Silesian orthography#Steuer's alphabet

The first major and widely adopted writing system for Silesians was created by doctor Feliks Steuer in the 1930's. It consists of 30 graphemes and 8 digraphs, based partially on Polish orthography and partially on Czech orthography.

Steuer's alphabet did not account for voicing assimilation, so any voiced letter such as might also be pronounced unvoiced when before an unvoiced consonant or at the end of a word. Palatalized consonants are written with .

Ślabikŏrzowy szrajbōnek was adopted by Pro Loquela Silesiana in 2010 and has since become the main writing systems for Silesian,{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} accounting for dialectal variation. It uses the Latin alphabet with additional digraphs and diacritics.

Vowels are largely pronounced as they are written. <Ŏŏ> can vary from /ɔu~ɔ/, where /ɔu/ is largely pronounced in Opole and /ɔ/ everywhere else, making it a homograph of . Ôô is used largely at the beginning of words, sometimes word-medially with affixed words ({{lang|szl|wy-ôbrazić}} and compounds ({{lang|szl|boli-ôczko}}). <Ãã>, <Õõ>, and <Ŏŏ> are used more in formal literature, as many dialects do not retain their pronunciations, and replace <Ãã> with , and <Õõ> and <Ŏŏ> with .{{sfn|Jaroszewicz|2022|pp=16-21}}

Consonants are regularly voiced or devoiced depending on the end consonant in a cluster.

: {{lang|szl|jabko}} is pronounced {{IPA|/'japko/}}

: {{lang|szl|także}} is pronounced {{IPA|/'taɡʐɛ/}}

Two notable exceptions are the groups and , which do not determine the voicing of the cluster.

: {{lang|szl|wpadnōńć}} is pronounced {{IPA|/'fpadnoɲt͡ɕ/}}

: {{lang|szl|przichodzić}} is pronounced {{IPA|/pʂi'xɔd͡ʑit͡ɕ/}}

Consonants are also devoiced at the end of a word, known as final-obstruent devoicing.

: {{lang|szl|miydź}} is pronounced {{IPA|/mjɪt͡ɕ/}}

Rarely, {{angbr|rz}} is not a digraph and represents two separate sounds:

• in various forms of the verb {{lang|szl|-marznōńć}} (i.e. {{lang|szl|zamarznōńć}}) – "to freeze"
• in borrowings, for example {{lang|szl|erzac}} (from German Ersatz)

The spelling rule for the alveolo-palatal sounds {{IPA|/ɕ ʑ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ɲ/}} is as follows: before the vowel {{angbr|i}} the plain letters {{angbr|s z c dz n}} are used; before other vowels the combinations {{angbr|si zi ci dzi ni}} are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms {{angbr|ś ź ć dź ń}} are used. This is different from Steuer's alphabet, where soft consonants are always written with the acute accent. For example, the {{angbr|s}} in {{lang|szl|siwy}} ("grey-haired"), the {{angbr|si}} in {{lang|szl|siarka}} ("sulphur") and the {{angbr|ś}} in {{lang|szl|świynty}} ("holy") all represent the sound {{IPA|/ɕ/}}.

The letter {{angbr|u}} represents {{IPA|/ł/}} in the digraphs {{angbr|au}} and {{angbr|eu}} in loanwords, for example {{lang|szl|autor, Europa}}; but not in native words, like {{lang|szl|nauka}}, pronounced {{IPA|na'(w)uka}}.

It is prescribed to write prepositional, adverbal, numeral, particle, conjunctional, and pronominal phrases with a space.{{sfn|Jaroszewicz|2022|pp=43}}

: {{lang|szl|bele co}}, not {{lang|szl|beleco}}

: {{lang|szl|w porzōndku}}, not {{lang|szl|wporzōndku}}

Some fully lexicalized prepositional phrases serving as adverbs or conjunctions are prescribed to be written together.{{sfn|Jaroszewicz|2022|pp=43}}

: {{lang|szl|bezto}}, "that is why; therefor"

: {{lang|szl|doprŏwdy}}, "really"

It is prescribed to use the same punctuation rules as in Polish orthography, namely:{{sfn|Jaroszewicz|2022|pp=50-54}}

1. Periods <.> are to be used
2. To end sentences in the indicative mood
3. After ordinal numbers written in Arabic numerals, e.g. {{lang|szl|2. pies}} "the second dog"
4. In initialisms
5. In dates given in Arabic numerals
6. After the hour when a time is written in Arabic numerals, e.g. 12.03
7. Commas <,> are to be used generally to separate coordinating and subordinating clauses except:
8. Before the conjunctions {{lang|szl|a, i, abo}}
9. {{lang|szl|ani}} when the subject of all verbs in the clause are the same
10. Colons <:> are to be used
11. After the name of a quoted word before the quotation
12. To specify or clarify a noun
13. Ellipses <...> are to be used
14. To show interruption or missing text
15. To show a pause in speech, usually for emphasis
16. Question marks are to be used to mark questions
17. Exclamation marks are to be used show surprise

Capitalization is used at the beginning of a sentence or to mark a proper noun, such as place names or given names, among others.{{sfn|Jaroszewicz|2022|pp=54-56}}

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• {{Cite book|title=Zasady pisowni języka śląskiego|last=Jaroszewicz|first=Henryk|year=2022|language=szl|pages=11–59}}

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Orthography

Category:Indo-European Latin-script orthographies