ScriptLookup

Latin

Latn Left-to-right Living Alphabet European
Sample Text
Hello World

Sample Characters

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p

First 48 characters from Basic Latin (U+0041–U+007A)

About Latin

The Latin alphabet is the world's most widely used writing system, serving as the primary script for Western and Central European languages, as well as many others across the globe. Derived from the Greek alphabet through Etruscan, it was widely adopted by the Roman Empire and subsequently spread through colonization, religion, and international standardization. Today, Latin script is used to write over 100 languages and serves as the basis for international scientific notation, musical notation, and computer encoding.

The basic Latin alphabet consists of 26 letters, but extended forms with diacritics (such as é, ü, ñ, and ø) accommodate the phonological needs of hundreds of languages. Latin script is written left-to-right.

Data sourced from the ISO 15924 registry, Unicode CLDR, and the Unicode Character Database.

Script Family & Lineage

Ancestor Chain
Phoenician › Greek › Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.) › Latin

Languages Using Latin 515

Acehnese Acoli Adangme Afar Afrikaans Aghem Akan Akoose Alabama Albanian shqip Aleut Anii anii kagɩja Ao Naga Aragonese aragonés Araona Arapaho Arawak Aromanian Arpitan Asturian asturianu Asu Kipare Atikamekw Atsam Aymara Azerbaijani azərbaycan Bafia rikpa Bafut Balinese Bambara bamanakan Banjar Basaa Ɓàsàa Basque euskara Batak Toba Bavarian Bemba Ichibemba Bena Hibena Betawi Bikol Bini Bislama Bosnian bosanski Breton brezhoneg Buginese Bulu Caddo Cajun French Capiznon Carib Catalan català Cayuga Cebuano Central Atlas Tamazight Tamaziɣt n laṭlaṣ Central Dusun Central Yupik Chamorro Cheyenne Chickasaw Chikashshanompaʼ Chiga Rukiga Chilcotin Chimborazo Highland Quichua Chinook Jargon Chipewyan Choctaw Chahta Chuukese Colognian Kölsch Cornish kernewek Corsican corsu Cree Croatian hrvatski Czech čeština Dakota Danish dansk Delaware Dinka Dogrib Duala duálá Dutch Nederlands Dyula Eastern Frisian Efik Ekajuk Embu Kĩembu Emilian English Esperanto Estonian eesti Ewe eʋegbe Ewondo ewondo Extremaduran Fang Faroese føroyskt Fiji Hindi Fijian Filipino Finnish suomi Fon Frafra French français Friulian furlan Fula Pulaar Ga Gã Gagauz Galician galego Ganda Luganda Gayo Gbaya German Deutsch Gheg Albanian Ghomala Gilbertese Gorontalo Grebo Guarani avañe’ẽ Gusii Ekegusii Gwichʼin Haida Haitian Creole Kreyòl Ayisyen Halkomelem Hausa Hawaiian ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi Herero Hiligaynon Hiri Motu Hmong Hungarian magyar Hupa Iban Ibibio Icelandic íslenska Ido Igbo Iloko Inari Sami anarâškielâ Indonesian Indonesia Ingrian Innu-aimun Interlingua interlingua Interlingue Inuktitut Inupiaq Irish Gaeilge Italian italiano Jamaican Creole English Javanese Jawa Jju Kaje Jola-Fonyi joola Jutish Kabuverdianu kabuverdianu Kabyle Taqbaylit Kachin Kaingang kanhgág Kako kakɔ Kalaallisut kalaallisut Kalenjin Kamba Kikamba Kanuri Kara-Kalpak қарақалпақша Karelian Kashubian Kenyang Kɛnyaŋ Khasi Kikuyu Gikuyu Kimbundu Kinaray-a Kinyarwanda Ikinyarwanda Kirmanjki Kom Kongo Konkani कोंकणी Koro Kosraean Kotava Koyra Chiini Koyra ciini Koyraboro Senni Koyraboro senni Kpelle Kpɛlɛɛ Krio Kuanyama Kurdish kurdî (kurmancî) Kutenai Kuvi kuvi Kwakʼwala Kwasio Kyrgyz кыргызча Kʼicheʼ Lakota Lakȟólʼiyapi Lamba Langi Kɨlaangi Latgalian Latin Latvian latviešu Laz Ligurian ligure Lillooet Limburgish Lingala lingála Lithuanian lietuvių Livonian Lojban la .lojban. Lombard Low German Neddersass’sch Lower Silesian Lower Sorbian dolnoserbšćina Lozi Luba-Katanga Tshiluba Luba-Lulua Luiseno Lule Sami julevsámegiella Lunda Luo Dholuo Luxembourgish Lëtzebuergesch Luyia Luluhia Machame Kimachame Madurese Mafa Main-Franconian Makasar Makhuwa emakhuwa Makhuwa-Meetto Makua Makonde Chimakonde Malagasy Malay Melayu Maliseet-Passamaquoddy Maltese Malti Mandar Mandingo Manx Gaelg Mapuche Mapudungun Marshallese Masai Maa Medumba Mende Mentawai Meru Kĩmĩrũ Metaʼ metaʼ Mi'kmaw Lʼnuiʼsuti Michif Middle Dutch Middle English Middle French Middle High German Minangkabau Mirandese Mohawk Kanienʼkéha Mongo Morisyen kreol morisien Mossi Mundang MUNDAŊ Muscogee Mvskoke Muslim Tat Māori Nama Khoekhoegowab Nauru Navajo Diné Bizaad Ndonga Neapolitan Ngiemboon Shwóŋò ngiembɔɔn Ngomba Ndaꞌa Nheengatu nheẽgatu Nias Nigerian Pidgin Naijíriá Píjin Niuean North Ndebele isiNdebele Northern Frisian Nordfriisk Northern Sami davvisámegiella Northern Sotho Sesotho sa Leboa Norwegian norsk Norwegian Bokmål norsk bokmål Norwegian Nynorsk norsk nynorsk Novial Nuer Thok Nath Nyamwezi Nyanja Nyankole Runyankore Nyasa Tonga Nyoro Nzima Obolo Occitan occitan Okanagan n̓səl̓xcin̓ Old English Old French Old High German Old Irish Old Provençal Oromo Oromoo Palatine German Palauan Pali Pampanga Pangasinan Papiamento Papiamentu Pennsylvania German Picard Piedmontese piemontèis Pijin Plautdietsch Pohnpeian Polish polski Portuguese português Prussian prūsiskan Quechua Runasimi Rapanui Rarotongan Riffian Tarifit Romagnol Romanian română Romansh rumantsch Romany Rombo Kihorombo Rotuman Roviana Rundi Ikirundi Rwa Kiruwa Saho Samburu Kisampur Samoan Samogitian Sandawe Sango Sängö Sangu Ishisangu Sardinian sardu Sasak Sassarese Sardinian Saterland Frisian Scots Scottish Gaelic Gàidhlig Selayar Sena sena Seneca Serbian српски Serer Seri Seselwa Creole French Shambala Kishambaa Shona chiShona Sicilian sicilianu Sidamo Siksiká Silesian ślōnski Skolt Sami sääʹmǩiõll Slave Slovak slovenčina Slovenian slovenščina Soga Olusoga Somali Soomaali Soninke South Ndebele Southern Sami Åarjelsaemien gïele Southern Sotho Sesotho Spanish español Sranan Tongo Sukuma Sundanese Basa Sunda Susu Swahili Kiswahili Swati siSwati Swedish svenska Swiss German Schwiizertüütsch Tachelhit ⵜⴰⵛⵍⵃⵉⵜ Tahitian Taita Kitaita Tajik тоҷикӣ Talysh Tamashek Taroko patas Taroko Tasawaq Tasawaq senni Tereno Teso Kiteso Tetum Timne Tiv Tlingit Tok Pisin Tokelauan Toki Pona toki pona Tongan lea fakatonga Tornedalen Finnish Tsakhur Tsimshian Tsonga Tswana Setswana Tumbuka Turkish Türkçe Turkmen türkmen dili Turoyo Tuvalu Tyap Katab Umbundu Upper Sorbian hornjoserbšćina Uzbek o‘zbek Vai ꕙꔤ Venda Venetian veneto Veps Vietnamese Tiếng Việt Volapük Votic Vunjo Kyivunjo Võro Walloon walon Walser Waray Warlpiri Washo Wayuu Welsh Cymraeg West Flemish Western Canadian Inuktitut Western Frisian Frysk Western Ojibwa Wolof Xhosa IsiXhosa Yangben nuasue Yao Yapese Yemba Yoruba Èdè Yorùbá Zapotec Zarma Zarmaciine Zaza Zeelandic Zhuang Vahcuengh Zulu isiZulu Zuni abr amo aoz bci bjt bku bmq bqv bsc bsq bto buc bvb bze bzx ccr ctd dnj dtm ffm fud fuq fuv fvr gcr gos gub hnn hop ife kao kck kge knf kro kvr laj lbw len ljp lld ladin lut maz mdh mdt mfv mgy mhn mls mro mwk mww mxc myx nch ndc ngl nhe nhw nij nxq pko ppl puu rcf rej ria rmf rmo rmu rng rob saf scs sef snf srb swg sxn syi tbw tnr tsg ttj uli vic wls xav yua zag zmi

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of writing system is Latin?
Latin is an Alphabet. Alphabets represent both consonants and vowels as distinct letters.
What direction does Latin read?
Latin is written Left-to-right, the same direction as most European scripts.
How many languages use the Latin script?
515 languages use Latin according to Unicode CLDR data. Together these languages are spoken by approximately 2.2B people worldwide.
When was the Latin script created?
The Latin script originated around 700 CE.
Does Latin have uppercase and lowercase letters?
Latin has uppercase and lowercase letter forms. All vowels are written explicitly.

Compare Latin With Another Script

Direction, characters, languages — side by side.

Key Facts

ISO Code
Latn
ISO Number
215
Script Type
Alphabet
Direction
Left-to-right
Status
Living
Region
European
Characters
1,492
Introduced
700 CE
Languages
515
Total Speakers
~2.2B

Unicode Ranges

  • Basic Latin
    U+0041–U+007A
  • Latin-1 Supplement
    U+00AA–U+00F6
  • U+00F8–U+01BA
    U+00F8–U+01BA
  • Latin Extended-B
    U+01BB–U+01C3
  • U+01C4–U+0293
    U+01C4–U+0293
  • IPA Extensions
    U+0294–U+02AF
  • Spacing Modifier Letters
    U+02B0–U+02E4
  • Phonetic Extensions
    U+1D00–U+1D77
  • U+1D79–U+1D9A
    U+1D79–U+1D9A
  • Phonetic Extensions Supplement
    U+1D9B–U+1DBE
  • Latin Extended Additional
    U+1E00–U+1EFF
  • Superscripts and Subscripts
    U+2071–U+209C
  • Letterlike Symbols
    U+212A–U+214E
  • Number Forms
    U+2160–U+2188
  • Latin Extended-C
    U+2C60–U+2C7F
  • Latin Extended-D
    U+A722–U+A7FF
  • Latin Extended-E
    U+AB30–U+AB69
  • Alphabetic Presentation Forms
    U+FB00–U+FB06
  • Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms
    U+FF21–U+FF5A
  • Latin Extended-F
    U+10780–U+107BA
  • Latin Extended-G
    U+1DF00–U+1DF2A

Script Properties

Has Case
Yes
Cursive
No
Vowels
full

Official Use In

US GB CA AU NZ IE FR DE ES IT PT NL BE CH AT SE NO DK FI PL CZ SK HU RO HR SI RS BA ME AL MK LT LV EE IS LU MT CY BR MX AR CO PE CL VE EC BO PY UY CR PA DO GT HN SV NI CU PR NG KE ZA GH ET TZ UG RW CM CI SN MZ AO ZM MW ZW MG PH ID VN MY SG TR AZ KZ TM UZ KG TJ PK IN BD LK NP AF

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