Italian alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Italian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet
used by the Italian language
.
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 stress
ed syllable
s, ⟨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 semivowel
s /j/ and /w/, respectively, when unstressed and occurring before another vowel. Many exceptions exist (e.g. attuale, deciduo, deviare, dioscuro, fatuo, iato, inebriare, ingenuo, liana, proficuo, riarso, viaggio). Unstressed ⟨i⟩ may represent that a preceding or following ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ is "soft" (dolce).
The letter ⟨i⟩ may also function merely as an indicator that the preceding ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ is soft, e.g. cia (/tʃa/), ciu (/tʃu/). When the hard pronunciation occurs before a front vowel, digraphs ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ are used, so that ⟨che⟩ represents /ke/ or /kɛ/ and ⟨chi⟩ represents /ki/. In the evolution of the Latin language, the postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ were contextual variants
of the velar consonant
s /k/ and /ɡ/. They eventually came to be full phoneme
s, and the said orthographic practice was introduced to distinguish them. The phonemicity of the affricates can be demonstrated with the minimal pair
s:
The trigraphs ⟨cch⟩ and ⟨ggh⟩ are used to indicate geminated /k/ and /ɡ/, respectively, when they occur before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩; e.g. occhi /ˈokːi/ ('eyes'), agghindare /aɡːinˈdare/ (to dress up).
⟨G⟩ is also used to mark that a following ⟨l⟩ or ⟨n⟩ is soft (this is not always true in loanword
s from other languages). With ⟨l⟩, a following ⟨i⟩ is also necessary, though this may be stress
ed or unstressed: famiglia /faˈmiʎʎa/ ('family').
The digraph
⟨sc⟩ is used before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ to represent /ʃ/; before other vowels, ⟨sci⟩ is used. Otherwise, ⟨sc⟩ represents /sk/, the ⟨c⟩ of which follows the normal orthographic rules explained above.
Other than a few Northern Italian dialects, intervocalic /ʎ/, /ɲ/, and /ʃ/ are always geminated
and no orthographic distinction is made to indicate this.
of avere, 'to have') from o ('or'), ai ('to the'), a ('to'), anno ('year'); since ⟨h⟩ is always silent
, there is no difference in the pronunciation
of such words. In foreign loanword
s, the h is still silent: hovercraft /ˈɔverkraft/.
⟨Z⟩ represents an alveolar
affricate consonant
; either voiced
/dz/ (zanzara /dzanˈdzara/ 'mosquito') or voiceless
/ts/ (nazione /naˈttsjone/ 'nation'), depending on context, though there are few minimal pair
s.
⟨S⟩ also is ambiguous to voicing
; it can represent /s/ or /z/. However, these two phoneme
s are in complementary distribution
everywhere except between two vowels in the same word and, even in such environments, there are very few minimal pairs.
The letters J ("I lunga" [long I]), K ("cappa"), W ("V doppia" or "doppia V" [double V]), X ("ics") and Y ("ipsilon" or "I greca" [Greek I]) are used for loanwords only.
may be used on ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ to represent close-mid vowel
s when they are stress
ed in a position other than the default second-to-last syllable
; this use of accents is generally mandatory only in the final syllable. Since final ⟨o⟩ is hardly ever close-mid, ⟨ó⟩ is very rarely encountered in written Italian (metró). The grave accent
may be used on ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ when they represent open-mid vowel
s. The accents may also be used to differentiate minimal pair
s within Italian, for example pèsca "peach" and pésca "fishing", but in practice use of this possibility is limited to didactic texts. In the case of final ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, both possibilities are encountered. The by far most common option is the grave accent, though this may be due to the rarity of the acute accent to represent stress; the alternative of employing the acute is in practice limited to erudite texts, but can be justified as both vowels are high (as in Catalan
); however, since there are no corresponding low (or lax) vowels to contrast with in Italian, both choices are equally acceptable.
The circumflex accent can be used to mark the contraction
of two vowels, especially two is. For example, it can be used to differentiate words like geni ('genes') and genî ('geniuses').
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
used by the Italian language
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
.
| Letter | Name | IPA | Diacritics |
|---|---|---|---|
| A A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... , a |
a | /a/ | à |
| B B B is the second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds , most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.-History:... , b |
bi | /b/ | |
| C C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... , c |
ci | /k/ or /tʃ/ | |
| D D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... , d |
di | /d/ | |
| E E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... , e |
e | /e/ or /ɛ/ | è, é |
| F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... , f |
effe | /f/ | |
| G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... , g |
gi | /ɡ/ or /dʒ/ | |
| H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... , h |
acca | ∅ silent | |
| I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... , i |
i | /i/ or /j/ | ì, í, î |
| L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... , l |
elle | /l/ | |
| M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... , m |
emme | /m/ | |
| N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... , n |
enne | /n/ | |
| O O O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a... , o |
o | /o/ or /ɔ/ | ò, ó |
| P P P is the sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Usage:In English and most other European languages, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. Both initial and final Ps can be combined with many other discrete consonants in English words... , p |
pi | /p/ | |
| Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... , q |
cu | /k/ | |
| R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... , r |
erre | /r/ | |
| S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... , s |
esse | /s/ or /z/ | |
| T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... , t |
ti | /t/ | |
| U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... , u |
u | /u/ or /w/ | ù, ú |
| V V V is the twenty-second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Letter:The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y. See F for details.... , v |
vi or vu | /v/ | |
| Z Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... , z |
zeta | /ts/ or /dz/ | |
Vowels
The Italian alphabet has five vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
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
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
of a preceding ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (see below).
In stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
ed syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s, ⟨e⟩ represents both open
Open-mid vowel
An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel...
/ɛ/ and close
Close-mid vowel
A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
/e/. Similarly, ⟨o⟩ represents both open /ɔ/ and close /o/ (see the Italian phonology
Italian phonology
This article is about the phonology of the Italian language. It deals with the phonology and phonetics of Standard Italian as well as with geographical variants.-Vowels:Notes:*In Italian there is no phonemic distinction between long and short vowels...
for further details on these sounds). There is typically no orthographic
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
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 semivowel
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s /j/ and /w/, respectively, when unstressed and occurring before another vowel. Many exceptions exist (e.g. attuale, deciduo, deviare, dioscuro, fatuo, iato, inebriare, ingenuo, liana, proficuo, riarso, viaggio). Unstressed ⟨i⟩ may represent that a preceding or following ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ is "soft" (dolce).
C and G
Normally, ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ represent the plosives /k/ and /ɡ/, respectively, unless they precede a front vowel (⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩) when they represent the affricates /tʃ/ (like English ch) and /dʒ/ (like English j).The letter ⟨i⟩ may also function merely as an indicator that the preceding ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ is soft, e.g. cia (/tʃa/), ciu (/tʃu/). When the hard pronunciation occurs before a front vowel, digraphs ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ are used, so that ⟨che⟩ represents /ke/ or /kɛ/ and ⟨chi⟩ represents /ki/. In the evolution of the Latin language, the postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ were contextual variants
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
of the velar consonant
Velar consonant
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
s /k/ and /ɡ/. They eventually came to be full phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s, and the said orthographic practice was introduced to distinguish them. The phonemicity of the affricates can be demonstrated with the minimal pair
Minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s:
| Plosive Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anywhere but before ⟨i e⟩ | c | caramella /karaˈmɛlla/ crema /ˈkrɛma/ |
ci | ciaramella /tʃaraˈmɛlla/ |
| g | gallo /ˈɡallo/ | gi | giallo /ˈdʒallo/ | |
| Before ⟨i e⟩ | ch | china /ˈkina/ | c | Cina /ˈtʃina/ |
| gh | ghiro /ˈɡiro/ | g | giro /ˈdʒiro/ |
The trigraphs ⟨cch⟩ and ⟨ggh⟩ are used to indicate geminated /k/ and /ɡ/, respectively, when they occur before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩; e.g. occhi /ˈokːi/ ('eyes'), agghindare /aɡːinˈdare/ (to dress up).
⟨G⟩ is also used to mark that a following ⟨l⟩ or ⟨n⟩ is soft (this is not always true in loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s from other languages). With ⟨l⟩, a following ⟨i⟩ is also necessary, though this may be stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
ed or unstressed: famiglia /faˈmiʎʎa/ ('family').
The digraph
Digraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
⟨sc⟩ is used before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ to represent /ʃ/; before other vowels, ⟨sci⟩ is used. Otherwise, ⟨sc⟩ represents /sk/, the ⟨c⟩ of which follows the normal orthographic rules explained above.
| /sk/ | /ʃ/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anywhere but before ⟨i e⟩ | sc | scalo /ˈskalo/ scrivere /ˈskrivere/ |
sci | scialo /ˈʃalo/ |
| Before ⟨i e⟩ | sch | scherno /ˈskerno/ | sc | scerno /ˈʃɛrno/ |
Other than a few Northern Italian dialects, intervocalic /ʎ/, /ɲ/, and /ʃ/ are always geminated
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
and no orthographic distinction is made to indicate this.
Other letters
In addition to being used to indicate a hard ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩ before front vowels, ⟨h⟩ is also used to distinguish ho, hai, ha, hanno (present indicativePresent Indicative
Present Indicative is a 1972 Hungarian drama film directed by Péter Bacsó. The film was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:...
of avere, 'to have') from o ('or'), ai ('to the'), a ('to'), anno ('year'); since ⟨h⟩ is always silent
Silent letter
In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation...
, there is no difference in the pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
of such words. In foreign loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s, the h is still silent: hovercraft /ˈɔverkraft/.
⟨Z⟩ represents an alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
affricate consonant
Affricate consonant
Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
; either voiced
Voiced alveolar affricate
The voiced alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩ , and the equivalent X-SAMPA representation is ⟨dz⟩.-Features:...
/dz/ (zanzara /dzanˈdzara/ 'mosquito') or voiceless
Voiceless alveolar affricate
The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩ . The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin...
/ts/ (nazione /naˈttsjone/ 'nation'), depending on context, though there are few minimal pair
Minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s.
⟨S⟩ also is ambiguous to voicing
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
; it can represent /s/ or /z/. However, these two phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s are in complementary distribution
Complementary distribution
Complementary distribution in linguistics is the relationship between two different elements, where one element is found in a particular environment and the other element is found in the opposite environment...
everywhere except between two vowels in the same word and, even in such environments, there are very few minimal pairs.
The letters J ("I lunga" [long I]), K ("cappa"), W ("V doppia" or "doppia V" [double V]), X ("ics") and Y ("ipsilon" or "I greca" [Greek I]) are used for loanwords only.
Diacritics
The acute accentAcute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
may be used on ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ to represent close-mid vowel
Close-mid vowel
A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
s when they are stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
ed in a position other than the default second-to-last syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
; this use of accents is generally mandatory only in the final syllable. Since final ⟨o⟩ is hardly ever close-mid, ⟨ó⟩ is very rarely encountered in written Italian (metró). The grave accent
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
may be used on ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ when they represent open-mid vowel
Open-mid vowel
An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel...
s. The accents may also be used to differentiate minimal pair
Minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s within Italian, for example pèsca "peach" and pésca "fishing", but in practice use of this possibility is limited to didactic texts. In the case of final ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, both possibilities are encountered. The by far most common option is the grave accent, though this may be due to the rarity of the acute accent to represent stress; the alternative of employing the acute is in practice limited to erudite texts, but can be justified as both vowels are high (as in Catalan
Catalan orthography
Like those of many other Romance languages, the Catalan alphabet derives from the Latin alphabet and is largely based on the language’s phonology. The Catalan alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet:...
); however, since there are no corresponding low (or lax) vowels to contrast with in Italian, both choices are equally acceptable.
The circumflex accent can be used to mark the contraction
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
of two vowels, especially two is. For example, it can be used to differentiate words like geni ('genes') and genî ('geniuses').