Lithuanian orthography employs a Latin-script alphabet of 32 letters, two of which denote sounds not native to the Lithuanian language. Additionally, it uses five digraphs.

Alphabet

Today, the Lithuanian alphabet consists of 32 letters. It features an unusual collation order in that "Y" occurs between I nosinė (Į) and J. While absent from the alphabet, letters Q, W and X have their place in collation order: Q is located between P and R, and W with X are preceded by letter V. Those letters may be used in spelling of foreign names.

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center

|+Lithuanian alphabet

! colspan="32" |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

|-

! colspan="32" |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

|-

! colspan="32" |Names 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

|}

The distinctive Lithuanian letter Ė was used for the first time in Daniel Klein's Grammatica Litvanica, and has been firmly established in the Lithuanian language since then. However, linguist August Schleicher used Ë (with two points above it) instead of Ė for expressing the same. In the Grammatica Litvanica Klein also established the letter W for marking the sound V, the use of which was later abolished in the Lithuanian language (it was replaced with letter V, notably by authors of the Varpas newspaper).

The Lithuanians also adopted letter ž from the Czechs.

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center

|+Consonants

!rowspan=2|Grapheme

!colspan=2|Sound (IPA)

|-

!Hard

!Soft

|-

|b

|

|

|-

|c

|

|

|-

|č

|

|

|-

|ch

|

|

|-

|d

|

|

|-

|dz

|

|

|-

|dž

|

|

|-

|f

|

|

|-

|g

|

|

|-

|h

|

|

|-

|j

| style="background-color: #ccc;" |

|

|-

|k

|

|

|-

|l

|

|

|-

|m

|

|

|-

|n

|

|

|-

|p

|

|

|-

|r

|

|

|-

|s

|

|

|-

|š

|

|

|-

|t

|

|

|-

|v

|

|

|-

|z

|

|

|-

|ž

|

|

|}

Consonants are always palatalized before ; before , palatalization is denoted by inserting an 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 (Ą ą Č č Ę ę Ė ė Į į Š š Ų ų Ū ū Ž ž) is in the Latin Extended-A.

See also

  • Lithuanian phonology
  • Lithuanian grammar

References

General sources

Lithuanian spelling rules (2022, in Lithuanian)

Lithuanian punctuation rules (2020, in Lithuanian)