View source for Latin-script alphabet

{{Short description|Alphabet using Latin letters}}
{{for|the Latin alphabet as used for the Latin language|Latin alphabet}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = February 2019}}
{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2021}}
A '''Latin-script alphabet''' ('''Latin alphabet''' or '''Roman alphabet''') is an [[alphabet]] that uses [[Letter (alphabet)|letters]] of the [[Latin script]]. The 21-letter [[Old Latin alphabet|archaic Latin alphabet]] and the 23-letter [[classical Latin alphabet]] belong to the oldest of this group.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Latin alphabet {{!}} Definition, Description, History, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-alphabet|access-date=2021-01-08|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> The 26-letter modern [[Latin alphabet]] is the newest of this group.

== 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 alphabet]]s 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:

* [[diacritic]]s could be added to existing letters; 
* two letters could be fused together into [[ligature (typography)|ligatures]]; 
* additional letters could be inserted; or 
* pairs or triplets of letters could be treated as units ([[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] and [[Trigraph (orthography)|trigraphs]]).

These often were given a place in the alphabet by defining an [[collation|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 ===
{{main|List of Latin-script alphabets}}
Coverage of the letters of the [[ISO basic Latin alphabet]] can be
* complete
* partial
and additional letters can be
* absent
* present, either as
** letters with diacritics (e.g. {{angbr|Å å}} in the [[Danish alphabet|Danish]], [[Norwegian alphabet|Norwegian]] and [[Swedish alphabet|Swedish]] alphabets)
** ligatures (e. g. {{angbr|Æ æ}} in Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic)
** new letter forms (e.g. {{angbr|Ə ə}} in the [[Azerbaijani alphabet]])

=== 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 alphabet|Danish]], [[Norwegian alphabet|Norwegian]], [[Swedish alphabet|Swedish]], and [[Finnish alphabet|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.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; table-layout:fixed"
|+Sound values of letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet in IPA and various Latin-script languages
![[Lowercase letter|Lowercase letter to Latin Alphabet]]
![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
!IPA for [[Latin_alphabet#Classical_Latin_alphabet|Classical Latin Alphabet]]
!IPA for [[English Alphabet]]
!IPA for [[French Alphabet]] {{Efn|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}}
!IPA for [[Spanish Alphabet]] {{Efn|The Spanish alphabet has letters with diacritics: á, é, í, ó, ú, and ñ (ñ is considered a separate letter)}}
!IPA for [[Malay orthography|Malay Orthography]]
!IPA for [[Turkish alphabet|Turkish Alphabet]] {{Efn|The Turkish alphabet has additional letters: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü (all are separate letters)}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[a]]
|{{IPAlink|a}}, {{IPAlink|aː}}
|eɪ, {{IPA link|æ}}, {{IPA link|ɑː}}
| colspan="4" |{{IPA link|a}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[b]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPAlink|b}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[c]]
|{{IPAlink|k}}
| colspan="2" |{{IPA link|k}}, {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|k}}, {{IPA link|θ}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}
| {{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[d]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPAlink|d}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[e]]
|{{IPA link|e}}, {{IPAlink|eː}}
|{{IPA link|iː}}, {{IPA link|ɛ}}
|{{IPA link|ə}}, {{IPA link|ɛ}}
|{{IPA link|e}}
|{{IPA link|e}}, {{IPA link|ə}}
|{{IPA link|e}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[f]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPAlink|f}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[g]]
|{{IPA link|g}}
|{{IPA link|g}}, {{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}
|{{IPA link|g}}, {{IPA link|ʒ}}
|{{IPA link|g}}, {{IPA link|x}}
|{{IPA link|g}}
|{{IPA link|g}}, {{IPA link|ɟ}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[h]]
| {{IPAlink|h}}
| {{IPAlink|h}}, {{IPA link|∅}}
| {{n/a|(silent)}}
| {{n/a|(silent)}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|h}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[i]]
|{{IPA link|i}}, {{IPAlink|iː}}, {{IPA link|j}}
|aɪ, {{IPA link|ɪ}}
| colspan="4" |{{IPAlink|i}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[j]]
| {{n/a|(not used)}}
|{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}
|{{IPA link|ʒ}}
|{{IPA link|x}}
|{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}
|{{IPA link|ʒ}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[k]]
|{{IPA link|k}}
|{{IPA link|k}}, {{IPA link|∅}}
| colspan="2" |{{IPA link|k}}
|{{IPA link|k}}, {{IPA link|ʔ}}
|{{IPA link|k}}, {{IPA link|c}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[l]]
| colspan="5" |{{IPA link|l}}
|{{IPA link|l}}, {{IPA link|ɫ}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[m]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPA link|m}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[n]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPA link|n}}, {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[o]]
| {{IPA link|o}}, {{IPAlink|oː}}
| oʊ, {{IPA link|ɒ}}
| {{IPA link|ɔ}}, {{IPA link|o}}
| colspan="3" | {{IPA link|o}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[p]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPAlink|p}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[q]]
| colspan="5" |{{IPA link|k}}
| {{n/a|(not used)}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[r]]
| {{IPA link|r}} 
| {{IPA link|ɹ}}
| {{IPA link|ʁ}}
| {{IPA link|r}}, {{IPA link|ɾ}}
| {{IPA link|r}}
| {{IPA link|ɾ}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[s]]
| {{IPA link|s}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|s}}, {{IPA link|z}}
| colspan="3" | {{IPA link|s}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[t]]
| colspan="6" |{{IPAlink|t}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[u]]
| {{n/a|(not used)}}
| juː, {{IPAlink|ʌ}}, {{IPAlink|ʊ}}, {{IPAlink|uː}}
| {{IPAlink|y}}
| colspan="3" | {{IPAlink|u}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[v]]
| {{IPAlink|u}}, {{IPAlink|uː}}, {{IPAlink|w}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|v}}
| {{IPAlink|b}}
| colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|v}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[w]]
| {{n/a|(not used)}}
| {{IPAlink|w}}
| {{IPAlink|w}}, {{IPAlink|v}}
| {{IPAlink|w}}, {{IPAlink|b}}
| {{IPAlink|w}}
| {{n/a|(not used)}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[x]]
| ks
| ks, {{IPAlink|z}}
| ks
| ks, {{IPAlink|s}}, {{IPAlink|x}}
| ks
| {{n/a|(not used)}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[y]]
| {{IPAlink|y}}, {{IPAlink|yː}}
| aɪ, {{IPAlink|iː}}, {{IPAlink|ɪ}}, {{IPAlink|j}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|i}}, {{IPAlink|j}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|j}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[z]]
| colspan="3" |{{IPAlink|z}}
| {{IPAlink|θ}}~{{IPAlink|s}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|z}}
|}

{{notelist}}

== Names of letters ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Names of letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet in various Latin-script languages

|-
! style="text-align:center" colspan="2" | [[Lower case|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]]

|-
! style="text-align:center" rowspan="3" | [[Latin_alphabet#Classical_Latin_alphabet|Classical Latin]]
! style="text-align:left" | Written (majus)
| {{sm|á}} || {{sm|bé}} || {{sm|cé}} || {{sm|dé}} || {{sm|é}} || {{sm|ef}} || {{sm|gé}} || {{sm|há}} || colspan="2" | {{sm|í}} || {{sm|ká}} || {{sm|el}} || {{sm|em}} || {{sm|en}} || {{sm|ó}} || {{sm|pé}} || {{sm|q}}{{sm|v́}} || {{sm|er}} || {{sm|es}} || {{sm|té}} || colspan="2" | {{sm|v́}} || {{n/a}} || {{sm|ix}} || {{sm|í graeca}} || {{sm|zéta}}
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Written (modern)
| ''ā'' || ''bē'' || ''cē'' || ''dē'' || ''ē'' || ''ef'' || ''gē'' || ''hā'' || colspan="2" | ''ī'' || ''kā'' || ''el'' || ''em'' || ''en'' || ''ō'' || ''pē'' || ''qū'' || ''er'' || ''es'' || ''tē'' || colspan="2" | ''ū'' || {{n/a}} || ''ix'' || {{nowrap|''ī Graeca''}} || ''zēta''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Pronunciation ([[Help:IPA/Latin|IPA]])
| {{IPA|aː}} || {{IPA|beː}} || {{IPA|keː}} || {{IPA|deː}} || {{IPA|eː}} || {{IPA|ɛf}} || {{IPA|ɡeː}} || {{IPA|haː}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|iː}} || {{IPA|kaː}} || {{IPA|ɛl}} || {{IPA|ɛm}} || {{IPA|ɛn}} || {{IPA|oː}} || {{IPA|peː}} || {{IPA|kuː}} || {{IPA|ɛr}} || {{IPA|ɛs}} || {{IPA|teː}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|uː}} || {{n/a}} || {{IPA|ɪks}}|| {{IPA|iː&nbsp;ˈɡraɪka}} || {{IPA|ˈdzeːta}}

|-
! rowspan="2" | [[English_alphabet|English]]
! style="text-align:left" | Written
| a || bee || cee || dee || e || ef, eff || ɡee || aitch, haitch || i || jay || kay || el || em || en || o || pee || cue || ar || ess || tee || u || vee || double-u || ex || wye || zed, zee
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Pronunciation ([[Help:IPA/English|IPA]])
| {{IPA|/eɪ/}} || {{IPA|/bi/}} || {{IPA|/siː/}} || {{IPA|/diː/}} || {{IPA|/iː/}} || {{IPA|/ɛf/}} || {{IPA|/dʒiː/}} || {{IPA|/eɪtʃ/}}, {{IPA|/heɪtʃ/}} || {{IPA|/aɪ/}} || {{IPA|/dʒeɪ/}} || {{IPA|/keɪ/}} || {{IPA|/el/}} || {{IPA|/em/}} || {{IPA|/en/}} || {{IPA|/oʊ/}} || {{IPA|/piː/}} || {{IPA|/kjuː/}} || {{IPA|/ɑːr/}} || {{IPA|/ɛs/}} || {{IPA|/tiː/}} || {{IPA|/juː/}} || {{IPA|/viː/}} || {{IPA|/ˈdʌbəl.juː/}} || {{IPA|/ɛks/}} || {{IPA|/waɪ/}} || {{IPA|/zɛd/}}, {{IPA|/ziː/}}

|-
! style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | [[French_alphabet|French]]
! style="text-align:left" | Written
| a || bé || cé || dé || e || effe || gé || ache || i || ji || ka || elle || emme || enne || o || pé || qu || erre || esse || té || u || vé || double vé || ixe || i grec || zède
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Pronunciation ([[Help:IPA/French|IPA]])
| {{IPA|/a/}} || {{IPA|/be/}} || {{IPA|/se/}} || {{IPA|/de/}} || {{IPA|/ə/}} || {{IPA|/ɛf/}} || {{IPA|/ʒe/}} || {{IPA|/aʃ/}} || {{IPA|/i/}} || {{IPA|/ʒi/}} || {{IPA|/ka/}} || {{IPA|/ɛl/}} || {{IPA|/ɛm/}} || {{IPA|/ɛn/}} || {{IPA|/o/}} || {{IPA|/pe/}} || {{IPA|/ky/}} || {{IPA|/ɛʁ/}} || {{IPA|/ɛs/}} || {{IPA|/te/}} || {{IPA|/y/}} || {{IPA|/ve/}} || {{IPA|/dubləve/}} || {{IPA|/iks/}} || {{IPA|/iɡʁɛk/}} || {{IPA|/zed/}}

|-
! colspan="2" | [[Spanish_orthography#Alphabet_in_Spanish|Spanish]]<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ortografía de la lengua española (2010) |publisher=Real Academia Española y Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. |pages=63}}</ref>
|''a''|| style="width:80px"|''be, be larga, be alta'' ||''ce''||''de''||''e''||''efe''||''ge''||''hache''||''i''||''jota''||''ka''||''ele''||''eme''||''ene''||''o''||''pe''||''cu''||''erre''||''ese''||''te''||''u''|| style="width:80px"|''uve, ve, ve corta, ve baja'' || style="width:80px"|''uve doble, ve doble, doble ve, doble u'' ||''equis''|| style="width:80px"|''ye, i griega'' ||''zeta''
|-

|-
! style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | [[Malay_orthography#Letter_names_and_pronunciations|Malay]] (Indonesia)
! style="text-align:left" | Written
| ''a'' || ''bé'' || ''cé'' || ''dé'' || ''é'' || ''éf'' || ''gé'' || ''ha'' || ''i'' || ''jé'' || ''ka'' || ''él'' || ''ém'' || ''én'' || ''o'' || ''pé'' || ''ki'' || ''ér'' || ''és'' || ''té'' || ''u'' || ''vé'' || ''wé'' || ''éks'' || ''yé'' || ''zét''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Pronunciation (IPA)
| {{IPA|/a/}} || {{IPA|/be/}} || {{IPA|/t͡ʃe/}} || {{IPA|/de/}} || {{IPA|/e/}} || {{IPA|/ef/}} || {{IPA|/ge/}} || {{IPA|/ha/}} || {{IPA|/i/}} || {{IPA|/d͡ʒe/}} || {{IPA|/ka/}} || {{IPA|/el/}} || {{IPA|/em/}} || {{IPA|/en/}} || {{IPA|/o/}} || {{IPA|/pe/}} || {{IPA|/ki/}} || {{IPA|/er/}} || {{IPA|/es/}} || {{IPA|/te/}} || {{IPA|/u/}} || {{IPA|/ve/}}, {{IPA|/fe/}} || {{IPA|/we/}} || {{IPA|/eks/}} || {{IPA|/je/}} || {{IPA|/zet/}}

|-
! style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | [[Malay_orthography#Letter_names_and_pronunciations|Malay]] (Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore)
! style="text-align:left" | Written
| ''e'' || ''bi'' || ''si'' || ''di'' || ''i'' || ''éf'' || ''ji'' || ''héc'' || ''ay'' || ''jé'' || ''ké'' || ''él'' || ''ém'' || ''én'' || ''o'' || ''pi'' || ''kiu'' || ''ar'' || ''és'' || ''ti'' || ''yu'' || ''vi'' || ''dabel yu'' || ''éks'' || ''way'' || ''zet''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Pronunciation (IPA)
| {{IPA|/e/}} || {{IPA|/bi/}} || {{IPA|/si/}} || {{IPA|/di/}} || {{IPA|/i/}} || {{IPA|/ef/}} || {{IPA|/d͡ʒi/}} || {{IPA|/het͡ʃ/}} || {{IPA|/i/}} || {{IPA|/d͡ʒe/}} || {{IPA|/ke/}} || {{IPA|/el/}} || {{IPA|/em/}} || {{IPA|/en/}} || {{IPA|/o/}} || {{IPA|/pe/}} || {{IPA|/qiu/}}, {{IPA|/qju/}} || {{IPA|/ar/}}, {{IPA|/aː/}} || {{IPA|/es/}} || {{IPA|/ti/}} || {{IPA|/ju/}} || {{IPA|/vi/}} || {{IPA|/dabəlˈju/}} || {{IPA|/eks/}} || {{IPA|/wai̯/}} || {{IPA|/zed/}}
|-
! style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | [[Turkish alphabet|Turkish]]
! style="text-align:left" | Written
| a || be || ce || de || e || fe || ge || he, ha || i || je || ke, ka || le || me || ne || o || pe || kû, kü || re || se || te || u || ve || çift ve || iks || ye || ze
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Pronunciation (IPA)
| {{IPA|/aː/}} || {{IPA|/beː/}} || {{IPA|/d͡ʒeː/}} || {{IPA|/deː/}} || {{IPA|/eː/}} || {{IPA|/feː/}} || {{IPA|/ɟeː/}} || {{IPA|/heː/, /haː/}} || {{IPA|/iː/}} || {{IPA|/ʒeː/}} || {{IPA|/ceː/, /kaː/}} || {{IPA|/leː/}} || {{IPA|/meː/}} || {{IPA|/neː/}} || {{IPA|/oː/}} || {{IPA|/peː/}} || {{IPA|/cuː/, /cyː/}} || {{IPA|/ɾeː/}} || {{IPA|/seː/}} || {{IPA|/teː/}} || {{IPA|/uː/}} || {{IPA|/veː/}} || {{IPA|/t͡ʃift veː/}} || {{IPA|/ics/}} || {{IPA|/jeː/}} || {{IPA|/zeː/}}
<!-- Copyable line templates
|-
| 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
|-
| {{IPA|/a/}} || {{IPA|/b/}} || {{IPA|/c/}} || {{IPA|/d/}} || {{IPA|/e/}} || {{IPA|/f/}} || {{IPA|/g/}} || {{IPA|/h/}} || {{IPA|/i/}} || {{IPA|/j/}} || {{IPA|/k/}} || {{IPA|/l/}} || {{IPA|/m/}} || {{IPA|/n/}} || {{IPA|/o/}} || {{IPA|/p/}} || {{IPA|/q/}} || {{IPA|/r/}} || {{IPA|/s/}} || {{IPA|/t/}} || {{IPA|/u/}} || {{IPA|/v/}} || {{IPA|/w/}} || {{IPA|/x/}} || {{IPA|/y/}} || {{IPA|/z/}}
-->
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Latin_script/alphabets Appendix:Latin script/alphabets at Wiktionary]

{{Latin script}}

[[Category:Latin alphabets| ]]