Gh (digraph)

Gh is a digraph found in many languages.

In Latin-based orthographies

Indo-European languages

Germanic languages

English

In

Old English

used a simple ⟨h⟩ — and the diphthongization of any preceding vowel.

Alexander John Ellis reported it being pronounced as [x] on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border and in close to the Scottish border in the late nineteenth century.^[1]

It is also occasionally pronounced [ə], such as in Edinburgh as well as [θ] in Keighley.

When gh occurs at the beginning of a word in English, it is pronounced /ɡ/ as in "ghost", "ghastly", "ghoul", "ghetto", "ghee" etc. In this context, it does not derive from a former /x/.

American Literary Braille has a dedicated cell pattern for the digraph ⟨gh⟩ (dots 126, ⠣).

Middle Dutch

In Middle Dutch, ⟨gh⟩ was often used to represent /ɣ/ (the voiced velar fricative) before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, and ⟨y⟩. This usage survives in place names such as Ghent.

The spelling of English word ghost with a ⟨gh⟩ (from Middle English gost) was likely influenced by the Middle Dutch spelling gheest (Modern Dutch geest).

Latin languages

In Italian and Romanian, ⟨gh⟩ represents /ɡ/ (the voiced velar plosive) before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩. In Esperanto orthography, ⟨gh⟩ (or ⟨gx⟩) can be used when the ⟨ĝ⟩ is missing, which represents /dʒ/. In Galician, it is often used to represent the pronunciation of gheada.

Irish

In

voiced palatal approximant). Word-initially it represents the lenition of ⟨g⟩, for example mo ghiall [mˠə ˈjiəl̪ˠ] 'my jaw' (compare giall [ˈɟiəl̪ˠ]

'jaw').

Juǀʼhoan

In

prevoiced

aspirated velar plosive /ɡ͡kʰ/.

Malay

In the

Malay and Indonesian alphabet, ⟨gh⟩ is used to represent the voiced velar fricative

(/ɣ/) in Arabic origin words.

Maltese

The

ʿayn). It is usually silent, but it is necessary to be included because it changes the pronunciation of neighbouring letters, usually lengthening the succeeding vowels. At the end of a word, when not substituted by an apostrophe, it is pronounced [ħ

]. Its function is thus not unlike modern English gh, except that the English version comes after vowels rather than before like Maltese għ (għajn would come out something like ighn if spelled as in English).

Swahili

In the

Roman Swahili alphabet, ⟨gh⟩ is used to represent the voiced velar fricative

(/ɣ/) in Arabic origin words.

Tlingit

In Canadian Tlingit ⟨gh⟩ represents /q/, which in Alaska is written ⟨ǥ⟩.

Taiwanese

In

voiced velar stop

) before ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, and ⟨u⟩.

Uyghur

In

Uyghur Latin script, gh represents [ʁ

].

Vietnamese

In Vietnamese alphabet, ⟨gh⟩ represents /ɣ/ before ⟨e⟩, ⟨ê⟩, ⟨i⟩.

In romanization

In the romanization of various languages, ⟨gh⟩ usually represents the voiced velar fricative (/ɣ/). Like ⟨kh⟩ /x/, ⟨gh⟩ may also be pharyngealized, as in several Caucasian and Native American languages. In transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages such as Sanskrit and Hindi, as well as their ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, ⟨gh⟩ represents a voiced velar aspirated plosive /ɡʱ/ (often referred to as a breathy or murmured voiced velar plosive).

The

ISO 9:1995) uses ⟨gh⟩ to represent common Ukrainian letter г (the voiced glottal fricative

/ɦ/).

References

^ "Ellis Atlas survival of /x/ before /t/". www.lel.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-05-08.

[1] "Ellis Atlas survival of /x/ before /t/". www.lel.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-05-08.

[1]