Language/Galician/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation
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Revision as of 15:54, 29 May 2022 by Vincent (talk | contribs) (→Alphabet and Pronunciation in Galician)
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Galician Alphabet and Pronunciation
Hello Galician learners 😊,
In today’s lesson we are going to study how to write and pronounce the Galician alphabet. Galician is spoken mainly in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain where it is co-official with Spanish. The Galician alphabet is used to write the Galician language. You will find in the table below the different letters of its alphabet and their pronunciation.
Alphabet and Pronunciation in Galician
According to the modern and official standard, it has 23 letters and 6 digraphs, in addition to a few letters (⟨j⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨w⟩ and ⟨y⟩) used in foreign words, abbreviations and international symbols. As in Portuguese, all letters are masculine.
- Note: In medieval Galician there were also the letters: ⟨j⟩ /ʃ/, ⟨g⟩ (/ʃ/ preceding e and i), ⟨ç⟩ (/θ/; /s/ in areas with sigmatism), and the digraphs ⟨lh⟩ /ʎ/, ⟨nh⟩ /ɲ/ and ⟨ss⟩.
23 letters
Letter | Name | IPA | Phonemic values |
---|---|---|---|
A a | a | [a] | /a/ |
B b | be | [b] | /b/ |
C c | ce | [θ], [k] | /θ/ (+ e e i; /s/ in seseo zones); /k/ (+ a, o e u) |
D d | de | [d] | /d/ |
E e | e | [e], [ɛ] | /e/, /ɛ/ |
F f | efe | [f] | /f/ |
G g | gue | [g] | /ɡ/ (/x/ in gheada zones) |
H h | hache | Ø | silent |
I i | i | [i] | /i/, /j/ |
L l | ele | [l] | /l/ |
M m | eme | [m] | /m/ |
N n | ene | [n] | /n/ |
Ñ ñ | eñe | [ɲ] | /ɲ/ |
O o | o | [o], [ɔ] | /o/, /ɔ/ |
P p | pe | [p] | /p/ |
Q q | que | [k] | /k/ |
R r | erre | [ɾ], [r] | /r/, /ɾ/ |
S s | ese | [s͇] | /s/ |
T t | te | [t] | /t/ |
U u | u | [u] | /u/, /w/ |
V v | uve | [b] | /b/ |
X x | xe | [ʃ], [ks͇] | /ʃ/, /ks/ |
Z z | zeta | [θ] | /θ/ (/s/ in seseo zones) |
6 digraphs
Digraph | Name | Phonemic values |
---|---|---|
ch | ce hache | /tʃ/ |
gu | gue u | /g/ |
ll | ele dobre | /ʎ/ |
nh | ene hache | /ŋ/ |
qu | que u | /k/ |
rr | erre dobre | /r/ |
Pronunciation Equivalent in English
Galician Letter | English Approximant | Example |
A | ah | a as in apple |
B | b | b as in book |
CA / CO / CU | kah / koh / kou | c as in city before I,e,y, or as in cat elsewhere |
CE / CI | seh / sih | |
CH | ch | |
D | d | d as in day |
E | eh | e as in elephant |
F | f | f as in friend |
GA / GO / GU | gah / goh / gou | |
GE / GI | heh / hih | |
H | no sound | slient |
I | ih | I as in India |
J | zh | only in foreign words |
K | k | only in foreign words |
L | l | l as in life |
LL | lih | |
M | m | m as in many |
N | n | n as in noon |
Ñ | nih | ny as in Espanya (España) |
O | oh | o as in opera |
P | p | p as in people |
Q | k | q as in squid |
R | r | r as in Roma |
S | s | s as in smile |
T | t | t as in tomorrow |
U | ou | u as in ultimate |
V | b | v as in bath |
W | u | only in foreign words |
X | sh / ks | sh as in shy |
Y | ih | only in foreign words |
Z | s | s as in super |