Occitan alphabet

The Occitan alphabet consists of the following 23 Latin letters:

The letters K, W and Y are considered foreign by Occitanians and are used only in words of foreign origin, incrementally integrated into Occitan, such as whisky, watt, Kenya. They may be included in the Occitan alphabet following the order in the international alphabet.

Letter names

The letter names are usually feminine. They may also be masculine, in which case the feminine names (B), (V), (W) and (Y) become masculine , , and .

Elision is common before a letter starting with a vowel.

Diacritics

Several diacritics serve to modify the pronunciation of the letters of the Occitan alphabet.

• The grave accent () _̀ found on à, è, ò, indicates stressed, close vowels.
• The acute accent () _́ found on á, é, í, ó, ú, indicates stressed, open vowels.
• The diaeresis () ¨ found on ï, ü, indicates that ï and ü are pronounced separately from a previous letter.
• The cedilla () ¸ found under ç, indicates that ç is pronounced [s], not [k].
• The interpunct () · found between two consecutive consonants: n·h and s·h and indicates a distinction between n·h and nh or s·h and sh. This is used in Gascon Occitan, which features as an allophone of . In the Middle Ages, the interpunct was common throughout Aquitania (see Old Occitan).

The diacritics are required on the capitals. For example: , , , , , .

Sound-to-spelling correspondences

Unless noted, regional IPA values are the same as Standard Occitan. Despite being listed as dialect of Occitan, Gascon are listed as separate language here and it is excluded from this list.

Consonants

Vowels

See also

• Occitan conjugation
• Occitan language
• Occitan phonology

References

External links

• Omniglot
• http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Occitan/Grammar/Occitan-Alphabet.html