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Lesson One — The Esperanto Alphabet

The Esperanto alphabet has 28 letters.  They are the same as our 26 letters, omitting Q, W, X, and Y, and adding six modified letters, Ĉ, Ĝ, Ĥ, Ĵ, Ŝ, and Ŭ.  Here are their pronunciations:

A like A in father
B like B in bet
C like Z in Mozart, never like S or K This is pronounced something like English TS, but the two sounds are not split between syllables.  For example paco (peace) sounds somewhat like “POT so”, but should actually be pronounced more like “PA tso”.  This sound is rare in English, but does occur occasionally; most people pronounce “Mozart” and “pizza” with the correct Esperanto C-sound.
Ĉ like C in cello
D like D in dental
E like E in bench
F like F in find
G like G in gain This is the “hard” sound of English G in “go”.
Ĝ like G in general This is the “soft” sound of English G in “genuine”.
H like H in heavy
Ĥ like J in jalapeño, or CH in Bach Something like the English H, but rougher, like the Scottish CH in “loch” or Spanish J.
I like I in rink
J like J in hallelujah Like English Y, or exactly like a German J.  After a vowel, it forms a diphthong, AJ, EJ, OJ, or UJ.  AJ sounds like IE in “tie”; EJ sounds like some people’s pronunciation of EY in “they” (that is, it is a definite glide from an E sound to an I sound); OJ sounds OY in “boy”; the sound of UJ does not occur in English, but is similar to the OOEY in “fooey”, but pronounced all in one syllable, rather than in two.
Ĵ like S in pleasure The rarer sound of S in “leisure” or “pleasure”, or the second G in some people’s pronunciation of “garage”.
K like K in kilt
L like L in solo
M like M in mother
N like N in November Like the N in “never”, though some find it difficult not to sometimes pronounce it like NG in “singer”.  There is officially no NG sound in Esperanto, so the word lango = tongue should sound somewhat like “LAWN-go”, though those who pronounce it “LONG-go” are understood.
O like O in involve
P like P in papa
R like R in Spanish Barcelona R is pronounced in many different ways in different languages.  In French, it’s pronounced farther back in the throat than in English; about the same place you would produce a G-sound.  In German, it’s about the same, but sometimes rougher.  In English, it’s pronounced farther forward, and in Spanish, Italian and Japanese, it’s pronounced with the tip of the tongue.  This last pronunciation is the correct one for Esperanto.  It’s close to the D in English “a wad o’ gum”, pronounced rather quickly and carelessly.
S like S in sing S is always voiceless, like the S in “cats”, never voiced, like the S in “dogs”.
Ŝ like S in sugar Ŝ sounds like SH in “shine” or CH in “chamois”.
T like T in tin
U like U in pull
Ŭ like W in cow Technically occurs only after the vowels A and E (and in one particular word, after O) to form diphthongs.  The word naŭ (nine) sounds very much like the English word “now”.  The sound of EŬ doesn’t occur in normal English, but sounds like the name of the letter “L” as pronounced by someone who has trouble making an L-sound, such as Elmer Fudd or Tweety Pie.
V like V in victory
Z like Z in zoo

Explanations

The number of syllables in a word equals the number of vowel-letters (A, E, I, O, and U).  Note that Ŭ is a consonant, not a vowel.  The accent is always on the next-to-last syllable.  Every letter is pronounced, even in combinations where one of them might be silent in English:  la knabo = the boy (pronounced somewhat like “lock nobbo”); la psalmo = the psalm (pronounced somewhat like “lopp salmo”).  Note that in practice, both consonants in these examples should actually be pronounced at the beginning of the second word, and not split between words.

Names of the Letters

The names of the letters are formed by adding –o to the consonants, and letting the vowels stand as their own names, so the alphabet is recited a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, jo, ĵo, ko, lo, mo, no, o, po, ro, so, ŝo, to, u, u-hoko, vo, zo.  The foreign letters Q, W, X, and Y have names, too, so that foreign words can be spelled out loud:

Sounds of the Letters

For those whose computers are set up the same as mine, the following section will demonstrate the pronunciations of the Esperanto sounds. To get both effects, you will need to have both Javascript and tooltips enabled.

Click a lettter to hear its name, and some words containing that letter. Place the cursor over a word with a grey background to see a translation of it.

Questions or suggestions?  Please write, and I’ll get back to you.

Kopirajtita © MMVI Steve MacGregor