{{Short description|Consonant letter that doesn't correspond to a consonant sound}} {{Not to be confused with|Glottal stop}}{{Unreferenced|date=October 2025}} In orthography, a '''zero consonant''', '''silent initial''', or '''null-onset letter''' is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound, but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel (i.e. has a null onset). Some abjads, abugidas, and alphabets have zero consonants, generally because they have an orthographic rule that all syllables must begin with a consonant letter, whereas the language they transcribe allows syllables to start with a vowel. In a few cases, such as Pahawh Hmong below, the lack of a consonant letter represents a specific consonant sound, so the lack of a consonant sound requires a distinct letter to disambiguate.
==Uses== *The letter א ''aleph'' is a zero consonant in Ashkenazi Hebrew. It originally represented a glottal stop, a value it retains in other Hebrew dialects and in formal Israeli Hebrew. *In Arabic, the non-hamzated letter {{angbr|ا}} ''alif'' is often a placeholder for an initial vowel. *In Javanese script, the letter ꦲ ha is used for a vowel (silent 'h'). *In Korean hangul, the zero consonant is {{Script|Hang|ㅇ}} ({{lang|ko|이응}}) ''ieung''. It appears twice in {{Korean|hangul=오이|rr=oi|labels=no}}, "cucumber". {{Script|Hang|ㅇ}} also represents {{IPA|/ŋ/}} -''ng'' at the end of a syllable, but historically this was a distinct letter. *Burmese {{lang|my|အ}}, Khmer អ, Thai อ (อ อ่าง), Lao ອ (ອ ໂອ), Shan ဢ (ဢ ဢၢင်ႇ) are null-initial vowel-support letters. Thai อ่าง, for example, is ''ang'' "basin". (า is the vowel ''a'' and ง the consonant ''ng.'') อ and ອ pull double duty as vowels in some positions. *In Thaana of the Maldives, އ is a zero. It requires a diacritic to indicate the associated vowel: އި is ''i,'' އޮ ''o,'' etc. This is similar to an abjad, but the vowel mark is not optional. *The Lontara script for Buginese, with zero ᨕ, is similar to Thaana, except that without a vowel diacritic ᨕ represents an initial vowel ''a.'' The Lepcha script of Nepal is similar. *In the Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, a triangle represents a vowel-initial syllable. The orientation of this triangle specifies the vowel: ᐁ ''e,'' ᐃ ''i,'' ᐅ ''o,'' ᐊ ''a.'' *In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used for Hmong, an apostrophe marks a vowel-initial syllable. The absence of any letter indicates that the syllable starts with a glottal stop, a far more common occurrence. *Pahawh Hmong, a semi-syllabary, also has a zero consonant, as well as a letter for glottal stop, with the lack of an initial consonant letter indicating that the syllable begins with a {{IPA|/k/}}.
==See also== *Virama, a '''zero-vowel''' diacritic in many abugidas, such as Hindi Devanagari. The virama marks the absence of a vowel; the absence of a virama or vowel diacritic implies an inherent vowel such as {{IPA|/a/}}. *Sukun, the optional zero-vowel diacritic of Arabic. *Zero (linguistics), a broader concept *Silent letter *Smooth breathing
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Typography