Esperanto Language

Writing System

Esperanto is written with a modified version of the Latin alphabet, including six letters with diacritics: ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ and ŭ (that is, c, g, h, j, s circumflex, and u breve). The alphabet does not include the letters q, w, x, or y except in unassimilated foreign names.

The 28-letter alphabet is:

All letters are pronounced approximately as in the IPA, with the exception of c and the accented letters:

Two ASCII-compatible writing conventions are in use. These substitute digraphs for the accented letters. The original "h-convention" ( ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, u ) is based on English 'ch' and 'sh', while a more recent "x-convention" ( cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux ) is useful for alphabetic word sorting on a computer ( cx comes correctly after cu , sx after sv , etc.) as well as for simple conversion back into the standard orthography.