Language/Esperanto/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Alphabet and Pronunciation in Esperanto

Hello everybody,

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

Feel free to edit this page if you think it can be improved!

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).

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.

Diphthongs

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.

Esperanto	Translation
Anglujo	England
lernejo	school
antaŭ	before
majo	May
aĉeti	to buy
manĝi	to eat
biciklo	bicycle
mejlo	mile
ĉambro	room
monujo	purse
ĉokolado	chocolate
neŭtrala	neutral
danco	dance
ovo	egg
domo	house
plej	most
eĥo	echo
plena	full
Eŭropo	Europe
poŝo	pocket
Eŭklido	Euclid
sageto	dart
sandviĉo	sandwich
gustumi	to taste
seĝo	seat, chair
ĝojo	joy
suno	sun
ĥoro	choir
ŝati	to like
jaĥto	yacht
ŝuo	shoe
juna	young
teatraĵo	(theatrical) play
ĵaluzo	jealousy
tuj	immediately
ĵaŭdo	Thursday
vojaĝi	to travel
ĵurnalo	newspaper

Pronunciation in different languages

ESPERANTO	PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH	PRONUNCIATION BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
A	ah	a
B	b	b
C	ts	ts
Ĉ	ch	tch
D	d	d
E	eh	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)
Ĝ	j	dj
H	h	H
Ĥ	kh	H
I	ih	i
J	ih	i
Ĵ	zh	Letra (j) como em janela / jeito / jipe / jóia / jumento
K	k	k
L	l	l
M	m	m
N	n	n
O	oh	o
P	p	p
R	r	r
S	s	s
Ŝ	sh	ch
T	t	t
U	ou	u
Ŭ	ou	u
V	v	v
Z	z	z

Letter Pronunciation and IPA

Letters

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

Diphthong

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".

Diphthong	aj	ej	oj	uj	aŭ	eŭ

Keyboards

Online Keyboards

• https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/esperanto.htm

• https://esperanto.typeit.org/

Install on Windows

Esperanto keyboard software to install for Windows

• http://zz9pza.net/tajpi/en/

Sources

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