Latin | Nikola Kvartovič

Letters

Traditionally these letters were only used for foreign words, whereas native words employed other letters:

The letter q is only used for native words, whereas foreign words employ c.

The letter ¸, which is a small z, is called a cedille, i.e. a small zeta, & softens the c it is attached to.

Like wise, some foreign words employ strangely accented letters, which come from these components:

Further, ligatures for whole words:

(Ecclesiastical)

The last syllable of a word is not pronounced, save for Ecclesiastical Latin.

Where s is between two vowels, it may be pronounced as z.

The letter y is pronounced the same as i in all situations.
The old ligatures æ & œ are pronounced the same as e, with which both have been mostly replaced.
- In certain & rare situations, æ was rather used to spell ᚫ, & so was replaced with a, but is pronounced as e: e.g. head.
In certain words, a French pronunciation is commonly realized, namely: au as o, oe as u, et as e
Where a word begins with two consonants, only the second is pronounced: e.g. know.
The letters ue when preceded by g or q serve to harden them.
The letter g with i if is said before a consonant, e.g. gift, is not softened.
The letters gh in ugh commonly serves to double it into w, or otherwise is pronounced f.

There is a distinction of simple vowels between short & long forms:

Further, a secondary e lengthens the vowel:

This is always the case with a terminal e, whether there is a consonant, save for v, between it & the vowel: e.g. stone & tree.
- Another exception for the prior rule is if the consonant is t, where the terminal e denotes the absence of a Latin inflection.

While German languages adopted the Latin alphabet, differences in language caused them to add these letters:

Letter	Origin	Meaning	Language
ð	d	th	🇮🇸
ø	o	oe	🇩🇰 🇳🇴
⠀̊	o	ᵃ ᵒ	🇸🇪
⠀̈	e	ᵉ	🇩🇪
ß	sz	s	🇩🇪