The Alphabets of EuropeMichael Everson
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The Alphabets of Europe uses the following geographical and geophysical definition of Europe:“Europe” extends from the Arctic and Atlantic (including Iceland and the Faroe Islands) southeastwards to the Mediterranean (including Malta and Cyprus), with its eastern and southern borders being the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, and Anatolia, inclusive of Transcaucasia.This report also includes languages found in the following areas: Anatolian Turkey, GreenlandInformation concerning the administrative units covered by this geographical definition can be found in Annex A. It is important to note that this is a geolinguistic survey. It is not a political survey. The area defined here may be seen on page xiv, “Geographical Comparisons”, in The Times Atlas of the World: comprehensive edition, 1990 (ISBN 0-7230-0346-7). |
Most Europeans speaking indigenous European languages speak Indo-European or Uralic languages, but five other language families are also represented in Europe. The intent of The Alphabets of Europe is to be neutral with respect to language; its task is to document alphabets, not to rank languages in any particular way. Accordingly, languages are listed by family and subfamily in clause 1.2.1, and alphabetically in clause 1.2.2. An asterisk (*) following a language name in the indices indicates that the language has no standard literary orthography. For some of these languages, the populations speaking them are rather large; conversely, some of the languages with standard orthographies have very small numbers of speakers. For each language, an estimated population has been given. The population estimates for European languages are best taken with a spoonful of salt. Accurate censuses have never been taken. For some communities, where the entire population is more or less identical to the number of speakers (Iceland for instance), the number given may be considered to be fairly reliable. Much of the Soviet data was collected on the basis of reasonably robust and comprehensive questionnaires involving self-identification. Sources for the population estimates are given; readers must use their own judgement as to the usefulness of this data.
In The Alphabets of Europe, all languages are considered equal insofar as their alphabets and the field of Information Technology are concerned. The fact that there are something like 90,000,000 German speakers and something like 12,000 Rutul speakers means that spell-checkers and grammar checkers might be expected to be made available for the former in the short term, but not for the latter. No particular recommendations are made with regard to such implementation. What is strongly recommended is that all the letters of the all the standard literary alphabets of Europe be representable in Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646.
Afro-Asiatic languages
Afro-Asiatic: Semitic: West: Central: Arabo-Canaanite: Arabic: Maltese
Afro-Asiatic: Semitic: West: Central: Aramaic: (Aisor)
Basque
Basque
Caucasian languages
Caucasian: South: Georgian
Caucasian: South: (Judeo-Georgian)
Caucasian: South: Svan
Caucasian: South: Zan: Laz
Caucasian: South: Zan: Mingrelian
Caucasian: North: Northwest: Ubykh *
Caucasian: North: Northwest: Abkhaz-Abaza: Abaza
Caucasian: North: Northwest: Abkhaz-Abaza: Abkhaz
Caucasian: North: Northwest: Circassian: Adyghe
Caucasian: North: Northwest: Circassian: Kabardian
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Nakh: Bats *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Nakh: Chechen-Ingush: Chechen
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Nakh: Chechen-Ingush: Ingush
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Avar
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: (Andi) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: (Botlikh) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: Godoberi *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: (Chamalal) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: (Bagulal) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: (Tindi) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: (Karata) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Andi: Akhvakh *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Dido: (Khvarshi) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Dido: Dido-Hinukh: (Hinukh) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Dido: Dido-Hinukh: (Tsez) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Dido: Bezhta-Hunzib: Bezhta *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Avaro-Andi-Dido: Dido: Bezhta-Hunzib: (Hunzib) *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lak-Dargwa: Dargwa
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lak-Dargwa: Lak
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Archi *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Khinalug
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Agul *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Budukh *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Lezgian
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: (Kryts)
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Rutul
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Tabasaran
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Tsakhur *
Caucasian: North: Northeast: Dagestan: Lezgian: Lezgian Proper: Udi
Eskimo-Aleut languages
Eskimo-Aleut: Eskimo: Inuit: Greenlandic
Indo-European languages (IE)
IE: Armenian: Armenian
IE: Indo-Iranian: Indic: (Romani)
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: East: Northeast: West Scythian: Ossetian
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: West: Northwest: Kurdish: (Kirmanji)
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: West: Northwest: Kurdish: (Judeo-Kurdish)
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: West: Northwest: Kurdish: Kurdish
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: West: Northwest: Talysh: (Talysh)
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: West: Southwest: (Judeo-Tati)
IE: Indo-Iranian: Iranian: West: Southwest: Tati
IE: Albanian: Albanian
IE: Albanian: (Arvanite)
IE: Greek: Greek
IE: Greek: (Tsakonian) *
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Latin
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: (Sardinian) *
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: Artificial: Esperanto
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: East: North: Istro-Romanian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: East: North: Romanian and Moldavian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: East: South: Arumanian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: East: South: Megleno-Romanian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Italic: Italian: (Corsican)
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Italic: Italian: Italian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Rhaeto-Romance: Friulian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Rhaeto-Romance: (Ladin)
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Rhaeto-Romance: Romansch
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Gallic: North: (Franco-Provençal)
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Gallic: North: French
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Gallic: North: (Walloon)
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Gallic: South: Occitan
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Gallic: South: Catalan
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Iberic: North: Central: (Aragonese)
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Iberic: North: Central: (Ladino)
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Iberic: North: Central: Spanish
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Iberic: North: West: Asturian
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Iberic: North: West: Galician
IE: Italic: Latino-Faliscan: Romance: Continental: West: Gallo-Iberic: Iberic: North: West: Portuguese
IE: Celtic: Insular: Goidelic: Irish Gaelic
IE: Celtic: Insular: Goidelic: Manx Gaelic
IE: Celtic: Insular: Goidelic: Scottish Gaelic
IE: Celtic: Insular: Brythonic: Breton
IE: Celtic: Insular: Brythonic: Cornish
IE: Celtic: Insular: Brythonic: Welsh
IE: Germanic: North: East: (Älvdalska)
IE: Germanic: North: East: Danish
IE: Germanic: North: East: Swedish
IE: Germanic: North: East: (Våmhusmål)
IE: Germanic: North: West: Faroese
IE: Germanic: North: West: Icelandic
IE: Germanic: North: West:
Bokmål Norwegian
IE: Germanic: North: West: Nynorsk Norwegian
IE: Germanic: West: Continental: East:
German
IE: Germanic: West: Continental: East: Luxemburgish
IE: Germanic: West: Continental: East: (Yiddish)
IE: Germanic: West: Continental: West: Dutch
IE: Germanic: West: Continental: West: (Low German)
IE: Germanic: West: North Sea: Frisian: (East Frisian)
IE: Germanic: West: North Sea: Frisian: (North Frisian)
IE: Germanic: West: North Sea: Frisian: West Frisian
IE: Germanic: West: North Sea: English: English
IE: Germanic: West: North Sea: English: Scots
IE: Balto-Slavic: Baltic: East: Latvian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Baltic: East: Lithuanian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: East: North: Belarusian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: East: North: Russian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: East: South: (Rusyn)
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: East: South: Ukrainian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: West: North: Kashubian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: West: North: Polish
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: West: Central: Lower Sorbian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: West: Central: Upper Sorbian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: West: South: Czech
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: West: South: Slovak
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: South: Old Church Slavonic
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: South: West: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: South: West: Slovenian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: South: East: Bulgarian
IE: Balto-Slavic: Slavic: South: East: Macedonian
Mongolian languages
Mongolian: East: Oirat-Khalkha: Oirat-Kalmyk: Kalmyk
Turkic languages
Turkic: Bolgar: Chuvash
Turkic: Common Turkic: South: (Crimean Turkish)
Turkic: Common Turkic: South: Gagauz
Turkic: Common Turkic: South: Turkish
Turkic: Common Turkic: South: Azerbaijani: Azerbaijani
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Bashkir
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Kumyk-Karachay: Balkar
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Kumyk-Karachay: Karachay
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Kumyk-Karachay: (Karaim)
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Kumyk-Karachay: Kumyk
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Tatar: Baraba Tatar
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Tatar: Crimean Tatar
Turkic: Common Turkic: West: Tatar: Kazan Tatar
Turkic: Common Turkic: Central: Kazakh
Turkic: Common Turkic: Central: Nogai
Uralic languages
Uralic: Samoyed: North: Tundra Nenets
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Ugric: Hungarian
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: North: Finnish
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: North: Ingrian
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: North: Karelian
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: North: (Ludian)
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: North: (Olonets)
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: North: Vepsian
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: South: Votic
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: South: Estonian
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Finnic: South: Livonian
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: Central: Lule Sami
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: Central: Northern Sami
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: East: Inari Sami
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: East: Kildin Sami
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: East: Skolt Sami
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: East: (Ter Sami) *
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: South: Southern Sami
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Finno-Samic: Samic: South: (Ume Sami) *
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Permic: Komi
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Permic: Komi-Permyak
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Permic: Udmurt
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Volgaic: Mari: Hill Mari
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Volgaic: Mari: Meadow Mari
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Volgaic: Mordvin: Erzya
Uralic: Finno-Ugric: Finno-Permic: Volgaic: Mordvin: Moksha
NOTE: To write Yiddish and Ladino, the Hebrew abjad is used as an alphabet.
Criterion 1: Letters for inclusion should be determined by definitive and authoritative reference works, if available. Some languages have official institutions governing orthography and usage (examples: L’Académie française for French, Norsk språkråd for Nynorsk Norwegian and Bokmål Norwegian. Other languages have unofficial but respected institutions governing orthography and usage (example: Oxford University Press for English). Most languages have no official institutions, but are described in dictionaries, educational materials, scholarly linguistic texts, and other kinds of documents.
NOTE: Users of this document may choose to weigh the authority for an entry hierarchically:The source references used for each repertoire are stated in the section dealing with each language. This will allow the user to make an informed judgement of the authenticity of the selection of letters included in an alphabet.
- national standard
- official institution
- unofficial institution
- dictionary
- educational material
- linguistic description
- other description
Criterion 2: The selection should be supplemented by usage in literature of well-informed writers in works published by organizations which are recognized to be particular about correct normal usage.
NOTE: A certain snobbishness with regard to notions of “good typography” or “proper spelling” is inherent in this criterion. An example would be the preference of the spelling façade over facade in English.
Criterion 3: Letters from other languages commonly used in texts of a given language may be included if, in good usage by well-informed writers, they are used naturally in the recipient language. Commonly used personal names, such as French names in Breton texts or Russian names in Tatar texts, would fall into this category. Rarely used letters, however, would normally not.
Criterion 4: Letters from loanwords in common usage within the regions in which the language is spoken may be included. (It is unlikely that this criterion would add letters not already included as the result of the previous criteria.)
Example: In Welsh, the order “A, B, C, CH, D...” indicates that, in the sources, all words beginning with CH follow all words beginning with CY and precede words beginning with DA (afon, blwyddyn, c̢n, cyngres, chwech, dydd).
The punctuation conventions in the repertoires are important. Commas separate letters of the alphabet considered unique at the first level of alphabetic ordering.
Example: In Northern Sami, the order “A, Á, B, C...” indicates that, in the sources, A and Á are considered separate letters and would have their own chapters in a dictionary (arahad, arába, áhkku, bures, cavihit, cábadit).
Letters in (parentheses) are fundamental letters normal to the alphabet of a languages, used in writing native or naturalized (non-foreign) words, but which are, in the sources, interfiled with the base letter.
Example: In Irish Gaelic, the order “A (Á), B, C, D...” indicates that, in the sources, A and Á are considered to be variants of the same letter of the alphabet, not different letters, as they are in Northern Sami (ábhar, áir, amháin, áth, bó, ceol, doras)
[Square brackets] around a letter indicate that, in the sources, a letter is a) usually listed in the alphabet but is only ever used to represent foreign names and words; b) never or rarely listed in the alphabet (in schoolbooks, for instance) but used to represent foreign names and words; or c) never listed as part of the alphabet but often used to represent foreign names and words.
Example: In Irish Gaelic, the order “A (Á) [À], B, C, D...” describes the fact that words from Scottish Gaelic (such as Gàidhlig) may appear in Irish Gaelic texts.Letters in [square brackets] often have their own place in the alphabetic order in the sources.
{Curly brackets} around a letter indicate letters which may be found in grammars or dictionaries but not in ordinary texts. Letters in curly brackets never have their own place in the alphabetic order in the sources, but are always considered variants of another letter. Examples can be found in the repertoire for Danish.
NOTE 1: The ordering presented for the repertoire of a language is descriptive, for convenience only, and should not be taken as an authoritative specification. The presentation, in general, reflects the ordering found in source documents.
NOTE 2: It is known that some languages have, formal or informally, more than one tradition of alphabetical ordering. This information is noted, with greater or lesser precision, on the relevant repertoires when it is available.
NOTE: The editor has tried to be careful, but caveat emptor should be the watchword of the implementor. In the case of Tundra Nenets, for instance, because ’ and ” are used as letters of the alphabet, it is fairly certain that « and » are used as quotation marks (as they are in Russian), even though the sources consulted do not give this information explicitly.
Example: In Svan, the letter GEORGIAN LETTER AN WITH DIAERESIS can be represented by the sequence U+10D0 and U+0308. The letter GEORGIAN LETTER ELIFI cannot (when this was originally written in 1998-11 – it has since been added to the standard) be represented by any character in the UCS.
Where a repertoire has been specified or confirmed by an authoritative source, information about that specification has been given before the bibliographical references.
NOTE: Many of the sources, especially those sources printed in the former Soviet Union, have two title pages, one in Russian and one in another language. In such a case, the primary title page information is given as the principal form and the secondary title page (or bibliographical information found elsewhere in the work) is given either in parentheses (for the author’s name) or following an equals sign = (for the title). An example of this can be found on the page for Abaza.
The following countries and self-governing dependencies: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan (including the autonomous republic of Naxçivan), Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, the Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland (including Åland), France, Georgia (including the autonomous republics of Abkhazia and Ajaria and the Autonomous Region of South Ossetia), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey (excluding Anatolia), Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the Vatican City, Yugoslavia (Crna Gora, Srbija, Kosovo-Metohija, and Vojvodina).
The following Republics in the Russian Federation: Adygea, Baškortostan, Čečenija, Čuvašija, Dagestan, Ingušetija, Kabardino-Balkarija, Kalmykija, Karačaj-Čerkesija, Karelija, Komi, Mari-El, [Mordvinija,] Severnaja Osetija, Tatarstan, Udmurtija.
The following oblasts in the Russian Federation: Arkhangelʹsk (including the Nenets Autonomous Okrug), Astrahanʹ, Belgorod, Brjansk, Ivanovo, Jaroslavlʹ, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kirov, Kostroma, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Moskva, Murmansk, Nižnij Novgorod, Novgorod, Orël, Orenburg, Penza, Permʹ (including the Komi-Permjak Autonomous Okrug), Pskov, Rostov, Ryazanʹ, Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Tambov, Tula, Tverʹ, Ulʹjanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronež.
The following krais in the Russian Federation: Krasnodar, Stavropolʹ.
Armenian Sign Language. Survey needed.
Austrian Sign Language. Some official use. Belgian Sign Language. Offical use. British Sign Language. Official use. Bulgarian Sign Language. Official use. Catalonian Sign Language. Survey needed. Czech Sign Language. Official use. Danish Sign Language. Official use. Dutch Sign Language. Some official use. Finnish Sign Language. Official use. French Sign Language. Official use. German Sign Language. Official use. Greek Sign Language. Some official use? Icelandic Sign Language. Official use. Irish Sign Language. Some official use. Italian Sign Language. Little official use? Latvian Sign Language. Survey needed. Lithuanian Sign Language. Survey needed. | Lyons Sign Language. Survey needed.
Maltese Sign Language. Survey needed. Monastic Sign Language. Norwegian Sign Language. Official use. Polish Sign Language. Official use. Portuguese Sign Language. Some official use? Romanian Sign Language. Survey needed. Russian Sign Language. Official use. Scandinavian Pidgin Sign Language. Serbian Sign Language. Official use. Slovakian Sign Language. Survey needed. Slovenian Sign Language. Survey needed. Spanish Sign Language. Official use. Swedish Sign Language. Official use. Swiss-French Sign Language. Survey needed. Swiss-German Sign Language. Survey needed. Ukrainian Sign Language. Survey needed. |
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