Sorbian alphabet

The Sorbian alphabet is based on the ISO basic Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as the acute accent and the caron, making it similar to the Czech and Polish alphabets. (This mixture is also found in the Belarusian Latin alphabet.) The standard character encoding for the Sorbian alphabet is ISO 8859-2 (Latin-2).

The alphabet is used for the Sorbian languages, although some letters are used in only one of the two languages (Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian).

Alphabet table

Upper case	HTML code	Lower case	HTML code	Name	Usual phonetic value	Other phonetic values	Comments
A		a		a	Template:IPAblink
B		b		bej	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
C		c		cej	Template:IPAblink
Č	Č	č	č	čej	Template:IPAblink
Ć	Ć	ć	ć	ćet	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
D		d		dej	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
E		e		ej	Template:IPAblink
Ě	Ě	ě	ě	jět/ět (Upper), ět (Lower)	Template:IPA
F		f		ef	Template:IPAblink
G		g		gej	Template:IPAblink
H		h		ha	Upper Template:IPAblink Lower Template:IPAblink or silent
I		i		i	Template:IPAblink
J		j		jot/jót (Upper), jot (Lower)	Template:IPAblink
K		k		ka	Template:IPAblink
Ł	Ł	ł	ł	eł	Template:IPAblink
L		l		el	Template:IPAblink
M		m		em	Template:IPAblink
N		n		en	Template:IPAblink
Ń	Ń	ń	ń	eń (Upper), ejn (Lower)	Template:IPAblink
O		o		o	Template:IPAblink
Ó	Ó	ó	ó	ót	Upper Template:IPA Lower Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink
P		p		pej	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
R		r		er	Template:IPAblink
Ř	Ř	ř	ř	eř	Template:IPAblink		Upper Sorbian only. Template:Small
Ŕ	Ŕ	ŕ	ŕ	ejŕ	Template:IPAblink		Lower Sorbian only
S		s		es	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink
Š	Š	š	š	eš	Template:IPAblink
Ś	Ś	ś	ś	śej	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink	Lower Sorbian only
T		t		tej	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
U		u		u	Template:IPAblink
W		w		wej	Upper Template:IPAblink Lower Template:IPAblink or silent	Upper Sorbian Template:IPAblink
Y		y		y	Template:IPAblink
Z		z		zet	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink
Ž	Ž	ž	ž	žet	Template:IPAblink
Ź	Ź	ź	ź	źej	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink	Lower Sorbian only (except as part of digraph dź)

An earlier version of the Lower Sorbian alphabet included the use of the letters b́ (or b’), ṕ (or p’), ḿ (or m’), ẃ (or w’) and rarely f́ (or f’) to indicate palatalized labials. These have been replaced by bj, pj, mj, wj, and fj.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sorbian orthography also includes two digraphs:

Upper case	HTML code	Lower case	HTML code	Name	Usual phonetic value	Other phonetic values
Ch		ch		cha	Upper Template:IPA word/root initially; Template:IPA otherwise Lower Template:IPA
Dź	Dź	dź	dź	dźej/dźet	Template:IPA	Template:IPA

The digraph ch follows h in alphabetical order. These letters are used in foreign words and names:

Upper case	Lower case	Name	Usual phonetic value	Other phonetic values	Substitute letter(s)
Q	q	ku	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	KW
V	v	fau	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	W
X	x	iks	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	KS

References

• Jana Šołćina, Edward Wornar: Obersorbisch im Selbststudium, Hornjoserbšćina za samostudij, Bautzen 2000, Template:ISBN, Seiten 12–15 Template:In lang
• Starosta: Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik, Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Bautzen 1999, Template:ISBN, Seiten 15–21 Template:In lang

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