Italian alphabet

Italian orthography uses a variant of the Latin alphabet consisting of 21 letters to write the Italian language.

The base alphabet consists of 21 letters: five vowels (A, E, I, O U) and 16 consonants. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet, and are used only for loanwords (e.g. 'jeans') and foreign names (with very few exceptions, such as in the native names Jesolo and Bettino Craxi, derived from Venetian). In addition, grave, acute and circumflex accents may be used to modify vowel letters.

The Italian alphabet has five vowel letters, ⟨a e i o u⟩. Of those, only ⟨a⟩ represents one sound value while each of the others has two. In addition, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ indicate a different pronunciation of a preceding ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (see below).

In stressed syllables, ⟨e⟩ represents both open /ɛ/ and close /e/. Similarly, ⟨o⟩ represents both open /ɔ/ and close /o/ (see the Italian phonology for further details on these sounds). There is typically no orthographic distinction between the open and closed sounds represented, though accent marks are used in certain instances (see below). In unstressed syllables, only the close variants occur except before sonorants.

In addition to representing the respective vowels /i/ and /u/, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ also typically represent the semivowels /j/ and /w/, respectively, when unstressed and occurring before another vowel. Many exceptions exist (e.g. , , , , , , , , , , , ). Unstressed ⟨i⟩ may represent that a preceding or following ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ is 'soft' ().

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