Digraph (orthography)
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A digraph or digram (from the
Some digraphs represent phonemes that cannot be represented with a single character in the writing system of a language, like ⟨
In some orthographies, digraphs (and occasionally
The capitalisation of digraphs can vary, e.g. ⟨ch⟩ in English is capitalized ⟨Ch⟩, while ⟨ij⟩ in Dutch is capitalized ⟨IJ⟩ and word initial ⟨dt⟩ in Irish is capitalized ⟨dT⟩.
Digraphs may develop into ligatures, but this is a distinct concept: a ligature involves the graphical fusion of two characters into one, e.g. when ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩ become ⟨œ⟩, e.g. as in French cœur "heart".
Double letters
Digraphs may consist of two different characters (heterogeneous digraphs) or two instances of the same character (homogeneous digraphs). In the latter case, they are generally called double (or doubled) letters.
Doubled
Doubled
In some cases, the sound represented by a doubled consonant letter is distinguished in some other way than length from the sound of the corresponding single consonant letter:
- In Welsh and Greenlandic, ⟨ll⟩ stands for a voiceless lateral consonant, while in Spanish and Catalan it stands for a palatal consonant.
- In several languages of western Europe, including English, French, Portuguese and Catalan, the digraph ⟨ss⟩ is used between vowels to represent the voiceless sibilant /s/, since an ⟨s⟩ alone between vowels normally represents the voiced sibilant /z/.
- In Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Basque, alveolar flap/ɾ/ (the two are different phonemes in those languages).
- In Spanish, the digraph ⟨nn⟩ formerly indicated /ɲ/ (a palatal nasal); it developed into the letter ñ.
- In ⟨tt⟩. However, ⟨rr⟩ is a trill that contrasts with the single-letter flap, as in Spanish, and the palatal version of ⟨n⟩ is written ⟨ñ⟩.
In several European writing systems, including the English one, the doubling of the letter ⟨c⟩ or ⟨k⟩ is represented as the heterogeneous digraph ⟨ck⟩ instead of ⟨cc⟩ or ⟨kk⟩ respectively. In native German words, the doubling of ⟨z⟩, which corresponds to /ts/, is replaced by the digraph ⟨tz⟩.
Pan-dialectical digraphs
Some languages have a unified orthography with digraphs that represent distinct pronunciations in different dialects (
Split digraphs
The pair of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent. This is the case with English
However, alphabets may also be designed with discontinuous digraphs. In the Tatar Cyrillic alphabet, for example, the letter ю is used to write both /ju/ and /jy/. Usually the difference is evident from the rest of the word, but when it is not, the sequence ю...ь is used for /jy/, as in юнь /jyn/ 'cheap'.
The Indic alphabets are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels, such as Thai เ...อ /ɤː/ in เกอ /kɤː/. Technically, however, they may be considered diacritics, not full letters; whether they are digraphs is thus a matter of definition.
Ambiguous letter sequences
Some letter pairs should not be interpreted as digraphs but appear because of compounding: hogshead and cooperate. They are often not marked in any way and so must be memorized as exceptions. Some authors, however, indicate it either by breaking up the digraph with a hyphen, as in hogs-head, co-operate, or with a trema mark, as in coöperate, but the use of the diaeresis has declined in English within the last century. When it occurs in names such as Clapham, Townshend, and Hartshorne, it is never marked in any way. Positional alternative glyphs may help to disambiguate in certain cases: when round, ⟨s⟩ was used as a final variant of long ⟨ſ⟩, and the English digraph for /ʃ/ would always be ⟨ſh⟩.
In
In alphabetization
In some languages, certain digraphs and trigraphs are counted as distinct letters in themselves, and assigned to a specific place in the alphabet, separate from that of the sequence of characters that composes them, for purposes of orthography and collation. For example:
- In the Gaj's Latin alphabet used to write Serbo-Croatian, the digraphs ⟨dž⟩, ⟨lj⟩ and ⟨nj⟩, which correspond to the single Cyrillic letters ⟨џ⟩, ⟨љ⟩, ⟨њ⟩, are treated as distinct letters.
- In the ⟩ are treated as distinct letters.
- In the aa⟩, where it appears in older names, is sorted as if it were the letter ⟨å⟩, which replaced it.
- In the Norwegian alphabet, there are several digraphs and letter combinations representing an isolated sound.
- In the ligature and may be sorted with ⟨y⟩ (in the Netherlands, though not usually in Belgium); however, regardless of where it is used, when a Dutch word starting with ⟨ij⟩ is capitalized, the entire digraph is capitalized (IJmeer, IJmuiden). Other Dutch digraphsare never treated as single letters.
- In zs⟩, and the trigraph ⟨dzs⟩, have their own places in the alphabet (where ⟨cs⟩ follows ⟨c⟩, ⟨dz⟩ and ⟨dzs⟩ follow ⟨d⟩, etc.)
- In ⟩ were formerly treated as distinct letters, but are now split into their constituent letters.
- In ngh⟩, which represent mutatedvoiceless consonants, are not treated as distinct letters.
- In the romanization of several Slavic countries that use the Cyrillic script, letters like ш, ж, and ч might be written as sh, zh and ch, however sometimes the result of the romanization might modify a letter to be a diacritical letter instead of a digraph.
- In ie⟩ which comes right after ⟨i⟩.
Most other languages, including English, French, German, Polish, etc., treat digraphs as combinations of separate letters for alphabetization purposes.
Examples
Latin script
English
English has both homogeneous digraphs (doubled letters) and heterogeneous digraphs (digraphs consisting of two different letters). Those of the latter type include the following:
- ⟨sc⟩ normally represents /s/ (voiceless alveolar fricative - scene) or /ʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar fricative - conscious) before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩.
- ⟨ng⟩ represents /ŋ/ (velar nasal) as in thing.
- ⟨ch⟩ usually corresponds to /tʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar affricate - church), to /k/ (voiceless velar plosive) when used as an etymological digraph in words of Greek origin (christ), less commonly to /ʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar fricative) in words of French origin (champagne).
- ⟨ck⟩ corresponds to /k/ as in check.
- ⟨gh⟩ represents /ɡ/ (voiced velar plosive) at the beginning of words (ghost), represents /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative in enough) or is silent at the end of words (sigh).
- ⟨ph⟩ represents /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative), as in siphon.
- ⟨rh⟩ represents English /r/ in words of Greek origin, such as rhythm.
- ⟨sh⟩ represents /ʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar fricative), as in sheep.
- ⟨ti⟩ usually represents /ʃ/ word-medially before a vowel, as in education.
- ⟨Pronunciation of English ⟨th⟩.
- ⟨wh⟩ represents /hw/ in some conservative dialects; /w/ in other dialects (while); and /h/ in a few words in which it is followed by ⟨o⟩, such as who and whole. See also Phonological history of ⟨wh⟩.
- ⟨zh⟩ represents /ʒ/ in words transliterated from Slavic languages[which?], and in American dictionary pronunciation spelling.
- ⟨ci⟩ usually appears as /ʃ/ before vowels, like in facial and artificial. Otherwise it is /si/ as in fancier and icier or /sɪ/ as in acid and rancid.
- ⟨wr⟩ represents /r/. Originally, it stood for a alveolar approximant, allophonically labialized at the start of syllables, as in red [ɹʷɛd]. See also rhotic consonant.
- ⟨qu⟩ usually represents /kw/; ⟨q⟩ is conventionally followed by ⟨u⟩ and a vowel letter as in quick, with some exceptions.
Digraphs may also be composed of vowels. Some letters ⟨a, e, o⟩ are preferred for the first position, others for the second ⟨i, u⟩. The latter have allographs ⟨y, w⟩ in English orthography.
second letter → first letter ↓ |
⟨...e⟩ | ⟨...i⟩ ¦ ⟨...y⟩ | ⟨...u⟩ ¦ ⟨...w⟩ | ⟨...a⟩ | ⟨...o⟩ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
⟨o...⟩ | ⟨oe¦œ⟩ > ⟨e⟩ – /i/ | ⟨oi¦oy⟩ – /ɔɪ/ | ⟨ou¦ow⟩ – /aʊ¦uː¦oʊ/ | ⟨oa⟩ – /oʊ¦ɔː/ | ⟨oo⟩ – /uː¦ʊ(¦ʌ)/ |
⟨a...⟩ | ⟨ae¦æ⟩ > ⟨e⟩ – /i/ | ⟨ai¦ay⟩ – /eɪ¦ɛ/ | ⟨au¦aw⟩ – /ɔː/ (in loanwords: /aʊ/ ) |
(in loanwords and proper nouns: ⟨aa⟩ – /ə¦ɔː¦ɔl/ ) | (in loanwords from Chinese: ⟨ao⟩ – /aʊ/ ) |
⟨e...⟩ | ⟨ee⟩ – /iː/ | ⟨ei¦ey⟩ – /aɪ¦eɪ¦(iː)/ | ⟨eu¦ew⟩ – /juː¦uː/ | ⟨ea⟩ – /iː¦ɛ¦(eɪ¦ɪə)/ | |
⟨u...⟩ | ⟨ue⟩ – /uː¦u/ | ⟨ui⟩ – /ɪ¦uː/ | |||
⟨i...⟩ | ⟨ie⟩ – /iː(¦aɪ)/ |
Other languages using the Latin alphabet
In Serbo-Croatian:
- ⟨palatal lateral approximant)
- ⟨palatal nasal)
- ⟨dž⟩ corresponds to /d͡ʒ/ (voiced postalveolar affricate)
Note that in the Cyrillic orthography, those sounds are represented by single letters (љ, њ, џ).
- ⟨ch⟩ corresponds to /x/ (voiceless velar fricative), counted as a distinct letter
- ⟨dz⟩ corresponds to /d͡z/ (voiced alveolar affricate), counted as a distinct letter in Slovak, relatively rare digraph
- ⟨dž⟩ corresponds to /d͡ʒ/ (voiced postalveolar affricate), counted as a distinct letter in Slovak, relatively rare digraph
- The digraph ⟨aa⟩ represented /ɔ/ until 1917 in Norway and 1948 in Denmark, but is today spelt ⟨å⟩. The digraph is still used in older names, but sorted as if it were the letter with the diacritic mark.
In Norwegian, several sounds can be represented only by a digraph or a combination of letters. They are the most common combinations, but extreme regional differences exists, especially those of the eastern dialects. A noteworthy difference is the aspiration of ⟨rs⟩ in eastern dialects, where it corresponds to ⟨skj⟩ and ⟨sj⟩. Among many young people, especially in the western regions of Norway and in or around the major cities, the difference between /ç/ and /ʃ/ has been completely wiped away and are now pronounced the same.
- ⟨kj⟩ represents /ç/
- ⟨tj⟩ represents /ç/.
- ⟨skj⟩ represents /ʃ/.
- ⟨sj⟩ represents /ʃ/.
- ⟨sk⟩ represents /ʃ/ (before i or y).
- ⟨ng⟩ represents /ŋ/ as in ng in English thing.
In Catalan:
- ⟨ll⟩ represents /ʎ/ (palatal lateral approximant)
- ⟨ny⟩ represents /ɲ/ (palatal nasal)
- ⟨rr⟩ represents /r/ (post-alveolar trill)
- ⟨ss⟩ represents /s/ (voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant)
- ⟨qu⟩ represents /k/ (voiceless velar plosive)
- ⟨gu⟩ represents /g/ (voiced velar plosive)
- postvocalic ⟨ix⟩ represents /ʃ/ (Westerndialects it represents /jʃ/.
In Dutch:
- ⟨ij⟩ corresponds to /ɛi/ (see above for its possible status as a separate letter).
- ⟨velar nasal)
- ⟨ch⟩ represents /x/ (voiceless velar fricative)
- ⟨sj⟩ represents /ʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar fricative)
- ⟨ie⟩ represents /i/ (close front unrounded vowel)
- ⟨oe⟩ represents /u/ (close back rounded vowel)
- ⟨eu⟩ represents /ø/ (close-mid front rounded vowel)
In
- ⟨ch⟩ represents /ʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar fricative)
- ⟨gn⟩ represents /ɲ/ (palatal nasal)
- ⟨qu⟩ represents /k/ (voiceless velar stop), typically before historic front vowels
French vocalic digraphs ⟨...i⟩ ⟨...u⟩ ⟨a...⟩ ⟨ai⟩ – /ɛ¦e/ ⟨au⟩ – /o/ ⟨e...⟩ ⟨ei⟩ – /ɛ/ ⟨eu⟩ – /œ¦ø/ ⟨o...⟩ ⟨oi⟩ – /wa/ ⟨ou⟩ – /u(¦w)/
See also French phonology.
In German:
- ⟨ch⟩ represents /x/ (voiceless velar fricative) or /ç/ (voiceless palatal fricative)
- ⟨ck⟩ represents /k/ (voiceless velar plosive)
- ⟨ei⟩ represents /a͡ɪ/ (open front unrounded vowel) followed by (near-close near-front unrounded vowel)
- ⟨eu⟩ represents /ɔ͡ʏ/ (open-mid back rounded vowel) followed by (near-close near-front rounded vowel)
In Hungarian:
- ⟨cs⟩ represents /tʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar affricate)
- ⟨zs⟩ represents /ʒ/ (voiced postalveolar fricative)
- ⟨gy⟩ represents /ɟ/ (voiced palatal plosive)
- ⟨palatal approximant)
- ⟨palatal nasal)
- ⟨ty⟩ represents /c/ (voiceless palatal plosive)
- ⟨dz⟩ represents /dz/ (voiced postalveolar affricate)
- ⟨sz⟩ represents /s/ (voiceless alveolar fricative) (⟨s⟩ is pronounced /ʃ/)
- The Hungarian alphabet additionally contains also a trigraph, ⟨dzs⟩ /dʒ/.
In
- ⟨sc⟩ corresponds to /ʃ/, (voiceless postalveolar fricative) before -i and -e (but to /sk/ before other letters)
- ⟨ch⟩ corresponds to /k/ (only before i, e)
- ⟨gh⟩ corresponds to /ɡ/ (only before i, e)
- ⟨gl⟩ represents /ʎ/, palatal lateral approximant, before -i (with some exceptions)
- ⟨gn⟩ represents /ɲ/ (palatal nasal)
In
In Polish:
- ⟨ch⟩ corresponds to /x/ (voiceless velar fricative)
- ⟨cz⟩ corresponds to /tʂ/ (voiceless retroflex affricate)
- ⟨dz⟩ corresponds to /dz/ (voiced alveolar affricate)
- ⟨dź⟩ corresponds to /dʑ/ (voiced alveolo-palatal affricate)
- ⟨dż⟩ corresponds to /dʐ/ (voiced retroflex affricate)
- ⟨rz⟩ corresponds to /ʐ/ (voiced retroflex fricative)
- ⟨sz⟩ corresponds to /ʂ/ (voiceless retroflex fricative)
In
- ⟨ch⟩ corresponds to /ʃ/ (voiceless postalveolar fricative)
- ⟨palatal lateral approximant)
- ⟨palatal nasal)
- ⟨qu⟩ usually represents /k/ (voiceless velar stop)
In
- ⟨ll⟩ is traditionally (but now usually not) pronounced /ʎ/
- ⟨ch⟩ represents /tʃ/ (alveolar trill, was never officially considered to be a letter in the Spanish alphabet, and the same is true ⟨gu⟩ and ⟨qu⟩ (for /ɡ/ and /k/ respectively before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩).
In
- ⟨ng⟩ represents /ŋ/ (velar nasal), the same sound as in English (but in some words it represents two separate letters, and is pronounced /ng/).
- ⟨ch⟩ represents /χ/ (voiceless uvular fricative)
- ⟨rh⟩ represents /r̥/ (voiceless alveolar trill), pronounced roughly like the combination hr (but again in some words it represents two separate letters, and is pronounced /rh/).
- ⟨th⟩ represents /θ/ (voiceless interdental fricative)
- ⟨dd⟩ represents /ð/ (voiced dental fricative), like the English ⟨th⟩ in then (but is pronounced as voiceless in many contexts).
- ⟨ff⟩ represents /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative), like English ⟨f⟩, since Welsh ⟨f⟩ is pronounced /v/ like an English ⟨v⟩.
- ⟨ph⟩ also represents /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative) but, in modern orthography, is used only for the aspirate mutation of words starting with ⟨p⟩.
- ⟨voiceless alveolar lateral fricative)
The digraphs listed above represent distinct phonemes and are treated as separate letters for collation purposes. On the other hand, the digraphs ⟨
In Yoruba:
- ⟨gb⟩ is an alphabet, and a plosive most accurately pronounced by trying to say /g/ and /b/ at the same time.
Cyrillic
Modern Slavic languages written in the
Arabic script
Because vowels are not generally written, digraphs are rare in
Urdu connecting non-connecting digraph: کھا /kʰɑː/ ڈھا /ɖʱɑː/ sequence: کہا /kəɦɑː/ ڈہا /ɖəɦɑː/
Armenian
In the Armenian language, the digraph ու ⟨ou⟩ transcribes /u/, a convention that comes from Greek.
Georgian
The
Greek
Modern Greek has the following digraphs:
- αι (ai) represents /e̞/
- ει (ei) represents /i/
- οι (oi) represents /i/
- ου (oy) represents /u/
- υι (yi) represents /i/
They are called "diphthongs" in Greek; in classical times, most of them represented diphthongs, and the name has stuck.
- γγ (gg) represents /ŋɡ/ or /ɡ/
- τσ (ts) represents the affricate /ts/
- τζ (tz) represents the affricate /dz/
- Initial γκ (gk) represents /ɡ/
- Initial μπ (mp) represents /b/
- Initial ντ (nt) represents /d/
Ancient Greek also had the "diphthongs" listed above although their pronunciation in ancient times is disputed. In addition, Ancient Greek also used the letter γ combined with a velar stop to produce the following digraphs:
- γγ (gg) represents /ŋɡ/
- γκ (gk) represents /ŋɡ/
- γχ (gkh) represents /ŋkʰ/
Tsakonian has a few additional digraphs:
- ρζ (rz) /ʒ/ (historically perhaps a fricative trill)
- κχ (kkh) represents /kʰ/
- τθ (tth) represents /tʰ/
- πφ (pph) represents /pʰ/
- σχ (skh) represents /ʃ/
In addition, palatal consonants are indicated with the vowel letter ι, which is, however, largely predictable. When /n/ and /l/ are not palatalized before ι, they are written νν and λλ.
In Bactrian, the digraphs ββ, δδ, and γγ were used for /b/, /d/, and /ŋg/ respectively.
Hebrew
In the
Indic
Most Indic scripts have compound vowel diacritics that cannot be predicted from their individual elements. That can be illustrated with Thai in which the diacritic เ, pronounced alone /eː/, modifies the pronunciation of other vowels:
single vowel sign: กา /kaː/, เก /keː/, กอ /kɔː/ vowel sign plus เ: เกา /kaw/, แก /kɛː/, เกอ /kɤː/
In addition, the combination รร is pronounced /a/ or /an/, there are some words in which the combinations ทร and ศร stand for /s/ and the letter ห, as a prefix to a consonant, changes its tonic class to high, modifying the tone of the syllable.
Inuit
Inuktitut syllabics adds two digraphs to Cree:
- rk for q
- ᙯ qai, ᕿ qi, ᖁ qu, ᖃ qa, ᖅ q
and
- ng for ŋ
- ᖕ ng
The latter forms trigraphs and tetragraphs.
CJK Characters
Chinese
Several combinations of Chinese characters (Hanzi) formed from two or more different characters that known as digraphs.
Japanese
Two kana may be combined into a CV syllable by subscripting the second; the convention cancels the vowel of the first. That is commonly done for CyV syllables called yōon, as in ひょ (ひよ) hyo ⟨hiyo⟩. They are not digraphs since they retain the normal sequential reading of the two glyphs. However, some obsolete sequences no longer retain that reading, as in くゎ kwa, ぐゎ gwa, and むゎ mwa, now pronounced ka, ga, ma. In addition, non-sequenceable digraphs are used for foreign loans that do not follow normal Japanese assibilation patterns, such as ティ ti, トゥ tu, チェ tye / che, スェ swe, ウィ wi, ツォ tso, ズィ zi. (See katakana and transcription into Japanese for complete tables.)
Long vowels are written by adding the kana for that vowel, in effect doubling it. However, long ō may be written either oo or ou, as in とうきょう toukyou bīru 'beer'. With the exception of syllables starting with n, doubled consonant sounds are written by prefixing a smaller version of tsu (written っ and ッ in hiragana and katakana respectively), as in きって kitte 'stamp'. Consonants beginning with n use the kana n character (written ん or ン) as a prefix instead.
There are several conventions of
Korean
As was the case in Greek, Korean has vowels descended from diphthongs that are still written with two letters. Those digraphs, ㅐ /ɛ/ and ㅔ /e/ (also ㅒ /jɛ/, ㅖ /je/), and in some dialects ㅚ /ø/ and ㅟ /y/, all end in historical ㅣ /i/.
Hangul was designed with a digraph series to represent the "muddy" consonants: ㅃ *[b], ㄸ *[d], ㅉ *[dz], ㄲ *[ɡ], ㅆ *[z], ㆅ *[ɣ]; also ᅇ, with an uncertain value. Those values are now obsolete, but most of the doubled letters were resurrected in the 19th century to write consonants that did not exist when hangul was devised: ㅃ /p͈/, ㄸ /t͈/, ㅉ /t͈ɕ/, ㄲ /k͈/, ㅆ /s͈/.
Ligatures and new letters
Digraphs sometimes come to be written as a single ligature. Over time, the ligatures may evolve into new letters or letters with diacritics. For example sz became ß in German, and "nn" became ñ in Spanish.
In Unicode
Generally, a digraph is simply represented using two characters in Unicode.[2] However, for various reasons, Unicode sometimes provides a separate code point for a digraph, encoded as a single character.
The
Two Glyphs Digraph Unicode Code Point HTML DZ, Dz, dz DZ, Dz, dz U+01F1 U+01F2 U+01F3 DZ Dz dz DŽ, Dž, dž DŽ, Dž, dž U+01C4 U+01C5 U+01C6 DŽ Dž dž IJ, ij IJ, ij U+0132 U+0133 IJ ij LJ, Lj, lj LJ, Lj, lj U+01C7 U+01C8 U+01C9 LJ Lj lj NJ, Nj, nj NJ, Nj, nj U+01CA U+01CB U+01CC NJ Nj nj th ᵺ U+1D7A[3]
See also
See also
- Multigraph (orthography)
- Trigraph
- Tetragraph
- Pentagraph
- Hexagraph
- Bigram
- Diphthong
- List of Latin letters
- Digraph (programming)
References
- ^ Brooks (2015) Dictionary of the British English Spelling System, p. 460 ff
- ^ "FAQ – Ligatures, Digraphs and Presentation Forms". The Unicode Consortium: Home Page. Unicode Inc. 1991–2009. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
- ^ "The Unicode Standard, Version 15.1" (PDF). Unicode. Retrieved 2023-12-20.