Lithuanian orthography
Lithuanian orthography employs a Latin alphabet of 32 letters, two of which denote sounds not native to the Lithuanian language. Additionally, it uses five digraphs.
Alphabet
The Lithuanian alphabet is composed of 32 letters. The collation order presents one surprise: "Y" is moved to occur between I nosinė (Į) and J.
| Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | Ą | B | C | Č | D | E | Ę | Ė | F | G | H | I | Į | Y | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | Š | T | U | Ų | Ū | V | Z | Ž |
| Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | ą | b | c | č | d | e | ę | ė | f | g | h | i | į | y | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | š | t | u | ų | ū | v | z | ž |
| Name of Letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | a nosinė | bė | cė | čė | dė | e | e nosinė | ė | ef | gė | ha | i trumpoji | i nosinė | i ilgoji | jot | ka | el | em | en | o | pė | er | es | eš | tė | u trumpoji | u nosinė | u ilgoji | vė | zė | žė |
Acute, grave, and macron/tilde accents can be used to mark stress and vowel length. However, these are generally not written, except in dictionaries and where needed for clarity. In addition, five digraphs are used (Ch Dz Dž Ie Uo), but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes. The "Ch" digraph represents a voiceless velar fricative, while the others are straightforward compositions of their component letters. The letters F and H, as well as the digraph CH, denote sounds only appearing in loanwords.
Sound–spelling correspondences
| Grapheme | Sound (IPA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Short | Long | |
| a | ɐ | äː |
| ą | äː | |
| e | ɛ (e̞) | æː |
| ę | æː | |
| ė | eː | |
| i | ɪ | |
| į | iː | |
| y | ||
| o | ɔ | oː |
| u | ʊ | |
| ų | uː | |
| ū | ||
⟨o⟩ is short only in loanwords. ⟨a e⟩ are always short without accent and under accent in endings -a, -e, -es, in comparative, in pronouns and in loanwords, and besides usually long.[1]
| Grapheme | Sound (IPA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Hard | Soft | |
| b | b | bʲ |
| c | t̪͡s̪ | t͡sʲ |
| č | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃʲ |
| ch | x | xʲ |
| d | d̪ | dʲ |
| dz | d̪͡z̪ | d͡zʲ |
| dž | d͡ʒ | d͡ʒʲ |
| f | f | fʲ |
| g | ɡ | ɡʲ |
| h | ɣ | ɣʲ |
| j | j | |
| k | k | kʲ |
| l | k | lʲ |
| m | m | mʲ |
| n | n̪ | nʲ |
| p | p | pʲ |
| r | r | rʲ |
| s | s̪ | sʲ |
| š | ʃ | ʃʲ |
| t | t̪ | tʲ |
| v | v | vʲ |
| z | z̪ | zʲ |
| ž | ʒ | ʒʲ |
Consonants are always palatalized before ⟨e ę ė i į y⟩; before ⟨a ą o u ų ū⟩, palatalization is denoted by inserting an ⟨i⟩ between the consonant and the vowel.
Unicode
The majority of the Lithuanian alphabet is in the Unicode block C0 controls and basic Latin (non-accented symbols), and the rest of the Lithuanian alphabet (ąĄčČęĘėĖįĮšŠųŲūŪžŽ) is in the Latin Extended-A.