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Northern Sotho Alphabet (Latin)
The letters and characters of Northern Sotho written in the Latin script, in order — every standard character with its name and codepoint, the additional and punctuation sets, and exactly how many fonts include them. About 5,681,604 people read or write it across 1 country.
Standard characters
The minimal set of characters required for Northern Sotho — the language's alphabet, in its traditional order. Tap a character to copy it; each name opens the full character page. The Fonts column counts how many fonts include each letter, in the same order as the letters and codepoints; an accented form under a letter gets its own codepoint and count line beneath it.
| Letter | Name | Codepoints | Fontsper letter, in order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aa | A | U+0041 · U+0061 | 136,064 / 135,110 |
| Bb | B | U+0042 · U+0062 | 135,982 / 135,083 |
| Dd | D | U+0044 · U+0064 | 136,007 / 135,110 |
| Ee Êê | E | U+0045 · U+0065 U+00CA · U+00EA | 136,045 / 135,092 81,459 / 81,460 |
| Ff | F | U+0046 · U+0066 | 135,955 / 135,041 |
| Gg | G | U+0047 · U+0067 | 135,944 / 135,030 |
| Hh | H | U+0048 · U+0068 | 135,937 / 135,003 |
| Ii | I | U+0049 · U+0069 | 135,906 / 134,997 |
| Jj | J | U+004A · U+006A | 135,779 / 134,898 |
| Kk | K | U+004B · U+006B | 135,820 / 134,904 |
| Ll | L | U+004C · U+006C | 135,840 / 134,937 |
| Mm | M | U+004D · U+006D | 135,809 / 134,871 |
| Nn | N | U+004E · U+006E | 135,770 / 134,851 |
| Oo Ôô | O | U+004F · U+006F U+00D4 · U+00F4 | 135,747 / 134,876 81,389 / 81,312 |
| Pp | P | U+0050 · U+0070 | 135,726 / 134,808 |
| Rr | R | U+0052 · U+0072 | 135,744 / 134,845 |
| Ss Šš | S | U+0053 · U+0073 U+0160 · U+0161 | 135,721 / 134,797 58,706 / 58,643 |
| Tt | T | U+0054 · U+0074 | 135,769 / 134,800 |
| Uu | U | U+0055 · U+0075 | 135,534 / 134,690 |
| Ww | W | U+0057 · U+0077 | 135,522 / 134,664 |
| Xx | X | U+0058 · U+0078 | 135,478 / 134,585 |
| Yy | Y | U+0059 · U+0079 | 135,463 / 134,648 |
Additional Characters
Used for foreign words, names and technical terms, and older forms of the language.
Punctuation characters
The marks used to separate sentences and to clarify meaning.
Where Northern Sotho (Latin) is read
Countries shaded by the share of their population that reads or writes Northern Sotho in the Latin script. The map is zoomed to the region where at least 1% of a country's people read it; neighbouring countries are shown unshaded for context.
Estimated readers — share of each country's population (CLDR).
| Country | Estimated readers | Share of population |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 5,681,604 | 9.4% |
Northern Sotho (Latin) — facts
| Font coverage | 58,013 of 137,179 fonts include every one of the 25 standard characters; 58,012 include the standard and additional sets together. Counts are exact for the snapshot of 21 October 2026. |
|---|---|
| Script | Latin |
| Unicode blocks | Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A, General Punctuation |
| People | About 5,681,604 people read or write Northern Sotho in the Latin script — mostly in South Africa. |
Data: Unicode CLDR exemplar characters (CLDR 48.2.0) and CLDR territory population data. Font counts: snapshot of 21 October 2026.