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The Alphabet

Letters

There are twenty-eight letters in the Esperanto alphabet. It is based on the Latin alphabet we use, with six letters wearing little hats to show their sounds are somehow different.

Aa
as in father
Bb
as in bat
Cc
as in cats
Ĉĉ
as in chat
Dd
as in door
Ee
as in date
Ff
as in food
Gg
hard, as in go
Ĝĝ
soft, as in gem
Hh
as in hat, never silent
Ĥĥ
as in German Bach or Spanish baja
Ii
as in machine
Jj
as in yet
Ĵĵ
as in azure, French jour
Kk
as in king
Ll
as in lot, never in little
Mm
as in mat
Nn
as in nut
Oo
as in open
Pp
as in pan
Rr
as in rat, but trilled
Ss
hard, as in sack
Ŝŝ
as in shack
Tt
as in top
Uu
as in lunar
Ŭŭ
as in wet
Vv
as in vase
Zz
as in zip

Vocalization

It's one sound per letter in Esperanto, so these do not vary.

The alphabet is spelled out like this:

a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo,
go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, jo, ĵo,
ko, lo, mo, no, o, po, ro,
so, ŝo, to, u, ŭo, vo, zo.

Vowels

The vowels are like those in Spanish: bajo, noche, río, hoja, usted.

There are also vowel blends called diphthongs:

aj as in ice aŭ as in now
ej as in eight eŭ as in may ooze
oj as in boy  
uj as in ruin  

The diphthong oŭ (as in known) is very rare, and those starting with ŭ occur only in foreign words: ŭato, watt; Ŭesto, the guy who made these cards.

Consonants

The consonants are mostly like those in English and other languages. However, there are some things to keep in mind.

Two other letters take getting used to:

Ĥ is made by blowing while trying to sound out "k". It's a common sound in most languages, and English had it at one time. It appears only in a handful of common words in Esperanto: ĥoro (choir), eĥo (echo), arĥivo (archive). Some words with h have alternative spellings in k: ĥemio (chemistry) is also spelt kemio.

R is well trilled with the tip of your tongue, like in German or Spanish. Failing that, the tongue-tap of the Japanese ラ and the Midwestern American English ladder or better is okay, as is the uvula trill of Parisian French and some Slavic languages. What is not okay is the semivowel of most English varieties or the a-lengthening of other English dialects.


Written by Andy West on 26 July 2009.