Catalan orthography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Catalan-speaking world Language Grammar Phonology and orthography Institut d'Estudis Catalans Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua History History of Catalonia · Counts of Barcelona Crown of Aragon · Military history of Catalonia Catalan constitutions · Furs of Valencia Treaty of the Pyrenees · Nueva Planta decrees Geography Països Catalans Catalonia · Valencia · Balearic Islands Northern Catalonia · Franja de Ponent Andorra · L'Alguer · Carxe Government and Politics Generalitat de Catalunya Generalitat Valenciana Govern de les Illes Balears Consell General de les Valls (Andorra) Politics of Catalonia Catalan nationalism Traditions Castells · Correfoc · Falles · Sardana ·  Moros i cristians · Caganer · Tió de Nadal Botifarra · Barça · Paella · Rumba Myths and legends Arts Catalan literature · Antoni Gaudí · Modernisme La Renaixença · Noucentisme Salvador Dalí · Joan Miró · Antoni Tàpies This box: view • talk • edit

This article covers the Orthography of Catalan, a Romance language. The Catalan alphabet is adapted from the Latin alphabet.

letter	pronunciation	example
A a	/a/	sac	'sack'
B b	/b/	biga	'beam'
C c	/k/, /s/	casa, Renaixença	'house', Renaixença
D d	/d/	dalla	'scythe'
E e	/ɛ/, /e/	cec, sec	'blind', 'dry'
F f	/f/	fosc	'dark'
G g	/g/, /(d)ʑ/	gasa	'lint'
H h	Ø	haver	'possession'
I i	/i/	ric	'I laugh'
J j	/ʑ/	ajut	'help'
K k	/k/
L l	/l/ /ʎ/	pala, palla	'shovel’, 'straw'
M m	/m/	mama	'mum'
N n	/n/	mana	'he commands'
O o	/ɔ/, /o/	soc sóc	'log', 'I am'
P p	/p/	piga	'speck'
Q q	/k/	obliquar
R r	/ɾ/, /r/	cera, serra	'wax', 'saw'
S s	/s/, /z/	passar, pesar	'to pass', 'to weight'
T t	/t/	talla	'size'
U u	/u/	suc	'juice'
V v	/b/, /v/[1]	envejar	'to envy'
W w
X x	/ɕ/, /ks/, /ɡz/	xoc, expressió	'shock', 'expression'
Y y
Z z	/z/

[edit] Other conventions

Catalan also possesses digraphs:

• <ig> represents /tɕ/ after a vowel
• <ix> represents /ɕ/ after a vowel
• <tg> represents /dʑ/
• <tj> represents /tɕ/ at the ends of words and /dʑ/ otherwise
• <tx> represents /tɕ/
• <l·l> (ela geminada) represents /ll/ (distinguishing it from <ll>, which represents /ʎ/)
• <ny> represents /ɲ/

Catalan also uses the acute accent to mark stressed high vowels, the grave accent to mark stressed low vowels. If a diaeresis appears over the i or u of what would otherwise be a descending diphthong, the diphthong is broken into a hiatus :

• raïm "grape" [rəˈim]
• taüt "coffin" [təˈut]

In addition to this, ü represents /w/ between /g/ and a front vowel (which would otherwise be pronounced as a soft g as in ungüent ('ointment').

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Catalan phonology