Editing Esperanto (section)

==== Phonology ====
All letters lacking diacritics are pronounced approximately as their respective [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols, with the exception of ⟨c⟩.

The letters ⟨j⟩ and ⟨c⟩ are used in a way that is familiar to speakers of many Central and Eastern European languages, but may be unfamiliar to English speakers. ⟨j⟩ has the sound of English ⟨y⟩, as in '''''y'''ellow'' and ''bo'''y''''' (Esperanto ''jes'' has the same pronunciation as its English cognate ''yes''), and ⟨c⟩ has a "''ts''" sound, as in ''hi'''ts''''' or the ⟨zz⟩ in ''pi'''zz'''a''. In addition, the ⟨g⟩ in Esperanto is always 'hard', as in '''''g'''ift''. Esperanto makes use of the five-vowel system, essentially identical to the vowels of Spanish and Modern Greek.

The accented letters are:
* ⟨ĉ⟩ is pronounced like English ''ch'' in '''''ch'''atting''
* ⟨ĝ⟩ is pronounced like English ''g'' in '''''g'''em''
* ⟨ĥ⟩ is pronounced like the ''ch'' in German {{lang|de|Ba'''ch'''}} or Scottish English ''lo'''ch'''''.
* ⟨ĵ⟩ is pronounced like the ''s'' in English ''fu'''s'''ion'' or the ''j'' in French '''''J'''acques''
*⟨ŝ⟩ is pronounced like English ''sh''.
*⟨ŭ⟩ in ⟨aŭ⟩ is pronounced like English ''ow'' in ''c'''ow'''''.

According to one of Zamenhof's entries in the ''Lingvaj respondoj'', the letter ⟨n⟩ ought to be pronounced as [n] in all cases, but a rendering as [ŋ] is admissible before ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩, and ⟨ĥ⟩.