Esperanto/Appendix A

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^ Esperanto ^ | Appendix A: Esperanto Alphabet and Pronounciation

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Contents 1 Alfabeto (Alphabet) 1.1 Vokaloj (Vowels) 1.2 Kolacio (Collation) 1.3 Prononco (Pronunciation) 2 Literoj (Letters) 3 Diftongoj (Diphthongs)

[edit] Alfabeto (Alphabet)

The Esperanto alphabet has 28 letters. Four letters from the English alphabet aren't there: Q, W, X and Y. However, there are also six new accented letters:

Ĉ, Ĝ, Ĥ, Ĵ, Ŝ and Ŭ.

The first five have an angle-shape accent called a circumflex (^) over them, whilst the last has an accent rather like the bottom part of a circle, which is called a breve (˘).

All of the accented letters are unique to Esperanto except for ŭo (Ŭ), which also exists in Belarusian, and ĝo (Ĝ), which also exists in Aleut. Some of the accented letters may be used in transcription systems for languages that use non-Latin alphabets. (For example, ŝo (Ŝ) is used as the ISO 9:1995 transliteration of the Russian Cyrillic letter shcha (Щ).)

[edit] Vokaloj (Vowels)

As in English, five letters are vowels (A, E, I, O, U), and the rest are consonants. The letter ŭo (Ŭ) is a consonant, not a vowel.

[edit] Kolacio (Collation)

Collation in Esperanto is the same as for English, except that the accented characters are counted as separate characters and collated after their non-accented versions. Therefore, all of the letters in Esperanto, in (Esperanto) alphabetical order are:

Majuskloj (Capital letters):	A	B	C	Ĉ	D	E	F	G	Ĝ	H	Ĥ	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	R	S	Ŝ	T	U	Ŭ	V	Z
Minuskloj (Lowercase letters):	a	b	c	ĉ	d	e	f	g	ĝ	h	ĥ	i	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	r	s	ŝ	t	u	ŭ	v	z
Nomoj (Names):	a	bo	co	ĉo	do	e	fo	go	ĝo	ho	ĥo	i	jo	ko	lo	mo	no	o	po	ro	so	ŝo	to	u	ŭo	vo	zo

[edit] Prononco (Pronunciation)

Each letter in Esperanto has only one pronounciation, and no letters are silent. This means that Esperanto is pronounced just as it is spelled.

Also, each sound has only one way of being written, so it is very easy to spell Esperanto words you hear.

The technical description for these traits is that Esperanto is phonetic and orthographic.

[edit] Literoj (Letters)

Letter	Name of the Letter	Sound (IPA)	Sound (compared to English)	Example
A	a	a	a as in American father	abelo	bee
B	bo	b	b as in bee (no aspiration)	bano	bath
C	co	ʦ	ts as in cats	celo	goal
Ĉ	ĉo	ʧ	ch as in church	ĉar	because
D	do	d	d as in dozen	donaco	donation
E	e	e	e as in send or met; é as in French fiancé or e in Spanish negro	eble	maybe
F	fo	f	f as in fine	fremda	foreign
G	go	g	g as in ago	gloro	glory
Ĝ	ĝo	ʤ	j as in joke	ĝardeno	garden
H	ho	h	h as in hello	honoro	honour
Ĥ	ĥo	x	ch as in Scottish loch	ĥoro	choir
I	i	i	e as in me or ee as in bee but shorter or i as in Spanish mina	iri	to go
J	jo	j	y as in yet	juna	young
Ĵ	ĵo	ʒ	s as in measure	ĵuro	oath
K	ko	k	k as in king	kara	dear
L	lo	l	l as in lamb	longa	long
M	mo	m	m as in mother	mano	hand
N	no	n	n as in never	nova	new
O	o	o	o as in cord	odo	ode
P	po	p	p as in people; not aspired	pilko	ball
R	ro	ɾ	tapped r as in Spanish pero	rado	wheel
S	so	s	s as in since	suno	sun
Ŝ	ŝo	ʃ	sh as in sheep	ŝi	she
T	to	t	t as in tongue (not aspirated)	temo	theme
U	u	u	oo as in boot, but shorter or ou as in French fou	urbo	town
Ŭ	ŭo	w	w as in water; usually occurs in diphthongs	aŭdi	to hear
V	vo	v	v as in victory	veni	to come
Z	zo	z	z as in Brazil	zorgi	to care

[edit] Diftongoj (Diphthongs)

Digraph	Sound (IPA)	Sound (compared to English)	Example
AJ	aɪ̯	y as in by	kaj	and
AŬ	aʊ̯	ow as in how	aŭ	or
EJ	eɪ̯	ey as in hey	plej	most
EŬ	eʊ̯	ew like Elmer Fuddian Vewy (very)	Eŭropo	Europe
OJ	oɪ̯	oy as in boy	lingvoj	languages
UJ	uɪ̯	uoy as in buoy, but said in one syllable	ĉiuj	all

Finally, the stress on every word is put on the second-to-last syllable.

That's it! You can now pronounce any Esperanto word.

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^ Esperanto ^ | Appendix A: Esperanto Alphabet and Pronounciation