used)
y y , yː aɪ, iː , ɪ , j i , j j
z z θ ~ s z
  1. ↑ The French alphabet also has letters with 5 diacritics: à, â, ç, é, è, ê, ë, î, ï, ô, ù, û, ü, and ÿ, and 2 ligatures, æ and œ
  2. ↑ The Spanish alphabet has letters with diacritics: á, é, í, ó, ú, and ñ (ñ is considered a separate letter)
  3. ↑ The Turkish alphabet has additional letters: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü (all are separate letters)

Names of letters

Names of letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet in various Latin-script languages
Lowercase Latin 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 Written (majus)ábécédééefgéháíkáelemenópéqv́erestév́—ixí graecazéta
Written (modern)ābēcēdēēefgēhāīkāelemenōpēqūerestēū—ixī Graecazēta
Pronunciation (IPA)aːbeːkeːdeːeːɛfɡeːhaːiːkaːɛlɛmɛnoːpeːkuːɛrɛsteːuː—ɪksiː ˈɡraɪkaˈdzeːta
English Writtenabeeceedeeeef, effɡeeaitch, haitchijaykayelemenopeecuearessteeuveedouble-uexwyezed, zee
Pronunciation (IPA)/eɪ//bi//siː//diː//iː//ɛf//dʒiː//eɪtʃ/, /heɪtʃ//aɪ//dʒeɪ//keɪ//el//em//en//oʊ//piː//kjuː//ɑːr//ɛs//tiː//juː//viː//ˈdʌbəl.juː//ɛks//waɪ//zɛd/, /ziː/
French Writtenabécédéeeffegéacheijikaelleemmeenneopéquerreessetéuvédouble véixei greczède
Pronunciation (IPA)/a//be//se//de//ə//ɛf//ʒe//aʃ//i//ʒi//ka//ɛl//ɛm//ɛn//o//pe//ky//ɛʁ//ɛs//te//y//ve//dubləve//iks//iɡʁɛk//zed/
Spanish [2] abe, be larga, be altacedeeefegehacheijotakaeleemeeneopecuerreeseteuuve, ve, ve corta, ve bajauve doble, ve doble, doble ve, doble uequisye, i griegazeta
Malay (Indonesia)Writtenabécédéééfgéhaijékaéléménopékiéréstéuvéwééksyézét
Pronunciation (IPA)/a//be//t͡ʃe//de//e//ef//ge//ha//i//d͡ʒe//ka//el//em//en//o//pe//ki//er//es//te//u//ve/, /fe//we//eks//je//zet/
Malay (Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore)Writtenebisidiiéfjihécayjékééléménopikiuaréstiyuvidabel yuékswayzet
Pronunciation (IPA)/e//bi//si//di//i//ef//d͡ʒi//het͡ʃ//i//d͡ʒe//ke//el//em//en//o//pe//qiu/, /qju//ar/, /aː//es//ti//ju//vi//dabəlˈju//eks//wai̯//zed/
Turkish Writtenabecedeefegehe, haijeke, kalemeneopekû, küreseteuveçift veiksyeze
Pronunciation (IPA)/aː//beː//d͡ʒeː//deː//eː//feː//ɟeː//heː/,/haː//iː//ʒeː//ceː/,/kaː//leː//meː//neː//oː//peː//cuː/,/cyː//ɾeː//seː//teː//uː//veː//t͡ʃiftveː//ics//jeː//zeː/

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Esperanto is written in a Latin-script alphabet of twenty-eight letters, with upper and lower case. This is supplemented by punctuation marks and by various logograms, such as the digits 0–9, currency signs such as $ € ¥ £ ₷, and mathematical symbols. The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, declared a principle of "one letter, one sound", though this is a general rather than strict guideline.

The double acute accent is a diacritic mark of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. It is used primarily in Hungarian or Chuvash, and consequently it is sometimes referred to by typographers as hungarumlaut. The signs formed with a regular umlaut are letters in their own right in the Hungarian alphabet—for instance, they are separate letters for the purpose of collation. Letters with the double acute, however, are considered variants of their equivalents with the umlaut, being thought of as having both an umlaut and an acute accent.

Finnish orthography is based on the Latin script, and uses an alphabet derived from the Swedish alphabet, officially comprising twenty-nine letters but also including two additional letters found in some loanwords. The Finnish orthography strives to represent all morphemes phonologically and, roughly speaking, the sound value of each letter tends to correspond with its value in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) – although some discrepancies do exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German alphabet</span> German form of the Latin alphabet

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Filipinoorthography specifies the correct use of the writing system of the Filipino language, the national and co-official language of the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English alphabet</span> Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters

Modern English is written with a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, with each having both uppercase and lowercase forms. The word alphabet is a compound of alpha and beta, the names of the first two letters in the Greek alphabet. Old English was first written down using the Latin alphabet during the 7th century. During the centuries that followed, various letters entered or fell out of use. By the 16th century, the present set of 26 letters had largely stabilised:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ligature (writing)</span> Glyph combining two or more letterforms

In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined to form a single glyph. Examples are the characters ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨œ⟩ used in English and French, in which the letters ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩ are joined for the first ligature and the letters ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩ are joined for the second ligature. For stylistic and legibility reasons, ⟨f⟩ and ⟨i⟩ are often merged to create ⟨fi⟩ ; the same is true of ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ to create ⟨st⟩. The common ampersand, ⟨&⟩, developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩ were combined.

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The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Greek alphabet was altered by the Etruscans, and subsequently their alphabet was altered by the Ancient Romans. Several Latin-script alphabets exist, which differ in graphemes, collation and phonetic values from the classical Latin alphabet.

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The ISO basic Latin alphabet is an international standard for a Latin-script alphabet that consists of two sets of 26 letters, codified in various national and international standards and used widely in international communication. They are the same letters that comprise the current English alphabet. Since medieval times, they are also the same letters of the modern Latin alphabet. The order is also important for sorting words into alphabetical order.

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References

  1. ↑ "Latin alphabet | Definition, Description, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. ↑ Ortografía de la lengua española (2010). Real Academia Española y Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. p. 63.
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