Answering the question of which letters are in the Spanish alphabet
isn't as straightforward as it may seem.
Look in a dozen reference works and you very likely will get three or
four different versions of the composition of the Spanish alphabet. Some
list
K and W in the alphabet; others say that those letters
are only in foreign derived words (such as kilowatt).. And others
differ on the combinations such as ch and ll that would be
interpreted as two letters in most languages.
A recent letter led me to find the "official" answer to the question.
Following is that letter and another one I've received recently about the
alphabet, along with the responses.
Is it true that the
Spanish Royal Academy (of ?) has recently abolished certain letters from
the Spanish alphabet? In particular, those letters not found in the
English alphabet: "ch", "ll", "ñ", and "rr"? I don't
mean to say that these "letters" will no longer be used, but rather that
they are not considered separate letters.
If you need it, you can get a not-so-good translation of that page from
AltaVista or one of the other
online translators.
Basically, what the Academy is saying is that the official alphabet
is this:
a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ,
o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.
But since 1994, for alphabetization purposes in dictionaries, the
ch
and ll are to be considered as they would be in English or other
Romance languages. They're still considered letters, but they aren't treated
that way for alphabetizing.
Note also that rr is not considered a letter, at least as far
as the Academy is concerned. That was a surprise to me.
Why is there a Spanish
name for each letter of the alphabet? i.e. z = seta,r = ere? This is not done in English.
I'm not sure if you'd
call those the names, they're really just the pronunciation. You might
say that the English letter H is called "aitch" and that the letter Z is
"zee" in the United States and "zed" in Canada.
Same thing in Spanish. You've got to call the letters something.
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