Trigraph (orthography) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A trigraph is a group of three letters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined. For example, in the word schilling, the trigraph sch represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative

Voiceless postalveolar fricative

The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or voiceless domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages, including English...

/ʃ/, rather than the consonant cluster

Consonant cluster

In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....

*/skh/. In the word beautiful, the sequence eau is pronounced /juː/, and in the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

word château it is pronounced /o/. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a sequence of letters in English is a trigraph, because of the complicating role of silent letters. There are few productive trigraphs in English; one is tch as in watch.

The trigraph sch is German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, where it is equivalent to the English sh; like English sh, it is not regarded as an independent letter of the alphabet. In Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

, the trigraph dzs
Hungarian dzs
Dzs is the eighth letter, and only trigraph, of the Hungarian alphabet. Its name is pronounced , and represents the sounds and .-Length:In several words, it is pronounced long, e.g....

is treated as a distinct letter, with its own place in the alphabet. It is pronounced like an English "j" /dʒ/. The combination gli in Italian can also be a trigraph, representing the palatal lateral approximant

Palatal lateral approximant

The palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter ⟨y⟩ , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L.-Features:Features of the palatal lateral...

/ʎ/ before vowels other than i.

Although trigraphs are not uncommon in adaptations of the Latin alphabet, they are rare elsewhere. There are several in Cyrillic alphabets, which for example uses five trigraphs and a tetragraph

Tetragraph

A tetragraph is a sequence of four letters used to represent a single sound , or a combination of sounds, that do not necessarily correspond to the individual values of the letters. In German, for example, the tetragraph tsch represents the sound of the English digraph ch...

in the Kabardian alphabet: гъу /ʁʷ/, кӀу /kʷʼ/, къу /qʷʼ/, кхъ /q/, хъу /χʷ/, and кхъу /qʷ/. While most of these can be thought of as consonant + /w/, the letters in кхъ /q/ cannot be so separated: the х has the negative meaning that кхъ is not ejective, as къ is /qʼ/. (See List of Cyrillic digraphs.)

Hangul

Hangul

Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

has a single obsolete trigraph, ㅹ *[v̥], a theoretical form not actually found in any texts, which is the digraph ㅃ *[b̥] plus a bottom circle used to derive the labio-dental series of consonants.

American Sign Language

American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

uses a multigraph of the American manual alphabet to sign 'I love you', from the English initialism ILY. It consists of the little finger of the letter I plus the thumb and forefinger of the letter L. It is conceived of as a trigraph of the letters I-L-Y, though the letter Y (little finger and thumb) overlaps with the other two letters.

Japanese kana

Kana

Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...

use trigraphs for Cyō sequences, as in きょう kyou /kjoo/ 'today'; the う is only pronounced /o/ after another /o/.

A

⟨aai⟩ is used in Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

to write the sound /aːi̯/.

⟨abh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

Donegal or Donegal Town is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. Its name, which was historically written in English as Dunnagall or Dunagall, translates from Irish as "stronghold of the foreigners" ....

, /oː/, between broad

Velarization

Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of three diacritics:...

consonants.

⟨adh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əi̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

, /eː/, between broad

Velarization

consonants, or an unstressed /ə/ at the end of a word.

⟨aei⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /eː/ between a broad

Velarization

and a slender

Palatalization

In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....

consonant.

⟨agh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əi̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

, /eː/, between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨aim⟩ is used in French

French orthography

French orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the French language. It is based on a combination of phonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French c. 1100–1200 CE and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite...

to write the sound /ɛ̃/ (/ɛm/ before a vowel).

⟨ain⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /ɛ̃/ (/ɛn/ before a vowel). It also represents /ɛ̃/ in Tibetan Pinyin

Tibetan Pinyin

The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin, is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in the People's Republic of China for personal name and place names. It is based on the Lhasa dialect of Standard Tibetan and reflects the pronunciation very...

, where it is alternatively written än.

⟨aío⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /iː/ between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨amh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

, /oː/, between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨aoi⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /iː/ between a broad

Velarization

and a slender

Palatalization

consonant.

⟨aon⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /ɑ̃/ (/ɑn/ before a vowel).

⟨aou⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /u/.

⟨aoû⟩ is used in a few words in French

French orthography

to write the sound /u/.

⟨aqh⟩ is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the strident vowel

Strident vowel

Strident vowels are strongly pharyngealized vowels accompanied by epiglottal trill, where the larynx is raised and the pharynx constricted, so that either the epiglottis or the arytenoid cartilages vibrate instead of the vocal cords.Strident vowels are fairly common in Khoisan languages, where...

/a/. (If this symbol does not display properly, it is an ⟨a⟩ with a double tilde ⟨≈⟩ underneath.)

⟨aye⟩

B

⟨bhf⟩ is used in Irish, like the digraph bh, to write the sounds /w/ and /vʲ/.

C

⟨ccs⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨cs⟩, [tːʃ]. It is collated as ⟨cs⟩ rather than as ⟨c⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨cs⟩ are brought together in a compound word, they form the regular sequence ⟨cscs⟩.

⟨c’h⟩ is used in Breton

Breton language

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

in order to represent the [x] sound (a voiceless velar fricative

Voiceless velar fricative

The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English....

). It should not be confused with ch

-Business:* Bemidji Airlines IATA code* Carolina Herrera, a fashion designer based in New York.-Entertainment and sports:* Channel * College Humor.com, a comedy website...

, which represents in Breton the [ʃ] sound (a voiceless postalveolar fricative

Voiceless postalveolar fricative

The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or voiceless domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages, including English...

).

⟨chd⟩ is used in Eskayan

Eskayan

Eskayan is the language of the Eskaya cultural minority of Bohol, an island province of the Philippines. Relatively little is known about this speech variety which has been the object of occasional media attention in the Philippines since the 1980s...

romanised orthography for the sound /dʒ/ (English "j").

⟨chh⟩ is used in Quechua

Quechua languages

Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...

and romanizations of Indic languages to write the sound /tʃʰ/.

⟨chj⟩ is used in Corsican

Corsican language

Corsican is a Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia . Corsican is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the vernacular language alongside the Italian, official language in Corsica until 1859, which was...

to write the sound /tj/.

Initial ⟨chw⟩ is pronounced in the Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

as /w/.

⟨chz⟩ was used in medieval Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

for /tʃ/.

D

⟨ddh⟩ is used in the Dene Suline language

Dene Suline language

Dene Suline or Chipewyan is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada. It is a part of the Athabaskan family...

(Chipewyan) for the dental affricate /tθ/.

⟨ddz⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨dz⟩, [dːz]. It is collated as ⟨dz⟩ rather than as ⟨d⟩. It is not used within roots, where ⟨dz⟩ may be either long or short; but when an assimilated suffix is added to the stem, it may form the trigraph rather than the regular sequence *⟨dzdz⟩. Examples are eddze, lopóddzon.

⟨dlh⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

The Romanized Popular Alphabet or Hmong RPA , is a system of romanization for the various dialects of the Hmong language. Created in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by a group of missionaries and Hmong advisers, it has gone on to become the most widespread system for writing the Hmong language in the...

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

Hmong or Mong is the common name for a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong–Mien/Miao–Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...

, where it represents the sound /tˡʰ/.

⟨drz⟩ is used to write the sound /dʒ/ in English transcriptions of the Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

digraph <dż

DZ or dz may refer to:* Delftsche Zwervers, a Dutch student society and rover crew* Delta Zeta, a college sorority in the USA* Dimension Zero , a melodic death metal band...

>.

⟨dsh⟩ is used in to write the foreign sound /dʒ/ in German. A common variant is the tetragraph dsch
DSCH
DSCH may stand for:*DSCH motif, a musical motif used by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich to represent himself. DSCH is also the name of a Russian journal and a publishing house devoted to the composer....

.

⟨dtc⟩ is used in Naro

Naro language

Naro is a Khoe language spoken in the Ghanzi District of Botswana and in eastern Namibia, where it is sometimes called Nharo. There are about 14,000 speakers: 10,000 in Botswana and 4,000 in Namibia . This makes it probably the most-spoken of the Tshu–Khwe languages...

to write the voiced palatal click

Palatal click

The palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa. They are commonly called palatal clicks.The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is , a pipe...

/ᶢǂ/.

⟨dzh⟩ is used to write the sound /dʒ/ in English transcriptions of the Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

digraph ⟨дж⟩. In the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the prevoiced

Pre-voicing (phonetics)

In phonetics, prevoicing means that voicing begins before the release of a stop consonant. This means that the voice onset time has a negative value...

affricate /dtsʰ/.

⟨dzv⟩ is used in the Shona language

Shona language

Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...

to write the whistled sibilant affricate /dz͎/.

⟨dzs⟩ (See article

Hungarian dzs

Dzs is the eighth letter, and only trigraph, of the Hungarian alphabet. Its name is pronounced , and represents the sounds and .-Length:In several words, it is pronounced long, e.g....

)

E

⟨eai⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /a/ between slender

Palatalization

consonants.

⟨eái⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /aː/ between slender

Palatalization

consonants.

⟨eau⟩ (see article)

⟨ein⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /ɛ̃/ (/ɛn/ before a vowel).

⟨eoi⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /oː/ between slender

Palatalization

consonants.

⟨eqh⟩ is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the strident vowel

Strident vowel

/e/. (If this symbol does not display properly, it is an ⟨e⟩ with a double tilde ⟨≈⟩ underneath.)

G

⟨geü⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /ʒy/ in words such as vergeüre.

⟨ggw⟩ is used in Hadza

Hadza language

Hadza is a language isolate spoken by fewer than a thousand Hadza people along the shores of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania, the last full-time hunter-gatherers in Africa. Despite the small number of speakers, language use is vigorous, with most children learning it...

for ejective /kʷʼ/.

⟨ggy⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨gy⟩, [ɟː]. It is collated as ⟨gy⟩ rather than as ⟨g⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨gy⟩ are brought together in a compound

⟨ghj⟩ is used in Corsican

Corsican language

to write the sound /dj/.

⟨ghw⟩ is used in the Dene Suline language

Dene Suline language

Dene Suline or Chipewyan is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada. It is a part of the Athabaskan family...

(Chipewyan) for a labialized velar/uvular /ʁʷ/. In Canadian Tlingit

Tlingit language

The Tlingit language ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very endangered, with fewer than 140 native speakers still living, all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English...

it represents /qʷ/, which in Alaska is written ⟨gw⟩.

⟨gli⟩ is used in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

to write the sound /ʎː/ before a vowel other than ⟨i⟩.

⟨gni⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /ɲ/ in a few words such as châtaignier /ʃɑtɛɲe/.

⟨guë⟩ and ⟨güe⟩ are used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /ɡy/ at the ends of words that end in the feminine suffix -e, such as aiguë "sharp" and ambiguë "ambiguous". In the French spelling reform

Reforms of French orthography

The orthography of French was already more or less fixed and, from a phonological point of view, outdated when its lexicography developed in the late 17th century and the Académie française was mandated to establish an "official" prescriptive norm....

of 1990, it was recommended that traditional ⟨guë⟩ be changed to ⟨güe⟩.

⟨gqh⟩ is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the prevoiced

Pre-voicing (phonetics)

In phonetics, prevoicing means that voicing begins before the release of a stop consonant. This means that the voice onset time has a negative value...

affricate /ɢqʰ/.

H

⟨hhw⟩ is used in the Dene Suline language

Dene Suline language

Dene Suline or Chipewyan is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada. It is a part of the Athabaskan family...

(Chipewyan) for a labialized velar/uvular /χʷ/.

⟨hml⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /m̥ˡ/.

⟨hny⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ɲ̥/.

I

⟨idh⟩ is used in Irish

Irish orthography

Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 6th century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham...

to write an unstressed /iː/ sound at the ends of words.

⟨igh⟩ is used in Irish

Irish orthography

Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 6th century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham...

to write an unstressed /iː/ sound at the ends of words. Igh might also be considered a trigraph for the diphthong /aɪ/ in English. It differs from the vowel letter ⟨i⟩ followed by the silent digraph ⟨gh⟩ in that the vowel is always "long", as in night /naɪt/ vs. nit /nɪt/, for example.

⟨ign⟩ is used in a few French words

French orthography

to write the sound /ɲ/ such as oignon /ɔɲɔ̃/ "onion" and encoignure "corner". It was eliminated in the French spelling reform

Reforms of French orthography

of 1990, but continues to be used.

⟨ije⟩ is used in the ijekavian reflex of Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...

for /je/ or /jeː/.

⟨ilh⟩ is used in to write the sound /ʎ/ in Breton

Breton language

.

⟨ill⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /j/, as in épouiller /epuje/.

⟨iqh⟩ is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the strident vowel

Strident vowel

/i/. (If this symbol does not display properly, it is an ⟨i⟩ with a double tilde ⟨≈⟩ underneath.)

⟨iúi⟩ is used in Irish

Irish orthography

Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 6th century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham...

to write the sound /uː/ between slender

Palatalization

consonants.

J–L

⟨jyu⟩ is used in Cantonese Jyutping

Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme...

romanization to write the sound /y/ at the beginning of a syllable, as in the name Jyutping itself. Elsewhere, /y/ is written ⟨yu⟩.

⟨khu⟩ is used in the Ossete Latin alphabet to write the sound /kʷʼ/.

⟨khw⟩ is used in Canadian Tlingit

Tlingit language

to write the sound /qʷʰ/, which in Alaska is written ⟨kw⟩.

⟨kng⟩ is used for /ᵏŋ/ in Arrernte.

⟨kwh⟩ is a common convention for /kʷʰ/.

⟨lhw⟩ is used for /l̪ʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨lli⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /j/ after /i/ in a few words, such as coquillier.

⟨lly⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨ly⟩, [jː]. It is collated as ⟨ly⟩ rather than as ⟨l⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨ly⟩ are brought together in a compound word, they form the regular sequence ⟨lyly⟩.

⟨lyw⟩ is used for /ʎʷ/ in Arrernte.

N

⟨nch⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ɲɟʱ/.

⟨ndl⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ndˡ/. In Xhosa

Xhosa language

Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...

is represents /ndɮ/.

⟨ndz⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /ndz/.

⟨ng’⟩ is used in the Swahili language

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

to write the sound /ŋ/. Technically, it may be considered a digraph rather than a trigraph, as ⟨’⟩ is not a letter of the Swahili alphabet.

⟨ngb⟩ is used in some African orthographies for /ⁿɡ͡b/, a prenasalized ⟨gb⟩ /ɡ͡b/.

⟨ngc⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /ŋǀʱ/.

⟨ngg⟩ is used to represent the sound /ŋɡ/, as in English finger, in several languages such as Filipino

Filipino language

This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...

and Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

that use ⟨ng⟩ for /ŋ/, as in English singer.

⟨ngh⟩ is used in Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...

for the velar nasal

Velar nasal

The velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....

consonant, before the letters ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, and ⟨y⟩. It was previously considered a single letter, but is not currently. In Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

, it represents a voiceless

Voice (phonetics)

Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...

velar nasal (a ⟨c⟩ under the nasal mutation). In Xhosa

Xhosa language

, ⟨ngh⟩ represents a murmured velar nasal

Velar nasal

.

⟨ngk⟩ is used in Yanyuwa

Yanyuwa language

The Yanyuwa language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola in the Northern Territory, Australia....

to represent a back velar

Velar consonant

Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....

stop, /ⁿɡ̱ ~ ⁿḵ/.

⟨ngm⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye

Yélî Dnye language

The Yélî Dnye language, also known as Yele, is the language of Rossel island, the easternmost island in the Louisiade Archipelago off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. For now it is best considered a language isolate, but it may turn out to be related to the Anêm and Ata language isolates of New...

of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

to represent doubly articulated

Double articulation

In linguistics, the term double articulation or duality of patterning refers to the way in which the stream of speech can be divided into meaningful signs, which can be further subdivided into meaningless elements...

/ŋ͡m/.

⟨ngq⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /ŋǃʱ/.

⟨ngw⟩ is /ŋʷ/ or /ŋɡʷ/ in the orthographies of several languages.

⟨ngx⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /ŋǁʱ/.

⟨nhw⟩ is used for /n̪ʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨nkc⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /ŋ.ǀ/.

⟨nkh⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ŋɡʱ/.

⟨nkp⟩ is used in some African orthographies for /ⁿk͡p/, a prenasalized /k͡p/.

⟨nkq⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the prenasalized alveolar click /ŋ.ǃ/.

⟨nkx⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the prenasalized lateral click /ŋ.ǁ/.

⟨nng⟩ is used in Inuktitut

Inuktitut

Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...

to write a long (geminate) velar nasal, /ŋː/.

⟨nny⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨ny⟩, [ɲː]. It is collated as ⟨ny⟩ rather than as ⟨n⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨ny⟩ are brought together in a compound word, they form the regular sequence ⟨nyny⟩.

⟨nph⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /mbʱ/.

⟨npl⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /mbˡ/.

⟨nqh⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ɴɢʱ/.

⟨nrh⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ɳɖʱ/.

⟨ntc⟩ is used to write the click /ᵑǂ/ in Naro

Naro language

.

⟨nth⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ndʱ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages

Transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. The Latin alphabet of the colonizers was inevitably used for the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details of how the sounds were represented has...

such as Yanyuwa

Yanyuwa language

The Yanyuwa language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola in the Northern Territory, Australia....

it represents a dental stop, /n̪t̪ ~ n̪d̪/.

⟨ntl⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /ntɬʼ/.

⟨nts⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ɳɖʐ/. In Malagasy

Malagasy language

Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...

, it represents /nts/.

⟨ntx⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /ndz/.

⟨nyh⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /n̤ʲ/.

⟨nyk⟩ is used in Yanyuwa

Yanyuwa language

The Yanyuwa language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola in the Northern Territory, Australia....

to represent a pre-velar

Velar consonant

Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....

stop, /ⁿɡ̟ ~ ⁿk̟/.

⟨nyw⟩ is used for /ɲʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨nzv⟩ is used in the Shona language

Shona language

to write the prenasalized whistled sibilant /ndz͎/.

O

⟨obh⟩ is used in Irish

Irish orthography

Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 6th century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham...

to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

, /oː/, between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨odh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

, /oː/, between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨oen⟩ is that represents a Walloon

Walloon language

Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...

nasal vowel.

⟨ogh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal

Donegal

, /oː/, between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨oin⟩ is used in French

French orthography

to write the sound /wɛ̃/ (/wɛn/ before a vowel). In Tibetan Pinyin

Tibetan Pinyin

, it represents /ø̃/ and is alternately written ön.

⟨oío⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /iː/ between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨omh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /oː/ between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨ooi⟩ is used in Dutch

Dutch language

to write the sound /oːi̯/.

⟨oqh⟩ is in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the strident vowel

Strident vowel

/o/. (If this symbol does not display properly, it is an ⟨o⟩ with a double tilde ⟨≈⟩ underneath.)

⟨ous⟩ is used in English to write the sound /əs/ in a suffix, as in "contiguous".

P–R

⟨plh⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /pˡʰ/.

⟨pmw⟩ is used for /ᵖmʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨qx’⟩ is in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the affricate /qχʼ/.

⟨rlw⟩ is used for /ɭʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨rnd⟩ is used in Yanyuwa

Yanyuwa language

The Yanyuwa language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola in the Northern Territory, Australia....

to represent a retroflex stop, /ɳʈ ~ ɳɖ/.

⟨rng⟩ is used in Inuktitut

Inuktitut

Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...

to represent a sequence of uvular nasal followed by velar nasal, [ɴŋ].

⟨rnw⟩ is used for /ɳʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨rrh⟩ is used to write the sound /r/ in words of Greek derivation such as diarrhea.

⟨rrw⟩ is used for /rʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨rtn⟩ is used for /^ʈɳ/ in Arrernte.

⟨rtw⟩ is used for /ʈʷ/ in Arrernte.

S

⟨sch⟩ is used in German

German language

to represent [ʃ]. It was also used in medieval Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

orthography. In Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

, ⟨sch⟩ was the most common spelling for this sound, replacing earlier ⟨sc⟩ of Old English; it was replaced in turn by ⟨sh⟩ in Modern English. Most words with ⟨sch⟩ in Modern English are based on Latin orthography, where the ⟨ch⟩ is /k/. An exception is the word schedule (from the Late Latin

Late Latin

Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...

schedula) where the pronunciation of ⟨sch⟩ is /ʃ/ or /sk/ depending on dialect.

In German, when a ⟨t⟩ is added in front of it, the resulting tetragraph ⟨tsch⟩ becomes [tʃ]. Similarly, German adds a ⟨d⟩ for a tetragraph ⟨dsch⟩ in loanwords, to denote the sound [dʒ], as in the word Dschungel (jungle). An orthographic ⟨sch⟩ also occurs in Dutch

Dutch language

, but as a sequence of ⟨s⟩ plus ⟨ch⟩, not as a trigraph. It is pronounced as a cluster, [sx], or often [sk] in West Flemish

West Flemish

West Flemish , , , Fransch vlaemsch in French Flemish) is a group of dialects or regional language related to Dutch spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France....

Rheinische Dokumenta

The Rheinische Dokumenta is a phonetic writing system developed in the early 1980s by a working group of academics, linguists, local language experts, and local language speakers of the Rhineland....

is using ⟨sch⟩ to denote the sounds [ʃ], [ɕ] and [ʂ]. It uses ⟨sch⟩ with an arc below so as to denote [ʒ].

In Italian, this trigraph is used to represent the cluster /sk/ before vowels ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩.

⟨sci⟩ is used in Italian

Italian language

to write the sound /ʃː/ before the non-front vowel letters ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩.

⟨sh’⟩ is used in Bolivian dialects of Quechua

Quechua languages

to write the sound /ʂ/.

⟨skj⟩ is used to represent the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/, in the Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

and Faroese

Faroese language

Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...

languages, as in Norwegian "kanskje" (maybe) and "teskje" (tea spoon), and Faroese "at skjóta" (to shoot) and "skjóra" (magpie). In Swedish, it's one of several spellings for the sje sound

Voiceless palatal-velar fricative

In Swedish phonology, the sj-sound is a voiceless fricative phoneme found in most dialects. It has a variety of realisations, whose precise phonetic characterisation is a matter of debate...

/ɧ/, though only used in five words.

⟨ssi⟩ is used in English to write the sound /ʃ/ in words such as mission.

⟨sth⟩ is found in words of Greek origin. In French, it is pronounced /s/ before a consonant, as in isthme and asthme; in English, it is pronounced /s/ in the first word (isthmus) and /z/ in the second (asthma).

⟨stj⟩ is used in five words in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

to write the sje sound

Voiceless palatal-velar fricative

In Swedish phonology, the sj-sound is a voiceless fricative phoneme found in most dialects. It has a variety of realisations, whose precise phonetic characterisation is a matter of debate...

/ɧ/, can also represent the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ or the consonant cluster /stʲ/ in Norwegian

Norwegian language

depending on dialect.

⟨ssz⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨sz⟩, [sː]. It is collated as ⟨sz⟩ rather than as ⟨s⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨sz⟩ are brought together in a compound word, they form the regular sequence ⟨szsz⟩.

T

⟨tcg⟩ is used to write the click /ǂχ/ in Naro

Naro language

.

⟨tch⟩ is used to write the click /ǂʰ/ in Naro

Naro language

, the affricate /tʃʰ/ in Sandawe

Sandawe language

Sandawe or Sandawi is a tonal language spoken by about 40,000 Sandawe people in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. Language use is vigorous among both adults and children, with people in some areas monolingual. Sandawe had generally been classified as a member of the defunct Khoisan family since Albert...

and Hadza

Hadza language

, and the affricate /tʃ/ in French

French language

and Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

. In English it is a variant of the digraph ⟨ch⟩, used in situations similar to those that trigger the digraph ⟨ck⟩ for ⟨k⟩.

⟨thn⟩ and ⟨tnh⟩ are used for /ᵗ̪n̪/ in Arrernte.

⟨ths⟩ is used in Xhosa

Xhosa language

to write the sound /tsʰ/. It is often replaced with the ambiguous trigraph ⟨tsh⟩.

⟨thw⟩ is used for /t̪ʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨tlh⟩ is used to write the sound /tɬʰ/ in languages such as Tswana

Tswana language

Tswana or Setswana is a language spoken in Southern Africa by about 4.5 million people. It is a Bantu language belonging to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho languages branch of Zone S , and is closely related to the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi...

, and is also a significant sound in the fictional Klingon language

Klingon language

The Klingon language is the constructed language spoken by the fictional Klingons in the Star Trek universe....

from Star Trek, even treating this trigraph's sound as a single "letter".

⟨tnh⟩ and ⟨thn⟩ are used for /ᵗ̪n̪/ in Arrernte.

⟨tnw⟩ is used for /ᵗnʷ/ in Arrernte.

⟨tny⟩ is used for /ᶜɲ/ in Arrernte.

⟨tsg⟩ is used to write the sound /tsχ/ in Naro

Naro language

.

⟨tsh⟩ is in various languages. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, it represents the sound /tʂʰ/. In Xhosa

Xhosa language

, it may be used to write /tsʰ/, /tʃʼ/, or /tʃʰ/, though it is sometimes limited to /tʃʼ/, with /tsʰ/ and /tʃʰ/ distinguished as ⟨ths⟩ and ⟨thsh⟩.

⟨tsj⟩ is used in Dutch

Dutch language

to write the sound /tʃ/.

⟨tsv⟩ is used in the Shona language

Shona language

to write the whistled sibilant affricate /ts͎/.

⟨tsz⟩ is used in Cantonese romanization

Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation

The Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation is the more or less consistent way for romanising Cantonese proper nouns employed by the Hong Kong Government departments and many non-governmental organisations in Hong Kong...

to write the syllable /zi/.

⟨tth⟩ is used in the Dene Suline language

Dene Suline language

Dene Suline or Chipewyan is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada. It is a part of the Athabaskan family...

(Chipewyan) for dental affricate /tθʰ/.

⟨ttl⟩ is used in the Haida language

Haida language

The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. It contains seven vowels and well over 30 consonants.-History:The first documented contact between the Haida and Europeans was in 1774, on Juan Pérez's exploratory voyage. At this time Haidas inhabited the Queen Charlotte Islands, Dall...

(Bringhurst orthography) for ejective /tɬʼ/.

⟨tts⟩ is used in the Haida language

Haida language

(Bringhurst orthography) for ejective /tsʼ/.

⟨tty⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨ty⟩, [cː]. It is collated as ⟨ty⟩ rather than as ⟨t⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨ty⟩ are brought together in a compound word, they form the regular sequence ⟨tyty⟩.

⟨txh⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

used to write Hmong

Hmong language

, where it represents the sound /tsʰ/.

⟨tyh⟩ is used in the Xhosa language

Xhosa language

to write the sound /tʲʰ/.

⟨tyw⟩ is used for /cʷ/ in Arrernte.

U

⟨uío⟩ is used in Irish

Irish orthography

Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 6th century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham...

to write the sound /iː/ between broad

Velarization

consonants.

⟨uqh⟩ is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the strident vowel

Strident vowel

/u/. (If this symbol does not display properly, it is an ⟨u⟩ with a double tilde ⟨≈⟩ underneath.)

⟨urr⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik

Central Alaskan Yup'ik language

Central Alaskan Yup'ik or just Yup'ik is a Yupik language of the Eskimo language family, in turn a member of the Eskimo–Aleut language group, spoken in western and southwestern Alaska. Both in ethnic population and in number of speakers, Central Alaskan Yup'ik is the largest of the languages...

to write the sound /χʷ/.

X–Z

⟨xhw⟩ is used in Canadian Tlingit

Tlingit language

to write the sound /χʷ/, which in Alaska is written ⟨xw⟩.

⟨zzs⟩ is a long Hungarian ⟨zs⟩, [ʒː]. It is collated as ⟨zs⟩ rather than as ⟨z⟩. It is only used within roots; when two ⟨zs⟩ are brought together in a compound word, they form the regular sequence ⟨zszs⟩.

other

⟨ŋgb⟩ (capital ⟨Ŋgb⟩) is used in Kabiye

Kabiyé language

Kabiyè is a Grusi language spoken primarily in northern Togo, and also by smaller numbers of people in Benin and Ghana. It is one of two national languages of Togo.-References:-External links:**...

to write [ŋ͡mɡ͡b], a pre-nasalized ⟨gb⟩.

A

B

C

D

E

G

H

I

J–L

N

O

P–R

S

T

U

X–Z

other

See also