Estonian alphabet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Estonian alphabet is used for writing the Estonian language and is based on the Latin alphabet, with German influence. As such, the Estonian alphabet has the letters A-umlaut (Ä), O-umlaut (Ö) and U-umlaut (Ü), which stand for the vowels [æ], [ø] and [y], respectively. Unlike the German umlauts, they are considered to be separate letters and part of the alphabet, and are alphabetized as separate letters. The most distinguishing letter in the Estonian alphabet, however, is O-tilde or Õ, which was added to the alphabet in the 19th century by Otto Wilhelm Masing and stands for the vowel [ɤ]. In addition, the alphabet also differs from the Latin alphabet by the addition of the letters S-caron (Š) and Z-caron (Ž), and by the position of Z in the alphabet: it has been moved from the end to between S and T (or Š and Ž).

Johannes Aavik insisted to replace the letter ü by y, as in Finnish Alphabet.

The full alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, Š, Z, Ž, T, U, V, W, Õ, Ä, Ö, Ü, X, Y

The oblique letters are so-called "foreign letters". F, Š, Z and Ž occur only in loanwords and foreign proper names. C, Q, W, X and Y do not occur in Estonian words, but are used in writing foreign proper names.

The alphabet is sometimes written and recited without the "foreign letters". In that case, it has 23 letters:

A, B, D, E, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, Õ, Ä, Ö, Ü

A [ɑː] B [b̥eː] C [tseː] D [d̥eː] E [eː] F [eff]
G [ɡ̊eː] H [hɑː] or [hɑʃ] I [iː] J [jotʲː] K [kɑː] L [ell]
M [emm] N [enn] O [oː] P [peː] Q [kuː] R [err] or [ærr]
S [ess] Š [ʃɑː] Z [zeː], [seː] or [tsett] Ž [ʒeː] or [ʃeː] T [teː] U [uː]
V [veː] W [kɑksisve:] Õ [ɤː] Ä [æː] Ö [øː] Ü [yː]
X [iks] Y [igrek] or [ypsilon]

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