The Czech alphabet is the alphabet used to write in the Czech language. It consists of 42 letters (or more precisely - graphemes):

A, Á, B, C, Č, D, Ď, E, É, Ě, F, G, H, Ch, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ň, O, Ó, P, Q, R, Ř, S, Š, T, Ť, U, Ú, Ů, V, W, X, Y, Ý, Z, Ž

However, the letters Q and W are used exclusively in foreign words, and are soon replaced with Kv and V once the word becomes "naturalized", and the letters with háčeks and acutes are usually treated as variants, and the 26-letter Latin alphabet is used plus Ch.

Most of the diacritic letters were added to the alphabet through reforms brought about by Jan Hus at the beginning of the 15th century to replace the digraphs and trigraphs used to write Czech sounds that had no equivalent in the Latin alphabet. During the 16th century, the letter "Ů" (historically an "Ó" but now pronounced as "Ú") was added to the list. The only digraph left in the alphabet is "Ch", being ordered between the "H" and "I", indicating the sound similar to the German "ch" or the Russian "Х" (IPA /x/).

The acute accent letters (Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý) and Ů indicate long vowels. They have the same alphabetical ordering as their non-diacritic counterparts. The hacek (ˇ) indicates historical palatalization of the base letter. The letters Č, Ř, Š, and Ž currently represent postalveolar consonants and are ordered behind their corresponding base letters; while Ď, Ň, Ť represent palatal consonants and have the same alphabetical ordering as their non-diacritic counterparts.

Czech alphabet spelling

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A a	Á á	B b	C c	Č č	D d	Ď ď	E e	É é	Ě ě	F f
á	dlouhé á	bé	cé	čé	dé	ďé	é	dlouhé é	ije, é s háčkem	ef
G g	H h	Ch ch	I i	Í í	J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	Ň ň
gé	há	chá	í, měkké í	dlouhé í	jé	ká	el	em	en	eň
O o	Ó ó	P p	Q q	R r	Ř ř	S s	Š š	T t	Ť ť
ó	dlouhé ó	pé	kvé	er	eř	es	eš	té	ťé
U u	Ú ú	Ů ů	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Ý ý	Z z	Ž ž
ú	dlouhé ú	ů s kroužkem	vé	dvojité vé	iks	ypsilon, tvrdé ý	dlouhé ypsilon	zet	žet

Computer encoding

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In computing, several different coding standards have existed for this alphabet, among them:

• ISO 8859-2
• Microsoft Windows codepage 1250
• IBM PC code page 852
• Encoding by Kamenický brothers or KEYBCS2 on early DOS PCs and on Fidonet (details in Czech ^*)
• Unicode

See also

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• Latin alphabet
• Háček
• Czech language
• Czech orthography

External links

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• Czech Language
• Czech Encodings FAQ and list of known encodings (in Czech)
• Typo.cz Information on Central European typography and typesetting

Latin-derived alphabets

Alfabeto checo