The Quechua alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It is used to write Quechua.
The number of letters employed in the Quechua alphabet highly depends on the Quechua dialect. However, in general, the following are the core letters used:
Uppercase A Ch H I K L Ll M N Ñ P Q S T U W YIn Ecuador and Bolivia, though, J(j) is used instead of H(h), as /h/ and /'/ are used to express affricate and ejective sounds:
Uppercase Chh ch' kh K' Ph P' Qh Q' Sh Sh' Th T'In some dialects, the [ɪ ɛ] and [ʊ ɔ] variations are distinguished with the use of /e/ and /o/, respectively, resulting in the use of five vowel letters instead of three. In some dialects, the vowel lengths are distinguished by doubling the vowel letter to indicate it as a long vowel:
Uppercase Aa Ii Uu Ee Oo
In yet other dialects, with additional sounds, additional letters are employed:
Quechua employs additional letters to write loan words, mainly originating from Spanish. In careful speech, the letters may represent a Spanish sound, but generally are substituted with a native sound.
Uppercase B D E F G Kw O Rr TrFor phonetic transcription, four additional letter are used:
Uppercase Č Ĉ Š Ž