Latin script letter to sound correspondence
Some letters of the Latin script represent the same sound in languages that use the Latin alphabet and have more than 100 million speakers (e.g. English, Spanish, French, German, Indonesian). Some other letters do not. Below is a selection of sounds that is represented differently.
Alphabet | /ç/ | /j/ | /k/ | /q/ | /x/ | /y/ | /ʃ/ | /ʒ/ | /ts/ | /dz/ | /tʃ/ | /dʒ/ | /ʃtʃ/ | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | ç | j | k | q | x | ʃ | ʒ | ts | dz | tʃ | dʒ | ʃtʃ | ||
ULA-1994 | c | j | k | - | x | q | y | ts | dz | tq | dy | qtq | differences to IPA minimized, c is graphically close to ç. Only larger difference is in /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. | |
ULA-2015 | q | j | k | - | x | c | y | ts | dz | tc | dy | ctc | better match with languages that use /q/ but not /ç/ | |
ULA-2016 | - | j | k | - | x | y | c | q | ts | dz | tc | dq | ctc | scientific, allows 'y' as a vowel, so words that use it as vowel in several language can be written with that sign. E.g. Xylophon |
Lojban | - | k | x | c | j | ts | dz | tc | dj | ctc | h,q,w not used; y = /ə/ | |||
English | - | y | q,c,k | - | kh | sh | zh | ch | j | shch | ng = /ŋ/ | |||
French | - | ? | qu,c,k | - | - | ch | j | ? | ? | ? | gn = /ɲ/ | |||
Spanish | - | ? | qu,k,c | j,g | ? | ? | ch | ? | ? | ñ = /ɲ/ | ||||
Portuguese | - | ? | k,q | - | x | ch,x | j,g | nh = /ɲ/ | ||||||
Italian | - | - | c,ch,qu,k | - | - | sc,sci | - | z | z | c,ci | g,gi | - | gn = /ɲ/ | |
German | ch | j | k,ck,q | - | ch | sch | j/sch | z,ts | tsch | dsch | schtsch | /ç/ and /x/ are allophones | ||
Indonesian (1972 EYD) | - | y | k | - | kh | sy | - | ? | ? | c | j | ? | ny = /ɲ/ | |
Interlingua | - | - | k,c,ch,qu | - | - | - | j | - | dj | - | x=/ks/, y=/i/ | |||
Esperanto | - | j | k | - | hx | sx | jx | c | dz | cx | gx | sxcx | ||
LFN | - | - | c | - | - | x | j | ts | dz | tx | dj | xtx | ||
Uropi | - | j | k | - | - | c | ʒ | tc | dʒ | ctc | ||||
Slovio | - | j | k | - | (h) | sx | zx | c | dz | cx | gx | wx | ||
Ido | - | y | k,q | - | - | - | j | c | x = /ks/, /ɡz/ | |||||
Novial | - | y | k | - | - | sh | j | ch | x = /ks/ | |||||
Pinyin | - | g,k | h | sh | ts | zh | /ʃ/ is actually /ʂ/; x = /ɕ/ | |||||||
Turkish | - | y | k | ş | j | ts | dz | ç | c |