Occitan alphabet
The Occitan alphabet consists of the following 23 Latin letters:
The letters K, W and Y are considered foreign by Occitanians and are used only in words of foreign origin, incrementally integrated into Occitan, such as whisky, watt, Kenya. They may be included in the Occitan alphabet following the order in the international alphabet.
Letter names
The letter names are usually feminine. They may also be masculine, in which case the feminine names be nauta, ve bassa, ve dobla and i grèga become masculine be naut, be bas, ve doble and i grèc.Elision is common before a letter starting with a vowel.
Diacritics
Several diacritics serve to modify the pronunciation of the letters of the Occitan alphabet.- The grave accent _̀ found on à, è, ò, indicates stressed, close vowels.
- The acute accent _́ found on á, é, í, ó, ú, indicates stressed, open vowels.
- The diaeresis ¨ found on ï, ü, indicates that ï and ü are pronounced separately from a previous letter.
- The cedilla ¸ found under ç, indicates that ç is pronounced , not .
- The interpunct · found between two consecutive consonants: n·h and s·h and indicates a distinction between n·h and nh or s·h and sh. This is used in Gascon Occitan, which features as an allophone of. In the Middle Ages, the interpunct was common throughout Aquitania.