Alphabet (24 letters)
Swahili uses the English Latin set except:
- No Q, V, or X in native words (they only appear in loans).
| Glyph | Latin Chain | Phoneme (IPA) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | /a/ | open vowel |
| B | b | /b/ | |
| C | c | /t͡ʃ/ before I/E only | always “ch” sound in native words |
| D | d | /d/ | |
| E | e | /ɛ/ | mid-front vowel |
| F | f | /f/ | |
| G | g | /g/ | always hard /g/ |
| H | h | /h/ | |
| I | i | /i/ | high-front vowel |
| J | j | /d͡ʒ/ | |
| K | k | /k/ | |
| L | l | /l/ | |
| M | m | /m/ | may be syllabic at word start (mtaa) |
| N | n | /n/ | may be syllabic or prenasalizing |
| O | o | /ɔ/ | mid-back vowel |
| P | p | /p/ | |
| R | r | /ɾ/ | tap/flap |
| S | s | /s/ | |
| T | t | /t/ | |
| U | u | /u/ | high-back vowel |
| W | w | /w/ | approximant |
| Y | y | /j/ | approximant |
| Z | z | /z/ |
Interpretation Layer (Definition → Application)
Swahili orthography is phonemic:
- Each letter has one consistent sound, no silent letters.
- Digraphs/trigraphs like “ng’” /ŋ/ or “ny” /ɲ/ are multi-letter graphemes that act as single phonemes in our system.
Multi-letter Graphemes in Swahili
- ch → /t͡ʃ/ (spelled with c + h, always affricate)
- sh → /ʃ/
- ng → /ŋg/ (prenasalized stop)
- ng’ → /ŋ/ (velar nasal only)
- ny → /ɲ/ (palatal nasal)
We treat these as grapheme clusters with phoneme_unit=true in LGM metadata.
How This Fits the Lattice
Because Swahili uses the Latin framework, our universal system can:
- Directly integrate each grapheme into the existing Latin chain.
- Flag its phonemic interpretation so we avoid English bias (e.g., “g” is never /d͡ʒ/ in Swahili).
- Preserve multi-letter graphemes as single phoneme nodes for morpheme assembly.