Nauruan Language - Writing System

Writing System

In the Nauruan written language, 17 letters were originally used:

  • The five vowels: a, e, i, o, u
  • Twelve consonants: b, d, g, j, k, m, n, p, q, r, t, w

The letters c, f, h, l, s, v, x, y and z were not included. With the growing influence of foreign languages (most of all German, Tok Pisin and Kiribati) more letters were incorporated into the Nauruan alphabet. In addition, phonetic differences of a few vowels arose, so that umlauts and other similar sounding sounds were indicated with a tilde.

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