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List of Latin-script digraphs
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This is a list of digraphs used in various Latin alphabets. In the list, letters with diacritics are arranged in alphabetical order according to their base, e.g. ⟨å⟩ is alphabetised with ⟨a⟩, not at the end of the alphabet, as it would be in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Substantially-modified letters, such as ⟨ſ⟩ (a variant of ⟨s⟩) and ⟨ɔ⟩ (based on ⟨o⟩), are placed at the end.
Capitalisation only involves the first letter (⟨ch⟩ becomes ⟨Ch⟩) unless otherwise stated (⟨ij⟩ becomes ⟨IJ⟩ in Dutch, and digraphs marking eclipsis in Irish, are capitalised on the second letter, i.e. ⟨mb⟩ becomes ⟨mB⟩).
Apostrophe
[edit]Source:[1]
⟨ʼb⟩ (capital ⟨ʼB⟩) is used in Bari for /ɓ/.
⟨ʼd⟩ (capital ⟨ʼD⟩) is used in Bari for /ɗ/.
⟨ʼm⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark or yin tone /m/. It is also often written as /ʔm/.
⟨ʼn⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark /n/.
⟨ʼng⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark /ŋ/.
⟨ʼny⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark /ȵ/.
⟨ʼy⟩ (capital ⟨ʼY⟩) is used in Bari and Hausa (in Nigeria) for /ʔʲ/, but in Niger, Hausa ⟨ʼy⟩ is replaced with ⟨ƴ ⟩.
A
[edit]⟨aʼ⟩ is used in Taa for the glottalized or creaky-voiced vowel /a̰/.
⟨aa⟩ is used in Dutch, Finnish and other languages with phonemic long vowels for /aː/. It was formerly used in Danish and Norwegian (and still is in some proper names) for [ɔ] or [ʌ] (in Danish), until it was replaced with ⟨å⟩. There is a ligature ⟨Ꜳ⟩. In Cantonese romanisations such as Jyutping or Yale, it is used for /aː/, contrasting with ⟨a⟩ /ɐ/.
⟨ae⟩ is used in Irish for /eː/ between two "broad" (velarized) consonants, e.g. Gael /ɡeːlˠ/ "a Gael".
- In Latin, ⟨ae⟩ originally represented the diphthong /ae/, before it was monophthongized in the Vulgar Latin period to /ɛ/; in medieval manuscripts, the digraph was frequently replaced by the ligature ⟨æ⟩.
- In Modern English, Latin loanwords with ⟨ae⟩ are generally pronounced with /iː/ (e.g. Caesar), prompting Noah Webster to shorten this to ⟨e⟩ in his 1806 spelling reform for American English.
- In German, ⟨ae⟩ is a variant of ⟨ä⟩ found in some proper names or in contexts where ⟨ä⟩ is unavailable.
- In Dutch, ⟨ae⟩ is an old spelling variant of ⟨aa⟩ but now only occurs in names of people or (less often) places and in a few loanwords from Greek and Latin.
- In Zhuang, ⟨ae⟩ represents /a/ (⟨a⟩ represents /aː/).
- In Revised Romanization of Korean, ⟨ae⟩ represents /ɛ/.
⟨ãe⟩ is used in Portuguese for stressed /ɐ̃ĩ̯/ when in the final syllable, e.g. mãe /mɐ̃ĩ̯/ and capitães /ka.pi.ˈtɐ̃ĩ̯s/.
⟨ah⟩ is used in Taa for breathy or murmured /a̤/. In German and English it typically represents a long vowel /ɑː/.
⟨ai⟩ is used in many languages, typically representing the diphthong /aɪ/. In English, due to the Great Vowel Shift, it represents /eɪ/ as in pain and rain, while in unstressed syllables it may represent /ə/, e.g. bargain and certain(ly). In French, it represents /ɛ/. In Irish and it represents /a/ between a broad and a slender consonant. In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /a/ or /ɛ/ between a broad and a slender consonant, except when preceding word-final or pre-consonant ⟨ll, m, nn⟩ (e.g. cainnt /kʰaiɲtʲ/, or pre-consonant ⟨bh, mh⟩ (e.g. aimhreit /ˈaivɾʲɪtʲ/. In the Kernowek Standard orthography of Cornish, it represents /eː/, mostly in loanwords from English such as paint.[1]
⟨aí⟩ is used in Irish for /iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨aî⟩ is used in French for /ɛː/, as in aînesse /ɛːnɛs/ or maître /mɛːtʁ/.
⟨ái⟩ is used in Irish for /aː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨ài⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /aː/ or sometimes /ɛː/, between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨ãi⟩ is used in modern Portuguese for stressed /ɐ̃ĩ̯/ before consonants, although it is very rare since this diphthong is usually found stressed only at the end of words and therefore spelt as ⟨ãe⟩. Alas, it is currently found in some words such as cãibra /ˈkɐ̃ĩ̯.bɾɐ/. In 1931, in European Portuguese's orthography, it replaced ⟨ãe⟩ in all its occurrences due to a small orthographic reform,[2] but this change was soon reverted in 1945 as part of an orthographic agreement with Brazil[3] to match Brazilian Portuguese's orthography, which still kept ⟨ãe⟩.
⟨am⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐ̃ũ̯/ in past verb conjugations word finally, /ɐ̃/ before a consonant, and /am/ before a vowel. In French, it represents /ɑ̃/ in lieu of ⟨an⟩ before ⟨b, m, p⟩.
⟨âm⟩ is used in Portuguese for a stressed /ɐ̃/ before a consonant.
⟨an⟩ is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese it is used for /ɐ̃/ before a consonant. In French it represents /ɑ̃/ (/an/ before a vowel). In Breton it represents /ɑ̃n/.
⟨aⁿ⟩ is used in Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī for /ã/.
⟨ân⟩ is used in Portuguese for a stressed /ɐ̃/ before a consonant.
⟨än⟩ is used in Tibetan Pinyin for /ɛ̃/. It is alternately written ⟨ain⟩.
⟨ån⟩ is used in Walloon, for the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/.
⟨aŋ⟩ is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel /ã/
⟨ao⟩ is used in many languages, such as Piedmontese and Mandarin Pinyin, to represent /au̯/. In Irish, it represents /iː/ (/eː/ in Munster) between broad consonants. In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /ɯː/ between broad consonants. In French, it is found in a few words such as paon representing /ɑ̃/ and as paonne representing /a/. In Malagasy, it represents /o/. In Wymysorys, it represents /œʏ̯/.
⟨ão⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐ̃ũ̯/, but only when it appears stressed, since unstressed /ɐ̃ũ̯/ is spelt ⟨am⟩ word finally, this distinction usually happens in verb conjugations. E.g. eles fizeram /ˈe.lis fiˈzɛ.ɾɐ̃ũ̯/ "they made", and eles farão /ˈe.lis fa.ˈɾɐ̃ũ̯/ "they will make".
⟨aq⟩ is used in Taa, for the pharyngealized vowel /aˤ/.
⟨au⟩ is used in English for /ɔː/. It occasionally represents /aʊ/, as in flautist. Other pronunciations are /æ/ or /ɑː/ (depending on dialect) in aunt and laugh, /eɪ/ in gauge, /oʊ/ in gauche and chauffeur, and /ə/ as in meerschaum and restaurant.
- In German (and Dutch), it represents /au/ and /ʌu/, respectively (/au/ in some northern and /ɔu/ in some southern Dutch and some Flemish dialects).
- In French, it represents /o/ or sometimes /ɔ/.
- In Icelandic and Norwegian it represents /œy/ and /æʉ/, respectively.
- In several Romanizations of Wu Chinese, it represents /ɔ/.
- In the Cornish Kernowek Standard, it is used for /ɔ(ː)/, as in caul "cabbage" or dauncya "to dance".[1]
⟨äu⟩ is used in German for the diphthong /ɔɪ/ in declension of native words with ⟨au⟩; elsewhere, /ɔɪ/ is written as ⟨eu⟩. In words, mostly of Latin origin, where ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are separated by a syllable boundary, it represents /ɛ.ʊ/, e.g. Matthäus (a German form for Matthew).
⟨aw⟩ is used in English in ways that parallel English ⟨au⟩, though it appears more often at the end of a word. In Cornish, it represents /aʊ/ or /æʊ/.[1][4][5][6] In Welsh, it represents /au/.
⟨ay⟩ is used in English in ways that parallel ⟨ai⟩, though it appears more often at the end of a word. In French, it represents /ɛj/ before a vowel (as in ayant) and /ɛ.i/ before a consonant (as in pays). In Cornish, it represents /aɪ/, /əɪ/, /ɛː/, or /eː/.[1][4][5][6]
⟨a_e⟩ (a split digraph) is used in English for /eɪ/.
B
[edit]⟨bb⟩ is used in Pinyin for /b/ in languages such as Yi, where ⟨b⟩ stands for /p/. It was used in Portuguese until 1911 in European orthography[7] and 1943 in Brazilian orthography.[8] It had the same sound as ⟨b⟩. Was used only for etymological purposes. In Hungarian, it represents geminated /bː/. In English, doubling a letter indicates that the previous vowel is short (so ⟨bb⟩ represents /b/). In ISO romanized Korean, it is used for the fortis sound /p͈/, otherwise spelled ⟨pp⟩; e.g. hobbang. In Hadza it represents the ejective /pʼ/. In several African languages it is implosive /ɓ/. In Cypriot Arabic it is /bʱ/.
⟨bd⟩ is used in English for /d/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as bdellatomy. When not initial, it represents /bd/, as in abdicate.
⟨bf⟩ is used in Bavarian and several African languages for the /b̪͡v/.
⟨bh⟩ is used in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages for a murmured voiced bilabial plosive (/bʱ/), and for equivalent sounds in other languages. In Juǀʼhoan, it's used for the similar prevoiced aspirated plosive /b͡pʰ/. It is used in Irish to represent /w/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /vʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), word-initially it marks the lenition of ⟨b⟩, e.g. mo bhád /mˠə waːd̪ˠ/ "my boat", bheadh /vʲɛx/ "would be". In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /v/, or in a few contexts as /w/~/u/ between a broad vowel and a broad consonant or between two broad vowels, as in labhair /l̪ˠau.ɪɾʲ/. In the orthography used in Guinea before 1985, ⟨bh⟩ was used in Pular (a Fula language) for the voiced bilabial implosive /ɓ/, whereas in Xhosa, Zulu, and Shona, ⟨b⟩ represents the implosive and ⟨bh⟩ represents the plosive /b/. In some orthographies of Dan, ⟨b⟩ is /b/ and ⟨bh⟩ is /ɓ/.
⟨bm⟩ is used in Cornish for an optionally pre-occluded /m/; that is, it represents either /m/ or /mː/ (in any position); /ᵇm/ (before a consonant or finally); or /bm/ (before a vowel); examples are mabm ('mother') or hebma ('this').[1][4][5][6]
⟨bp⟩ is used in Sandawe and romanized Thai for /p/. ⟨bp⟩ (capital ⟨bP⟩) is used in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨p⟩, to represent /bˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /bʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
⟨bv⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiced labiodental affricate /b̪͡v/.
⟨bz⟩ is used in Shona for a whistled sibilant cluster /bz͎/.
C
[edit]⟨cc⟩ was formerly used in Spanish-based spelling systems for Quechua and Aymara for the sound /q/, as in Ccozcco (modern Qusqu) ('Cuzco'). In Italian, ⟨cc⟩ before a front vowel represents a geminated /tʃ/, as in lacci /ˈlat.tʃi/. In Piedmontese and Lombard, ⟨cc⟩ represents the /tʃ/ sound at the end of a word. In Hadza it is the glottalized click /ᵑǀˀ/. In English crip slang, ⟨cc⟩ can sometimes replace the letters ⟨ck⟩ or ⟨ct⟩ at the ends of words, such as with thicc, protecc, succ and fucc.
⟨cg⟩ was used for [ddʒ] or [gg] in Old English (ecg in Old English sounded like 'edge' in Modern English, while frocga sounded like 'froga'), where both are long consonants. It is used for the click /ǀχ/ in Naro, and in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless dental click /ǀ/.
⟨ch⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it can represent /tʃ/, /k/, /ʃ/, /x/ or /h/. See article.
⟨çh⟩ is used in Manx for /tʃ/, such as in the word çhengey, meaning speech, as a distinction from ⟨ch⟩ which is used for /x/.
⟨čh⟩ is used in Romani and the Chechen Latin alphabet for /tʃʰ/. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for /tʃʼ/.
⟨ci⟩ is used in the Italian for /tʃ/ before the non-front vowel letters ⟨a, o, u⟩. In English, it usually represents /ʃ/ whenever it precedes any vowel other than ⟨i⟩. In Polish, it represents /t͡ɕ/ whenever it precedes a vowel, and /t͡ɕi/ whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ⟨ć⟩ appearing in other situations. In Romanian, it represents /tʃ/. The digraph is found at the end of a word (deci, atunci, copaci) or before the letters a, o, or u (ciorba, ciuleandra); the /tʃ/ sound made by the letter c in front of the letters e or i becomes /k/ in front of the three aforementioned vowels, making the addition of the letter i necessary.
⟨cj⟩ is used in Friulian for /c/ such as in words cjocolate /cokoˈlate/. It's also used in local orthographies of Lombard to represent /tʃ/ derived from Latin ⟨cl⟩.
⟨ck⟩ is used in many Germanic languages in lieu of ⟨kk⟩ or ⟨cc⟩ to indicate either a geminated /kː/, or a /k/ with a preceding (historically) short vowel. The latter is the case with English tack, deck, pick, lock, and buck (compare backer with baker). In German, ⟨ck⟩ indicates that the preceding vowel is short. Prior to the German spelling reform of 1996, it was replaced by ⟨k-k⟩ for syllabification. The new spelling rules allow only syllabification of the ⟨ck⟩ as a whole:
- Old spelling: Säcke: Säk-ke ('sacks')
- New spelling: Säcke: Sä-cke
- Among the modern Germanic languages, ⟨ck⟩ is used mainly in Alsatian, English, German, Luxembourgish, Scots, Swedish, and other West Germanic languages in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Similarly, ⟨kk⟩ is used for the same purpose in Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, and other West Germanic languages in the Netherlands and Belgium. Compare the word nickel, which is the same in many of these languages except for the customary ⟨ck⟩ or ⟨kk⟩ spelling. The word is nickel in English and Swedish, Nickel in German, and nikkel in Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic and Norwegian.
- It was also used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless dental click /ǀ/ (equivalent to ⟨cg⟩).
- It is also used in Cornish for /k/ at the end of a syllable after a short vowel; only in loanwords (mostly from English) in the Standard Written Form (SWF),[6] more widely in Kernowek Standard.[1]
⟨cn⟩ is used in English for /n/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as cnidarian. When not initial, it represents /kn/, as in acne. It is used in Scottish Gaelic for /kʰr/, and nasalises the following vowel, as in cneap /kʰrʲɛ̃hb/.
⟨cö⟩ is used in Seri for a labialized velar plosive, /kʷ/. It is placed between ⟨c⟩ and ⟨d⟩ in alphabetical order.
⟨cr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ʈʂ/.
⟨cs⟩ is used in the Hungarian for a voiceless postalveolar affricate, /tʃ/. It is considered a distinct letter, named csé, and is placed between ⟨c⟩ and ⟨d⟩ in alphabetical order. Examples of words with ⟨cs⟩ include csak ('only'), csésze ('cup'), cső ('pipe'), csípős ('peppery').
⟨ct⟩ is used in English for /t/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as ctenoid. When not initial, it represents /kt/, as in act. Is used in Portuguese for /t/ in some words, e.g. retrospecto but not in tacto.
⟨cu⟩ is used in languages such as Nahuatl (that is, based on Spanish or Portuguese orthography) for /kʷ/. In Nahuatl, ⟨cu⟩ is used before a vowel, whereas ⟨uc⟩ is used after a vowel.
⟨cw⟩ is used in modern scholarly editions of Old English for the sound /kw/, which was spelled ⟨cƿ⟩, ⟨cuu⟩ or ⟨cu⟩ in manuscripts. In Middle English these were all replaced by Latin ⟨qu⟩.
⟨cx⟩ is used in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĉ⟩, which represents /tʃ/.
⟨cz⟩ is used in Polish for /ʈ͡ʂ/ as in ⓘ ('hello'). In Kashubian, ⟨cz⟩ represents /tʃ/. In French and Catalan, historical ⟨cz⟩ contracted to the ligature ⟨ç⟩, which represents /s/ when followed by ⟨a, o, u⟩. In Hungarian, it was formerly used for the sound /ts/, which is now written ⟨c⟩. In English, ⟨cz⟩ is used to represent /tʃ/ in the loanwords Czech, and Czechia.
D
[edit]⟨dc⟩ is used in Naro for the click /ᶢǀ/, and in Juǀʼhoan for the prevoiced ejective /d͡tʃʼ/.
⟨dd⟩ is used in English to indicate a /d/ with a preceding (historically) short vowel (e.g. jaded /ˈdʒeɪdɨd/ has a "long a" while ladder /ˈlædər/ has a "short a"). In Welsh, ⟨dd⟩ represents a voiced dental fricative /ð/. It is treated as a distinct letter, named èdd, and placed between ⟨D⟩ and ⟨E⟩ in alphabetical order. In the ISO romanization of Korean, it is used for the fortis sound /t͈/, otherwise spelled ⟨tt⟩; examples are ddeokbokki and bindaeddeok. In Basque, it represents a voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, as in onddo "mushroom". In several African languages it is implosive /ɗ/. Latin delta (ẟ, lowercase only) is represented by "dd" in Modern Welsh.
⟨dg⟩ is used in English for /dʒ/ in certain contexts, such as with judgement and hedge
⟨dh⟩ is used in the Albanian, Swahili, and revived Cornish[1][4][5][6] for the voiced dental fricative /ð/. The first examples of this digraph are from the Oaths of Strasbourg, the earliest French text, where it denotes the same sound /ð/ developed mainly from intervocalic Latin -t-.[9] In early traditional Cornish ⟨ȝ⟩ (yogh), and later ⟨th⟩, were used for this purpose. Edward Lhuyd is credited for introducing the grapheme to Cornish orthography in 1707 in his Archaeologia Britannica. In Irish it represents /ɣ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) or /j/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩); at the beginning of a word it shows the lenition of ⟨d⟩, e.g. mo dhoras /mˠə ɣɔɾˠəsˠ/ "my door" (cf. doras /d̪ˠɔɾˠəsˠ/ "door"). In Scottish Gaelic it represents /ɣ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) or /ʝ/ or /j/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
- In the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, ⟨dh⟩ was used for the voiced alveolar implosive /ɗ/ in Pular. It is currently written ⟨ɗ⟩. In the orthography of Shona it is the opposite: ⟨dh⟩ represents /d/, and ⟨d⟩ /ɗ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, ⟨dh⟩ represents a dental stop, /t̪/.
- In addition, ⟨dh⟩ is used in various romanization systems. In transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages, for example, it represents the murmured voiced dental plosive /d̪ʱ/, and for equivalent sounds in other languages. In Juǀʼhoan, it's used for the similar prevoiced aspirated plosive /d͡tʰ/. In the romanization of Arabic, it denotes ⟨ﺫ⟩, which represents /ð/ in Modern Standard Arabic.
- Represents /ɖ/ in Javanese and Somali.
⟨dj⟩ is used in Faroese, Portuguese, French and many French-based orthographies for /dʒ/. In Jarai, it's used for /ʄ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, In Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop such as /ṯ/ or /ḏ/; this sound is also written ⟨dy⟩, ⟨tj⟩, ⟨ty⟩, or ⟨c⟩. It is also formerly used in Indonesian as /d͡ʒ/.
⟨dl⟩ is used in Hmong's Romanized Popular Alphabet for /tˡ/. In Navajo, it represents /tɬ/, and in Xhosa it represents /ɮ̈/. In Hadza it is ejective /cʎʼ/.
⟨dł⟩ is used in Tlingit for /tɬ/ (in Alaska, ⟨dl⟩ is used instead).
⟨dm⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and nasally released /t͡pn͡m/.
⟨dn⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for nasally released /tn/. In Cornish, it is used for an optionally pre-occluded /n/; that is, it is pronounced either /n/ or /nː/ (in any position); /ᵈn/ (before a consonant or finally); or /dn/ (before a vowel); examples are pedn ('head') or pednow ('heads').[1][4][5][6]
⟨dp⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /t͡p/.
⟨dq⟩ is used for the click /ᶢǃ/ in Naro.
⟨dr⟩ is used in Malagasy for /ɖʐ/. See ⟨tr⟩. It is used in Fijian for 'ndr' nasalized (/ɳɖr/). In some Amerindian languages it represents /ʈʂ/ as in Gwichʼin and sporatically /ɖ/ everywhere as in Paiwan and Maba
⟨ds⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the prevoiced ejective /d͡tsʼ/.
⟨dt⟩ is used in German, Swedish, and Sandawe orthography as well as the romanization of Thai for /t/. ⟨dt⟩ (capital ⟨dT⟩) is used in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨t⟩, to represent /d̪ˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /tʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
⟨dv⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiced dental affricate /d͡ð/.
⟨dx⟩ is used in some Zapotecan languages for a voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/. (It is placed between ⟨D⟩ and ⟨E⟩ in alphabetical order.) In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the prevoiced uvularized plosive /d͡tᵡ/.
⟨dy⟩ is used in Xhosa for /dʲʱ/. In Shona, it represents /dʒɡ/. In Tagalog it is used for /dʒ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop such as /ṯ/ or /ḏ/. This sound is also written ⟨tj⟩, ⟨dj⟩, ⟨ty⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨j⟩.
⟨dz⟩ is used in several languages, often to represent /d͡z/. See article.
⟨dź⟩ is used in the Polish and Sorbian alphabets for /d͡ʑ/, the voiced alveolo-palatal affricate, as in dźwięk /d͡ʑvʲɛŋk/. ⟨dź⟩ is never written before a vowel (⟨dzi⟩ is used instead, as in dziecko /d͡ʑɛt͡skɔ/ 'child').
⟨dż⟩ is used in the Polish for a voiced retroflex affricate /ɖ͡ʐ/ (e.g. ⓘ 'jam').
⟨dž⟩ is used in Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Lithuanian, and Latvian to represent /d͡ʒ/. See article.
E
[edit]⟨e′⟩ is used in Taa, where it represents the glottalised or creaky vowel /ḛ/.
⟨ea⟩ is used in many languages. In English, ⟨ea⟩ usually represents the monophthong /iː/ as in meat; due to a sound change that happened in Middle English, it also often represents the vowel /ɛ/ as in sweat. Rare pronunciations occur, like /eɪ/ in break, great, steak, and yea, and /ɔː/ in the archaic ealdorman. When followed by ⟨r⟩, it can represent the standard outcomes of the previously mentioned three vowels in this environment: /ɪər/ as in beard, /ɜːr/ as in heard, and /ɛər/ as in bear, respectively; as another exception, /ɑr/ occurs in the words hearken, heart, and hearth. It often represents two independent vowels, like /eɪ.ɑː/ (seance), /i.æ/ (reality), /i.eɪ/ (create), and /i.ɪ/ or /i.ə/ (lineage). Unstressed, it may represent /jə/ (ocean) and /ɪ/ or /ə/ (Eleanor). In Romanian, it represents the diphthong /e̯a/ as in beată ('drunk female'). In Irish, ⟨ea⟩ represents /a/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic, ⟨ea⟩ represents /ʲa/, /ɛ/ or /e/ between a slender and a broad context, depending on context or dialect. In Old English, it represents the diphthong /æɑ̯/. ⟨Ea⟩ is also the transliteration of the ⟨ᛠ⟩ rune of the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc.
⟨eá⟩ is used in Irish for /aː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨eà⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /ʲaː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨éa⟩ is used in Irish for /eː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨èa⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /ia/ between a slender and a broad consonant, unless the broad consonant is m, mh, or p, in which case it represents /ɛ/.
⟨ee⟩ represents a long mid vowel in a number of languages. In English, ⟨ee⟩ represents /iː/ as in teen. In Dutch and German, ⟨ee⟩ represents /eː/ (though it is pronounced [eɪ] in majority of northern Dutch dialects). In the Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /iː/ as in English, or /ei/ for characters which might be pronounced as /iː/ in other dialects. In Bouyei, ⟨ee⟩ is used for plain /e/, as ⟨e⟩ stands for /ɯ/.
⟨eh⟩ is used in Taa for the murmured vowel /e̤/. In the Wade-Giles transliteration of Mandarin Chinese, it is used for /ɛ/ after a consonant, as in yeh /jɛ/. In German, ⟨eh⟩ represents /eː/, as in Reh.
⟨ei⟩ This digraph was taken over from Middle High German, where it represented /ei/. It usually represents a diphthong. In Modern German, ⟨ei⟩ is predominant in representing /aɪ/, as in Einstein, while the equivalent digraph ⟨ai⟩ appears in only a few words. In English, ⟨ei⟩ can represent many sounds, including /eɪ/, as in vein, /i/ as in seize, /aɪ/ as in heist, /ɛ/ as in heifer, /æ/ as in enceinte, and /ɪ/ or /ə/ as in forfeit. See also I before e except after c. In southern and western Faroese dialects, it represents the diphthong /aɪ/, while in northern and eastern dialects, it represents the diphthong /ɔɪ/. In Portuguese, ⟨ei⟩ represents /ɐj/ in Greater Lisbon, so do ⟨éi⟩ and ⟨êi⟩, but /ej ~ e/ or /ɛj/ in Brazil, East Timor, Macau, rest of Portugal, and Portuguese-speaking African countries,
In Welsh and Afrikaans, ⟨ei⟩ represents /əi/. In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, it represents /ɛ/ or /e/, or /ɪ/ when unstressed, before a slender consonant. In Dutch, ⟨ei⟩ represents /ɛi/. In French, ⟨ei⟩ represents /ɛ/, as in seiche.
In Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language it is used to transcribe the sound /eː/.
⟨eî⟩ is used in French for /ɛː/, as in reître /ʁɛːtʁ/.
⟨éi⟩ is used in Irish for /eː/ between slender consonants.
⟨èi⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /ɛː/ or /eː/ between slender consonants.
⟨ej⟩ is used in Swedish in some short words, such as leja /leːja/ or nej /nɛj/.
⟨em⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word and /ẽ/ before a consonant. In French orthography, it represents a /ɑ̃/ when it is followed by ⟨b⟩ or ⟨p⟩.
⟨ẽm⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ẽĩ/ at the end of a word.
⟨ém⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word.
⟨êm⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word and /ẽ/ before a consonant.
⟨en⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word followed or not by an /s/ as in hífen or hifens; and for /ẽ/ before a consonant within a word. In French, it represents /ɑ̃/ or /ɛ̃/.
⟨én⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ before a consonant.
⟨ên⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ẽ/ before a consonant.
⟨eo⟩ is used in Irish for /oː/ (/ɔ/ in 4 words) between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it is used for /ʲɔ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In the Jyutping romanization of Cantonese, it represents /ɵ/, an allophone of /œː/, while in the Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /œː/. In the Revised Romanization of Korean, ⟨eo⟩ represents the open-mid back unrounded vowel /ʌ/, and in Piedmontese it is /ɛu̯/. In English ⟨eo⟩ is a rare digraph without a single pronunciation, representing /ɛ/ in feoff, jeopardy, leopard and the given names Geoffrey and Leonard, /iː/ in people, /oʊ/ in yeoman and /juː/ in the archaic feodary, while in the originally Gaelic name MacLeod it represents /aʊ/. However, usually it represents two vowels, like /iː.ə/ in leotard and galleon, /iː.oʊ/ in stereo and, /iː.ɒ/ in geodesy, and, uniquely, /uː.iː/ in geoduck.
⟨eò⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /jɔː/ word-initially, and /ɔː/ elsewhere.
⟨eq⟩ is used in Taa for the pharyngealized vowel /eˤ/.
⟨eu⟩ is found in many languages, most commonly for the diphthong /eu/. Additionally, in English, ⟨eu⟩ represents /juː/ as in neuter (/uː/ in yod-dropping accents); however, the ⟨eu⟩ in "maneuver/manoeuvre" always represents /uː/ even in most non yod-dropping accents. In German, it represents /ɔʏ/ as in Deutsch; and in French, Dutch, Breton, and Piedmontese, it represents /ø/. In Cornish, it represents either long /øː ~ œː/ and short /œ/ or long /eː/ and short /ɛ/.[1][4][5][6] In Scottish Gaelic it normally represents /ia/, as in beul /pial̪ˠ/, except when preceding ⟨m⟩ (e.g. leum /ʎeːm/) and usually ⟨b, mh, bh⟩, or in certain high-register words such as treun /t̪ʰɾeːn/ where it represents /eː/, and in southern dialects it is /eː/ in most contexts. In Yale romanization of Cantonese it represents /ɵ ~ œː/, while in the Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /œː/. In romanization of Wu Chinese, it represents /ø/, depending on the lect. In Sundanese and Acehnese, it represents /ɤ/ as in beureum ('red'). In the Revised Romanization of Korean, it represents /ɯ/.
⟨eû⟩ is used in French for /ø/, as in jeûne /ʒøn/.
⟨ew⟩ is used in English for /juː/ as in few and flew. An exception is the pronunciation /oʊ/ in sew, leading to the heteronym sewer,(/ˈsuːər/, 'drain') vs sewer (/ˈsoʊər/, 'one who sews'). In Cornish, it stands for /ɛʊ/.[1][4][5][6]
⟨êw⟩ is used in the Kernowek Standard orthography of Cornish to refer to a sound that can be either /ɛʊ/ or /oʊ/. This distribution can also be written ⟨ôw⟩.[1]
⟨ey⟩ is used in English for a variety of sounds, including /eɪ/ in they, /iː/ in key, and /aɪ/ in geyser. In Faroese, it represents the diphthong /ɛɪ/. In Cornish, it represents the diphthong /ɛɪ/ or /əɪ/.[1][4][5][6]
⟨e_e⟩ (a split digraph) indicates an English 'long e', historically /e:/ but now most commonly realised as /i:/.
⟨eⁿ⟩ is used for /ẽ/ in Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī.
F
[edit]⟨ff⟩, which may be written as the typographic ligature ⟨ff⟩, is used in English and Cornish[6] for the same sound as single ⟨f⟩, /f/. The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or for etymological reasons, in latinisms. Very rarely, ⟨ff⟩ may be found word-initially in English, such as in proper names (e.g., Rose ffrench, Jasper Fforde). In Welsh, ⟨ff⟩ represents /f/, while ⟨f⟩ represents /v/. In Welsh, ⟨ff⟩ is considered a distinct letter, and placed between ⟨f⟩ and ⟨g⟩ in alphabetical order. In medieval Breton, vowel nasalisation was represented by a following ⟨ff⟩. This notation was reformed during the 18th century, though proper names retain the former convention, which leads to occasional mispronunciation.
⟨fh⟩ is used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic for the lenition of ⟨f⟩. This happens to be silent, so that ⟨fh⟩ in Gaelic corresponds to no sound at all, e.g. the Irish phrase cá fhad /kaː ˈad̪ˠ/ "how long", where fhad is the lenited form of fad /fˠad̪ˠ/ "long". However, in three Scottish Gaelic words, fhèin, fhuair, and fhathast, it is pronounced as /h/.
⟨fx⟩ is used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ɸʔ/.
G
[edit]⟨gʻ⟩ is used in Uzbek to represent /ɣ/.
⟨gb⟩ is used in some African languages for a voiced labial-velar plosive, /ɡ͡b/.
⟨gc⟩ is used in languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu, for the click /ᶢǀ/. ⟨gc⟩ (capital ⟨gC⟩) is used in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨c⟩, to represent /g/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /ɟ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
⟨ge⟩ is used in French for /ʒ/ before ⟨a, o, u⟩ as in geôle /ʒol/.
⟨gg⟩ is used in English for /ɡ/ before ⟨y⟩, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨e⟩ (e.g. doggy). It is also used in Pinyin for /ɡ/ in languages such as Yi. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik, it represents /x/. In Greenlandic, it represents /çː/. In the ISO romanization of Korean, it is used for the fortis sound /k͈/, otherwise spelled ⟨kk⟩ (e.g. ggakdugi). In Hadza it is ejective /kxʼ/. In Italian, ⟨gg⟩ before a front vowel represents a geminated /dʒ/, as in legge /ˈled.dʒe/. In Piedmontese and Lombard, ⟨gg⟩ is an etymological spelling representing an /tʃ/ at the end of a word which is the unvoicing of an ancient /dʒ/.
⟨gh⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it can be silent or represent /ɡ/ or /f/. See article.
⟨gi⟩ is used in Vietnamese for /z/ in northern dialects and /j/ in the southern ones. In Italian, it represents /dʒ/ before the non-front vowel letters ⟨a o u⟩. In Romansh it represents /dʑ/ before ⟨a o u⟩ (written ⟨g⟩ before front vowels).
⟨gj⟩ is used in Albanian for the voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, though for Gheg speakers it represents /dʒ/. In the Arbëresh dialect, it represents the voiced velar plosive /ɡʲ/. In Norwegian and Swedish ⟨gj⟩ represents /j/ in words like gjorde ('did'). In Faroese, it represents /dʒ/. It is also used in the Romanization of Macedonian as a Latin equivalent of Cyrillic ⟨Ѓ⟩. Also, it's used in Friulian to represent /ɟ/ (whilst /dʒ/ is one of the pronunciations of the letter ⟨z⟩). It can be found in some local orthographies of Lombard to represent /dʒ/ derived from Latin ⟨gl⟩. Before the letter Đ was introduced into Gaj's Latin alphabet in 1878, the digraph ⟨gj⟩ had been used instead; and it remained in use till the beginning of the 20th century.
⟨gk⟩ is used in Sandawe and the romanization of Thai for /k/; in Limburgish it represents /ɡ/. Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph γκ for /g/, as γ is used for /ɣ/ ~ /ʝ/.
⟨gl⟩ is used in Italian and some African languages for /ʎ/.
⟨gm⟩ is used in English for /m/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as phlegm and paradigm. Between vowels, it simply represents /ɡm/, as in paradigmatic.
⟨gn⟩ is used in Latin, where it represented /ŋn/ in the classical period. Latin velar-coronal sequences like this (and also ⟨cl cr ct gd gl gr x⟩) underwent a palatal mutation to varying degrees in most Italo-Western Romance languages. For most languages that preserve the ⟨gn⟩ spelling (such as Italian and French), it represents a palatal nasal /ɲ/ (or more precisely /ɲː/ in Italian), and is similarly used in Romanization schemes such as Wugniu for /ȵ/. This was not the case in Dalmatian and the Eastern Romance languages where a different mutation changed the velar component to a labial consonant as well as the spelling to ⟨mn⟩. In Portuguese, ⟨gn⟩ represents /n/, as if there was no ⟨g⟩, e.g. assignatura, signal, impregnado and plurissignificação. It is used in Scottish Gaelic for /kr/, and nasalises the following vowel, as in gnè /krʲɛ̃ː/.
- In English, ⟨gn⟩ represents /n/ initially (see /gn/ reduction) and finally (i.e. gnome, gnu, benign, sign). When it appears between two syllables, it represents /ɡn/ (e.g. signal). In Norwegian and Swedish, ⟨gn⟩ represents /ŋn/ in monosyllabic words like agn, and between two syllables, tegne. Initially, it represents /ɡn/, e.g. Swedish gnista /ˈɡnɪsta/.
⟨gñ⟩ was used in several Spanish-derived orthographies of the Pacific for /ŋ/. It is one of several variants of the digraph ⟨ñg⟩, and is preserved in the name of the town of Sagñay, Philippines.
⟨go⟩ is used in Piedmontese for /ɡw/ (like the “gu” in Guatemala).
⟨gq⟩ is used in languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu, for the click /ᶢǃ/. In the Taa language, it represents /ɢ/.
⟨gr⟩ is used in Xhosa for /ɣ̈/.
⟨gu⟩ is used in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Catalan for /ɡ/ before front vowels ⟨i e⟩ (⟨i e y⟩ in English and French) where a "soft g" pronunciation (English /dʒ/; Spanish /x/; French, Portuguese and Catalan /ʒ/) would otherwise occur. In English, it can also be used to represent /ɡw/. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it is used for /ɡʷ/.
⟨gü⟩ is used in Spanish, Catalan and formerly Portuguese for /ɡw/ before front vowels ⟨i e⟩ where the digraph ⟨gu⟩ would otherwise represent /ɡ/.
⟨gv⟩ is used for /kʷ/ in Standard Zhuang and in Bouyei. In the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages it is used for the labialized fricative /ɣʷ/.
⟨gw⟩ is used in various languages for /ɡʷ/, and in Dene Suline it represents /kʷ/.
⟨ǥw⟩, capital ⟨Ǥw⟩ (or ⟨G̱w⟩), is used in Tlingit for /qʷ/ (in Alaska); in Canada, this sound is represented by ⟨ghw⟩.
⟨gx⟩ is used in languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu, for the click /ᶢǁ/. In Esperanto, it is an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĝ⟩, which represents /dʒ/.
⟨gy⟩ is used in Hungarian for a voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/. In Hungarian, the letter's name is gyé. It is considered a single letter, and acronyms keep the digraph intact. The letter appears frequently in Hungarian words, such as the word for "Hungarian" itself: magyar. In the old orthography of Bouyei, it was used for /tɕ/. It is also commonly used in Burmese romanization schemes to represent /dʒ/.
⟨gǃ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced alveolar click /ᶢǃ/.
⟨gǀ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced dental click /ᶢǀ/.
⟨gǁ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced lateral click /ᶢǁ/.
⟨gǂ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced palatal click /ᶢǂ/.
H
[edit]⟨hh⟩ is used in Xhosa to write the murmured glottal fricative /ɦ̤/, though this is often written ⟨h⟩. In the Iraqw language, ⟨hh⟩ is the voiceless epiglottal fricative /ʜ/, and in Chipewyan it is a velar/uvular /χ/. In Esperanto orthography, it is an official surrogate of ⟨ĥ⟩, which represents /x/.
⟨hj⟩ is used in the Italian dialect of Albanian for /xʲ/. In Faroese, it represents either /tʃ/ or /j/, and in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, it represents /j/. In Icelandic it is used to denote /ç/.
⟨hl⟩ is used for /ɬ/ or /l̥/ in various alphabets, such as the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong (/ɬ/) and Icelandic (/l̥/). See also reduction of Old English /hl/.
⟨hm⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /m̥/.
⟨hn⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /n̥/. It is also used in Icelandic to denote the same phoneme. See also reduction of Old English /hn/.
⟨hr⟩ is used for /ɣ/ in Bouyei. In Icelandic it is used for /r̥/. See also reduction of Old English /hr/.
⟨hs⟩ is used in the Wade-Giles transcription of Mandarin Chinese for the sound /ɕ/, equivalent to Pinyin ⟨x⟩.
⟨hu⟩ is used primarily in the Classical Nahuatl language, in which it represents the /w/ sound before a vowel; for example, Wikipedia in Nahuatl is written Huiquipedia. After a vowel, ⟨uh⟩ is used. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, ⟨hu⟩ was used for /ʁʷ/, similar to French roi. The sequence ⟨hu⟩ is also found in Spanish words such as huevo or hueso; however, in Spanish this is not a digraph but a simple sequence of silent ⟨h⟩ and the vowel ⟨u⟩.
⟨hv⟩ is used Faroese and Icelandic for /kv/ (often /kf/), generally in wh-words, but also in other words, such as Faroese hvonn. In the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages it is used for the supposed fricative /ɣ͜β/.
⟨hw⟩ is used in modern editions of Old English for /hw/, originally spelled ⟨huu⟩ or ⟨hƿ⟩ (the latter with the wynn letter). In its descendants in modern English, it is now spelled ⟨wh⟩ (see there for more details). It is used in some orthographies of Cornish for /ʍ/.[5][6]
⟨hx⟩ is used in Pinyin for /h/ in languages such as Yi (⟨h⟩ alone represents the fricative /x/), and in Nambikwara it is a glottalized /hʔ/. In Esperanto orthography, it is an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĥ⟩, which represents /x/.
⟨hy⟩ is used in Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language to transcribe the sound /ç/, which is the syllable hi before a y-vowel, such as hya, hyu, and hyo, which appear in Chinese loanwords. Was also used in Portuguese until 1947. It appeared in words like: Hydroginástica and Hypóthese.
I
[edit]⟨i′⟩ is used in Taa to represent the glottalized or creaky vowel /ḭ/.
⟨ia⟩ is used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic for the diphthong /iə/.
⟨ie⟩ is used in English, where it usually represents the /aɪ/ sound as in pries and allied or the /iː/ sound as in priest and rallied. Followed by an ⟨r⟩, these vowels follow the standard changes to /aɪə/ and /ɪə/, as in brier and bier. Unique pronunciations are /ɪ/ in sieve, /ɛ/ in friend, and /eɪ/ in lingerie. Unstressed it can represent /jə/, as in spaniel and conscience, or /ɪ/ or /ə/ as in mischief and hurriedly. It also can represent many vowel combinations, including /aɪə/ in diet and client, /aɪɛ/ in diester and quiescent, /iːə/ in alien and skier, /iːɛ/ in oriental and hygienic, and /iː.iː/ in British medieval.
- In Dutch and Afrikaans, ⟨ie⟩ represents the tense vowel /i/. In German, it may represent the lengthened vowel /iː/ as in Liebe (love) as well as the vowel combination /iə/ as in Belgien (Belgium). In Latvian and Lithuanian, ⟨ie⟩ is considered two letters for all purposes and represents /iæ̯/, commonly (although less precisely) transcribed as /i̯e/. In Maltese, ⟨ie⟩ is a distinct letter and represents a long close front unrounded vowel, /iː/ or /iɛ/. In Pinyin it is used to write the vowel /e/ in languages such as Yi, where ⟨e⟩ stands for /ɛ/. In Old English ⟨ie⟩ was one of the common diphthongs, the umlauted version of ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨eo⟩. Its value is not entirely clear, and in Middle English it had become /e/.
⟨îe⟩ is used in Afrikaans for /əːə/.
⟨ig⟩ is used in Catalan for /t͡ʃ/ (ch as in cheese) in the coda.
⟨ih⟩, is used in Taa to represent the breathy or murmured vowel /i̤/. It is also used in Tongyong Pinyin and Wade-Giles transcription for the fricative vowels of Mandarin Chinese, which are spelled ⟨i⟩ in Hanyu Pinyin.
⟨ii⟩ is used in many languages such as Portuguese (e.g. Aniilar, Sacerdócii) and Finnish (e.g. Riikka, Niinistö, Siitala, Riikkeli), Italian (e.g. Riina), Estonian (e.g. Riik), Scots (e.g. Auld Nii, Iisay), with phonemic long vowels for /iː/.
⟨ií⟩ is used in Portuguese for /iji/. In Portuguese, when forming the superlative absolute synthetic form of adjectives that end in "-io," they often end up with "ii" in the spelling. This happens because the "-íssimo(a)" suffix is added directly to the adjective (e.g. feio(a) -> feiíssimo(a), sério(a) -> seriíssimo(a)).
⟨ij⟩ is used in Dutch for /ɛi/. See article.
⟨il⟩ is used in French for /j/, historically /ʎ/, as in ail /aj/ (approximately eye in English) "garlic". Can also be written as ⟨ille⟩ as in vieille /vjɛj/.
⟨im⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ĩ/.
⟨ím⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ĩ/ before a consonant.
⟨ĩm⟩ is used in Portuguese for the diphthong /ĩə/.
⟨in⟩ is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese before a consonant, and in many West African languages, it is /ĩ/, while in French it is /ɛ̃/.
⟨ín⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ĩ/ before a consonant.
⟨în⟩ is used in French to write a vowel sound /ɛ̃/ that was once followed by a historical ⟨s⟩, as in vous vîntes /vu vɛ̃t/ "you came".
⟨iŋ⟩ is used in Lakota for the nasal vowel /ĩ/.
⟨io⟩ is used in Irish for /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it is used for /i/ and sometimes /(j)ũ(ː)/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨ío⟩ is used in Irish for /iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨ìo⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /iː/ and /iə/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨iq⟩ is used in Taa to represent the pharyngealized vowel /iˤ/.
⟨iu⟩ is used in Irish for /ʊ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic, it is used for /(j)u/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Mandarin pinyin, it is /i̯ou̯/ after a consonant. (In initial position, this is spelled ⟨you⟩).
⟨iú⟩ is used in Irish for /uː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨iù⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /(j)uː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨iw⟩ is used in Welsh and Cornish for the diphthong /iʊ/ or /ɪʊ/.[4][5][6]
⟨ix⟩ is used in Catalan for /ʃ/ (Eastern Catalan) or /jʃ/ (Western Catalan) after a vowel.
⟨i_e⟩ (a split digraph) indicates an English 'long i', historically /iː/ but now most commonly realised as /aɪ/.
J
[edit]⟨jh⟩ is used in Walloon to write a consonant that is variously /h/, /ʒ/ or /ç/, depending on the dialect. In Tongyong pinyin, it represents /tʂ/, written ⟨zh⟩ in standard pinyin. ⟨jh⟩ is also the standard transliteration for the Devanāgarī letter झ /dʒʱ/. In Esperanto, it is an official surrogate of ⟨ĵ⟩, which represents /ʒ/. In Latin American Spanish, it is sometimes used in first names (like Jhon and Jhordan) to represent /ɟʝ/ and distinguish it from the typical sound of ⟨j⟩ in Spanish, /x/.
⟨jj⟩ is used in Pinyin for /dʑ/ in languages such as Yi. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound /tɕ͈/. In Hadza it is ejective /tʃʼ/.
⟨jö⟩ is used as a letter of the Seri alphabet, where it represents a labialized velar fricative, /xʷ/. It is placed between J and L in alphabetical order.
⟨jr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ɖʐ/.
⟨jx⟩ is used in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĵ⟩, which represents /ʒ/.
K
[edit]⟨k'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /kʼ/.
⟨kg⟩ is used for /kχ/ in southern African languages such as Setswana and Sotho. For instance, the Kalahari is spelled Kgalagadi /kχalaχadi/ in Setswana.
⟨kh⟩, in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, represents the aspirated voiceless velar plosive (/kʰ/). For most other languages, [better source needed] it represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/, for example in transcriptions of the letter ḫāʾ (خ) in standard Arabic, standard Persian, and Urdu, Cyrillic Х, х (kha), Spanish ⟨j⟩, as well as the Hebrew letter kaf (כ) in instances when it is lenited. When used for transcription of the letter ḥet (ח) in Sephardic Hebrew, it represents the voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/. In Canadian Tlingit it represents /qʰ/, which in Alaska is written k. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for /kʼ/.
⟨kj⟩ is used Swedish and Norwegian for /ɕ/ or /ç/. See also ⟨tj⟩. In Faroese, it represents /tʃ/. In the romanization of Macedonian, it represents /c/.
⟨kk⟩ is used in romanized Korean for the fortis sound /k͈/, in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for ejective /kʼ/, and in Cypriot Arabic for /kʰː/.
⟨kl⟩ is used in Zulu to write a sound variously realized as /kʟ̥ʼ/ or /kxʼ/.
⟨km⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye doubly articulated and nasally released /k͡pŋ͡m/.
⟨kn⟩ is used in English to write the word-initial sound /n/ (formerly pronounced /kn/) in some words of Germanic origin, such as knee and knife. It is used in Yélî Dnye for nasally released /kŋ/.
⟨kp⟩ is used as a letter in some African languages, where it represents a voiceless labial-velar plosive /k͡p/.
⟨kr⟩ is used in Xhosa for /kxʼ/.
⟨ks⟩ is used in Cornish for either /ks/ or /ɡz/.[5][6]
⟨ku⟩ is used in Purépecha for /kʷ/. It also had that value in the Ossete Latin alphabet.
⟨kv⟩ is used for /kwh/ in some dialects of Zhuang.
⟨kw⟩ is used in various languages for the labialized velar consonant /kʷ/, and in Dene Suline (Chipewyan) for /kwh/. Used informally in English for phonemic spelling of qu, as in kwik (from quick), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European */ɡʷ/.
⟨ḵw⟩ is used in Alaskan Tlingit for /qwh/, which in Canada is written ⟨khw⟩.
⟨kx⟩ in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /kʔ/, and in Juǀʼhoan for the ejective /kxʼ/.
⟨ky⟩ is used in Tibetan Pinyin for /tʃʰ/. It is commonly used in Burmese romanization schemes to represent /tʃ/ (⟨ch⟩ is already used to represent aspirated /tʃʰ/).
L
[edit]⟨lh⟩, in Occitan, Gallo, and Portuguese, represents a palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/. In many Indigenous languages of the Americas it represents a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages it represents a dental lateral, /l̪/. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial ⟨lh⟩ indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in /l/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨l⟩. In Middle Welsh it was sometimes used to represent the sound /ɬ/ as well as ⟨ll⟩, in modern Welsh it has been replaced by ⟨ll⟩. In Tibetan, it represents the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant /ɬ/, as in Lhasa.
⟨lj⟩ is a letter in some Slavic languages, such as the Latin orthographies of Serbo-Croatian, where it represents a palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/. For example, the word ljiljan is pronounced /ʎiʎan/. Ljudevit Gaj first used the digraph ⟨lj⟩ in 1830; he devised it by analogy with a Cyrillic digraph, which developed into the ligature ⟨љ⟩. In Swedish, it represents /j/ in initial position e.g. ljus.
- The sound /ʎ/ is written ⟨gl⟩ in Italian, in Castilian Spanish and Catalan as ⟨ll⟩, in Portuguese as ⟨lh⟩, in some Hungarian dialects as ⟨lly⟩, and in Latvian as ⟨ļ⟩. In Czech and Slovak, it is often transcribed as ⟨ľ⟩; it is used more frequently in the latter language. While there are dedicated Unicode codepoints, U+01C7 (LJ), U+01C8 (Lj) and U+01C9 (lj), these are included for backwards compatibility (with legacy encodings for Serbo-Croatian which kept a one-to-one correspondence with Cyrillic Љљ) and modern texts use a sequence of Basic Latin characters.
⟨ll⟩ and ⟨l·l⟩ are used in several languages. See article.
⟨ḷḷ⟩ is used in Asturian for a sound that was historically /ʎ/ but which is now an affricate, [t͡s], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ].
⟨lr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ɭ /.
⟨lv⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /l͜β/.
⟨lw⟩ is used for /lʷ/ in Arrernte.
⟨lx⟩ in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀl/.
M
[edit]⟨mb⟩, in many African languages, represents /mb/ or /ᵐb/. In English, it represents /m/ when final, as in lamb (see reduction of /mb/). In Standard Zhuang and in Bouyei, ⟨mb⟩ is used for /ɓ/. ⟨mb⟩ (capital ⟨mB⟩) is used word initially in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨b⟩, to represent /mˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /mʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩); e.g. ár mbád /aːɾˠ mˠaːd̪ˠ/ "our boat" (cf. /bˠaːd̪ˠ/ "boat"), i mBaile Átha Cliath "in Dublin".
⟨md⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and prenasalized /n͡mt͡p/.
⟨mf⟩, in many African languages, represents /mf/ or /ᵐf/.
⟨mg⟩ is used in Pinyin for /ŋɡ/ in languages such as Yi, where the more common digraph ⟨ng⟩ is restricted to /ŋ/. It is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and prenasalized /ŋ͡mk͡p/.
⟨mh⟩ is used in Irish, as the lenition of ⟨m⟩, to represent /w/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /vʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), e.g. mo mháthair /mˠə ˈwaːhəɾʲ/ "my mother" (cf. máthair /ˈmˠaːhəɾʲ/ 'mother'). In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /v/, or in a few contexts as /w/~/u/ between a broad vowel and a broad consonant or between two broad vowels, as in reamhar /rˠɛ̃ũ.əɾ/.. In Welsh it stands for the nasal mutation of ⟨p⟩ and represents the voiceless /m̥/; for example fy mhen /və m̥ɛn/ 'my head' (cf. pen /pɛn/ 'head'). In both languages it is considered a sequence of the two letters ⟨m⟩ and ⟨h⟩ for purposes of alphabetization. In Shona, Juǀʼhoan and several other languages, it is used for a murmured /m̤/. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial ⟨mh⟩- indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in /m/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨m⟩-. In several languages, such as Gogo, it's a voiceless /m̥/.
⟨ml⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /mˡ/.
⟨mm⟩ is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized /ˀm/. It is used in Cornish for an optionally pre-occluded /m/; that is, it is pronounced either /m/ or /mː/ (in any position); /ᵇm/ (before a consonant or finally); or /bm/ (before a vowel); examples are mamm ('mother') or hemma ('this').[4][5][6]
⟨mn⟩ is used in English to write the word-initial sound /n/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as mnemonic. When final, it represents /m/, as in damn or /im/ as in hymn, and between vowels it represents /m/ as in damning, or /mn/ as in damnation (see /mn/-reduction). In French it represents /n/, as in automne and condamner.
⟨mp⟩, in many African languages, represents /mp/ or /ᵐp/. Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph μπ for /b/, as β is used for /v/. In Mpumpong of Cameroon, ⟨mp⟩ is a plain /p/.
⟨mq⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for a pharyngealized or perhaps creaky /m̰/.
⟨mt⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and prenasalized /n̪͡mt̪͡p/.
⟨mv⟩, in many African languages, represents /mv/ or /ᵐv/.
⟨mw⟩ is used for /mʷ/ in Arrernte.
⟨mx⟩ is used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀm/.
N
[edit]⟨nʼ⟩ is used in Xhosa and Shona for /ŋ/. Since ⟨ʼ⟩ is not a letter in either language, ⟨nʼ⟩ is not technically a digraph.
⟨nb⟩ is used in Pinyin for /mb/ in languages such as Yi. It is also used in Fula in Guinea for /ᵐb/ (written as ⟨mb⟩ in other countries).
⟨nc⟩ is used in various alphabets. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents the sound /ɲɟ/. In Tharaka it is /ntʃ/. In Xhosa and Zulu it represents the click /ᵑǀ/.
⟨nd⟩ (capital ⟨Nd⟩) is used in many African languages to represent /nd/ or /ⁿd/. In Standard Zhuang and Bouyei, it represents /ɗ/. ⟨nd⟩ (capital ⟨nD⟩) is used word initially in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨d⟩, to represent /n̪ˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /n̠ʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), e.g. ár ndoras /aːɾˠ ˈn̪ˠɔɾˠəsˠ/ "our door" (cf. doras /ˈd̪ˠɔɾˠəsˠ/ "door"), i nDoire "in Derry".
⟨nf⟩, equivalent to ⟨mf⟩ for /mf/ or /ᵐf/. In Rangi ⟨nf⟩ is /ᵐf/ while ⟨mf⟩ is /m.f/.
⟨ng⟩, in Sino-Tibetan languages,[10] as in English and several other European and derived orthographies (for example Vietnamese),[11] generally represents the velar nasal /ŋ/.[12][13] It is considered a single letter in many Austronesian languages (Māori, Tagalog, Tongan, Gilbertese, Tuvaluan, Indonesian, Chamorro),[14] Welsh, and Rheinische Dokumenta, for velar nasal /ŋ/; and in some African languages (Lingala, Bambara, Wolof) for prenasalized /ɡ/ (/ⁿɡ/).[15][16]
- For the development of the pronunciation of this digraph in English, see NG-coalescence and G-dropping.
- Finnish uses ⟨ng⟩ to represent the phonemically long velar nasal /ŋː/ in contrast to ⟨nk⟩ /ŋk/, which is its "strong" form under consonant gradation, a type of lenition. Weakening /k/ produces an archiphonemic "velar fricative", which, as a velar fricative does not exist in Standard Finnish, is assimilated to the preceding /ŋ/, producing /ŋː/. (No /ɡ/ is involved at any point, despite the spelling ⟨ng⟩). The digraph ⟨ng⟩ is not an independent letter, but it is an exception to the phonemic principle, one of the few in standard Finnish.
- ⟨ng⟩ (capital ⟨nG⟩) is used word-initially in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨g⟩, to represent /ŋ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) or /ɲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), e.g. ár ngalar /aːɾˠ ˈŋalˠəɾˠ/ "our illness" (cf. /ˈɡalˠəɾˠ/), i nGaillimh "in Galway".
- In Tagalog and other Philippine languages, ⟨ng⟩ represented the prenasalized sequence /ŋɡ/ during the Spanish era. The velar nasal, /ŋ/, was written in a variety of ways, namely "n͠g", "ñg", "gñ" (as in Sagñay), and—after a vowel—at times "g̃". During the standardization of Tagalog in the early part of the 20th century, ⟨ng⟩ became used for the velar nasal /ŋ/, while prenasalized /ŋɡ/ came to be written ⟨ngg⟩. Furthermore, ⟨ng⟩ is also used for a common genitive particle pronounced /naŋ/, to differentiate it from an adverbial particle nang.
- In Uzbek, it is considered as a separate letter, being the last (twenty-ninth) letter of the Uzbek alphabet. It is followed by the apostrophe (tutuq belgisi).
- Its alphabetical position is either 8 (after G) or 17 (after N).
⟨ńg⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik to write the voiceless nasal sound /ŋ̊/.
⟨ñg⟩, or more precisely ⟨n͠g⟩, was a digraph in several Spanish-derived orthographies of the Pacific, such as Tagalog[17] and Chamorro,[18] where it represented the sound /ŋ/, as opposed to ⟨ng⟩, which originally represented /ŋɡ/. An example is Chamorro agan͠gñáijon (modern agangñaihon) "to declare". Besides ⟨ñg⟩, variants of ⟨n͠g⟩ include ⟨gñ⟩ (as in Sagñay), ⟨ng̃⟩, and a ⟨g̃⟩, that is preceded by a vowel (but not a consonant). It has since been replaced by the trigraph ⟨ngg⟩ or ⟨ng⟩ (see above).
⟨ngʼ⟩ is used for /ŋ/ in Swahili and languages with Swahili-based orthographies. Since ⟨ʼ⟩ is not a letter in Swahili, ⟨ngʼ⟩ is technically a digraph, not a trigraph.
⟨nh⟩ is used in several languages. See article.
⟨ni⟩ in Polish, it usually represents ɲ whenever it precedes a vowel, and ɲi whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ń appearing in other situations. (In some cases it may represent also ɲj before a vowel; for a better description, when, see the relevant section in the article on Polish orthography).
⟨nj⟩ is a letter in the Latin orthographies of Albanian, Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian. Ljudevit Gaj, a Croat, first used this digraph in 1830. In all of these languages, it represents the palatal nasal /ɲ/. For example, the Croatian and Serbian word konj "horse" is pronounced /koɲ/. The digraph was created in the 19th century by analogy with a digraph of Cyrillic, which developed into the ligature ⟨њ⟩. While there are dedicated Unicode codepoints, U+01CA (NJ), U+01CB (Nj) and U+01CC (nj), these are included for backwards compatibility (with legacy encodings for Serbo-Croatian which kept a one-to-one correspondence with Cyrillic Њњ) and modern texts use a sequence of Basic Latin characters.
- In Faroese, it generally represents /ɲ/, although in some words it represent /nj/, like in banjo. It is also used in some languages of Africa and Oceania where it represents a prenazalized voiced postalveolar affricate or fricative, /ⁿdʒ/ or /ⁿʒ/. In Malagasy, it represents /ⁿdz/.
- Other letters and digraphs of the Latin alphabet used for spelling this sound are ⟨ń⟩ (in Polish), ⟨ň⟩ (in Czech and Slovakian), ⟨ñ⟩ (in Spanish), ⟨nh⟩ (in Portuguese and Occitan), ⟨gn⟩ (in Italian and French), and ⟨ny⟩ (in Hungarian, among others).
⟨nk⟩ is used in many Bantu languages like Lingala, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, for /ŋk/ or /ᵑk/.[19] In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it distinguishes a prenasalized velar stop, /ŋ͡k ~ ŋ͡ɡ/, from the nasal /ŋ/.
⟨nm⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /n͡m/.
⟨ńm⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /n̪͡m/.
⟨nn⟩ is used in Irish to represent the fortis nasals /n̪ˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /n̠ʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩). It is used in Scottish Gaelic to represent /n̪ˠ/ beside ⟨a, o, u⟩ and /ɲ/ beside ⟨e, i⟩. In Spanish historical ⟨nn⟩ has contracted to the ligature ⟨ñ⟩ and represents the sound /ɲ/. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, final -nn indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in /n/, which is otherwise spelled -n. It is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized /ˀn/. In Piedmontese, it is /ŋn/ in the middle of a word, and /n/ at the end. In Cornish, it is used for an optionally pre-occluded /n/; that is, it is pronounced either /n/ or /nː/ (in any position); /ᵈn/ (before a consonant or finally); or /dn/ (before a vowel); examples are penn ('head') or pennow ('heads').[4][5][6]
⟨np⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /mb/.
⟨nq⟩ is used in various alphabets. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents the sound /ɴɢ/. In Xhosa and Zulu it represents the click /ᵑǃ/. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, final -nq indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in /ŋ/, which is otherwise spelled -ng.
⟨nr⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /ɳɖ/. In the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages it is /ɳ /.
⟨ns⟩, in many African languages, represents /ns/ or /ⁿs/.
⟨nt⟩ is a letter present in many African languages where it represents /nt/ or /ⁿt/. Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph ντ for /d/, as δ is used for /ð/.
⟨nv⟩, equivalent to ⟨mv⟩ for /mv/ or /ᵐv/.
⟨nw⟩ is used in Igbo for /ŋʷ/, and in Arrernte for /nʷ/.
⟨nx⟩ is used for the click /ᵑǁ/ in Xhosa and Zulu, and in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀn/.
⟨ny⟩ is used in several languages for /ɲ/. See article.
⟨nz⟩, in many African languages, represents /nz/ ~ /ⁿz/, /ndz/ ~ /ⁿdz/, /nʒ/ ~ /ⁿʒ/, or /ndʒ/ ~ /ⁿdʒ/.
⟨nǃ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the alveolar nasal click /ᵑǃ/.
⟨nǀ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the dental nasal click /ᵑǀ/.
⟨nǁ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the lateral nasal click /ᵑǁ/.
⟨nǂ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the palatal nasal click /ᵑǂ/.
⟨n-⟩ is used for medial /ŋ/ in Piedmontese.
O
[edit]⟨o′⟩ is used for /o/ and /ø/ in Uzbek, with the preferred typographical form being ⟨oʻ⟩ (Cyrillic ⟨ў⟩). Technically it is not a digraph in Uzbek, since ⟨ʻ⟩ is not a letter of the Uzbek alphabet, but rather a typographic convention for a diacritic. In handwriting the letter is written as ⟨õ⟩.
It is also used in Taa, for the glottalized or creaky vowel /o̰/.
⟨oa⟩ is used in English, where it commonly represents the /oʊ/ sound as in road, coal, boast, coaxing, etc. In Middle English, where the digraph originated, it represented /ɔː/, a pronunciation retained in the word broad and derivatives, and when the digraph is followed by an "r", as in soar and bezoar. The letters also represent two vowels, as in koala /oʊ.ɑː/, boas /oʊ.ə/, coaxial /oʊ.æ/, oasis /oʊ.eɪ/, and doable /uː.ə/. In Malagasy, it is occasionally used for /o/.
⟨oe⟩ is found in many languages. In English, it represents the /oʊ/ sound as in hoe and sometimes the /uː/ sound as in shoe. It may also represent the /ɛ/ sound in AmE pronunciation of Oedipus, (o)esophagus (also in BrE), and (o)estrogen, /eɪ/ in boehmite (AmE) and surnames like Boehner and Groening (as if spelled Bayner and Gray/Greyning respectively), and /iː/ in foetus (BrE and CoE) and some speakers' pronunciation of Oedipus and oestrogen. ⟨oe⟩ represents /u/ in Afrikaans and Dutch, e.g. doen; it also represented the same phoneme in the Indonesian language before the 1972 spelling reform. Ligatured to ⟨œ⟩ in French, it stands for the vowels /œ/ (as in œil /œj/) and /e/ (as in œsophage /ezɔfaʒ ~ øzɔfaʒ/). It is an alternative way to write ⟨ö⟩ or ⟨ø⟩ in German or Scandinavian languages when this character is unavailable. In romanization of Wu Chinese and in Royal Thai General System of Transcription, it represents /ɤ/. In the ILE romanization of Cantonese it represents the vowel /ɵ ~ œː/, while in the Jyutping romanisation of Cantonese it represents /œː/, and in Zhuang it is used for /o/ (⟨o⟩ is used for /oː/). In Piedmontese, it is /wɛ/. In the Kernewek Kemmyn orthography of Cornish, it is used for a phoneme which is [oː] long, [oˑ] mid-length, and [ɤ] short.[20]
⟨oê⟩ is used in French to write the vowel sound /wa/ in a few words before what had historically been an ⟨s⟩, mostly in words derived from poêle /pwal/ "stove". The diacriticless variant, ⟨oe⟩, rarely represents this sound except in words related to moelle /mwal/ (rarely spelt moëlle).
⟨ôe⟩ is used in Afrikaans for the vowel /ɔː/.
⟨õe⟩ is used in Portuguese for /õĩ̯/. It is used in plural forms of some words ended in ⟨ão⟩, such as anão–anões and campeão–campeões.
⟨oh⟩ is used in Taa, for the breathy or murmured vowel /o̤/.
⟨oi⟩ is used in various languages. In English, it represents the /ɔɪ̯/ sound as in coin and join. In French, it represents /wa/, which was historically – and still is in some cases – written ⟨oy⟩. In Irish it is used for /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /ɪ/, /əi̯/, /iː/, /oː/ between a broad and a slender consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it is used for /ɔ/, /ɤ/, except before ⟨ll, m, nn⟩ word-finally or pre-consonant, where it is /əi/. In Piedmontese, it is /ui̯/.
⟨oí⟩ is used in Irish for /iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨oî⟩ is used in French to write /wa/ before what had historically been an ⟨s⟩, as in boîtier or cloître.
⟨ói⟩ is used in Irish for /oː/ between a broad and a slender consonant. It is also used in Portuguese.
⟨òi⟩ is used in Piedmontese for /oi̯/. It is used in Scottish Gaelic for /oː/ or /ɔː/
⟨om⟩ is used in Portuguese for /õ/, and in French to write /ɔ̃/.
⟨ôm⟩ is used in Brazilian Portuguese for /õ/ before a consonant.
⟨on⟩ is used in Portuguese for /õ/ before a consonant, and in French to write /ɔ̃/.
⟨ôn⟩ is used in Portuguese for /õ/ before a consonant.
⟨ön⟩ is used in Tibetan Pinyin for /ø̃/. It is alternately written oin.
⟨oo⟩ is used in many languages. In English, it generally represents sounds which historically descend from the Middle English pronunciation /oː/. After the Great Vowel Shift, this came to typically represent /uː/ as in "moon" and "food". Subsequently, in a handful of common words like "good" and "flood" the vowel was shortened to ⟨/u/⟩, and after the Middle English FOOT–STRUT split, these became /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ respectively. Like in Middle English, the digraph's pronunciation is /oː/ in most other languages. In German and Dutch, the digraph represents /oː/. In Cornish, it represents either /oː/ or /uː/. In Tâi-lô orthography for Taiwanese Hokkien, it represents /ɔ/.[1][4][5][6]
⟨oq⟩ Is used in Taa, for the pharyngealized vowel /oˤ/.
⟨or⟩, in Daighi tongiong pingim, represents mid central vowel /ə/ or close-mid back rounded vowel /o/ in Taiwanese Hokkien.[21][22]
⟨ou⟩ is used in English for the diphthong /aʊ/, as in out /aʊt/. This spelling is generally used before consonants, with ⟨ow⟩ being used instead before vowels and at the ends of words. Occasionally ⟨ou⟩ may also represent other vowels – /ʌ/ as in trouble, /oʊ/ as in soul, /ʊ/ as in would, /uː/ as in group, or /juː/ as in the alternate American pronunciation of coupon. The ⟨ou⟩ in out originally represented /uː/, as in French, and its pronunciation has mostly changed as part of the Great Vowel Shift. However, the /uː/ sound was kept before ⟨p⟩.
In Dutch ⟨ou⟩ represents /ʌu/ in the Netherlands or /ɔu/ in Flanders. In Cornish, it represents [uː], [u], or [ʊ].[1][4][5][6] In French, it represents the vowel /u/, as in vous /vu/ "you", or the approximant consonant /w/, as in oui /wi/ "yes".
In Portuguese this digraph stands for the close-mid back rounded vowel /o/ or for the falling diphthong /ou/, according to dialect.
⟨ou⟩ is used In Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language to transcribe the sound /oː/.
⟨oû⟩ is used in French to write the vowel sound /u/ before what had historically been an ⟨s⟩, as in soûl /su/ "drunk" (also spelt soul).
⟨ow⟩, in English, usually represents the /aʊ/ sound as in coward, sundowner, and now or the /oʊ/ sound, as in froward, landowner, and know. An exceptional pronunciation is /ɒ/ in knowledge and rowlock. There are many English heteronyms distinguished only by the pronunciation of this digraph, like: bow (front of ship or weapon), bower (a dwelling or string player), lower (to frown or drop), mow (to grimace or cut), row (a dispute or line-up), shower (rain or presenter), sow (a pig or to seed), tower (a building or towboat). In Cornish, this represents the diphthong /ɔʊ/[6] or /oʊ/;[1][4][5] before vowels, it can also represent /uː/.[1][4][5][6]
⟨ôw⟩ is used in the Kernowek Standard orthography of Cornish to refer to a sound that can be either /ɛʊ/ or /oʊ/. This distribution can also be written ⟨êw⟩.[1]
⟨oy⟩ is found in many languages. In English and Faroese, ⟨oy⟩ represents the diphthong /ɔɪ/. Examples in English include toy and annoy. In Cornish, it represents the diphthong /oɪ/[1][4][5]~/ɔɪ/[6]; in the words oy ('egg') and moy ('much'), it can also be pronounced /uɪ/[1][4][5]~/ʊɪ/[6].
⟨oŷ⟩ is an obsolete digraph once used in French.
⟨øy⟩ is used in Norwegian for /øʏ/.
⟨o_e⟩ (a split digraph) indicates an English 'long o', historically /ɔ:/ but now most commonly realised as /oʊ/.
P
[edit]⟨p'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /pʼ/.
⟨pf⟩ is used in German for /pf/, e.g. Pferd "horse", Apfel "apple", and Knopf "button". In English, usually in recent loan words from German, it generally represents /f/, such as in Pfizer.
⟨ph⟩ in used in English and French for /f/, mostly in words derived from Greek, but also some words derived from Vietnamese. In Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh it represents the lenition/Aspirate mutation of ⟨p⟩. It represents /f/ in Vietnamese, where ⟨f⟩ is not used.
⟨pl⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, for /pˡ/.
⟨pm⟩ is used for /ᵖm/ in Arrernte.
⟨pn⟩ is used in English for /n/ initially in words of Greek origin such as pneumatic.
⟨pp⟩ is used in romanized Korean for the fortis sound /p͈/, and in Cypriot Arabic for /pʰː/. It was used in Portuguese until 1947, e.g. guardanappo, appa and mappelido.
⟨ps⟩ is used in English and Portuguese for /s/ initially in words of Greek origin such as psyche (English) and Psychòtico (Portuguese). In Shona it represents a whistled sibilant cluster /ps͎/.
⟨pt⟩ is used in several languages for /t/ in words of Greek origin, where it was /pt/, e.g. in English pterosaur /ˈtɛrəsɔːr/.
⟨pw⟩ is used in Arrernte for /pʷ/.
⟨py⟩ is used in Cypriot Arabic for /pc/.
Q
[edit]⟨q'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /qʼ/.
⟨qg⟩ is used in Naro for the click /ǃχ/. It was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless alveolar click /ǃ/.
⟨qh⟩ is used in various alphabets. In Quechua and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents /qʰ/. In Xhosa, it represents the click /ǃʰ/.
⟨qk⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless alveolar click /ǃ/ (equivalent to ⟨qg⟩).
⟨qq⟩ is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for ejective /qʼ/. In Hadza it represents the glottalized click /ᵑǃˀ/.
⟨qu⟩ is used in Aragonese, Asturian, Catalan, French, Galician, Mirandese, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish for /k/ before ⟨e, i⟩, where ⟨c⟩ represents /θ/ (Castilian Spanish, Asturian, Aragonese and most of Galicia) or /s/ (Catalan, French, American Spanish, Occitan and Portuguese). In French, ⟨qu⟩ is also usually /k/ before ⟨a, o⟩. This dates to Latin ⟨qu⟩, and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European labialized velar consonant */kʷ/; in English this sound instead became written primarily as ⟨wh⟩, due to Grimm's law changing *kʷ > *xʷ (written ⟨hw⟩), and Middle English spelling change switching ⟨hw⟩ to ⟨wh⟩. In English, it represents /k/ in words derived from those languages (e.g., quiche), and /kw/ in other words, including borrowings from Latin (e.g., quantity). In German, it represents /kv/. In the Ossetian Latin alphabet, it was used for /qʷ/. In Vietnamese it is used to represent /kw/ or /w/. In Cornish, it represents /kw/.[23]
⟨qü⟩ is used in French and formerly Portuguese for /kw/ before ⟨e, i⟩.
⟨qv⟩ is used in Bouyei for /ˀw/.
⟨qw⟩ is used in some languages for /qʷ/. In Mi'kmaq it represents /xʷ/. In the Kernowek Standard and Standard Written Form orthographies for Revived Cornish, it represents /kw/.[1][4][6]
⟨qy⟩ is used in Bouyei for glottalized /ˀj/.
R
[edit]⟨rd⟩ is used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara for a retroflex stop, /ʈ/. In Norwegian and Swedish it represents voiced retroflex plosive, [ɖ]. In Scottish Gaelic it sometimes represents /rˠʃt̪/ when broad, or /rˠʃtʲ/ when slender, though this epenthetic consonant is not found in all dialects.
⟨rh⟩ is used in English for Greek words transliterated through Latin. Examples include "rhapsody", "rhetoric" and "rhythm". These were pronounced in Ancient Greek with a voiceless "r" sound, /r̥/, as in Old English ⟨hr⟩. The digraph may also be found within words, but always at the start of a word component, e.g., "polyrhythmic". German, French, and Interlingua use ⟨rh⟩ in the same way. ⟨Rh⟩ is also found in Welsh where it represents a voiceless alveolar trill (r̥), that is a voiceless "r" sound. It can be found anywhere; the most common occurrence in English from Welsh is in the slightly respelled given name "Rhonda". In Wade-Giles transliteration, ⟨rh⟩ is used for the syllable-final rhotic of Mandarin Chinese. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial ⟨rh⟩- indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in /ʐ/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨r⟩-. In Purépecha, it is a retroflex flap, /ɽ/.
⟨rl⟩ is used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, as well in Norwegian and Swedish, for a retroflex lateral, written /ɭ/ in the IPA. In Greenlandic, it represents /ɬː/ as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component.
⟨rm⟩ is used in Inuktitut for /ɴm/.
⟨rn⟩ represents the retroflex nasal /ɳ/ in Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara (see transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages), as well in Norwegian and Swedish. In Greenlandic, it represents /ɴ/. In Inuktitut, it represents /ɴn/.
⟨rp⟩ is used in Greenlandic for /pː/ as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component.
⟨rr⟩ is used in English for ⟨r⟩. It normally appears in words of Latin or Romance origin, and ⟨rrh⟩ in words of ancient Greek origin. It is quite a common digraph. Some words with ⟨rr⟩ are relatively recent loanwords from other languages; examples include burro from Spanish. It is often used in impromptu pronunciation guides to denote either an alveolar tap or an alveolar trill. It is a letter in the Albanian alphabet.
In several European languages, such as Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Basque or Albanian, "rr" represents the alveolar trill /r/ (or the voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ in Portuguese) and contrasts with the single "r", which represents the alveolar tap /ɾ/ (in Catalan and Spanish a single "r" also represents the alveolar trill at the beginning of words or syllables). In Italian and Finnish, "rr" is a geminated (long) consonant /rː/. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik it is used for /χ/. In Cornish, it can represent either /rː/, /ɾʰ/, or /ɹ/.[6] In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /rˠ/.
⟨rs⟩ was equivalent to ⟨rz⟩ and stood for /r̝/ (modern ř) in medieval Czech. In Greenlandic, it represents /sː/ as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component. In Norwegian and Swedish, it represents the voiceless retroflex fricative, [ʂ].
⟨rt⟩ is used in Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, as well in Norwegian and Swedish, for a retroflex stop /ʈ/. In Scottish Gaelic it often represents /rˠʃt̪/ when broad, or /rˠʃtʲ/ when slender, though this epenthetic consonant is not found in all dialects.
⟨rw⟩ is used for /ɻʷ/ in Arrernte.
⟨rz⟩ is used in Polish and Kashubian for a voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/, similar to English ⟨zh⟩ as in Zhivago. Examples from Polish are marzec /ˈma.ʐɛt͡s/ ⓘ "March" and rzeka /ˈʐɛ.ka/ ⓘ "river". ⟨rz⟩ represents the same sound as ⟨ż⟩, but they have a different origin. ⟨rz⟩ used to be pronounced the same way as Czech ⟨ř⟩ (/r̝/) in older Polish, but the sounds merged, and the orthography still follows etymology. When preceded by a voiceless consonant (⟨ch, k, p, t⟩) or end of a word, ⟨rz⟩ devoices to [ʂ], as in przed /ˈpʂɛt/ ⓘ "before".
S
[edit]⟨sc⟩ is used in Italian for /ʃː/ before the front vowel letters ⟨e, i⟩. It is used for /s/ in Catalan, Latin American Spanish, French, English, Occitan and Brazilian Portuguese (e.g. French/English reminiscence, Spanish reminiscencia, Brazilian Portuguese reminiscência, Catalan reminiscència, Occitan reminiscéncia); in European Portuguese this changed to /ʃ/ in the early 20th century, although in careful speech it can be /ʃs/. However, it represents /z/ in modern pronunciations of crescent in British and non-Canadian Commonwealth English. In Old English it usually represented /ʃ/.
⟨sç⟩ is used in French for /s/ in a few verb forms such as simple past acquiesça /akjɛsa/. It is also used in Portuguese as in the imperative/conjunctive form of verbs ending with ⟨scer⟩: crescer cresça. Still pronounced /s/ in Brazilian Portuguese, in European Portuguese this changed to /ʃ/ in the early 20th century, although in careful speech it can be /ʃs/.
⟨sg⟩ is used in Piedmontese and Corsican for /ʒ/.
⟨sh⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it represents /ʃ/. See separate article. See also ⟨ſh⟩ below, which has the capitalized forms SH and ŞH.
⟨si⟩ is used in English for /ʒ/ in words such as fusion (see yod-coalescence). In Polish, it represents /ɕ/ whenever it precedes a vowel, and /ɕi/ whenever it precedes a consonant (or at the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ⟨ś⟩ appearing in other situations. In Welsh ⟨si⟩ is used for the sound /ʃ/ as in siocled /ʃɔklɛd/ ('chocolate').
⟨sj⟩ is used Swedish to write the sje sound /ɧ/ (see also ⟨sk⟩) and in Faroese, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch to write Voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/.
⟨sk⟩ is used in Swedish to write the sje sound /ɧ/. It takes by rule this sound value before the front vowels (⟨e, i, y, ä, ö⟩) word or root initially (as in sked (spoon)), while normally representing /sk/ in other positions. In Norwegian and Faroese, it is used to write voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ (only in front of ⟨i, y, ei, øy/oy⟩).
⟨sl⟩ is used in Iraqw and Bouyei to write the lateral fricative /ɬ/. (⟨sl⟩ is used in the French tradition to transcribe /ɬ/ in other languages as well, as in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages.)
⟨sp⟩ is used in German for /ʃp/ as in Spaß /ʃpaːs/ instead of using ⟨schp⟩.
⟨sr⟩ is used in Kosraean for /ʂ/. In northern dialects of Scottish Gaelic it represents /s̪t̪ɾ/, as in sràid /s̪t̪ɾaːtʲ/.
⟨ss⟩ is used in Pinyin for /z/ in languages such as Yi. For its use in the Wade–Giles system of Romanization of Chinese, see Wade–Giles → Syllabic consonants. In English, ⟨ss⟩ typically represents /z/ in the first ⟨ss⟩ of possess and its derivatives possessed, possesses, possession, possessive and possessor, brassiere, dessert, dissolution and its derivatives dissolved, dissolves and dissolving, Missoula (County), Missouri(an), scissors, and pronunciations of Aussie outside the United States; otherwise, it represents /s/. In other languages, such as Catalan, Cornish,[6] French, German, Italian, Occitan, Portuguese and Central Alaskan Yup'ik, where ⟨s⟩ transcribes /z/ between vowels (and elsewhere in the case of Yup'ik), ⟨ss⟩ is used for /s/ in that position (/sː/ in Italian and also in some cases in Cornish[6]); English sometimes also follows this convention. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound /s͈/. In Cypriot Arabic it is used for /sʰː/.
Also to note, there are spellings of words with ⟨ss⟩ as opposed to them with just one ⟨s⟩, varied in different types of English. For the word focus, in British English the 3rd person singular, the past participle and the present participle are spelled with ⟨ss⟩ (i.e. focusses, focussed and focussing) whereas in American English and usually Canadian and Australian English they are spelled with one ⟨s⟩ (i.e. focuses, focused and focusing).
⟨st⟩ is used in German for /ʃt/ as in Stadt /ʃtat/ instead of using ⟨scht⟩ (or ⟨cht⟩). In some parts of northern Germany, the pronunciation /st/ (as in English) is still quite common in the local dialect.
⟨sv⟩ is used in Shona to write the whistled sibilant /s͎/. This was written ⟨ȿ⟩ from 1931 to 1955.
⟨sx⟩ is used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /sʔ/, and in Esperanto orthography it is an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ŝ⟩, that represents /ʃ/.
⟨sy⟩ represents /ʃ/ in Malay and Tagalog.
⟨sz⟩ is used in several languages. See article.
T
[edit]⟨t'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /tʼ/.
⟨tc⟩ is used for the palatal click /ǂ/ in Naro, and to write the affricate /tʃ/ in Sandawe, Hadza and Juǀʼhoan.
⟨tf⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiceless dental affricate /t͡θ/
⟨tg⟩ is used for /tχ/ in Naro. In Catalan, it represents /d͡ʒ/. In Romansh orthographies it represents the Alveolo-palatal consonant /tɕ/.
⟨th⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it can represent /ð/, /θ/ or /t/. See article. See also: Pronunciation of English th.
⟨ti⟩, before a vowel, is usually pronounced /sj/ in French and /tsj/ in German and is commonly /ʃ/ in English, especially in the suffix -tion.
⟨tj⟩ is used in Norwegian and Faroese words like tjære/tjøra ('tar') for /ç/ (Norwegian) and /tʃ/ (Faroese). In the closely related Swedish alphabet, it represents /ɕ/, as in tjära /ˈɕæːɾa/. It is also the standard written form of the /tʃ/ sound in Dutch and was likewise used in Dutch-based orthographies that used to apply for languages in Indonesia and Surinam. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop, transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ṯ/ or /ḏ/ depending on voicing. This sound is also written ⟨dj⟩, ⟨ty⟩, ⟨dy⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨j⟩. In Catalan it represents /d͡ʒ/. In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the ejective affricate /tʃʼ/.
⟨tk⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the uvularized ejective /tᵡʼ/.
⟨tl⟩ is used in various orthographies for the voiceless alveolar lateral affricate /tɬ/. In Catalan it represents /lː/, although it may be simplify to /l/ in some dialects.
⟨tł⟩ is used in the transcription of Athabascan languages for a lateral affricate /tɬ/ or /tɬʰ/.
⟨tm⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and nasally released /t̪͡pn̪͡m/. In Catalan, it is used to represent /mː/, that can result not geminated as well, /m/, as in setmana (pronounced /səˈmːanə/ in standard Catalan and /seˈmana/ in Valencian).
⟨tn⟩ is used for a prestopped nasal /ᵗn/ in Arrernte, and for the similar /t̪n̪/ in Yélî Dnye. In Catalan it represents /nː/, although it may be simplify to /n/ in some dialects.
⟨tp⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /t̪͡p/.
⟨tr⟩ generally represents a sound like a retroflex version of English "ch" in areas of German influence, such as Truk lagoon, now spelled ⟨chuuk⟩. For instance, in Malagasy it represents /tʂ/. In southern dialects of Vietnamese, ⟨tr⟩ represents a voiceless retroflex affricate /tʂ/. In the northern dialects, this sound is pronounced /tɕ/, just like what ⟨ch⟩ represents. ⟨tr⟩ was formerly considered a distinct letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, but today is not.
⟨ts⟩ is used in the Basque, where it represents an apical voiceless alveolar affricate /t̺s̺/. It contrasts with ⟨tz⟩, which is laminal /t̻s̻/. It is mainly used to Latinize the letter Tse (Cyrillic) (ц) In Hausa, ⟨ts⟩ represents an alveolar ejective fricative /sʼ/ or affricate /tsʼ/), depending on dialect. It is considered a distinct letter, and placed between ⟨t⟩ and ⟨u⟩ in alphabetical order. It is also used in Catalan for /t͡s/. It is also used in Hausa Boko. In central-western Asturian it's used for /t͡s/.
The Wade-Giles and Yale romanizations of Chinese use ⟨ts⟩ for an unaspirated voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/. Wade–Giles also uses ⟨ts'⟩ for the aspirated equivalent /tsʰ/. These are equivalent to Pinyin ⟨z⟩ and ⟨c⟩, respectively. The Hepburn romanization of Japanese uses ⟨ts⟩ for a voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/). In native Japanese words, this sound only occurs before ⟨u⟩, but it may occur before other vowels in loanwords. Other romanization systems write /tsu/ as ⟨tu⟩. ⟨Ts⟩ in Tagalog is used for /tʃ/. The sequence ⟨ts⟩ occurs in English, but it has no special function and simply represents a sequence of ⟨t⟩ and ⟨s⟩. It occurs word-initially only in some loanwords, such as tsunami and tsar. Most English-speakers do not pronounce a /t/ in such words and pronounce them as if they were spelled ⟨sunami⟩ and ⟨sar⟩ or ⟨zar⟩, respectively.
⟨ts̃⟩ was used in medieval[citation needed] Basque and in Azkue's Basque dictionary[24] for a voiceless postalveolar affricate /t͡ʃ/; this is now represented by ⟨tx⟩.
⟨tt⟩ is used in Basque for /c/, and in romanized Kabyle for /ts/. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound /t͈/, in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) it is ejective /tʼ/, and in Cypriot Arabic, it represents /tʰː/.
⟨tw⟩ is used for /tʷ/ in Arrernte.
⟨tx⟩ is used in Basque, Catalan and some indigenous languages of South America, for a voiceless postalveolar affricate /t͡ʃ/. In Nambikwara it represents a glottalized /tʔ/. In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the uvularized-release /tᵡ/.
⟨ty⟩ is used in the Hungarian alphabet for /cç/, a voiceless palatal affricate; in Hungarian, digraphs are considered single letters, and acronyms keep them intact. In Xhosa, ⟨ty⟩ represents /tʲʼ/ and the similar /tʲʼ/ in the Algonquian Massachusett orthography. In Shona, it represents /tʃk/. In Tagalog it represents /tʃ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, and Arrernte, it represents a postalveolar stop, either voiceless /ṯ/ or voiced /ḏ/. (This sound is also written ⟨tj⟩, ⟨dj⟩, ⟨dy⟩, ⟨c⟩, and ⟨j⟩). In Cypriot Arabic, it represents /c/.
⟨tz⟩ is used in Basque, German and Nahuatl for the voiceless alveolar affricate /t͡s/. In Basque, this sound is laminal and contrasts with the apical affricate represented by ⟨ts⟩. It is also used in Catalan to represent the voiced alveolar affricate /d͡z/. In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the ejective affricate /tsʼ/. For its use in the Wade–Giles system of Romanization of Chinese, see Wade–Giles → Syllabic consonants.
U
[edit]⟨u′⟩ is used in Taa for the glottalized or creaky vowel /ṵ/.
⟨ua⟩ is used in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, to represent the diphthong /uə/.
⟨uc⟩ is used in Nahuatl for /kʷ/ before a consonant. Before a vowel, ⟨cu⟩ is used.
⟨ue⟩ is found in many languages. In English, it represents /juː/ or /uː/ as in cue or true, respectively. In German, it is /ʏ/ or /yː/ (equivalent to ⟨ü⟩), appearing mainly in proper nouns. In Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /yː/ in a non-initial position.
⟨ûe⟩ is used in Afrikaans to represent /œː/.
⟨ug⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik for /ɣʷ/.
⟨uh⟩ is used in Taa for the breathy or murmured vowel /ṳ/. In Nahuatl, it is used for /w/ before a consonant. Before a vowel, ⟨hu⟩ is used.
⟨ui⟩ is used in Dutch for the diphthong /œy/. In Irish, it is /ɪ/ after a broad (velarized) consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it normally represents /u/, however before ⟨m, n, ng, s⟩ or before ⟨ll, m, nn⟩ preceding a vowel, it represents /ɯ/, and before ⟨dh⟩ or before ⟨ll, m, nn⟩ word-finally or pre-consonant, it represents /ɯi/. In German, it represents the diphthong /ʊɪ̯/, which appears only in interjections such as 'pfui!'. In Mandarin pinyin, it is used for /wei̯/ after a consonant (spelt ⟨wei⟩ in the initial position). In Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /uːy/ or /ɵy/. In Scots it represents /ø/, e.g. bluid "blood", duin "done", muin "moon" and spuin "spoon". In English, when used as a digraph, it represents /uː/ in fruit, juice, suit and pursuit. However, after ⟨g⟩, the ⟨u⟩ functions as a modifier (marking ⟨g⟩ as /ɡ/ rather than /dʒ/), e.g. guild, guilty, sanguine, Guinea, guide etc.), it is also used for other sounds, in cases of unusual etymological spelling, e.g. circuit, biscuit, build. In Portuguese, it represents the diphthong /ui̯/, as in intuito "intention" or cuidar "to care", but in a very small selective group of words that come from Latin multus "much", it represents a nasalized /ũĩ̯/, as in muito "very" or "much".
⟨ũi⟩ was used in old Portuguese for /ũĩ̯/, which in some dialects gets reduced to /ũː/
⟨uĩ⟩ was used in old Portuguese for /wĩː/
⟨uí⟩ is used in Irish for /iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨úi⟩ is used in Irish for /uː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨ùi⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /uː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
⟨um⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ũ/, and in French to write /œ̃/ (only before a consonant and at the end of a word).
⟨úm⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ũ/ before a consonant.
⟨un⟩ is used in many languages for a nasal vowel. In Portuguese before a consonant, and in many West African languages, it is /ũ/, while in French it is /œ̃/, or among the younger generation /ɛ̃/. In pinyin, /u̯ən/ is spelled ⟨un⟩ after a consonant, ⟨wen⟩ initially.
⟨ún⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ũ/ before a consonant.
⟨ün⟩ is used in Tibetan Pinyin for /ỹ/.
⟨uŋ⟩ is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel /ũ/.
⟨uo⟩ is used in Pinyin for /o/ in languages such as Yi, where ⟨o⟩ stands for /ɔ/.
⟨uq⟩ is used in Taa, for the pharyngealized vowel /uˤ/.
⟨ur⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik for /ʁʷ/, and in Pinyin to write the trilled vowel /ʙ̝/ in languages such as Yi.[citation needed]
⟨uu⟩ is used in many languages with phonemic long vowels, for /uː/. In Dutch, it is used for /y/.
⟨uw⟩ is used in Dutch for /yu̯/, e.g. uw "yours", duwen "to push". In Cornish it is used for /iʊ/[1][4][5][6] or /yʊ/.[6]
⟨uy⟩ is used in Afrikaans for /œy/.
⟨ux⟩ is unofficially used in Esperanto, instead of ⟨ŭ⟩, for /u̯/.
⟨u_e⟩ (a split digraph) is used in English for /juː/ or /uː/.
V
[edit]⟨vb⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labiodental flap /ⱱ/.
⟨vg⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless palatal click /ǂ/.
⟨vh⟩ represents /v̤/ in Shona. It was also used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the aspirated palatal click /ǂʰ/.
⟨vk⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless palatal click /ǂ/ (equivalent to ⟨vg⟩).
⟨vn⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the palatal nasal click /ᵑǂ/.
⟨vv⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik for /f/.
⟨vr⟩ is used in Quechua.
W
[edit]⟨wh⟩ is used in English to represent Proto-Germanic /hw/, the continuation of the PIE labiovelar */kʷ/ (which became ⟨qu⟩ in Latin and the Romance languages). Most English question words begin with this digraph, hence the terms wh-word and wh-question. In Old English, /hw/ was spelled ⟨huu⟩ or ⟨hƿ⟩, and only the former was retained during the Middle English period, becoming ⟨hw⟩ during the gradual development of the letter ⟨w⟩ during the 14th-17th centuries. In most dialects it is now pronounced /w/, but a distinct pronunciation realized as a voiceless w sound, [ʍ], is retained in some areas: Scotland, central and southern Ireland, southeastern United States, and (mostly among older speakers) in New Zealand. In a few words (who, whose, etc.) the pronunciation used among almost all speakers regardless of geography is /h/. For details, see Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩.
In Māori, ⟨wh⟩ represents /ɸ/ or more commonly /f/, with some regional variations approaching /h/ or /hw/. In the Taranaki region, for some speakers, this represents a glottalized /wʼ/. In Xhosa, it represents /w̤/, a murmured variant of /w/ found in loan words. In Cornish, it represents /ʍ/.[1][4][6]
⟨wr⟩ is used in English for words which formerly began /wr/, now reduced to /r/ in virtually all dialects.
⟨wu⟩ is used in Mandarin pinyin to write the vowel /u/ in initial position, as in the name Wuhan. It is sometimes found with this value in Romanized Korean as well, as in hanwu. In Cantonese Romanisation, it is used to represent /wuː/ in an initial position or /uː/ in a non-initial position.
⟨ww⟩ is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized /ˀw/.
⟨wx⟩ is used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀw/.
X
[edit]⟨xc⟩ is used etymologically in Portuguese for /s/ or /ʃ(s)/ before the front vowel letters ⟨e, i⟩.
⟨xf⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labialized fricative /xʷ/.
⟨xg⟩ is used to write the click /ǁχ/ in Naro. It was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless lateral click /ǁ/.
⟨xh⟩ is used in Albanian to write the voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/, as in the surname Hoxha /ˈhɔdʒa/. In Zulu and Xhosa it represents the voiceless aspirated alveolar lateral click /kǁʰ/, e.g. Xhosa /ˈkǁʰoːsa/. In Walloon it represents a consonant that is variously /h/, /ʃ/, /ç ~ x/, depending on the dialect. In Canadian Tlingit it represents /χ/, which is represented by ⟨x̱⟩ in Alaska.
⟨xi⟩ is used in English for /kʃ/ in words such as flexion. (It is equivalent to ⟨c⟩ plus the digraph ⟨ti⟩, as in action.)
⟨xk⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless lateral click /ǁ/ (equivalent to ⟨xg⟩).
⟨xö⟩ is used as a letter of the Seri alphabet, where it represents a labialized uvular fricative, /χʷ/. It is placed between ⟨x⟩ and ⟨y⟩ in alphabetical order.
⟨xs⟩ is used etymologically in Portuguese. In the word exsudar /ˌe.su.ˈda(ʁ)/ in Brazilian Portuguese, it stands for /s/. In European Portuguese this digraph changed to /ʃs/ in the early 20th century and the word came to be pronounced as /ɐjʃ.su.ˈðaɾ/
⟨xu⟩ was used in the Ossete Latin alphabet for /χʷ/.
⟨xw⟩ is used in the Kurdish and the Tlingit language for /xʷ/.
⟨x̱w⟩ is used in Alaskan Tlingit for /χʷ/, which in Canada is written ⟨xhw⟩.
⟨xx⟩ is used in Hadza for the glottalized click /ᵑǁˀ/, and in Cypriot Arabic for /χː/.
⟨xy⟩ is used in the Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet to write /ç/.
Y
[edit]⟨ye⟩ used in various languages. In English it represents /aɪ/ word finally, e.g. bye or dye.
⟨yh⟩ was used in the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, for the "ejective y" or palatalized glottal stop (/ʔʲ/) in Pular (a Fula language) and in Hausa to represent a creaky voiced palatal approximant [j̰]. In the current orthography it is now written ⟨ƴ⟩. In Xhosa it represents /j̤/. In a handful of Australian languages, it represents a "dental semivowel".[clarification needed]
⟨yi⟩ is used in Mandarin pinyin to write /i/ when it forms an entire syllable.
⟨yk⟩ is used in Yanyuwa for a pre-velar stop, /ɡ̟ ~ k̟/.
⟨ym⟩ is used in French to write /ɛ̃/ (/im/ before another vowel), as in thym /tɛ̃/ "thyme".
⟨yn⟩ is used in French to write /ɛ̃/ in some words of Greek origin, such as syncope /sɛ̃kɔp/ "syncope".
⟨yr⟩ is used in Pinyin to write the trilled vowel /r̝/ in languages such as Yi.
⟨yu⟩ is used in romanized Chinese to write the vowel /y/. In Mandarin pinyin it is used for /y/ in initial position, whereas in Cantonese Jyutping it is used for /yː/ in non-initial position. In the Yale romanization of Cantonese and Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /jyː/ in an initial position and /yː/ in a non-initial position.
⟨yw⟩ is used for /jʷ/ in Arrernte and for doubly articulated /ɥ/ in Yélî Dnye. It is used in Cornish for the diphthongs /iʊ/,[1][4][5] /ɪʊ/, or /ɛʊ/.[6]
⟨yx⟩ in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀj/.
⟨yy⟩ is used in some languages such as Finnish to write the long vowel /yː/. In Haida (Bringhurst orthography) it is represents glottalized /ˀj/. Used in some Asturian dialects to represent /ɟ͡ʝ/.
⟨y_e⟩ (a split digraph) indicates an English 'long y' (equivalent to ⟨i...e⟩).
Z
[edit]⟨zh⟩ represents the voiced postalveolar fricative (/ʒ/), like the ⟨s⟩ in pleasure, in Albanian and in Native American orthographies such as Navajo. It is used for the same sound in some English-language dictionaries, as well as to transliterate the sound when represented by Cyrillic ⟨ж⟩ and Persian ⟨ژ⟩ into English, but is rarely seen in English words, appearing primarily in foreign borrowings (e.g. muzhik) and slang (e.g. zhoosh). ⟨zh⟩ as a digraph is rare in European languages using the Latin alphabet; in addition to Albanian it is found in Breton in words that are pronounced with /z/ in some dialects and /h/ in others. In Hanyu Pinyin, ⟨zh⟩ represents the voiceless retroflex affricate /tʂ/. When Malayalam and Tamil are transliterated into the Latin script, ⟨zh⟩ represents a retroflex approximant (Malayalam ഴ and Tamil ழ ⟨ḻ⟩ [ɻ]).
⟨zi⟩ in Polish represents /ʑ/ whenever it precedes a vowel, and /ʑi/ whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ⟨ź⟩ appearing in other situations.
⟨zl⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiced lateral fricative /ɮ/
⟨zr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ʐ/.
⟨zs⟩ is the last (forty-fourth) letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its name is zsé [ʒeː] and represents /ʒ/, a voiced postalveolar fricative, similar to ⟨j⟩ in Jacques and beside ⟨s⟩ in vision. A few examples are rózsa "rose" and zsír "fat".
⟨zv⟩ is used in Shona to write the whistled sibilant /z͎/. This was written ⟨ɀ⟩ from 1931 to 1955.
⟨zz⟩ is used in Pinyin for /dz/ in languages such as Yi. It is also used with that value in romanized Kabyle. In medieval Czech, it stood for /s/. In Hadza it is ejective /tsʼ/.
Other
[edit]⟨ɛn⟩, capital ⟨Ɛn⟩, is used in many West African languages for the nasal vowel /ɛ̃/. ⟨ɛ⟩ is an "open e".
⟨ɔn⟩, capital ⟨Ɔn⟩, is used in many West African languages for the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/. ⟨ɔ⟩ is an "open o".
⟨œu⟩, capital ⟨Œu⟩, is used in French for the vowels /œ/ and /ø/. The first element of the digraph, ⟨œ⟩, is itself is a ligature of ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩, and ⟨œu⟩ may also be written as the trigraph ⟨oeu⟩.
⟨ŋg⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ᵑɡ/.
⟨ŋk⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ᵑk/.
⟨ŋm⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labial-velar nasal /ŋ͡m/.
⟨ŋv⟩, capital ⟨Ŋv⟩, was used for /ŋʷ/ in the old orthography of Zhuang and Bouyei; this is now spelled with the trigraph ⟨ngv⟩.
⟨ŋʼ⟩ is used in Adzera for the prenasalized glottal stop /ⁿʔ/.
⟨ſh⟩, capital ⟨SH⟩ or sometimes ⟨ŞH⟩, was a digraph used in the Slovene Bohorič alphabet for /ʃ/. The first element, ⟨ſ⟩, the long s, is an archaic non-final form of the letter ⟨s⟩.
⟨ǃʼ⟩ ⟨ǀʼ⟩ ⟨ǁʼ⟩ ⟨ǂʼ⟩ are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four glottalized nasal clicks, /ᵑǃˀ, ᵑǀˀ, ᵑǁˀ, ᵑǂˀ/.
⟨ǃg⟩ ⟨ǀg⟩ ⟨ǁg⟩ ⟨ǂg⟩ are used in Khoekhoe for its four tenuis clicks, /ǃ, ǀ, ǁ, ǂ/.
⟨ǃh⟩ ⟨ǀh⟩ ⟨ǁh⟩ ⟨ǂh⟩ are used in Khoekhoe for its four aspirated nasal clicks, /ᵑ̊ǃʰ, ᵑ̊ǀʰ, ᵑ̊ǁʰ, ᵑ̊ǂʰ/, and in Juǀʼhoan for its plain aspirated clicks, /ǃʰ, ǀʰ, ǁʰ, ǂʰ/.
⟨ǃk⟩ ⟨ǀk⟩ ⟨ǁk⟩ ⟨ǂk⟩ are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four affricate ejective-contour clicks, /ǃ͡χʼ, ǀ͡χʼ, ǁ͡χʼ, ǂ͡χʼ/.
⟨ǃn⟩ ⟨ǀn⟩ ⟨ǁn⟩ ⟨ǂn⟩ are used in Khoekhoe for its four plain nasal clicks, /ᵑǃ, ᵑǀ, ᵑǁ, ᵑǂ/.
⟨ǃx⟩ ⟨ǀx⟩ ⟨ǁx⟩ ⟨ǂx⟩ are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four affricate pulmonic-contour clicks, /ǃ͡χ, ǀ͡χ, ǁ͡χ, ǂ͡χ/.
⟨ьj⟩ was used in Yañalif and some Turkic languages for the diphthong /ɤj/.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Chubb, Ray (2013) [First published 2010]. "Leveryans – Pronunciation". Skeul an Tavas: A coursebook in Standard Cornish. Illustrations by Nigel Roberts (Second ed.). Cnoc Sceichín, Leac an Anfa, Cathair na Mart, Co. Mhaigh Eo: Evertype. pp. 84–94. ISBN 978-1-904808-93-0.
- ^ "Portaria n.º 7117 de 1 de Junho de 1931" (PDF) (in Portuguese).
- ^ "1945 Acordo Ortográfico" (in Portuguese).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Chubb, Ray (2011) [First published 2010]. "Leveryans – Pronunciation". Skeul an Tavas: A Cornish language coursebook for adults in the Standard Written Form with Traditional Graphs. Illustrations by Nigel Roberts (Second ed.). Redruth, Kernow / Cornwall, UK: Agan Tavas. pp. 84–92. ISBN 978-1-901409-12-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Chubb, Ray (2013) [First published 2010]. "Leveryans – Pronunciation". Skeul an Tavas: A Cornish language coursebook for schools in the Standard Written Form. Illustrations by Nigel Roberts (Second ed.). Redruth, Kernow / Cornwall, UK: Agan Tavas. pp. 84–92. ISBN 978-1-901409-13-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Bock, Albert; Bruch, Benjamin (3 July 2008). An Outline of the Standard Written Form of Cornish (First ed.). Cornish Language Partnership. ISBN 978-1-903798-56-0. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
- ^ "Diario de Governo, n.º 213, de 12 de Setembro de 1911" (PDF) (in Portuguese).
- ^ "Formulário Ortográfico" (in Portuguese).
- ^ Rickard, Peter (2000). A history of the French language (2. ed., reprinted. ed.). London: Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 0-415-10887-X.
- ^ Baxter, William H. (1992-01-31). A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin, New York: DE GRUYTER MOUTON. doi:10.1515/9783110857085. ISBN 978-3-11-085708-5.
- ^ Nguyễn-Ðăng-Liêm (2019-03-31). Vietnamese Pronunciation. University of Hawaii Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv9zcm4h. ISBN 978-0-8248-8161-0. S2CID 241836755.
- ^ Bithell, Jethro (2018-10-29), "Sounds, Symbols and Alphabets", German Pronunciation and Phonology, Routledge, pp. 1–45, doi:10.4324/9780429468926-1, ISBN 978-0-429-46892-6, S2CID 187473360
- ^ Gussmann, Edmund (2000), "Underlying forms", Morphologie, Berlin • New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 499–510, doi:10.1515/9783110111286.1.7.499, ISBN 978-3-11-011128-6
- ^ Adelaar, K Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus, eds. (2004-11-25). The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. doi:10.4324/9780203821121. ISBN 9781136755101.
- ^ de Haan, Ferdinand (2010-11-25). "Typology of Tense, Aspect, and Modality Systems". Oxford Handbooks Online. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199281251.013.0021.
- ^ Torrence, Harold (2013-01-18). The Clause Structure of Wolof. Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today. Vol. 198. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi:10.1075/la.198. ISBN 978-90-272-5581-5.
- ^ First Lt. William E. W. MacKinlay, 1905, A Handbook and Grammar of the Tagalog Language. Washington: Government Printin Office.
- ^ Edward von Preissig, 1918, Dictionary and Grammar of the Chamorro Language of the Island of Guam. Washington: Government Printing Office.
- ^ "L'orthographe des langues de la République démocratique du Congo: entre usages et norme" (PDF). Les cahiers du Rifal. 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-04.
- ^ George, Ken, ed. (September 2009) [First edition published in 1993 under the title Gerlyver Kernewek Kemmyn – An Gerlyver Meur]. "6. Recommended pronunciation". Gerlyver Meur (Second ed.). Cornish Language Board. pp. 28–35. ISBN 978-1-902917-84-9.
- ^ IPA: Vowels Archived 2009-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ 董峰政, "Taiwanese Tong-iong Pingim Dictionary", 臺南市寧南語言文化協會, Tainan City, Jul 2006.
- ^ Williams, Nicholas (2006). "Pronunciation and Spelling of Unified Cornish Revised". In Everson, Michael (ed.). English–Cornish Dictionary: Gerlyver Sawsnek–Kernowek (Second ed.). Redruth, Kernow, UK: Agan Tavas. pp. xxvii–xxx. ISBN 978-1-901409-09-3.
- ^ "R. M. de Azkue: "Euskara-Gaztelania-Frantsesa Hiztegia" / "Diccionario Vasco-Español-Francés" online -Tutorial de uso" (PDF) (in Spanish). Aurten Bai Fundazioa. p. 6. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
El autor usaba fuentes propias para representar fenómenos propios de algunos de los dialectos del euskera. Estos son los caracteres especiales utilizados en el diccionario: ã d̃ ẽ ĩ l̃ ñ õ s̃ t̃ ũ x̃.
List of Latin-script digraphs
View on GrokipediaIntroduction
Definition and Scope
A digraph in orthography is a pair of letters from the Latin alphabet that together represent a single phoneme or a contiguous sequence of sounds not pronounced separately, as opposed to individual letters denoting distinct phonemes.[10] This distinguishes digraphs from diphthongs, which refer specifically to gliding vowel sounds in phonetics rather than their written representation.[11] For instance, the English digraph "ch" typically denotes the affricate /tʃ/, functioning as a unified unit in established orthographies.[10] The scope of this article encompasses orthographic digraphs employed in natural languages that utilize the Latin script, spanning historical forms such as Classical Latin adaptations, modern standardized systems in European and colonial languages, and regional variations in non-European contexts. Purely typographic ligatures, like "æ" when treated solely as a visual fusion without phonetic distinction, are excluded unless they serve an orthographic role in representing specific sounds. Inclusion requires that digraphs appear in formalized orthographies of living or historically significant languages, prioritizing those with native integration over transient uses. Digraphs limited to loanwords without broader adoption in the host language's orthography are not covered, nor are representations from non-Latin scripts or single-letter equivalents for the same phonemes. This list focuses on widely attested examples but acknowledges incompleteness in lesser-documented Latinizations, particularly among indigenous African languages like those in sub-Saharan orthographies and Asian minority scripts, where digraph usage remains understudied due to ongoing standardization efforts.[12]Historical Context
The use of digraphs in the Latin script originated in classical Latin, where combinations such asDigraphs A to M
A
The digraph aa represents a long open front unrounded vowel /aː/ in Icelandic orthography, particularly in loanwords and certain native terms where a prolonged sound is needed, distinguishing it from the short /a/.[21] In Afrikaans, aa similarly denotes a long /aː/, as seen in words like "paal" (pole), contrasting with the short "pal" (moment).[22] The digraph ae functions as /ɛ/ in Danish and Norwegian, often serving as an ASCII substitute for the ligature æ in digital contexts or loanwords, while retaining the mid-front unrounded vowel sound.[23] In historical English usage, ae approximated /eɪ/ or /iː/ in classical borrowings, such as "encyclopædia," reflecting Latinate influences before standardization favored "encyclopedia." Ai commonly represents /eɪ/ in English, as in "rain," where it indicates a diphthong from Middle English developments.[24] In French, ai typically yields /ɛ/, exemplified by "maître" (master), a nasal or open-mid front vowel in non-final positions.[25] Welsh employs ai for /aɪ/, akin to the English "eye," in words like "mair" (mayor).[26] In Irish Gaelic, the digraph ao primarily denotes /iː/ in standard Ulster and Connacht dialects, as in "lao" (half), though southern varieties may realize it as /eː/ without palatalization.[27] This slender vowel sound arises from historical orthographic conventions in Celtic languages. The digraph au stands for /aʊ/ in English, as in "house," and in German, as in "Haus," both reflecting a back rounded diphthong in Germanic phonologies.[28] In French, au (often with "eau") produces /o/, a mid-back rounded vowel, as in "eau" (water), due to liaison and historical nasalization patterns. Ay in English often conveys /eɪ/, similar to "ai," in final positions like "day." In Turkish and related Turkic languages, ay represents /aj/, a front unrounded diphthong, as in "ay" (moon or month).[29] In some Austronesian language orthographies, such as those for Berawan dialects in Borneo, aŋ transcribes the sequence /aŋ/, combining a low central vowel with a velar nasal, used in native terms and reconstructions of proto-forms.[30] This digraph appears in phonetic notations for languages like Tagalog influences, highlighting nasal codas common in the family.[31]B
The digraph bh is used in Irish Gaelic to represent the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ in most contexts, though it can appear as the aspirated bilabial stop /bʰ/ in certain dialects or historical pronunciations.[32] This digraph arises from lenition processes in Celtic mutations, where an underlying /b/ softens to /v/, as seen in words like bhí (/viː/, "was"). In broad (velarized) positions adjacent to back vowels (a, o, u), it remains /v/, while in slender (palatalized) positions with front vowels (e, i), it also typically yields /v/, exemplified by bhfuil (/vɪlʲ/, "is").[32] In Scottish Gaelic, bh similarly denotes /v/, functioning as a lenited form of /b/ in initial position under grammatical mutation.[33] This pronunciation aligns with the language's 18-letter alphabet supplemented by digraphs for fricatives, as in bhàrd (/vaːr̪t̪/, "poet"), where it contrasts with the unlenited /b/ in roots like bàrd. The digraph underscores the shared Goidelic heritage with Irish, where aspiration or fricativization modifies consonants without altering spelling fundamentally.[33] The cluster bl in Welsh is treated as a unitary digraph-like element in soft mutation contexts, where initial /pl/ lenites to /bl/, representing the alveolar lateral approximant following a bilabial stop (/bl/).[34] This occurs after triggers like feminine nouns or possessives, as in plu ("hair") mutating to blu in fy mhlû ("my hair"), preserving the cluster's integrity phonologically as a single onset without affrication in standard pronunciation. Historical analyses view such mutations as morphological processes affecting the entire initial segment, distinguishing Welsh from non-mutating languages.[34] Bp appears rarely in African language orthographies, including some representations of Zulu, to denote the prenasalized voiceless bilabial stop /ᵐp/, a labial nasal followed by an unreleased voiceless plosive.[35] In Bantu systems like Zulu's, prenasalization typically voices stops (e.g., /ᵐb/), but voiceless variants occur in ideophones or loanwords, written as bp to indicate the nasal-obstruent sequence behaving as a single consonant, as in certain phonetic transcriptions of explosive sounds. This usage highlights orthographic adaptations for implosive or pre-stopped nasals in tonal languages.[35] In historical Polish orthography, bł represented /bɫ/, a bilabial stop followed by a velarized alveolar lateral approximant, reflecting the pre-20th-century pronunciation of ł as a dark /ɫ/ similar to English "full."[36] This digraph appeared in older texts before ł shifted to /w/ in modern standard Polish (e.g., historical błąd /bɫɔnt/, now /bɔnt/), and metathesis patterns like bł- > łb- illustrate its role in Slavic consonant cluster evolution. Such forms are underrepresented in contemporary lists but persist in etymological studies of West Slavic phonology.[36]C
The digraph ch represents the voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/ in English, as in words like "church" and "chair," where the two letters combine to produce a single sound distinct from the individual pronunciations of c and h.[2] In Spanish, ch similarly denotes /tʃ/, appearing in terms such as "chico" (boy) and "chocolate," and it was historically treated as a distinct letter in the Spanish alphabet until orthographic reforms in 2010.[37] However, in Polish, ch instead represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/, akin to the "ch" in Scottish "loch," as in "chleb" (bread), rather than an affricate.[38] In German, ch typically produces the voiceless velar fricative /x/ following back vowels (as in "Bach") or the voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ following front vowels (as in "ich"), reflecting regional and contextual variations in High German phonology.[39] Scottish Gaelic employs ch for /x/ in both slender and broad forms, such as in "loch" (lake), where it conveys a guttural fricative sound derived from Celtic linguistic traditions.[40] The digraph ck serves as an alternative spelling for the voiceless velar stop /k/ in English, particularly at the end of monosyllabic words following a short vowel, as in "back" or "neck," functioning as a marker to avoid ambiguity with other c usages like "cc" in longer forms.[41] Historically, cn appeared in Old English to represent the cluster /kn/, as in "cniht" (knight), where the initial /k/ was pronounced before the nasal /n/; over time, this evolved into modern English /n/ with the /k/ becoming silent due to sound changes around the Middle English period.[42] The digraph cz denotes the voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/ in Polish, as in "czas" (time), where it contrasts with simpler sibilants and is a standard representation in Slavic orthographies.[43] In Czech, cz historically represented /tʃ/ in pre-19th-century spellings, such as in older forms of "Čechy" (Bohemia), before standardization replaced it with the single letter č in the modern orthography.[43] A variant digraph çh was used in some 19th- and early 20th-century Latinizations of Ottoman Turkish to represent /tʃ/, particularly in transitional scripts bridging Arabic and Latin alphabets, as seen in certain diplomatic and scholarly transliterations before the 1928 adoption of the modern Turkish alphabet with ç alone for the sound.[44]D
Digraphs beginning with D in Latin-script orthographies often represent voiced dental or alveolar sounds, particularly affricates and fricatives, with notable usage in Celtic languages for lenited consonants and in Slavic languages for affricate clusters. These digraphs facilitate the representation of phonemes not easily captured by single letters, emphasizing voiced counterparts to unvoiced sounds like /t/ or /ts/. In non-Indo-European languages, such as those in the Athabaskan and Sino-Tibetan families, D-initial digraphs can denote lateral affricates or complex consonant clusters. Dh represents the voiced dental fricative /ð/ in Albanian orthography, as in dhalë (a type of food).[45] In Irish Gaelic, a Celtic language, dh typically denotes the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, especially before back vowels, or a palatal approximant /j/ before front vowels, as in mo dheartháir (my brother).[46] Dl is used in the Navajo language, an Athabaskan tongue, to represent the voiced alveolar lateral affricate /dɬ/, approximated as the "dle" in "ladle," as in dlǫ́ł (prairie dog).[47] This digraph captures a rare lateral sound also found in select African languages, where it may indicate the voiced alveolar lateral fricative /ɮ/ in orthographies influenced by missionary linguistics, though specific examples vary by dialect and standardization efforts. Dz denotes the voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ in Polish, a West Slavic language, as in dzban (pitcher).[48] It appears in Albanian contexts through transliteration but is primarily a single letter x for /dz/ in standard orthography. Dzh (or dž) represents the voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/ in several Slavic languages' Latin-script transliterations, such as Slovak, where it is the tenth letter of the alphabet, as in džungľa (jungle).[49] This digraph corresponds to the Cyrillic џ (dzhe) in Serbian and other South Slavic orthographies. In Pinyin-influenced romanizations for Sino-Tibetan languages like Tibetan, the cluster dŋ (often as part of dng) appears in Wylie transliteration to represent initial /d/ followed by the velar nasal /ŋ/, as in dngul (silver), preserving historical consonant stacks not common in standard Mandarin Pinyin.[50]E
Digraphs beginning with the letter E in the Latin script primarily function as vowel combinations, often representing monophthongs, diphthongs, or length markers in various languages, particularly those of Romance and Germanic families. These combinations arose from historical evolutions in orthography, where paired vowels served to distinguish phonetic qualities or durations not easily conveyed by single letters. In English, for instance, E-initiated digraphs frequently exhibit irregular pronunciations due to the language's complex vowel history, while in continental European languages, they tend toward more consistent phonemic mappings. The digraphF
The digraph ff in Welsh orthography represents the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, distinct from the single letter f, which denotes the voiced counterpart /v/. This distinction arises from historical sound shifts in the Welsh language, where the voiceless /f/ is doubled to avoid confusion with the more common voiced variant, often used for emphasis or to maintain phonetic clarity in words like saff (soap).[58] In some other orthographies influenced by Celtic traditions, doubled ff similarly emphasizes the /f/ sound, though less systematically than in Welsh.[59] In Irish Gaelic, the digraph fh functions primarily as an aspiration marker, rendering the preceding consonant lenited and often resulting in silence for the f itself, producing no audible /h/ or /f/ sound in most contexts. For example, in words like fhág (leave, past tense), fh indicates grammatical aspiration without contributing phonetic value, a feature tied to the language's initial mutation system.[60] This orthographic convention highlights Irish's use of digraphs for morphological rather than purely phonological purposes. The combination fl typically forms a consonant cluster /fl/ in many Indo-European languages using the Latin script, such as English and German, where each letter retains its individual sound (/f/ followed by /l/) rather than fusing into a single phoneme. However, in certain phonetic transcription systems and phonics pedagogies, fl is treated as a digraph-like unit to denote the initial onset cluster, facilitating analysis of syllable structure in words like flame.[61] Historically in Czech orthography, the sequence fř represented the cluster /fr̝/, combining /f/ with the unique Czech fricative vibrants /r̝/ (ř), which evolved from earlier digraphic systems before the standardization of diacritics in the 15th century. This usage addressed the language's complex consonant phonotactics, where such combinations were well-formed despite their rarity, as seen in phonological analyses of permissible sequences.[62]G
The digraph gh in Irish orthography typically represents the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ in broad (velarized) contexts or the voiced palatal approximant /j/ in slender (palatalized) positions, serving as a lenited form of /ɡ/ to indicate aspiration or softening in mutation processes.[32] For example, in words like "dough" (/duː/ with /ɣ/), it contrasts with the plain /ɡ/ to reflect historical phonetic shifts in Celtic languages. In Portuguese, gh appears in loanwords such as "ghetto" (adapted as "gueto"), where it is pronounced as /ɡw/, with the functioning as a semivowel /w/, though some regional varieties may approximate a fricative /x/ influenced by native phonology.[63][64] The digraph gl in Italian orthography denotes the consonant cluster /ɡl/ when not followed by /i/, as in "globo" (/ˈɡlɔːbo/, globe), preserving a clear velar-liquid sequence typical of Romance consonant onsets.[65] However, the trigraph gli (functioning as an extended digraph) represents the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/, akin to the "ll" in English "million," as in "famiglia" (/faˈmiʎʎa/, family); this usage traces to older Latin spellings where "gli" evolved to mark palatalization in medieval Italian dialects.[65] In French and Italian, the digraph gn consistently stands for the palatal nasal /ɲ/, a sound produced by raising the tongue toward the hard palate while nasalizing, as exemplified by Italian "gnocchi" (/ˈɲɔkki/, dumplings) or French "cognac" (/kɔ.ɲak/).[66] This representation originated in Vulgar Latin, where nasal palatals developed before front vowels, and remains a hallmark of Gallo-Romance and Italo-Romance orthographic conventions to distinguish it from plain /n/.[66] The digraph gu in English orthography before front vowels /e/ or /i/ often signals a hard /ɡ/ sound, as in "guess" (/ɡɛs/) or "guide" (/ɡaɪd/), preventing the default soft /dʒ/ associated with "g" in those positions; alternatively, it can form the labialized cluster /ɡw/ in words like "guava" (/ˈɡwɑːvə/) or "anguish" (/ˈæŋɡwɪʃ/), reflecting Anglo-Norman influences on English consonant-vowel interactions.[67] In Spanish, gu before /e/ or /i/ similarly enforces the voiced velar stop /ɡ/ with the /u/ acting as a silent linker, as in "guerra" (/ˈɡe.ra/, war) or "guía" (/ˈɡi.a/, guide), a rule codified in the Real Academia Española's orthographic norms to maintain phonetic consistency across vowel contexts. In Polish orthography, the digraph gł (combining /ɡ/ with the retroflex approximant /w/ from "ł") produces the labial-velar cluster /ɡw/, as in "głowa" (/ˈɡlɔva/, head), where it approximates English "gw" in "glow" and aids in rendering labialized onsets common in Slavic consonant systems.[68]H
Digraphs beginning with ⟨h⟩ in Latin-script orthographies typically indicate aspiration, voicelessness, or fricative qualities for consonants, especially in languages with phonemic distinctions not found in English. These digraphs are common in European and indigenous American languages to represent sounds like voiceless approximants or fricatives. For example, in Old English, ⟨hw⟩ represented the aspirated labiovelar approximant /hw/, as in hwæt ("what"), distinguishing it from plain /w/. This digraph persisted in some modern editions of Old English texts and reflects historical Germanic phonology where aspiration followed Grimm's Law derivations. The digraph ⟨hh⟩ appears in certain phonetic notations to denote gemination or emphasis of the glottal fricative /h:/, particularly in linguistic transcriptions emphasizing duration, though it is less common in standard orthographies. This usage highlights ⟨h⟩'s role as a modifier for non-pulmonic or emphatic consonants in minority languages. ⟨hl⟩ is employed in the historical orthography of Choctaw, a Muskogean language, to denote the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/, similar to the Welsh ⟨ll⟩ but adapted for Native American phonology. In Cyrus Byington's 19th-century dictionary, ⟨hl⟩ was used before vowels and ⟨lh⟩ before consonants to capture this sound, which involves lateral airflow with frication; modern standardized Choctaw often replaces it with ⟨ł⟩ for clarity, but the digraph persists in older texts and some dialects. This reflects early missionary efforts to document indigenous sounds using Latin letters.[69][70] In Icelandic, the digraph ⟨hr⟩ represents the voiceless alveolar trill /r̥/, a breathy or aspirated variant of /r/ occurring initially or in clusters. This sound is produced as a trill with delayed voicing, as in hratt ("fast"), and is part of Icelandic's conservative retention of Old Norse phonemes. The orthography systematically uses ⟨h⟩ to mark voicelessness in sonorants like ⟨hr⟩, ⟨hl⟩ (for /l̥/), and ⟨hn⟩ (for /n̥/), distinguishing them from voiced counterparts.[21] The digraph ⟨hñ⟩ appears in some variant orthographies of Quechua, an Andean language family, to represent the palatal nasal /ɲ/, particularly in non-standardized or regional writings where ⟨ñ⟩ alone might be ambiguous. Standard modern Quechua uses ⟨ñ⟩ for this sound, as in ñuqa ("I"), but historical or dialectal forms incorporating ⟨h⟩ for emphasis or aspiration have been noted in missionary texts, though not widely adopted. This usage aligns with Spanish-influenced Latin scripts in South America.[71]I
The digraphs beginning with I in the Latin script primarily represent high vowel combinations and diphthongs, often involving the close front unrounded vowel /i/ transitioning to another vowel sound. These combinations are common in Indo-European languages like English and Spanish, as well as in orthographies adapted for African and Turkic languages. They typically function to indicate palatalization, length, or gliding sounds, distinguishing them from single-letter vowels by their role in syllable structure and pronunciation. The digraph ia in English represents the diphthong /ɪə/ or a palatal glide /ja/, particularly in unstressed syllables following a stressed vowel, as in "idea" pronounced /aɪˈdiːə/. This pronunciation arises from historical vowel shifts, where "ia" serves as a marker for the near-close near-front vowel followed by a schwa. In some contexts, it may approximate /ja/ in loanwords or proper names, though the standard realization is the centering diphthong. The digraph ie has varied realizations across languages. In English, it often denotes the long close front unrounded vowel /iː/, as in "piece" /piːs/, or the diphthong /aɪ/ in words like "tie" /taɪ/, reflecting Old English influences where "ie" broke from earlier monophthongs. In Spanish, ie forms a rising diphthong /je/, combining /i/ with a palatal approximant /j/, as in "tierra" /ˈtjera/ 'earth', where the sequence ensures smooth vocalic transition without consonant intervention. This usage aligns with Spanish orthographic rules for hiatus avoidance in diphthongs.[72] The digraph ii serves as a length marker for the long close front unrounded vowel /iː/ in orthographies of several African languages, particularly in Eastern Bantu varieties. For instance, in languages like those documented in Bantu orthographic standards, double vowels such as ii distinguish phonemic length contrasts essential for meaning, as in minimal pairs where short /i/ versus long /iː/ alters lexical items; this convention avoids diacritics for practicality in literacy development. Such systems are widespread in sub-Saharan African Latin scripts to represent suprasegmental features like duration.[73] The digraph io in English typically represents the diphthong /ɪəʊ/ or /joʊ/, especially in words of Greek or Latin origin, as in "ion" /ˈaɪɒn/ or /ˈaɪən/, where it glides from a near-close vowel to a mid-back rounded one. This occurs frequently in scientific and technical terms, maintaining a two-syllable structure despite the digraph's appearance. The pronunciation can vary by dialect, with American English favoring /aɪoʊ/ in some cases.[74] The digraph iu appears in Classical Latin as a diphthong /iu̯/, combining /i/ and /u/ in a single syllable, as in "Iulius" /ˈjuːli.us/, where the initial /i/ acts semivocalically before the back vowel. In English borrowings from Latin, it often simplifies to /juː/, as in "genius" /ˈdʒiːniəs/ or /ˈdʒɛn.ju.əs/, preserving the glide but adapting to modern phonotactics. This digraph highlights Latin's use of vowel sequences for complex vocalic nuclei.[75] The digraph iy is used in some Turkic languages, such as Crimean Tatar, to represent the diphthong /ɪj/ or a palatalized high front vowel sequence, as in suffixes like -iy for adjectival formation (e.g., ilmiy 'scientific'). In Latin-based orthographies for these languages, iy denotes a glide from /i/ to a palatal approximant /j/, aiding in the representation of vowel harmony and frontness typical of Turkic phonology. This convention emerged in 20th-century script reforms to accommodate non-Arabic vowel distinctions.[76] In certain Indonesian language variants, particularly in orthographies for Austronesian languages like Enggano, the sequence iŋ marks nasal vowels such as /ĩ/, where the velar nasal /ŋ/ indicates nasality on the preceding high front vowel without altering consonant inventory. This approach addresses the lack of dedicated nasal vowel symbols in standard Indonesian orthography, using the digraph to denote phonetic nasality influenced by surrounding consonants, as in words where vowel nasalization spreads regressively.[77]J
Digraphs beginning with ⟨j⟩ in the Latin script often represent palatal approximants or affricates, particularly in transliterations of non-Latin scripts and in orthographies of languages with palatal sounds, such as those in Romance and Uralic families. These digraphs facilitate the representation of sounds not native to the basic Latin alphabet, emphasizing semivowel or palatal qualities in phonetic contexts. The digraph ⟨jh⟩ is employed in Latin transliterations of Indic languages to denote the aspirated voiced palatal affricate /dʒʰ/, corresponding to characters like Devanagari झ in Hindi. This usage is standardized in ISO 15919, which provides a systematic romanization for South Asian scripts to ensure consistent representation across languages like Hindi, Marathi, and Sanskrit-derived terms.[78] In Finnish orthography, ⟨jj⟩ indicates a geminate or lengthened /j:/, appearing medially to mark phonetic duration, though the length contrast for /j/ is not phonemically distinctive unlike for other consonants. Examples include words like raijata [ˈrɑi̯jːɑt̪ɑ], where the doubled ⟨j⟩ reflects prolonged articulation in spoken Finnish. This convention aligns with the language's general rule for doubling consonants to signify length in non-initial positions.[79] The sequence ⟨ju⟩ in French orthography typically represents the palatal fricative /ʒ/ followed by the close front rounded vowel /y/ (or its labio-palatal variant /ɥ/), as seen in words like juillet /ʒɥijɛ/ meaning "July." This combination arises from the phonetic behavior of ⟨j⟩ before front vowels, forming a common onset in syllable-initial positions without constituting a single phoneme.[80] In transliterations of Sanskrit using the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), the digraph ⟨jñ⟩ represents the conjunct consonant cluster /ɟɲ/ (or approximants like /dʒɲ/), corresponding to Devanagari ज्ञ and often pronounced as [ɟɲaːnɐ] in jñāna ("knowledge"). Alternative realizations include [gjɑːnɑ] or [gɲɑːnɑ], reflecting regional variations in articulation, and this digraph is essential for accurately conveying complex palatal nasals in philosophical and religious texts.[81]K
The digraph ⟨kh⟩ is employed in various transliteration systems for the Latin script to represent either the voiceless velar fricative /x/ or the aspirated voiceless velar stop /kʰ/, particularly in rendering sounds from languages lacking direct Latin equivalents. In classical Greek, the letter chi (χ) was pronounced as /kʰ/, a sound transliterated as ⟨kh⟩ in some scholarly systems, though modern Greek shifts it to /x/, still often rendered ⟨kh⟩ in names like "Kharis" for Χάρις.[82] For Arabic, ⟨kh⟩ denotes /x/ in romanizations of names such as "Khalid" (خالد), following standards that distinguish it from softer fricatives.[83] This usage extends to Cyrillic transliterations, where ⟨kh⟩ captures the /x/ sound of ха (kha) in Russian.[84] In Zulu orthography, a Bantu language using the Latin script, ⟨kl⟩ represents a complex lateral affricate, phonetically [kʟ̥ʼ] or [kxʼ], involving a velar stop followed by a voiceless lateral release, as in "klaya" (to cut into strips), a sound challenging for non-native speakers due to its ejective or aspirated quality at the throat's back.[85] This digraph treats the sequence as a single phonemic unit rather than a simple /kl/ cluster, accommodating Zulu's click and affricate inventory in non-European contexts. The English digraph ⟨kn⟩, inherited from Old English "cn" where both sounds were pronounced, now features a silent ⟨k⟩ before ⟨n⟩, yielding /n/ at word-initial positions in over 200 words, such as "know" (/noʊ/) and "knee" (/niː/).[42] This silent ⟨k⟩ emerged during the Middle English period as the initial velar sound weakened, standardizing in modern orthography to preserve etymological ties to Germanic roots. In some Oceanic languages adopting the Latin script, ⟨kŋ⟩ denotes the prenasalized velar stop /kŋ/ or a similar cluster, as seen in Bariai (spoken in Papua New Guinea), where it appears in consonant sequences like /kŋ/ alongside other plosive-sonorant pairs, reflecting the language's syllable structure constraints.[86] This orthographic choice, common in Austronesian-influenced systems, avoids ambiguity with separate ⟨k⟩ and ⟨ŋ⟩ (often written "ng").L
The digraphs beginning with L in Latin-script orthographies primarily represent lateral sounds, including approximants and fricatives, often arising from palatalization processes in Romance and Celtic languages. These include the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/, the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/, and rarer voiced counterparts, with variations across dialects reflecting historical sound changes such as lenition or affrication. In Romance languages like Spanish and Portuguese, L-digraphs typically denote /ʎ/, while in Welsh and related Celtic traditions, they convey fricative laterals. Less common usages appear in Slavic and African language orthographies for similar phonetic distinctions. The digraph Ll represents the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ in traditional Spanish orthography, as in calle (street), particularly in non-yeísta dialects such as those in rural Spain, the Andes, and Paraguay, where it contrasts with the /j/ of y.[87] In yeísta varieties, which predominate in most of Latin America and urban Spain, /ʎ/ merges with /ʝ/, yielding pronunciations like [kaʝe] for calle. In Rioplatense Spanish (Argentina and Uruguay), this merger advances to yeísmo rehilado, producing a voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, as in [kaʒe], akin to the 's' in English measure.[88] Lleísmo, found in pockets of northern Spain (e.g., around Valladolid), reverses the merger by pronouncing y and ll as /l/, though ll retains /ʎ/ more consistently in these areas.[88] In Welsh, Ll denotes the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/, a distinctive sound produced by directing airflow along the sides of the tongue while voicing is suppressed, as in Llanelli (place name).[89] The digraph Lh is used for the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ in Portuguese, as in milho (corn), where the 'h' indicates palatalization without adding aspiration, distinguishing it from simple /l/.[90] In historical Welsh orthographies, such as John Price's 1546 alphabet, Lh represented /ɬ/, the voiceless lateral fricative, before standardization favored Ll for this phoneme in modern usage.[91] Lj functions as a digraph for /ʎ/ in Serbo-Croatian (Croatian, Serbian Latin script), treated as a single letter in the alphabet, as in ljubav (love), reflecting palatalization of /lj/ clusters from Proto-Slavic.[92] The digraph Lz is rare and primarily associated with the voiced alveolar lateral fricative /ɮ/ in certain African language orthographies, though it appears more often in phonetic notations like the IPA extension ʫ; for example, proposals for Bantu languages have explored it for sounds in Zulu or related varieties, where /ɮ/ occurs but is typically transcribed as "dl" or "dhl."[93] In Breton, geminate laterals are represented by doubled ll to indicate prolonged /lː/, as seen in historical texts like Sacrament an Alter (ca. 1576), where intervocalic ll preserves the phonetic length distinction from single /l/, a feature inherited from Brythonic Celtic phonology.[94]M
The digraphs beginning with the letter M in Latin-script orthographies are frequently employed to denote nasal consonants, prenasalized stops, or consonant clusters, with particular prominence in Bantu and other African languages where prenasalization is a key phonological feature. These digraphs reflect the adaptation of the Latin alphabet to capture sounds not present in European languages, often arising from colonial and post-colonial orthographic standardization efforts. In Bantu languages, M-initial digraphs typically involve a labial nasal /m/ combining with a following obstruent or sonorant to form prenasalized or coarticulated sequences, aiding in the representation of syllable structure and tone interactions. The digraphDigraphs N to Z
N
The letter N forms several digraphs in Latin-script orthographies, primarily representing nasal consonants, especially in European and some Asian languages where nasals occur at alveolar, palatal, or velar places of articulation.[102] The digraph ng denotes the voiced velar nasal /ŋ/, a sound produced with the velum lowered and airflow through the nasal cavity while the back of the tongue contacts the soft palate. In English, it appears in word-final positions as in "sing," where it contrasts with alveolar /n/ in minimal pairs like "sin" versus "sing."[102] This digraph is standard in Filipino (Tagalog), where it represents /ŋ/ both initially and medially, as in "ngayon" (now), and is treated as a single unit in the alphabet following "n."[103] Similarly, in Māori orthography, ng consistently marks /ŋ/, as in "ngā" (the plural article), and is considered a distinct letter in the 15-letter alphabet, pronounced like the "ng" in English "singer."[104][105] The digraph nh represents the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/, articulated with the tongue raised toward the hard palate and nasal airflow. In Portuguese, nh is used for /ɲ/, as in "ninho" (nest), where it may surface as a nasal palatal approximant [ȷ̃] in Brazilian varieties due to allophonic variation.[106][107] Vietnamese employs nh identically for /ɲ/, distinguishing it from alveolar /n/ in words like "nhà" (house), a convention inherited from Portuguese missionary influences in the 17th century.[108] Nj also encodes /ɲ/ in several South Slavic languages. In Serbo-Croatian (including Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian in Latin script), nj stands for the palatal nasal as a single phoneme, as in "konj" (horse), where it is indivisible and lacks an English equivalent.[109] Slovenian uses nj similarly for /ɲ/, treating it as a digraph in the orthography, as in "konj" (horse), though it may palatalize preceding consonants in some contexts.[110] In Italian, nn indicates gemination of the alveolar nasal, producing a long /nː/ that contrasts phonemically with short /n/, as in "anno" (year, /ˈan.no/) versus "ano" (anus, /ˈa.no/). This orthographic doubling reflects inherited Latin geminates and affects duration, with geminates typically lasting longer acoustically than singletons.[111][112]O
The digraph oe represents various vowel sounds in Latin-script orthographies, particularly in Germanic languages. In English, it typically denotes the diphthong /oʊ/, as in "toe" or "foe".[113] In German, oe serves as an alternative to the umlauted ö, pronounced as the open-mid front rounded vowel /ø/ (short [œ]), especially in contexts where diacritics are unavailable, such as in "Schoen" for Schön.[114] In Dutch, oe consistently represents the close back rounded vowel /u(ː)/, as in "boek" (book).[115] The digraph oi is common in English and French, functioning as a diphthong. In English, it is pronounced /ɔɪ/, as exemplified by "oil" or "boil".[113] In French, oi represents /wa/, a diphthong derived from historical developments, heard in words like "voix" (voice).[116] Oo appears primarily in English orthography to indicate back rounded vowels. It can represent the close back rounded vowel /uː/, as in "boot" or "loop", or the near-close near-back rounded vowel /ʊ/, as in "book" or "foot".[42][117] The digraph ou exhibits variability across languages, often reflecting historical borrowings from French. In English, it frequently denotes the diphthong /aʊ/, as in "out" or "ouch".[118] In French, ou is pronounced as the close back rounded vowel /u/, as in "vous" (you).[116] Oy parallels oi in function and is prevalent in English for the diphthong /ɔɪ/, as in "boy" or "toy".[113] In French, it is less common but pronounced /waj/, as in "royal" (royal).[116] In some Southeast Asian Latin-script orthographies, such as that developed for Muak Sa-aak (an Angkuic language spoken in Myanmar), the digraph oŋ is employed among other combinations to represent complex phonemic contrasts, including nasalized or velar nasal sequences, as part of a system using digraphs without diacritics.[119]| Digraph | Language | Pronunciation (IPA) | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| oe | English | /oʊ/ | toe, foe[113] |
| oe | German | /ø/ or [œ] | Schoen (for Schön)[114] |
| oe | Dutch | /u(ː)/ | boek[115] |
| oi | English | /ɔɪ/ | oil, boil[113] |
| oi | French | /wa/ | voix[116] |
| oo | English | /uː/ or /ʊ/ | boot; book[42] |
| ou | English | /aʊ/ | out, ouch[118] |
| ou | French | /u/ | vous[116] |
| oy | English | /ɔɪ/ | boy, toy[113] |
| oy | French | /waj/ | royal[116] |
| oŋ | Muak Sa-aak (Southeast Asian) | /oŋ/ or nasal variant | Context-specific in orthography[119] |
P
The digraph ⟨ph⟩ in Latin-script orthographies typically represents the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ in words borrowed from Greek via Latin, where it transliterates the Greek letter phi (φ), which shifted from an aspirated stop /pʰ/ in ancient Greek to /ɸ/ and later /f/ in modern Greek.[120] This convention persists in English and other European languages for classical loanwords, such as "phone" (from Greek phōnḗ, meaning "sound" or "voice") and "philosophy" (from Greek philosophía, meaning "love of wisdom"), preserving the etymological spelling despite the phonetic evolution. In Latin itself, ⟨ph⟩ initially denoted the aspirated /pʰ/ in Greek-derived terms like "philosophus," but subsequent Romance languages simplified it to /f/.[121] The combination ⟨pl⟩ functions as a consonant cluster rather than a true digraph in most Latin-script languages, representing the sequence /pl/ where both sounds are distinctly articulated, as in English "play" (/pleɪ/) or Latin "plenus" (/ˈple.nʊs/, meaning "full"). In some orthographic systems, such as those for indigenous languages or constructed scripts, ⟨pl⟩ may be treated as a single unit for phonological purposes, particularly in clusters before liquids, to reflect bilabial stop + lateral approximant sequences without assimilation. This usage appears in various modern orthographies, including for African languages adapted to Latin script, where it denotes unreleased or prenasalized variants in specific dialects. In English, the initial ⟨pn⟩ in Greek-derived words features a silent ⟨p⟩, with the digraph pronounced simply as /n/, as in "pneumonia" (from Greek pneúmōn, meaning "lung," via Latin pneumonia). This silent ⟨p⟩ results from English phonotactics disfavoring initial /pn/ clusters, leading to aphaeresis of the /p/ in pronunciation while retaining the spelling for etymological fidelity; similar patterns occur in words like "pneumatic" and "pneumothorax." The convention traces to Late Latin borrowings from Greek, where the full /pn/ was preserved in writing but adapted in vernacular speech across Indo-European languages. Historically in Polish orthography, the combination ⟨pł⟩ represented a palatalized alveolar cluster /plʲ/, where ⟨ł⟩ denoted a velarized or dark /lˠ/ that, in pre-vocalic or palatal contexts, softened to a palatal lateral /lʲ/ following the bilabial stop /p/, as seen in Old Polish forms like "płówo" (modern "płowo," meaning "blond" or "pale"). This digraph emerged in the 15th–16th centuries as Polish adapted the Latin alphabet to Slavic phonology, using diacritics and digraphs to mark palatalization before the standardization of the modern alphabet in 1830, which simplified ⟨ł⟩ to /w/ in contemporary pronunciation but retained historical spellings. Examples include "płetwa" (fin), where the original /plʲɛtva/ evolved to /pwɛtfa/ through delateralization.Q
The digraph qu is a prominent Q-initial combination in Latin-script orthographies, particularly in Western European languages derived from Latin. In English, it typically represents the consonant cluster /kw/, as exemplified in words like "quick" and "queen," where the q contributes a /k/ sound and the u a semivowel /w/.[122] This usage traces back to Classical Latin, where qu similarly denoted /kw/, as in "quis" ("who"), preserving the original Indo-European labiovelar stop.[123] In French, the pronunciation of qu varies contextually: before back vowels like a or o, it often retains a /kw/ quality, but before front vowels e or i, the u is typically silent, rendering qu as /k/, as in "qui" (/ki/, "who") or "que" (/kə/, "that").[124] This shift reflects historical palatalization processes in Romance languages, where the labiovelar simplified to a plain velar stop in certain environments. The doubled form qq appears rarely in Latin-script systems, often for emphasis or to indicate gemination of the uvular /q/ sound in non-Indo-European languages. For instance, in some orthographies of indigenous languages like Hadza, qq denotes a glottalized click /ᵑǃˀ/, distinguishing it from single q. Such usages are exceptional and typically confined to specialized phonetic notations rather than standard European alphabets. Quh occurs in Scots orthography to represent the velar fricative cluster /kx/ or /x/, particularly in loanwords or dialectal variants influenced by Older Scots conventions. This digraph combines the /k/ from qu with the /x/ (as in "loch"), as seen in certain regional spellings, though it is not widespread in modern standardized forms. Its pronunciation aligns with Scots' aspirated and fricative consonant inventory. In some Native American orthographies, particularly those of Salishan languages, the sequence q' (q with apostrophe) indicates an ejective uvular stop /qʼ/, a glottalized consonant produced with simultaneous uvular closure and glottal release. For example, in Klallam, q' appears in words like "q'ʷəɬ" for specific places or objects, highlighting the language's rich ejective series absent in European phonologies.[125] This convention addresses gaps in standard Latin script for indigenous sounds, as noted in comparative orthographic studies.[126]R
The digraph ⟨rh⟩ is used in the transliteration of Ancient Greek words to represent the aspirated alveolar trill /rʰ/, where the rho (ρ) with rough breathing (῾) indicates an initial h-like aspiration preceding the r sound; in modern Greek transliterations and some derivations, it simplifies to /r/ or a flap /ɾ/ without aspiration.[127] In Welsh orthography, ⟨rh⟩ denotes a voiceless alveolar trill /r̥/, produced by blowing air through a trilled or tapped r without vocal cord vibration, distinguishing it from the voiced /r/ of single ⟨r⟩.[26] The digraph ⟨rr⟩ represents a geminated or long trilled alveolar approximant /rː/ in several Romance languages. In Spanish, it specifically indicates a vibrant trill with multiple tongue vibrations, contrasting with the single flap /ɾ/ of ⟨r⟩ in intervocalic positions.[128] In Italian, ⟨rr⟩ similarly denotes a prolonged trill /rː/, held longer than the tapped /ɾ/ of single ⟨r⟩, emphasizing duration in intervocalic contexts.[129] ⟨rt⟩ functions as a digraph for the retroflex stop /ʈ/ in the orthography of Warlpiri, an Australian Aboriginal language, where the r-prefix signals retroflexion of the alveolar t, rather than a sequence of separate consonants.[130] In some other languages using the Latin script, such as English, ⟨rt⟩ typically represents a consonant cluster /rt/ without fusion into a single phoneme.S
The digraphs beginning with ⟨s⟩ in the Latin script primarily represent voiceless sibilant sounds, such as the /ʃ/ (as in English "ship") or /s/ (as in "sip"), across various languages. These combinations evolved from historical phonological shifts and orthographic conventions to distinguish sibilants from simple ⟨s⟩, which often denotes /s/. In Romance and Germanic languages, ⟨s⟩-initial digraphs frequently palatalize before front vowels, reflecting affricate or fricative developments in medieval periods.[131] ⟨Sc⟩ serves as a digraph for /sk/ in general positions but shifts to /ʃ/ before front vowels ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ in Italian orthography, as in scena (/ˈʃɛna/, "scene") or pesca (/ˈpeska/, "peach" vs. /ˈpɛʃa/, "fishing"). This rule stems from Latin palatalization patterns preserved in modern Italian.[132] In historical English, particularly Old English, ⟨sc⟩ represented /ʃ/ in words like scēap ("sheep"), a convention later replaced by ⟨sh⟩ during Middle English spelling reforms influenced by Norman scribes.[131] ⟨Sch⟩ denotes /ʃ/ in German, as in Schule (/ˈʃuːlə/, "school"), where it functions as a trigraph but is treated as a single phoneme in standard pronunciation. In Dutch, ⟨sch⟩ typically represents /sx/ (a cluster of /s/ and the voiceless velar fricative /x/), as in school (/sxoːl/), though in Belgian Flemish varieties, it approximates /ʃ/. This distinction arises from regional phonetic realizations of the fricative.[133][52] The digraph ⟨sh⟩ consistently represents /ʃ/ in English, appearing in native words like ship and derivatives, a spelling adopted in the late Middle English period to replace Old English ⟨sc⟩. In Portuguese, ⟨sh⟩ is not native but appears in loanwords from English or other languages to explicitly mark /ʃ/, such as show (/ʃow/), distinguishing it from the standard ⟨ch⟩ (/ʃ/) in words like chave ("key").[134][135] ⟨Sj⟩ in Dutch orthography represents /ʃ/, particularly in initial or intervocalic positions, as in sjaal (/ʃaːl/, "scarf"), reflecting a palatalized sibilant common in West Germanic dialects. This digraph avoids confusion with simple ⟨s⟩ (/s/).[136] ⟨Sz⟩ functions differently across languages: in Polish, it denotes /ʃ/, as in szkoła (/ˈʃkɔwa/, "school"), pairing with simple ⟨s⟩ for /s/ in a reversed convention from some neighbors. In Hungarian, however, ⟨sz⟩ represents /s/, as in szép (/seːp/, "beautiful"), while ⟨s⟩ denotes /ʃ/, a historical inversion adopted in the 15th-century orthographic reforms to align with Latin-based systems.[6][137]T
The digraphs beginning with ⟨t⟩ in the Latin script primarily represent dental or alveolar stops, fricatives, affricates, and geminates across various languages, often reflecting historical sound changes or borrowings. These combinations are especially prominent in Indo-European languages for dental articulations, where ⟨t⟩ serves as a base for modifications involving aspiration, voicing, or lateral release. In English, for instance, such digraphs distinguish voiceless and voiced dental fricatives, while in indigenous languages of the Americas, they encode lateral affricates. This section surveys key T-initial digraphs, emphasizing their phonetic realizations in representative orthographies. The digraph ⟨th⟩ denotes the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ in English words like "thin," where airflow passes between the teeth without vibration of the vocal cords.[138] It also represents the voiced dental fricative /ð/ in function words such as "this," involving vocal cord vibration during the interdental articulation.[138] Historically introduced to transliterate the ancient Greek letter theta (θ), which was pronounced as the aspirated stop /tʰ/, ⟨th⟩ in Greek loanwords into Latin and later European languages preserved this aspirate in early forms before shifting to fricatives in modern derivatives.[139] In French, the sequence ⟨ti⟩ before a vowel often yields /si/ or /ʃi/, as in "nation" (/nasjɔ̃/), where the /t/ palatalizes to an alveolar fricative influenced by the following high front vowel.[140] This reflects a broader pattern of coronal softening in Romance languages. Similarly, in historical English, ⟨ti⟩ underwent palatalization from Middle English /tj/ to /tʃ/ and eventually /ʃ/ before front vowels, evident in words like "question" (from Latin *quaestionem), where the original /tj/ sequence evolved into the modern /ʃən/.[140] The digraph ⟨tl⟩ in Nahuatl represents the voiceless alveolar lateral affricate /tɬ/, a single consonant sound produced by affricating a dental stop into a lateral fricative, as in "tlaxcalli" (tortilla).[141] This phoneme, uncommon in European languages, highlights Nahuatl's rich inventory of lateral sounds derived from Uto-Aztecan roots. In some dialects of English, the cluster ⟨tr⟩ is realized as an affricated [tʃr], where the dental stop /t/ anticipates the rhotic /ɹ/ by fronting and affricating, as in "truck" pronounced closer to [tʃɹʌk] in North American varieties.[142] This phonetic tendency, part of ongoing cluster simplification, does not alter the underlying phonemic /tr/ but affects perceptual identity in rapid speech. The doubled ⟨tt⟩ in Italian indicates a geminate voiceless dental stop /tː/, held longer than a singleton /t/, contrasting minimal pairs like "fato" (/ˈfa.to/, fate) and "fatto" (/ˈfatːo/, fact or done).[143] This length distinction is phonemic in Italian, influencing vowel quality and stress patterns in Tuscan-based standard pronunciation. The digraph ⟨tz⟩ consistently represents the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/ in German, as in "Zitrone" (lemon) or "Schnitzel," where it signals a short preceding vowel and occurs word-medially or finally.[133] In Nahuatl, ⟨tz⟩ similarly denotes /ts/, interchangeable with ⟨ts⟩ in some orthographies, appearing in words like "tzicatl" (dog).[141] In Navajo, the digraph ⟨tł⟩ (often with a stroke as ⟨tł'⟩ for ejectives) represents the ejective lateral affricate /tɬ'/, featuring a glottal closure followed by lateral release without voicing, as in "shitł’id" (my fart).[144] This sound, part of Navajo's Athabaskan consonant series, underscores the language's use of ejectives for stem-initial contrasts.U
The digraphs beginning with ⟨u⟩ in the Latin script primarily represent vowel sounds that are back or rounded, often functioning as diphthongs or to denote umlauted vowels in various languages. These combinations are common in Indo-European languages like English and German, as well as in non-Indo-European languages such as Irish and Vietnamese, where they help distinguish phonemic contrasts in vowel quality or length. Unlike consonant-initial digraphs, u-initial ones typically involve semivowel offglides or nasalization, reflecting historical developments in vowel systems. The digraph ⟨ua⟩ occurs in English to represent the diphthong /uə/, as in the word "dual," where it conveys a sequence starting with a close back rounded vowel gliding to a schwa. This pronunciation aligns with general patterns for ⟨ua⟩ in unstressed syllables in British and American English. ⟨Ue⟩ serves as a digraph for the close front rounded vowel /yː/ in German, particularly when the umlauted ⟨ü⟩ is unavailable, as in "fühlen" (to feel).[145] In English, ⟨ue⟩ can represent /juə/ in words like "duel," similar to ⟨ua⟩ but with a yod onset. Or it may appear as /wɛ/ in loanwords or proper names influenced by German orthography.[145] In English, ⟨ui⟩ typically denotes /uːɪ/ or /wi/ in diphthongal contexts, such as "fruit" pronounced /fruːt/, where the sequence merges into a long close back rounded vowel followed by an offglide.[146] In Irish Gaelic, ⟨ui⟩ represents the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/, a sound distinct from surrounding front or back vowels, as in "tuisle" (pulse).[147] The digraph ⟨uo⟩ is employed in Vietnamese to represent the diphthong /wo/ or /uə/, particularly in northern dialects, as in "cuốn" (to roll), where the initial /u/ glides to an open-mid back rounded vowel. This combination distinguishes it from monophthongs like ⟨u⟩ alone, aiding in tonal language phoneme inventory. ⟨Uy⟩ in English can represent /uɪ/ or /wi/, though rare, appearing in words like "buy" with a variant realization approaching /baɪ/, but primarily as a back vowel onset in some dialects. In French, ⟨uy⟩ denotes /œy/ or /ɥi/, as in "bruyant" (noisy), forming a diphthong with a front rounded close-mid vowel gliding to /i/. Additionally, ⟨uŋ⟩ appears in Lakota, a Siouan language with tonal elements, to indicate the nasalized close back rounded vowel /ũ/, as in "uŋ" for certain nasal vowels in roots. This usage highlights nasal vowel representation in Native American languages adapting the Latin script.V
The consonant cluster ⟨vl⟩ is rare across Latin-script orthographies, occurring sporadically in loanwords, proper names, or archaic spellings to represent the sequence /vl/. Phonological analyses highlight its infrequency in initial or medial positions in Indo-European languages, often avoided due to articulatory constraints.[148] In Slavic languages using the Latin script, such as Czech and Slovak, the cluster ⟨vr⟩ commonly represents the initial consonant sequence /vr/, as seen in words like Czech vrah ('murderer', pronounced /vrax/). This cluster is phonotactically permitted and frequent in West Slavic phonology, contributing to the language's complex onset structures.[149] Historical Polish orthography occasionally featured ⟨vł⟩ for /vl/ or a similar labio-velar cluster, prior to the standardization of ⟨ł⟩ for the /w/-like sound derived from palatalized /l/. This digraph addressed transitional forms in early modern Polish texts, reflecting evolving consonant realizations.[150]W
In the Latin script, digraphs beginning with ⟨w⟩ are primarily found in English and related Germanic languages, where they often represent labialized or approximant sounds derived from Old English clusters. These digraphs reflect historical phonological developments, such as the aspiration or silencing of the initial ⟨w⟩, and are typically used word-initially to denote semivowel or rhotic sounds. The digraph ⟨wh⟩, originating from the Old English cluster ⟨hw⟩, traditionally represents the voiceless labiovelar fricative /ʍ/ in conservative varieties of English, though it has merged with the voiced labiovelar approximant /w/ in most modern dialects, creating homophones like "which" and "witch." This merger is nearly complete in contemporary American and southern British English, but /ʍ/ persists in some regions, including parts of Ireland, Scotland, and older speakers elsewhere. For example, "what" may be pronounced /wɒt/ or /ʍɒt/ depending on the dialect. In Scottish English, particularly in northern varieties such as those spoken in Aberdeenshire and Doric Scots, ⟨wh⟩ can further evolve to the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, as in "fit" for "what" or "far" for "where." This pronunciation is a regional innovation from the /ʍ/ sound and is characteristic of Insular and Northern Scots dialects. Another common ⟨w⟩-initial digraph is ⟨wr⟩, which in standard English represents a simple alveolar approximant /r/ with the ⟨w⟩ silent, a holdover from Old English where the full /wr/ cluster was pronounced. This orthographic convention preserves etymological connections to Germanic roots involving twisting or writing actions. Examples include "write" (/raɪt/), "wrist" (/rɪst/), and "wrong" (/rɒŋ/), where the ⟨w⟩ provides no phonetic value in modern pronunciation but aids in distinguishing related words historically. The silencing of ⟨w⟩ before ⟨r⟩ occurred gradually between the Middle English and Early Modern periods, influenced by phonetic simplification in consonant clusters.X
The digraphs beginning with ⟨x⟩ in Latin script are primarily employed in orthographies for languages outside the Indo-European family or in transliterations of non-native sounds, often representing fricatives, affricates, or clicks that lack direct equivalents in standard English or Romance languages. These combinations are transliterative in nature, adapting the letter ⟨x⟩—typically /ks/ in English—to denote velar or lateral articulations in specific linguistic contexts. Xh represents the voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/ in Albanian orthography, as in xhenerik ("generic"), where it contrasts with single ⟨x⟩ for /dz/ and is part of the 36-letter Latin-based alphabet standardized in 1909.[151] In Zulu, ⟨xh⟩ denotes the aspirated alveolar lateral click /ǁʰ/, an ejective-like release following the base click sound produced by placing the tongue against the alveolar ridge and releasing laterally with aspiration, as in xhuma ("join together"). This usage stems from 19th-century missionary adaptations of the Latin alphabet to capture Bantu click consonants borrowed from Khoisan languages.[85] Xi is used in transliterations of Ancient and Modern Greek, where it renders the letter ⟨ξ⟩ (xi) as the consonant cluster /ks/, akin to the pronunciation in English "box," as in xenos ("stranger" or "xenophobia"). In some modern contexts, particularly before front vowels, it may simplify to /z/, but the digraph preserves the historical /ks/ value in scholarly romanizations.[152] Xl appears rarely in Latin-script orthographies to approximate the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/, a sound involving lateral airflow with frication along the alveolar ridge, found in languages like Welsh (as ⟨ll⟩) but adapted as ⟨xl⟩ in certain minority or constructed systems for clarity. In Navajo variants, the related cluster ⟨xł⟩ (with ⟨ł⟩ for /ɬ/) represents /xɬ/, a sequence of voiceless velar fricative /x/ followed by /ɬ/, as in the prefix xł- ("handle it [slender shape]") in verb stems, reflecting the language's complex consonant clusters in its extended Latin orthography developed in the 1930s.[153]Y
In Welsh orthography, the letter Y frequently functions as a semivowel representing the schwa vowel /ə/, especially in unstressed positions within short function words and in combinations with following consonants; these Y-initial pairings, such as yd, yn, and yr, effectively serve as digraphs denoting /əd/, /ən/, and /ər/ respectively. This usage stems from the language's phonemic system, where Y distinguishes the central vowel /ə/ from other vowels like /ɪ/ or /iː/, a distinction rooted in historical developments from Common Brittonic.[58][154] The digraph yn appears prominently in the preposition "yn" (meaning "in"), where it is pronounced /ən/ in connected speech, particularly in northern dialects; this contrasts with fuller /ɪn/ in isolated pronunciation but consistently features the schwa in rapid utterance. Similarly, yr functions as the definite article before vowels or h-initial words (e.g., "yr afal" for "the apple"), rendered as /ər/, with the R trilled; this form elides to 'r after certain vowels for euphony. These digraphs highlight Welsh's reliance on Y for the reduced vowel in grammatical elements, aiding rhythmic flow in mutations and syntax.[58][155] Yd occurs in contractions and interrogative forms, such as "ydy" (a colloquial variant of "is it?" from the verb "bod"), pronounced /ˈədi/ in southern Welsh or /ˈədɪ/ in northern varieties, where the initial Y conveys /ə/ before the voiced dental /d/; this aligns with soft mutation patterns altering initial consonants in dependent contexts. In medieval Welsh manuscripts, yd, alongside yn and yr, systematically spelled schwa-consonant sequences in words like prepositions and articles, reflecting an early orthographic convention for the neutral vowel (e.g., yd for /əd/ in inflected forms).[156][157]Z
Digraphs beginning with ⟨z⟩ in Latin-script orthographies often represent voiced sibilant sounds, particularly the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, as well as rarer lateral fricatives in specific language contexts. These combinations arise in natural language developments, transliterations, and standardized alphabets for minority languages, distinguishing them from unvoiced counterparts. Slavic influences have contributed to the adoption of some z-initial digraphs for /ʒ/ in broader European transliteration practices.[158] The digraph ⟨zh⟩ is commonly employed in phonetic transcriptions and transliterations to denote the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, equivalent to the sound of ⟨j⟩ in French words like je (/ʒə/). It appears in English renderings of Slavic names, such as "Zhivago" for Russian Живаго, and in dictionary notations for sounds like the "s" in English vision. This usage ensures consistent representation across languages lacking a dedicated letter for /ʒ/.[158][45] In Portuguese orthography, the sequence ⟨zi⟩ typically represents /zi/ but undergoes palatalization to /ʒi/ in Brazilian varieties, especially before high front vowels. For instance, zíper is pronounced /ˈʒipɛr/ in Brazilian Portuguese, reflecting a rule where coronal fricatives like /z/ assimilate to postalveolar /ʒ/ in this environment. This palatalization is a key feature of Brazilian Portuguese phonology, contrasting with more conservative European pronunciations.[159] The digraph ⟨zs⟩ in Hungarian serves exclusively for the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, a phoneme integral to the language's consonant inventory. Examples include rozsda (/ˈɾoʒdɒ/, "rust") and házsongard (/ˈhaːʒoŋɒrd/, "house arrest"), where ⟨zs⟩ contrasts with ⟨sz⟩ for /s/ and single ⟨z⟩ for /z/. Hungarian orthography treats ⟨zs⟩ as a single unit in alphabetization and spelling rules.[160] ⟨zl⟩ is a rare digraph used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages to transcribe the voiced alveolar lateral fricative /ɮ/, a sound present in certain Chadic and Bantu languages of the region. In the Baka language, for example, it appears in consonant charts as ⟨zl⟩ for /ɮ/, facilitating orthographic standardization across Cameroonian linguistic diversity. This usage highlights adaptations for non-European phonemes in African Latin scripts.Miscellaneous
Apostrophe-Based Digraphs
Apostrophe-based digraphs in the Latin script typically pair a consonant with a following apostrophe (') to denote modifications such as palatalization, glottalization, or ejectives, serving as a compact way to represent sounds not conveyed by single letters in standard alphabets. These digraphs are particularly common in linguistic transcriptions and orthographies of languages with complex consonant inventories, where the apostrophe indicates secondary articulations or laryngeal features like glottal closure. Unlike alphabetic digraphs formed by two letters, these rely on the apostrophe's role as a non-alphabetic modifier, often drawing from phonetic conventions to adapt the Latin script for specific phonological needs.[161] In phonetic transcriptions of Irish, especially Old Irish, the apostrophe follows certain consonants to mark palatalization (slender quality), where the consonant is articulated with a y-like off-glide toward the hard palate. For example, the digraph b' represents the palatalized bilabial stop /bʲ/, as in transcriptions of words like berid (/b'er'iD'/ "carries"), distinguishing it from the velarized /bˠ/. Similarly, d' denotes /dʲ/, g' denotes /gʲ/, and s' denotes the palatalized fricative /sʲ/, reflecting dialectal variations where palatalization affects pronunciation in contexts like adjacent high front vowels. This convention aids in analyzing historical Irish phonology, where orthographic vowels (e.g., e or i) signal the feature, but the apostrophe provides explicit notation in linguistic descriptions.[161] For ejective consonants, the apostrophe commonly pairs with stops in Latin-based orthographies to indicate glottal closure during release, producing a non-pulmonic sound. In Quechua, particularly the Cuzco variety, q' represents the ejective uvular stop /q'/, articulated with simultaneous glottal and uvular closure, as in words like q'illu ("yellow"). This digraph was standardized in the 1975 Peruvian orthographic reform to better reflect Quechua's phonology, replacing earlier doubled-letter systems and distinguishing ejectives from plain and aspirated stops like /q/ and /qʰ/. The use of the apostrophe here aligns with broader Latin script adaptations for ejectives in indigenous American languages, emphasizing its utility for sounds absent in Indo-European tongues.[162][163]Other Non-Alphabetic Digraphs
In some Spanish-influenced orthographies of Philippine languages, such as Pangasinan, the digraph ⟨ñg⟩ represents the velar nasal phoneme /ŋ/, particularly when it occurs between vowels to distinguish it from the sequence /ng/. This usage stems from historical adaptations of Spanish spelling conventions, where the tilde on n (ñ) for /ɲ/ was extended in combinations to handle velar nasals in Austronesian phonologies.[164] The digraph ⟨Ŋg⟩, combining the eng letter ⟨Ŋ⟩ (/ŋ/) with ⟨g⟩, is employed in certain African practical orthographies to denote the prenasalized velar stop /ŋg/. This occurs in Bantu and other Niger-Congo languages, where prenasalized consonants are common, and the distinction from plain /ŋ/ is phonemically important; for instance, in orthographies following SIL guidelines, ⟨ŋg⟩ explicitly marks the affricated or stopped nasal release. Swahili variants and related East African languages sometimes adopt similar conventions in extended systems to avoid ambiguity with single ⟨ng⟩ for /ŋ/. The ligature ⟨Æ⟩, historically a fusion of ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩, serves a phonetic role in Danish orthography as a distinct vowel letter representing /æ/ in short positions and /ɛ/ in long ones, functioning as a digraph hybrid in its evolution from Latin diphthongs. Though now a full alphabet member, its ligature form underscores non-alphabetic origins in representing front rounded or low vowels not captured by basic Latin letters. In Dutch orthography, the ligature ⟨IJ⟩ (or ⟨ij⟩) acts as a digraph for the diphthong /ɛi/, akin to English "eye," and reduces to /i/ in unstressed syllables, treated as a single phonetic unit despite comprising two letters. This usage persists in standard Dutch, where it is capitalized as ⟨IJ⟩ and often rendered as a connected glyph for visual and phonetic cohesion, distinguishing it from separate ⟨i⟩ and ⟨j⟩.References
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Welsh_Grammar%2C_Historical_and_Comparative/Phonology
