are used by the Writing System s of many languages throughout the world. The tables below summarize and compare several of those Alphabet s.
The ..
In this list of 37 languages, the twelve letters used for all are A, E, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, R, S and T. The number of languages in which less used letters are in the alphabet (also for this list) is:
In many of the languages listed above, the "missing" letters may be used for foreign or non-naturalized words and their derivatives (such as ''newtoniano'' in Italian and Portuguese), or in international symbols and names for Metric Units (like W for ''watt'' and V for ''volt''). Conversely, in some of the languages officially listed as using all 26 letters, some letters are not used in native words; e.g., in Danish, Q, W and X are rare.
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 Operating System and Browser version and the presence or absence of Unicode Fonts .
- In classical , 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 .
- also has the digraphs ''dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh''.
- has the digraphs: ''dd, rr, ts, tt, tx, tz''.
- also has the digraphs: ''ch, dz, dź, dž''.
- also has the digraphs: ''ll, ny, l·l, rr, ss, dz, tz, ig, ix, gu, (gü), qu, (qü), nc''.
- has the trigraphs: ''chj, ghj''.
- , where digraphs map to Cyrillic letters џ, љ and њ, respectively.
- also has the digraph: ''ch''.
- The alphabet is currently identical with the '''Danish''' alphabet, but lately, it has been humoristically proposed to add the letter Kjell to the Norwegian alphabet (after the letter ''L''), so that the sound which is commonly spelled ''kj'' may be written with a single letter.
- The status of ''ij'' as a letter in is disputed.
- also uses the digraph ''ng''.
- In standard , uppercase diacritics are never obligatory, but always the good style. Many pairs or triplets are read as digraphs or trigraphs depending on context, but are not treated as such lexicographically: consonnants ''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 consonnants are mute (including those consonnants that are part of feminine, plural, and conjugating désinences). Accents on uppercase letters are generally obligatory in Canada.
- 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'' and ''qu'' digraphs. ''Q'' only appears in the sequence ''qu'', ''y'' only (and ''x'' almost only) in loan words.
- '' movement uses it as in Portuguese.
- also uses tilde over ''e, i, y'', and ''g'' (the last one not available precomposed in Unicode), as well as digraphs ''ch, mb, nd, ng, nt, rr'' and the glottal stop '' ' ''.
- has the digraphs: ''sh, ts''.
- also has the digraphs: ''cs, dz, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs''; and the trigraph: ''dzs''.
- 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.
- also has the digraphs: ''ch, gh, gn, gl, sc''.
- also has the digraphs: ''dz, dž, ie,'' as well as the triphthongal letter ''o''. ''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. The Latvian ''o'' is also the only single-letter triphthong in any language—in one letter it has the three vowel sounds ''u,'' ''o,'' and ''a,'' which combine into ''uoa.''
- also has the digraphs: ''ch, dz, dž, ie, uo''. However, these are not considered separate letters of the alphabet.
- also has the digraphs: ''ie, għ''.
- has four tone markers that can go on top of the 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''.
- also has the digraphs: ''ch, cz, dz, dż, dź, sz, rz''.
- also uses the digraphs ''ch, lh, nh, ou, rr, ss''. The Trema on ''ü'' is currently only used in Brazilian Portuguese . Neither the digraphs nor accented letters are considered part of the alphabet.
- has the digraphs: ''čh, dž, kh, ph, th''.
- /ľ, Ĺ /ĺ''.
- '' 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. The ''c''-cedilla ''ç'' used earlier has been replaced completely by ''z''.
- has 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 the digraphs and trigraphs: ''ch, gi, kh, ng, ngh, nh, ph, th, tr'', but they are no longer considered letters.
- has the digraphs and trigraphs: ''ae, ch, dj, ea, jh, oe, oen, oi, sch, sh, tch, xh''; the letter ''x'' is only used in ''xh'' digraph, the letter ''j'' is almost only used in ''dj'' and ''jh'' digraphs
- has the digraphs ''ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th''. It also occasionally uses Circumflex es, Diaereses , Acute Accent s and Grave Accent s on its seven vowels ''(a, e, i, o, u, w, y)'', but accented characters are not regarded as separate letters of the alphabet.
Some languages include modified letters, ligatures, or digraphs in the alphabet, for Orthographic and Collation purposes. This varies from language to language, and sometimes from symbol to symbol, within the same language. Listed below are the collation orders in various languages.
- In , with the same sounds written with the same letters, except for three additional letters: q, x and ə for sounds that do not exist in Turkish. Although all the "Turkish letters" are collated in their "normal" alphabetical order like in Turkish, the three extra letters are collated arbitrarly after letters whose sounds approach theirs. So, q is collated just after k, x (pronounced like a German ''ch'') is collated just after h and ə (pronounced roughly like an English short ''a'') is collated just after e.
- In Breton , there is no "c" but there are the ligatures "ch" and "c'h", which are collated between "b" and "d". For example: « buzhugenn, chug, c'hoar, daeraouenn » (earthworm, juice, sister, teardrop).
- In Bosnian , Croatian and Serbian and other related South Slavic languages, the five accented characters and three conjoined characters are sorted after the originals: ..., C, Č, Ć, D, DŽ, Đ, E, ..., L, LJ, M, N, NJ, O, ..., S, Š, T, ..., Z, Ž.
- In Czech and Slovak , accented vowels have secondary collating weight - compared to other letters, they are treated as their unaccented forms (A-Á, E-É-Ě, I-Í, O-Ó-Ô, U-Ú-Ů, Y-Ý), but then they are sorted after the unaccented letters (for example, the correct lexicographic order is baa, baá, báa, bab, báb, bac, bác, bač, báč). Accented consonants (the ones with Caron ) have primary collating weight and are collocated immediately after their unaccented counterparts, with exception of Ď, Ň and Ť, which have again secondary weight. CH is considered to be a separate letter and goes between H and I . In Slovak, DZ and DŽ are also considered separate letters and are positioned between Ď and E (A-Á-Ä-B-C-Č-D-Ď-DZ-DŽ-E-É…).
- In the Danish And Norwegian Alphabet s, the same extra vowels as in Swedish (see below) are also present but in a different order and with different Glyph s (..., X, Y, Z, Æ , Ø , Å ). Also, "Aa" collates as an equivalent to "Å". The Danish alphabet has traditionally seen "W" as a variant of "V", but nowadays "W" is considered a separate letter.
- In Dutch the combination IJ (representing IJ ) was formerly to be collated as Y (or sometimes, as a separate letter Y < IJ < Z), but is currently mostly collated as 2 letters (II < IJ < IK). Exceptions are phone directories; IJ is always collated as Y here because in many Dutch family names Y is used where modern spelling would require IJ. Note that a word starting with ij that is written with a capital I is also written with a capital J, for example, the town IJmuiden and the river IJssel .
- In Esperanto , consonants with Circumflex accents ( , '''ĝ''' , '''ĥ''' , '''ĵ''' , '''ŝ''' ), as well as '''ŭ''' (u with Breve ), are counted as separate letters and collated separately (c, ĉ, d, e, f, g, ĝ, h, ĥ, i, j, ĵ ... s, ŝ, t, u, ŭ, v, z).
- In Estonian õ , ä , ö and ü are considered separate letters and collate after W . Letters š , Z and ž appear in loanwords and foreign proper names only and follow the letter S in the Estonian Alphabet , which otherwise does not differ from the basic Latin alphabet.
- The Faroese Alphabet also has some of the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish extra letters, namely Æ and Ø . Furthermore, the Faroese Alphabet uses the Icelandic eth, which follows the D . Five of the six vowels A , I , O , U and Y can get accents and are after that considered separate letters. The consonants C , Q , X , W and Z are not found. Therefore the first five letters are A , Á , B , D and Ð , and the last five are V , Y , Ý , Æ , Ø
- In Filipino and other Philippine languages, the letter Ng is treated as a separate letter. It is pronounced as in sing, ping-pong, etc. By itself, it is pronounced , but in general Filipino Orthography , it is spelled as if it were two separate letters (n and g). Also, letter derivatives (such as Ñ ) immediately follow the base letter. Filipino also is written with accents and other marks, but the marks are not in very wide use (except the Tilde ). (Philippine orthography also includes spelling.)
- The Finnish Alphabet and collating rules are the same as in Swedish, except for the addition of the letters Š and Ž , which are considered variants of S and Z.
- In German letters with umlaut ( Ä , Ö , Ü ) are treated generally just like their non-umlauted versions; ß is always sorted as ss. This makes the alphabetic order Arg, Ärgerlich, Arm, Assistent, Aßlar, Assoziation. For phone directories and similar lists of names, the umlauts are to be collated like the letter combinations "ae", "oe", "ue". This makes the alphabetic order Udet, Übelacker, Uell, Ülle, Ueve, Üxküll, Uffenbach.
- The Hungarian vowels have accents, umlauts, and double accents, while consonants are written with single, double (digraphs) or triple (trigraph) characters. In collating, accented vowels are equivalent with their non-accented counterparts and double and triple characters follow their single originals. Hungarian alphabetic order is: A, Á, B, C, CS, D, DZ, DZS, E, É, F, G, GY, H, I, Í, J, K, L, LY, M, N, NY, O, Ó, Ö, Ő, P, Q, R, S, SZ, T, TY, U, Ú, Ü, Ű, V, W, X, Y, Z, ZS. (For example, the correct lexicographic order is baa, baá, bab, báb, bac, bác, bacs, bács, bad, bád, ...).
- In , Æ , Ö.
- ---Both letters were also used by Anglo-Saxon scribes who also used the Runic letter Wynn to represent /w/.
- --- Þ (called thorn; lowercase þ) is also a Runic letter.
- --- Ð (called eth; lowercase ð) is the letter D with an added stroke.
- In Lithuanian , specifically Lithuanian letters go after their Latin originals. Another change is that Y comes just before J : ... G, H, I, Į, Y, J, K...
- In Polish , specifically Polish letters derived from the Latin alphabet are collated after their originals: A, Ą, B, C, Ć, D, E, Ę, ..., L, Ł, M, N, Ń, O, Ó, P, ..., S, Ś, T, ..., Z, Ź, Ż. The digraphs for collation purposes are treated as if they were two separate letters.
- In Portuguese , the collating order is just like in English, including the three letters not native to Portuguese: 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. Digraphs and letters with diacritics are not included in the alphabet.
- In Romanian , special characters derived from the Latin alphabet are collated after their originals: A, Ă, Â, ..., I, Î, ..., S, Ş, T, Ţ, ..., Z.
- In the Swedish Alphabet , there are three extra Vowel s placed at its end (..., X, Y, Z, Å , Ä , Ö ), similar to the Danish and Norwegian alphabet, but with different glyphs and a different collating order. The letter "W" has been treated as a variant of "V", but in the 13th edition of '' Svenska Akademiens Ordlista '' (2006) "W" was considered a separate letter.
- Some languages have more complex rules: for example, Spanish treated (until 1997) "CH" and "LL" as single letters, giving an ordering of CINCO, CREDO, CHISPA and LOMO, LUZ, LLAMA. This is not true anymore since in 1997 RAE adopted the more conventional usage, and now LL is collated between LK and LM, and CH between CG and CI. The only Spanish specific collating question is Ñ (eñe) as a different letter collated after N.
- In Tatar and Turkish , there are 9 additional letters. 5 of them are vowels, paired with main alphabet vowels as hard-smooth: a-ä, o-ö, u-ü, í-i, ı-e. The four remaining are consonants: ş is sh, ç is ch, ñ is ng and ğ is gh.
- In many Turkic Languages (such as Azeri or the Jaŋalif orthography for Tatar ), there used to be the letter Gha (), which came between G and H . It is now come in disuse.
- Welsh also has complex rules: the combinations CH, DD, FF, NG, LL, PH, RH and TH are all considered single letters, and each is listed after the letter which is the first character in the combination, with the exception of NG which is listed after G. However, the situation is further complicated by these combinations not always being single letters. An example ordering is LAWR, LWCUS, LLONG, LLOM, LLONGYFARCH: the last of these words is a juxtaposition of LLON and GYFARCH, and, unlike LLONG, does not contain the letter NG.
The Unicode Collation Algorithm can be used to get any of the collation sequences described above, by tailoring its default collation table. Several such tailorings are collected in Common Locale Data Repository .
Several transcription and transliterations.
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