Sorbian alphabet

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The Sorbian alphabet is based on the ISO basic Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as the acute accent and the caron, making it similar to the Czech and Polish alphabets. (This mixture is also found in the Belarusian Latin alphabet.) The standard character encoding for the Sorbian alphabet is ISO 8859-2 (Latin-2).

The alphabet is used for the Sorbian languages, although some letters are used in only one of the two languages (Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian).

Alphabet table

Upper
case
HTML
code
Lower
case
HTML
code
NameUsual
phonetic value
Other
phonetic values
Comments
A a a[ a ]  
B b bej[ b ][ p ] 
C c cej[ ts ]  
ČČčččej[ ]  
ĆĆćććet[ ][ ] 
D d dej[ d ][ t ] 
E e ej[ ɛ ]  
ĚĚěějět/ět (Upper), ět (Lower)[iɪ]  
F f ef[ f ]  
G g gej[ ɡ ]  
H h haUpper [ ʔ͡h ]
Lower [ ʔ ] or silent
  
I i i[ i ]  
J j jot/jót (Upper), jot (Lower)[ j ]  
K k ka[ k ]  
ŁŁłł[ w ]  
L l el[ l ]  
M m em[ m ]  
N n en[ n ]  
ŃŃńńeń (Upper), ejn (Lower)[ ɲ ]  
O o o[ ɔ ]  
ÓÓóóótUpper [uʊ]
Lower [ ɛ ] or [ ɨ ]
  
P p pej[ p ][ b ] 
R r er[ ʁ ]  
ŘŘřř[ ʃ ] Upper Sorbian only.
Represents older r after a voiceless consonant and before a front
vowel, e.g. přećel /ˈpʃɛt͡ɕɛl/ 'friend' from Proto-Slavic *prijateljь.
ŔŔŕŕejŕ[ ʁʲ ] Lower Sorbian only
S s es[ s ][ z ], [ ɕ ] 
ŠŠšš[ ʃ ]  
ŚŚśśśej[ ɕ ][ ʑ ]Lower Sorbian only
T t tej[ t ][ d ] 
U u u[ u ]  
W w wejUpper [ v ]
Lower [ w ] or silent
Upper Sorbian [ f ] 
Y y y[ ɨ ]  
Z z zet[ z ][ s ], [ ʑ ] 
ŽŽžžžet[ ʒ ]  
ŹŹźźźej[ ʑ ][ ɕ ]Lower Sorbian only
(except as part of digraph )

An earlier version of the Lower Sorbian alphabet included the use of the letters (or b’), (or p’), ḿ (or m’), (or w’) and rarely (or f’) to indicate palatalized labials. These have been replaced by bj, pj, mj, wj, and fj. [1] [2]

Sorbian orthography also includes two digraphs:

Upper
case
HTML
code
Lower
case
HTML
code
NameUsual
phonetic value
Other
phonetic values
Ch ch chaUpper [kʰ] word/root initially; [x] otherwise
Lower [x]
 
Dźdźdźej/dźet[dʑ][tɕ]

The digraph ch follows h in alphabetical order. These letters are used in foreign words and names:

Upper
case
Lower
case
NameUsual
phonetic value
Other
phonetic values
Substitute letter(s)
Qqku[k][ɡ]KW
Vvfau[v][f]W
Xxiks[ks][ɡz]KS

References

  1. Sebastian Kempgen. "Unicode 4.1 and Slavic Philology - Problems and Perspectives (I)" (PDF).
  2. Sebastian Kempgen. "Unicode 4.1 and Slavic Philology - Problems and Perspectives (II)" (PDF).