Polish alphabet

The Polish alphabet. Grey indicates letters not used in native words (Q, V, and X).

The Polish alphabet (Polish: Template:Lang, Template:Lang) is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography. It is based on the Latin alphabet but includes certain letters (9) with diacritics: the stroke (acute accent or bar) – Template:Lang: Template:Vr; the overdot – Template:Lang: Template:Vr; and the tail or ogonek – Template:Vr. The letters Template:Vr, Template:Vr, and Template:Vr, which are used only in foreign words, are usually absent from the Polish alphabet. Additionally, before the standardization of Polish spelling, Template:Vr was sometimes used in place of Template:Vr, and Template:Vr in place of Template:Vr.<ref>As on the picture Template:Cite web</ref>

Modified variations of the Polish alphabet are used for writing Silesian and Kashubian, whereas the Sorbian languages use a mixture of Polish and Czech orthography.

Letters

There are 32 letters in the Polish alphabet: 9 vowels and 23 consonants.

Template:Vr, Template:Vr, and Template:Vr are not used in any native Polish words and are mostly found in foreign words (such as place names) and commercial names. In loanwords they are usually replaced by Template:Vr,Template:Efn Template:Vr, and Template:Vr, respectively (as in Template:Lang 'niqab', Template:Lang 'quark', Template:Lang 'veranda', Template:Lang 'savanna', Template:Lang 'extra', Template:Lang 'oxymoron'), although some loanwords retain their original spelling (e.g., Template:Lang, Template:Lang), and in a few cases both spellings are accepted (such as Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Template:Lang or Template:Lang). In addition, they can occasionally be found in common abbreviations (e.g., Template:Lang 'priest' can be abbreviated as either Template:Vr or Template:Vr). As a result, they are sometimes included in the Polish alphabet (bringing the total number of letters in the alphabet to 35); when included, they take their usual positions from the Latin alphabet (Template:Vr after Template:Vr; Template:Vr and Template:Vr either side of Template:Vr).<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The following table lists the letters of the alphabet, their Polish names (see also Names of letters below), the Polish spelling alphabet name, the Polish phonemes which they usually represent (and rough equivalents for them), other possible pronunciations, and letter frequencies. Diacritics are shown for the sake of clarity. For more information about the sounds, see Polish phonology.

Upper case	Lower case	Polish name	Usual value	Rough English (or other) equivalent	Other values
A	a	a	Template:IPAslink	large	More frontal Template:IPAblink between palatal or palatalized consonants
Ą	ą	ą	Template:IPAslink	nasal o, as French bon (Depends on where it is in the word)	Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA; becomes Template:IPAslink before Template:IPAslink (see Nasal vowels)
B	b	be	Template:IPAslink	bed	Template:IPAblink when devoiced
C	c	ce	Template:IPAslink	pits	Template:IPAblink if voiced. For ch, ci, cz see Digraphs
Ć	ć	cie	Template:IPAslink	cheap (alveolo-palatal)	Template:IPAblink if voiced
D	d	de	Template:IPAslink	dog	Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink; Template:IPAblink when devoiced; Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink.Template:Ref For dz etc. see Digraphs
E	e	e	Template:IPAslink	bed	Template:IPAblink between palatal or palatalized consonants
Ę	ę	ę	Template:IPAslink	nasal e, as French cinq (Also depends on where it is in the word)	Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA; becomes Template:IPAslink word-finally and before Template:IPAslink (see Nasal vowels)
F	f	ef	Template:IPAslink	fingers	Template:IPAblink if voiced
G	g	gie	Template:IPAslink	go	Template:IPAblink when devoiced. For gi see Digraphs
H	h	ha	Template:IPAslink	Scots loch	Template:IPAblink if voiced, may be glottal Template:IPAblink in a small number of dialects. For ch and (c)hi see Digraphs
I	i	i	Template:IPAslink	meet	Template:IPAblink before a consonant; marks palatization of the preceding consonant before a vowel (see Spelling rules)
J	j	jot	Template:IPAslink	yes
K	k	ka	Template:IPAslink	king	Template:IPAblink if voiced. For ki see Digraphs
L	l	el	Template:IPAslink	light	May be Template:IPA instead in eastern dialects
Ł	ł	eł	Template:IPAslink	will	May be Template:IPAblink instead in eastern dialects
M	m	em	Template:IPAslink	men	Template:IPAblink before labiodental consonants
N	n	en	Template:IPAslink	not	Template:IPAblink before Template:IPA; can be Template:IPAblink before Template:IPA. For ni see Digraphs
Ń	ń	eń	Template:IPAslink	canyon (alveolo-palatal)	Can be Template:IPAblink in syllable coda
O	o	o	Template:IPAslink	(for accents without the cot-caught merger) long	Template:IPAblink between palatal or palatalized consonants
Ó	ó	ó, o z kreską, o kreskowane or u zamknięte	Template:IPAslink	boot	Template:IPAblink between palatal or palatalized consonants
P	p	pe	Template:IPAslink	spot	Template:IPAblink if voiced
(Q)	(q)	ku	Template:IPAslink	question	Only in some traditional loanwords as quasi- (where qu- is usually read as /kv/) and recent as quad, quiz (where qu- is usually read as /kw/).
R	r	er	Template:IPAslink	American English aroma	Can also sometimes be an approximant, a fricative, and – rarely – a trill. See Polish phonology. For rz see Digraphs
S	s	es	Template:IPAslink	sea	For sz, si see Digraphs
Ś	ś	eś	Template:IPAslink	sheep (alveolo-palatal)	Template:IPAblink (cf. Ź) if voiced
T	t	te	Template:IPAslink	start	Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink; Template:IPAblink if voiced; Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink.Template:Ref
U	u	u, u zwykłe or u otwarte	Template:IPAslink	boot	Template:IPAblink between palatal or palatalized consonants, sometimes Template:IPAblink after vowels
(V)	(v)	fał	Template:IPAslink	vow	Only in some traditional loanwords as varsaviana, vel, vide, recent as van, Vanuatu, vlog, some acronyms as TVP, VAT and in artistic forms, as vlepka and as a Roman numeral 5.
W	w	wu	Template:IPAslink	vow	Template:IPAblink when devoiced
(X)	(x)	iks	/ks/	fox	Only in some loanwords as xenia, also historical letter for native words prior to 19th century, e.g., xiążę, xięstwo (now książę 'prince', księstwo 'duchy'), which remains in abbreviations of these words (sometimes used x. instead of ks.), some names, as Xymena, Xawery, surnames as Xiężopolski, Axentowicz, Axer, names of some companies in Poland with -ex suffix and as a Roman numeral 10.
Y	y	igrek	Template:IPAslinkTemplate:Ref	bit
Z	z	zet	Template:IPAslink	zoo	Template:IPAblink when devoiced. For digraphs see Digraphs
Ź	ź	ziet	Template:IPAslink	vision (alveolo-palatal)	Template:IPAblink when devoiced. For dź see Digraphs
Ż	ż	żet or zet z kropką	Template:IPAslink	vision	Template:IPAblink when devoiced. For dż see Digraphs

<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Note For English speakers who end the word with a nasal vowel and not a consonant.

Template:Note Sequences Template:IPA may be pronounced as geminates Template:IPA.

Template:Note Template:IPA is sometimes transcribed phonetically as Template:Angbr IPA, though it is phonetically Template:IPA.

Template:Vr was historically used in native words prior to the 1891 spelling reform by the Academy of Learning, e.g., Template:Lang, Template:Lang (now Template:Lang 'four', Template:Lang 'pope'). Now it is used in some loanwords, e.g., Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang.

For digraphs and other rules about spelling and the corresponding pronunciations, see Polish orthography.

Names of letters

The spoken Polish names of the letters are given in the table under Letters above.

The names of the letters are not normally written out in the way shown above, except as part of certain lexicalized abbreviations, such as Pekao (or PeKaO), the name of a bank, which represents the spoken form of the abbreviation P.K.O. (for Template:Lang).

Some letters may be referred to in alternative ways, often consisting of just the sound of the letter. For example, Template:Vr may be called as it is pronounced: Template:Lang rather than Template:Lang (from 'Greek i').

When giving the spelling of words, certain letters may be said in more emphatic ways to distinguish them from other identically pronounced characters. For example, Template:Vr may be referred to as Template:Lang ('h alone') to distinguish it from Template:Vr (Template:Lang). Template:Vr may be called Template:Lang or Template:Lang ('z with an overdot') to distinguish it from Template:Vr (Template:Lang). Template:Vr may be called Template:Lang ('open u', a reference to its graphical form) or Template:Lang ('normal u') to distinguish it from Template:Vr, which is sometimes called Template:Lang ('closed u') or Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang ('dashed ó', 'dashed o', 'o with a dash').

Alphabetical order

Polish alphabetical ordering uses the order of letters as in the table under Letters above.

Note that (unlike in languages such as French, Spanish, and German) Polish letters with diacritics are treated as fully independent letters in alphabetical ordering. For example, Template:Lang comes after Template:Lang. The accented letters also have their own sections in dictionaries (words beginning with Template:Vr are not usually listed under Template:Vr).

Digraphs are not given any special treatment in alphabetical ordering. For example, Template:Vr is treated simply as Template:Vr followed by Template:Vr and not as a single letter as in Czech.

Computer encoding

There are several systems for encoding the Polish alphabet for computers. All letters of the Polish alphabet are included in Unicode (blocks Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement and Latin Extended-A), and thus Unicode-based encodings such as UTF-8 and UTF-16 can be used. The Polish alphabet is completely included in the Basic Multilingual Plane of Unicode. The standard 8-bit character encoding for the Polish alphabet is ISO 8859-2 (Latin-2), although both ISO 8859-13 (Latin-7) and ISO 8859-16 (Latin-10) encodings include glyphs of the Polish alphabet. Microsoft's format for encoding the Polish alphabet is Windows-1250.

The Polish letters which are not present in the English alphabet have the following HTML codes and Unicode codepoints:

Upper case	Ą	Ć	Ę	Ł	Ń	Ó	Ś	Ź	Ż
HTML entity	Ą Ą	Ć Ć	Ę Ę	Ł Ł	Ń Ń	Ó Ó	Ś Ś	Ź Ź	Ż Ż
Unicode	U+0104	U+0106	U+0118	U+0141	U+0143	U+00D3	U+015A	U+0179	U+017B
TexPL	129	130	134	138	139	211	145	153	155
Result	Ą	Ć	Ę	Ł	Ń	Ó	Ś	Ź	Ż

Lower case	ą	ć	ę	ł	ń	ó	ś	ź	ż
HTML entity	ą ą	ć ć	ę ę	ł ł	ń ń	ó ó	ś ś	ź ź	ż ż
Unicode	U+0105	U+0107	U+0119	U+0142	U+0144	U+00F3	U+015B	U+017A	U+017C
TexPL	161	162	166	170	171	243	145	177	185
Result	ą	ć	ę	ł	ń	ó	ś	ź	ż

For other encodings, see Polish code pages, but also Combining Diacritical Marks Unicode block.

A common test sentence containing all the Polish diacritic letters is the nonsensical Template:Lang ('Yellow the ego with/of a gusle').

See also

• Polish orthography
• Polish Braille
• Cyrillization of Polish under the Russian Empire
• Cyrillic transcriptions of Polish
• Polish manual alphabet

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Polish Alphabet & Pronunciation
• Polish Pronunciation Audio and Grammar Charts
• Online editor for typing Polish characters
• A Foreigner's Guide to the Polish Alphabet Template:Webarchive, interactive listen-along guide from Culture.pl