Language/Galician/Pronunciation/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.
Once you have mastered the alphabet, you can continue your Galician learning journey by exploring other related lessons, such as Galician Vocabulary - Greetings, Galician Grammar - Give your Opinion, and Galician Vocabulary - Months of the Year. Enjoy your Galician language adventure! 😃
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) |
Notes:
- Foreign Words: Letters like 'J', 'K', 'W', and 'Y' are often included to accommodate words borrowed from other languages. J j (iota), K k (ca), W w (uve dobre), Y y (i grego)
- Abbreviations and International Symbols: These letters might also be used in acronyms, initialisms, or international symbols that are recognized globally.
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 |
Videos
Alphabet
Pronunciation of Galician
Galician vs Portuguese (How SIMILAR are they?)