Spanish alphabet
The alphabet (span. Alfabeto or abecedario ), with which the spanish language (span. Español or castellano ) is written, consists of 27 letters. In addition to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet , it contains the letter ñ (n with tilde ), which is placed between n and o.
There are also five digraphs and other special characters that are not part of the alphabet.
alphabet
Today's definition
According to the current definition of the Real Academia Española, the Spanish alphabet consists of 27 letters:
| Letter | Surname |
Pronunciation of the name (standard Spanish variety) |
|---|---|---|
| a, A | a | [ a ] |
| b, b | be - also be larga, be grande, be alta | [ be ] |
| c, c | ce | [ θe ] |
| d, D | de | [ de ] |
| e, E | e | [ e ] |
| f, F | efe | [ 'efe ] |
| g, G | ge | [ xe ] |
| h, H | hache | [ 'aʧe ] |
| i, i | i - also i latina | [ i ] |
| j, j | iota | [ 'xota ] |
| k, k | ka | [ ka ] |
| l, L | ele | [ 'ele ] |
| m, M | eme | [ 'eme ] |
| n, N | ene | [ 'ene ] |
| ñ , Ñ | eñe | [ 'eɲe ] |
| o, o | O | [ o ] |
| p, p | pe | [ pe ] |
| q, Q | cu | [ ku ] |
| r, r | ere - earlier also ere | [ 'ere ] |
| s, S | ese | [ 'ese ] |
| t, t | te | [ te ] |
| u, u | u | [ u ] |
| v, V | uve - also ve, ve corta, ve pequeña, ve baja, ve chica, ve chiquita | [ 'outside ] |
| w, W | uve doble - also ve doble, doble uve, doble ve, doble u | [ 'uβe' ðoβle ] |
| x, X | equis | [ 'ekis ] |
| y, y | ye - also i griega | [ je ] or [ ʝe ], [ i'ɣɾjeɣa ] |
| z, z | zeta - formerly also ceta, ceda, zeda | [ 'θeta ] |
Earlier definitions
In the past, ch and ll were also valued as letters and counted as part of the alphabet, which consequently contained 29 letters. This has been true since the publication of the 2nd edition of the Ortografía de la Lengua Castellana in 1754. From 1803 (4th edition of the Diccionario de la lengua española ) to 1994 ch and ll were classified as follows:
- The letter ch (name che , pronunciation [ ʧe ]) was placed between c and d, e.g. B. stood chico after cubo .
- The letter ll (name elle , pronunciation [ 'eʎe ]) was placed between l and m, e.g. B. stood llama after lobo .
At the 10th Congress of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española , which took place in Madrid in 1994, the alphabetical order that is still valid today was introduced:
- Words with ch are classified like other words with c, e.g. B. stands chico in front of cubo .
- Words with ll are classified like other words with l, e.g. B. is llama before lobo .
This innovation corresponded to an approximation of the handling of other Latin alphabets . For the time being, however, ch and ll were still used as letters and as components of the alphabet. It was only in 2010 that they were officially excluded from the alphabet.
Sometimes rr (name erh doble , "double r") was also treated as part of the alphabet and classified there after r. However, the Real Academia Española never recognized the double r as a letter or part of the alphabet.
In the Spanish Scrabble edition there is not only the game piece Ñ, but also the game pieces CH, LL and RR. On the other hand, there are no pieces for the rarely used single letters K and W.
Notes on individual letters
b and v
The letters b and v are pronounced the same as [ b ].
k and w
The letters k and w appear rarely in Spanish and practically only in foreign words, e.g. B. kamikaze , kermés (German: Kirmes), kilómetro , kiwi .
Occasionally the k is used to deliberately misspellings. So z. For example, in the squatter scene, kasa okupa is often written for “occupied house” instead of casa ocupa .
Digraphs
There are five digraphs in Spanish spelling : ch , ll, rr, as well as gu and qu . In the past, ch and ll were part of the alphabet. The two digraphs gu and qu are positional spellings for the sounds [ g ] and [ k ].
The evaluation of the double-r as a digraph (or the tendency to even regard the double-r as an independent letter) is due to the fact that it is always pronounced strongly rolled , while the simple r is often only spoken with a single flick of the tongue. The differentiated spelling and pronunciation can change the meaning (e.g. pera = "pear", perra = "bitch"). However, the simple r can also be pronounced strongly rolled depending on the position, for example at the beginning of a word.
Apart from the digraphs ll and rr , only cc and nn appear as doubled consonants in Spanish spelling . Double consonants found in other languages, such as B. ss in interesting or tt in assassination appear regularly as single consonants in Spanish: interesante, atentado .
Likewise, vowels only appear twice in a row in exceptional cases, e.g. B. in the verb creer (stem cre- + infinitive ending -er ). Since Spanish does not differentiate between long and short vowels, unlike in German, no expansion or shortening signs are required.
Other special characters
Acute
The acute signs are used to denote the stress (see word stress in the Spanish language ).
If no vowel is accented in a word , the penultimate syllable is always emphasized in Spanish for words ending in a vowel, n or s , whereas the last syllable is stressed for words ending in another consonant. The vowels i and u form diphthongs when they meet other vowels; these compounds then count as just one syllable.
Examples (the vowel marked in bold is stressed): bu e no , Esp a ña , españ o l , Madr i d , Ast u rias
If another syllable is stressed in a word deviating from these rules, the stressed vowel must be given an acute accent.
Examples: situaci ó n , kil ó metro , Per ú
If a sequence of one of the "weak" vowels (i, u) and one of the "strong" vowels (a, e, o) is not pronounced as a diphthong , but the "weak" vowel is in its own stressed syllable, it becomes this marked with an acute.
Examples: Mar í a , Andaluc í a , pa í s , Ra ú l ; on the other hand: Val e ncia
In addition, question words always have the acute:
- ¿Qu é ? = what?
- ¿Qui é n? = who?
- ¿D ó nde? = where?
A few short words are distinguished by the acute:
- s í = yes, s i = if
- s é = I know, s e = (pronoun)
There are also special cases:
The Spanish word for "or" is "o". In order not to confuse “2 or 3” with the number 203, “2 ó 3” is written. (On the other hand: “7 u 8”, because “or” before a word that starts with o or ho (here: ocho) becomes “u” in Spanish).
A maximum of one vowel can have an accent in each word.
Trema
The u is not pronounced in the letter combinations gue , gui , que and qui . In order to enforce the pronunciation of individual words ( diaries ), the u is provided with a trema , i.e. two points: ü . This is not to be confused with the German umlaut ü .
Example: el pingüino
and
Question sentences and parts of sentences are enclosed with " ¿ " and "?", Exclamation sentences and parts of sentences with " ¡ " and "!":
- El español es muy fácil, ¿verdad? - ¡Por supuesto!
- ("Spanish is very easy, isn't it? - Absolutely!")
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Real Academia Española: Exclusión de ch y ll del abecedario
- ↑ a b Real Academia Española: Un solo nombre para cada letra
- ↑ a b c d e Real Academia Española (ed.), Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, 1st edition (2005), keyword abecedario
- ↑ a b c Real Academia Española, Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ed.): Ortografía de la lengua española (2010), p. 64 f. Quoted by EJ Isava: Sobre la exclusión de los signos “ch” y “ll” del abecedario español in the online journal Español al Día , October 14, 2014.
- ↑ Cf. Justo Fernández López (editor), Diccionario de lingüística español y alemán , keyword Alfabeto español hispanoteca.eu