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What letters are used in different European languages for naming things by letters? In Finnish, all 29 letters (also Å, Ä, Ö) are used in naming. But in Czech, letters with diacritics (e.g. Á, Š, Ů) are not used. For example, are special letters also used in e.g. Turkish, Icelandic, Slovene, etc.?

Poiponen
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  • What do you mean by "naming things"? In Finnish, the letter ä is used to name the noun known in English as "lake" and in Finnish as järvi. In Czech, the plant known in English as "sage" is named Šalvěj, using the letters š and ě. So letters with diacritics are used to name things in Czech. I surmise you must have a special meaning in mind for "naming things". – user6726 Dec 03 '22 at 19:00
  • When you enumerate by letters, German typography uses only a–z, and when more letters are needed, the continuation is aa, ab, ... . But this is not really a linguistic question, but a question on typographical tradition. [graphicdesign.se], perhaps? – Sir Cornflakes Dec 03 '22 at 21:05
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    I meant what letters are used in enumeration. – Poiponen Dec 03 '22 at 21:22
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    Since we answer questions about different writing systems here, I think this is on-topic, though I'm not sure linguists are the best people to answer it. Typographers are more likely to know. – Draconis Dec 04 '22 at 01:11
  • Using letters like numbers has a long tradition, thousands of years. – Adam Bittlingmayer Dec 04 '22 at 05:52
  • I assume specifically you mean to name items in sequences, eg Building A. – Adam Bittlingmayer Dec 04 '22 at 05:53
  • In Russian it’s definitely not the full set, hence the implied absurdity of Операция «Ы». – Adam Bittlingmayer Dec 04 '22 at 06:00
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    It's not just diacritics. In Welsh 'dd', 'll', 'ff' and 'ng', 'ch', 'th', and 'ph' are regarded as letters, and alphabetized as such. I presume that if the letters are usedas an index for an enumeration they do likewise, though I haven't found any direct evidence either way. – Colin Fine Dec 05 '22 at 16:49
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    @AdamBittlingmayer: OTOH, after Russia eliminated four redundant letters (ІѢѲѴ) from its alphabet in 1918, the railroads continued to use these letters to name locomotives for several more decades. – dan04 Dec 06 '22 at 21:15
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    @dan04 Interesting! https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ы_(паровоз) also exists. – Adam Bittlingmayer Dec 07 '22 at 09:04

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