Language/Esperanto/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Alphabet and Pronunciation in Esperanto

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Hello everybody,

In today's lesson you will learn everything about the ¨ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION¨ in Esperanto.

Feel free to edit this page by adding new words and expressions !

Good learning ! :)

The Esperanto alphabet: a b c ĉ d e f g ĝ h ĥ i j ĵ k l m n o p r s ŝ t u ŭ v z

Note that the names of the letters (used when spelling aloud, etc.) are a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, etc.

That is, the consonants get an ’o’ after them, and the name of each vowel is the sound of the vowel itself.

Note that "ŭo" is pronounced sort of like English ’wo’.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet; 28 in Esperanto.

In Esperanto there is no q, w, x, or y. In Esperanto there are 6 letters not found in English (all 6 have accent marks): ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ [all circumflexes], and ŭ [a u-breve].

The Esperanto letters ’j’ and ’ŭ’ are not vowels and can combine with real vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) to make ’vowel glides’ which must be learned as separate sounds (below).

<coce>Pronunciation Guide: Remember, in Esperanto: one letter - one sound. No exceptions.

Vowels

Vowel Sounds (accented/emphasized vowels are capitalized)

a as in Ma, father: blANka sAna grAnda vArma

e as in send, met: bEla plEna vErda pEti

i as in me, three: vIvi Ami trInki fIlo

o as in more, or: Ovo dOmo kIo nOva

u as in two, soon: Unu plUmo sUno butIko

Consonants

Consonant Sounds (mainly as in English, except:)

c pronounced ’ts’ in nests: dAnco leciOno bicIklo

ĉ pronounced ’ch’in church: ĉAmbro sandvIĉo ĉokolAdo

g pronounced ’g’ in great: sagEto gustUmi geografIo

ĝ pronounced ’g’ in George: mAnĝi lOĝi sEĝo

ĥ pronounced ’ch’in Bach: jAĥto ĥOro Eĥo

j pronounced ’y’ in yet: jEs jAro jUna

ĵ pronounced ’s’ in leisure: ĵurnAlo teatrAĵo ĵalUzo

ŝ pronounced ’sh’in shoe: ŝAti pOŝo ŝUo

ŭ is used most often in the combination ’aŭ’ or ’eŭ’ (otherwise it has a ’w’ sound, as in weather).

Remember: All sounds presented in this Pronunciation Guide are approximations. They are the closest approximations for North American English-speakers.

Vowel Glides (diphthongs). The following combinations between a vowel (a, e, o, u) and ’j’ or ’ŭ’ make one sound:

aj pronounced as ’eye’: mAjo kAj semAjno

oj pronounced as in ’boy’: knAboj vojAĝi ĝOjo

ej pronounced as in ’they’: plEj mEjlo lernEjo

uj pronounced ’oo-ee’ (quickly) tUj AnglUjo monUjo

aŭ pronounced as in ’cow’: nAUX Antaŭ ĵAUXdo

eŭ pronounced as in ’wayward’: EŭrOpo neŭtrAla EŭklIdo

In all the examples above, the vowel of the stressed (or accented) syllable has been capitalized. This follows the rule without exception that every word in Esperanto is stressed on the next-to-last syllable.

Practice

Here is a list of words (and translations) that represent sounds in Esperanto [not just those covered above]. Practice them carefully and your pronunciation will get better and better.

Some Explanations for the Alphabet and Pronunciation in Esperanto

PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH	ESPERANTO	PRONUNCIATION BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
ah	A	a
b	B	b
ts	C	ts
ch	Ĉ	tch
d	D	d
eh	E	e
f	F	f
g	G	Sempre a letra (g) como em ga / gue / gui / go / gu Obs.: nunca como em girafa / gelo (som de j)
j	Ĝ	dj
h	H	H
kh	Ĥ	H
ih	I	i
ih	J	i
zh	Ĵ	Letra (j) como em janela / jeito / jipe / jóia / jumento
k	K	k
l	L	l
m	M	m
n	N	n
oh	O	o
p	P	p
r	R	r
s	S	s
sh	Ŝ	ch
t	T	t
ou	U	u
ou	Ŭ	u
v	V	v
z	Z	z

Esperanto pronunciations are designed to be simple, though there is still an alveolar trill.

Letter	A a	B b	C c	Ĉ ĉ	D d	E e	F f	G g	Ĝ ĝ	H h	Ĥ ĥ	I i	J j	Ĵ ĵ	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	R r	S s	Ŝ ŝ	T t	U u	Ŭ ŭ	V v	Z z
IPA	a	b	t͡s	t͡ʃ	d	e	f	g	d͡ʒ	h	x	i	j	ʒ	k	l	m	n	o	p	r	s	ʃ	t	u	u̯	v	z

If you can't input the accented letters, there are two alternations : 1. add an "x" after the letter; 2. add an "h" after the letter except "u".

Esperanto keyboard software for Windows

http://zz9pza.net/tajpi/en/

Diphthong	aj	ej	oj	uj	aŭ	eŭ

Sources

https://esperanto-afriko.webs.com/kurso%20angle.pdf