List of Latin-script digraphs

This is a list of digraphs used in various Latin alphabets. (See also List of Cyrillic digraphs.) Capitalization involves only the first letter (ch – Ch) unless otherwise stated (ij – IJ).

Letters with diacritics are arranged in alphabetic order according to their base. That is, ‹å› is alphabetized with ‹a›, not at the end of the alphabet as it would be in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. Substantially modified letters such as ‹ſ› (a variant of ‹s›) and ‹ɔ› (based on ‹o›) are placed at the end.

’

‹’b› (capital ‹’B›) is used in the Bari alphabet to represent /ɓ/.

‹’d› (capital ‹’D›) is used in the Bari alphabet to represent /ɗ/.

‹’y› (capital ‹’Y›) is used in the Bari alphabet to represent /ʔʲ/. It is also used for this sound in the Hausa language in Nigeria, but in Niger, Hausa ‹’y› is replaced with ‹ƴ›.

A

‹a’› is used in Taa orthography, where it represents the glottalized or creaky vowel [a̰].

‹aa› is used in the orthographies of Dutch and other languages with phonemic long vowels, to represent [aː].

‹ae› is used in Irish orthography, where it represents [eː] between two "broad" (velarized) consonants, e.g. Gael [ɡˠeːlˠ] ('a Gael').

In Latin orthography, ‹ae› originally represented the diphthong [ai], 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 American English spelling reform.

In German orthography, ‹ae› is a variant of ‹ä› found in some proper names or in contexts where ‹ä› is unavailable. In the Dutch alphabet, ‹ae› is an old spelling variant of the ‹aa› digraph but now only occurs in names of people or (less often) places and in a few loanwords from Greek.

‹ãe› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ɐ̃ĩ̯/.

‹ah› is used in Taa orthography, where it represents the breathy or murmured /a̤/.

‹ai› is used in many languages, typically representing the diphthong /ai/. In English, as a result of the Great Vowel Shift, the vowel of ‹ai› has shifted from this value to /eɪ/ as in pain and rain; while in French, a different change, monophthongization, has occurred, resulting in the digraph representing /ɛ/. A similar change has also occurred during the development of Greek, resulting in ‹αι› and the ‹ε› both having the same sound; originally /ɛ/, later /e/. In German orthography, it represents /aɪ/ as in Kaiser. However, most German words use ‹ei› to represent /aɪ/.

‹aí› is used in Irish orthography to represent /iː/ between a broad a slender consonant.

‹aî› is used in French orthography to represent /ɛː/, as in aînesse /ɛːnɛs/ or maître /mɛːtʁ/. It is, however, falling out of favor because of the removal of most circumflex accents (^) over i and u following the 1990 orthograph reform.

‹ái› is used in Irish orthography to represent /aː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

‹ãi› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ɐ̃ĩ̯/. It has, thus, the same value as ‹ãe›, but the latter is much more common.

‹am› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ɐ̃ũ̯/ at the end of a word, /ɐ̃/ before a consonant, and /am/ before a vowel; and in French orthography to represent /ɑ̃/ (/am/ before a vowel).

‹âm› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ɐ̃/ before a consonant.

‹an› is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese orthography it is used to represent /ɐ̃/ before a consonant, in French it represents /ɑ̃/, and in many West African languages it represents /ã/.

‹ân› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent a stressed [ɐ̃] before a consonant.

‹än› is used in Tibetan Pinyin to represent [ɛ̃]. It is alternately written ‹ain›.

‹ån› is used in the Walloon language, to represent the nasal vowel [ɔ̃].

‹aŋ› is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel [ã]

‹ao› is used in the Irish orthography to represent [iː] or [eː], depending on dialect, between broad consonants. In French orthography, it is found in a few words such as paonne representing [a]. In Malagasy, it represents [o].

‹ão› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ɐ̃ũ̯].

‹aq› is used in Taa orthography, to represent the pharyngealized vowel [aˁ].

‹au› in English is a result of various linguistic changes from Middle English, having shifted from *[au] to /ɔː/. In a number of dialects, this has merged with /ɑː/. It occasionally represents the diphthong /aʊ/, as in flautist. Other, rarer, pronunciations are /æ/ in American English aunt and laugh, /eɪ/ in gauge, /oʊ/ as in gauche and chauffeur, and /ə/ as in meerschaum and restaurant.

In French orthography, ‹au› represents /o/ or sometimes /ɔ/. It most frequently appears in the inflectional ending marking plurals of certain kinds of words like cheval ('horse') or canal ('channel'), respectively having a plural in chevaux and canaux. In Icelandic orthography, it represents /œy/.

‹äu›, is used in German orthography to represent /ɔʏ/, though ‹eu› is more common.

‹aû› was used in French orthography but has been replaced.

‹aw› is used in English orthography in ways that parallel English ‹au›, though it appears more often at the end of a word. In Welsh orthography, ‹aw› represents the diphthong /au/.

‹ay› is used in English orthography in ways that parallel English ‹ai›, though it appears more often at the end of a word.

B

‹bb› is used in Pinyin to represent /b/ in languages such as Yi, where b stands for /p/. In English, doubling a letter indicates that the previous vowel is short (so bb represents /b/). In romanized Korean, it is occasionally used to represent the fortis sound /p͈/, usually spelled ‹pp›; an example is hobbang.

‹bd› is used in English orthography to represent /d/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as bdellatomy. When not initial, it represents /bd/, as in abdicate.

‹bh› is used in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages to represent a murmured voiced bilabial plosive (/bʱ/). In Irish orthography, it stands for the phonemes /w/ and /vʲ/, for example [mo bhád] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) /mə waːd̪ˠ/ ('my boat'), [bheadh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) /vʲɛx/ ('would be'). In the orthography used in Guinea before 1985, ‹bh› was used in Pular (a Fula language) to represent the voiced bilabial implosive /ɓ/, whereas in Xhosa, Zulu, and Shona, ‹b› represents the implosive and ‹bh› represents the plosive /b/.

‹bp› is used in Sandawe and romanized Thai to represent /p/, and in Irish it represents /b/.

‹bz› is used in the Shona language to represent a whistled sibilant cluster /bz͎/.

C

‹cc› is used in Andean Spanish to represent loanwords from Quechua or Aymara with [q], as in Ccozcco (modern Qusqu) ('Cuzco'). In many European languages, ‹cc› before front vowels represents a sequence such as [ks], e.g. English success, French occire, Spanish accidente (dialectically [ks] or [kθ]).

‹cg› is used to represent the click /ǀχ/ in Naro. It was also used to represent /dʒ/ in Old English. Ecg in Old English sounds like 'edge' in Modern English.

‹ch› (see article)

‹čh› is used in Romani orthography and the Chechen Latin alphabet to represent /tʃʰ/. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used to represent /tʃʼ/.

‹ci› is used in the Italian alphabet to represent /tʃ/ before the non-front vowel letters ‹a, o, u›. In English orthography, it usually represents /ʃ/ whenever it precedes any vowel other than ‹i›. In the orthographies of French, Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese, ‹ci› before a vowel represent /sj/.

‹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 orthography, ‹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.

‹cn› is used in English orthography to represent /n/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as cnidarian. When not initial, it represents /kn/, as in acne.

‹cs› is used in the Hungarian alphabet to represent a voiceless postalveolar affricate (IPA: /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').

‹ct› is used in English orthography to represent /t/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as ctenoid. When not initial, it represents /kt/, as in act.

‹cu› is used in the orthographies for languages such as Nahuatl (that is, based on Spanish or Portuguese orthography) to represent /kʷ/. In Nahuatl, ‹cu› is used before a vowel, whereas ‹uc› is used after a vowel.

‹cx› is used unofficially in lieu of Esperanto orthography's ‹ĉ›.

‹cz› is used in Polish orthography to represent /t͡ʂ/ as in ('hello'). In Kashubian, ‹cz› represents /tʃ/. This digraph was once common across Europe, but has largely been replaced. In French and Catalan, historical ‹cz› contracted to the ligature ‹ç›, and represents the sound /s/. In Hungarian, it was formerly used for the sound /ts/, which is now written ‹c›.

‹cö› is used in the Seri alphabet to represent a labialized velar plosive,/kʷ/. It is placed between ‹C› and ‹E› in alphabetical order.

D

‹dc› is used in the orthography of Naro to represent the click /ᶢǀ/.

‹dd› is used in English orthography to indicate a /d/ with a preceding (historically) short vowel (e.g. jaded /ˈdʒeɪdəd/ has a "long a" while ladder /ˈlædər/ has a "short a"). In Welsh orthography, ‹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 romanization of Korean, it is occasionally used to represent the fortis sound /t͈/, usually spelled ‹tt›; examples are ddeokbokki and bindaeddeok. In the Basque alphabet, it represents a voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, as in onddo, ('mushroom').

‹dg› is used in English orthography to represent /dʒ/ in certain contexts, such as with judgement and hedge

‹dh› is used in the Albanian alphabet, Swahili alphabet, and the orthography of the revived Cornish language to represent the voiced dental fricative /ð/.

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 orthography it represents the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ or the voiced palatal approximant /j/; at the beginning of a word it shows the lenition of /d̪ˠ/, for example mo dhoras /mˠə ɣoɾˠəsˠ/ ('my door' cf. doras /d̪ˠorˠəsˠ/ 'door'). In the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, ‹dh› was used for the voiced alveolar implosive /ɗ/ in Pular, a Fula language. 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 additioin, ‹dh› is used in various romanization systems. In transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages, for example, it represents the murmured voiced dental plosive [d̪ʱ] and in the romanization of Arabic, it denotes ‹ﺫ›, which represents /ð/ in Modern Standard Arabic.

‹dj› is used in the Faroese, French and many French-based orthographies to represent /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 ‹dy›, ‹tj›, ‹ty›, or ‹c›.

‹dl› is used in the Hmong language's Romanized Popular Alphabet to represent /tˡ/. In the Navajo language orthography, it represents /tɬ/, and in the orthography of Xhosa it represents /ɮ̈/.

‹dł› is used in the Tlingit alphabet to represent /tɬ/ (in Alaska, ‹dl› is used instead).

‹dq› is used to represent the click /ᶢǃ/ in the orthography of Naro.

‹dr› is used in the orthography of Malagasy to represent /ɖʐ/. See ‹tr›.

‹dt› is used in Sandawe orthography and the romanization of Thai to represent /t/. In Irish orthography it represents /d/.

‹dx› is used in the orthographies of some Zapotecan languages to represent a voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/. It is placed between ‹D› and ‹E› in alphabetical order.

‹dy› is used in the Xhosa language orthography to represent /dʲʱ/. In the Shona alphabet, it represents /dʒɡ/. 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› (see article)

‹dź› is used in the Polish and Sorbian alphabets to represent /d͡ʑ/, the voiced alveolo-palatal affricate. ‹Dź› is never written before a vowel (‹dzi› is used instead, as in dziecko [d͡ʑɛt͡skɔ] 'child').

‹dż› is used in the Polish alphabet to represent a voiced retroflex affricate /d͡ʐ/ (e.g. 'jam').

‹dž› (see article)

E

‹e′› is used in the orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the glottalized or creaky vowel [ḛ].

‹ea› is used in many languages. In English orthography, ‹ea› usually represents the monophthong /i/ 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 just break, great, steak, and yea, and /æ/ 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, /ɜr/ 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.ɨ/ (lineage). Unstressed, it may represent /jə/ (ocean) or /ɨ/ (Eleanor). In the Romanian alphabet, it represents the diphthong [e̯a] as in beată ('to drink'). In Irish orthography, ‹ea› represents [a] between a slender and a broad consonant. ‹Ea› is also the transliteration of the ‹ᛠ› rune of the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc.

‹eá› is used in Irish orthography to represent /aː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

‹éa› is used in Irish orthography to represent /eː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

‹ee› represents a long mid vowel in a number of languages. In English orthography, ‹ee› represents /iː/ as in teen. In both the Dutch and German alphabets, ‹ee› represents [eː].

‹eh› is used in the orthography of the Taa language to represent the murmured vowel [e̤]. In the Wade-Giles transliteration of Mandarin Chinese, it is used to represent [ɛ] after a consonant, as in yeh [jɛ].

‹ei› usually represents a diphthong. In English orthography, ‹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 /ɨ/ as in forfeit. See also I before e except after c. In the southern and western Faroese dialects, it represents the diphthong [aɪ], while in the northern and eastern dialects, it represents the diphthong [ɔɪ].

In the Welsh alphabet, ‹ei› represents [əi]. In the Irish and Scottish Gaelic orthographies, it represents [ɛ] before a slender consonant. In the Dutch alphabet, ‹ei› represents [ɛ]. In the German alphabet, it represents /aɪ/, as in Einstein. This digraph was taken over from Middle High German writing systems, where it represented /eɪ/. In Modern German, ‹ei› is predominant in representing /aɪ/, while the equivalent digraph ‹ai› appears in only a few words. In French orthography, ‹ei› represents /ɛ/, as in seiche.

‹eî› is used in French orthography to represent /ɛː/, as in reître [ʁɛːtʁ].

‹éi› is used in Irish orthography to represent /eː/ between slender consonants.

‹em› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯] at the end of a word and [ẽ] before a consonant.

‹ém› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯] at the end of a word.

‹êm› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯] at the end of a word and [ẽ] before a consonant.

‹en› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯] at the end of a word and [ẽ] before a consonant within a word. In French orthography, it represents /ɑ̃/.

‹én› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯] before a consonant.

‹ên› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [ẽ] before a consonant.

‹eo› is used in Irish orthography to represent /oː/ or occasionally /ɔ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In the Jyutping romanization of Cantonese, it represents [ɵ], an allophone of /œː/. In the Revised Romanization of Korean, ‹eo› represents the open-mid back unrounded vowel /ʌ/. In English orthography ‹eo› is a rare digraph without a single pronunciation, representing /ɛ/ in feoff, jeopardy, leopard and the given name Geoffrey, /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.

‹eq› is used in the orthography of the Taa language to represent the pharyngealized vowel [eˁ].

‹eu› is found in many languages, most commonly to represent the diphthong /eu/. Additionally, in English orthography, ‹eu› represents /juː/ as in neuter (though in yod-dropping accents /uː/ may occur). In the German alphabet, it represents /ɔʏ/ as in Deutsch; and in the French, Dutch, Breton, and Cornish orthographies, it represents [ø] as in feu. In Yale Cantonese romanization it represents /œː/. In the orthographies of Sundanese and Acehnese, both Austronesian languages, it represents /ɤ/ as in beureum ('red').

‹eû› is used in French orthography to represent /ø/, as in jeûne [ʒøn].

‹ew› is used in English orthography to represent /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').

‹ey› is used in English orthography to represent a variety of sounds, including /eɪ/ in they, /iː/ in key, and /aɪ/ in geyser. In the Faroese alphabet, it represents the diphthong [ɛɪ].

F

‹ff› is used in English orthography to represent 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, such as in proper names (e.g. Rose ffrench, Jasper Fforde). In the Welsh alphabet, ‹ff› represents /f/, while ‹f› represents /v/. ‹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 orthography for the lenition of ‹f›. This happens to be silent, so that ‹fh› in Irish corresponds to no sound at all. For example, the phrase [cá fhad] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('how long') is pronounced [kaː ad̪ˠ], where [fhad] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the lenited form of [fad] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [fɑd] ('long').

‹fx› in used in the orthography of Nambikwara for a glottalized /ɸʔ/.

G

‹gb› is used in some African languages to represent a voiced labial-velar plosive (IPA: [ɡ͡b]).

‹gc› is used in scripts for languages such as Xhosa and Zulu to represent the click [ᶢǀ] . In Irish orthography, it indicates the eclipsis of c and represents [ɡ].

‹ge› is used in French orthography to represent [ʒ] before ‹a o u› as in geôle [ʒol].

‹gg› is used in English orthography to represent /ɡ/ before ‹i› and ‹e›. It is also used in Pinyin to represent [ɡ] in languages such as Yi. In the orthography of Central Alaskan Yup'ik, it represents [x]. In the romanization of Korean, it is occasionally used to represent the fortis sound [k͈], usually spelled ‹kk› (e.g. ggakdugi).

‹gh› (see article)

‹gi› is used in the Vietnamese alphabet to represent [z] in northern dialects and [j] in the southern ones. In the Italian alphabet, it represents [dʒ] before the non-front vowel letters ‹a o u›.

‹gj› is used in the Albanian alphabet to represent the voiced palatal plosive [ɟ], though for Gheg speakers it represents [dʒ]. In the Arbëresh dialect, it represents the voiced velar plosive [ɡʲ]. In the Norwegian and Swedish alphabets, ‹gj› represents [j] in words like gjøre / gjöra ('to do') and igjen ('again'). In Faroese, it represents [dʒ]. It is also used in the Romanization of Macedonian as a Latin equivalent of Cyrillic ‹Ѓ›.

‹gk› is used in Sandawe and the romanization of Thai to represent [k].

‹gl› is used in the Italian alphabet to represent [ʎ] before ‹i›. Elsewhere [ʎ] is represented by the trigraph ‹gli›.

‹gm› is used in English orthography to represent /m/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as gmina and paradigm. Between vowels, it represents /ɡm/, as in paradigmatic.

‹gn› is used in the Latin orthography, 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]. 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 English orthography, ‹gn› represents /n/ initially and finally (i.e. gnome, gnu, benign, sign). When it appears between two syllables, it represents /ɡn/ (e.g. signal). In the Norwegian and Swedish alphabets, ‹gn› represents [ŋn] in monosyllabic words like, agn and between two syllables, tegne. Initially, it represents [ɡn], eg. Swedish gnista [ˈɡnɪsta].

‹gñ› was used in several Spanish-derived orthographies of the Pacific to represent [ŋ]. It is one of several variants of the digraph ‹ñg›, and is preserved in the name of the town of Sagñay, Philippines.

‹gq› is used in scripts for languages such as Xhosa and Zulu to represent the click [ᶢǃ]. In the orthography of the Taa language, it represents [ɢ].

‹gr› is used in the orthography for Xhosa to represent [ɣ̈].

‹gu› is used in the Spanish and Portuguese orthographies to represent [ɡ] before front vowels ‹i e› where a "soft g" pronunciation (Spanish [x], Portuguese [ʒ]) would otherwise occur. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it is used to represent [ɡʷ].

‹gü› is used in the Spanish and Portuguese orthographies to represent [ɡw] before front vowels ‹i e› where the digraph ‹gu› represents [ɡ].

‹gw› is used in various languages to represent [ɡʷ], and in the orthography for Dene Suline it represents [kʷ].

‹ǥw›, capital ‹Ǥw› (or ‹G̱w›), is used in Alaskan Tlingit to represent [qʷ]; in Canada, this sound is represented by ‹ghw›.

‹gx› is used in scripts for languages such as Xhosa and Zulu to represent the click [ᶢǁ]. In Esperanto orthography, it is an unofficial variant of ‹ĝ›.

‹gy› is used in the Hungarian alphabet to represent 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.

H

‹hh› is used in the Xhosa language 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, it is an official surrogate of ĥ.

‹hj› is used in the Italian dialect of Albanian to represent /xʲ/. In Faroese, it represents either /tʃ/ or /j/.

‹hl› is a digraph representing the sound /ɬ/ in various scripts, such as the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong.

‹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/.

‹hs› is a digraph of the Latin alphabet used in the Wade-Giles transcription of Mandarin Chinese for the sound /ɕ/, equivalent to Pinyin x.

‹hu› is a digraph used primarily in the Classical Nahuatl language in which 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 to represent /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.

‹hw› is a digraph that was used in Old English to represent /hw/. It is now spelled ‹wh›.

‹hx› is used in Pinyin to represent /h/ in languages such as Yi (‹h› alone represents the fricative /x/), and in Nambikwara it is a glottalized /hʔ/. In Esperanto it is an unofficial surrogate of ‹ĥ›.

I

‹i′› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the glottalized or creaky vowel /ḭ/.

‹ie› is found 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 /ɨ/ 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 /iːʔiː/ in British medieval.

In Dutch, the ie› represents /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, the ie› is considered two letters for all purposes and represents /ia̯/, commonly (although less precisely) transcribed as /i̯e/. In Maltese, ie› is a distinct letter and represents a long close front unrounded vowel (IPA: /iː/) or /iɛ/. In Pinyin it is used to write the vowel /e/ in languages such as Yi, where e stands for /ɛ/.

‹ig› is used in Catalan to represent a voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /tɕ/ after a vowel.

‹ih› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents 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 with phonemic long vowels to represent /iː/.

‹ij (IJ)› (see article)

‹il› is used in French to represent /j/, historically /ʎ/, as in ail /aj/ "garlic".

‹im› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ĩ/.

‹ím› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ĩ/ before a consonant.

‹in› is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese orthography before a consonant, and in many West African languages, it is /ĩ/, while in French it is /ɛ̃/.

‹ín› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /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 Lakhota for the nasal vowel [ĩ].

‹io› is used in Irish to represent /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

‹ío› is used in Irish to represent /iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

‹iq› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the pharyngealized vowel /iˁ/.

‹iu› is used in Irish to represent /ʊ/ 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 to represent /uː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

‹ix› is used in Catalan to represent /ɕ/ after a vowel.

J

‹jh› is used in Walloon to write a sound that is variously /h/ or /ʒ/, 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 the official Esperanto orthography, it is a surrogate of ĵ.

‹jj› is used in Pinyin to represent /dʑ/ in languages such as Yi. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound /tɕ͈/.

‹jö› is a digraph of the Latin alphabet. It is used as a letter of the Seri alphabet, where it represents a labialized velar fricative (IPA: /xʷ/. It is placed between J and L in alphabetical order.

‹jx› is used in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ‹ĵ›.

K

‹kg› is a digraph used to represent /kχ/ in southern African languages such as Setswana. For instance, the Kalahari is spelled Kgalagadi /kχalaχadi/ in Setswana.

‹kh› is a digraph found in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages, where it represents the aspirated voiceless velar plosive ([kʰ]). For scores of other languages, it represents the voiceless velar fricative [x], for example in transcriptions of the letter ḥāʼ (خ) in standard Arabic, standard Persian, and Urdu, Cyrillic Х, х (Kha), Spanish j, etc. As the transcription of the letter Ḥet (ח) in Sephardic Hebrew, it represents the voiceless pharyngeal fricative [ħ]. It is also used to transcribe the Hebrew letter Kaf (כ) in instances when the letter is lenited. When transliterating Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian and Bulgarian, all written only in the Cyrillic alphabet, the diagraph is equivalent to the Cyrillic letter Х.

In Canadian Tlingit it represents [qʰ], which in Alaska is written k. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used to represent [kʼ].

‹kj› is a digraph used Swedish and Norwegian to represent [ɕ] or [ç]. See also ‹tj›. In Faroese, it represents [tʃ].

‹kk› is used in romanized Korean to represent the fortis sound /k͈/. It is also used to represent the pre-aspirated sound /ʰk/ in Icelandic and Faroese.

‹kl› is used in the Zulu language to write a sound variously realized as /kʟ̥ʼ/ or /kxʼ/.

‹kn› is a digraph used to write the word-initial sound /n/ in some words of Germanic origin, such as knee and knife.

‹kp› is a digraph of the Latin alphabet. It is used as a letter in some African languages, where it represents a voiceless labial-velar plosive (simultaneous k and p; IPA: /k͡p/).

‹kr› is used in the Xhosa language to represent /kxʼ/.

‹ku› is a digraph that was used in the Ossete Latin alphabet to represent /kʷ/.

‹kw› is used in various languages to represent /kʷ/, and in Dene Suline (Chipewyan) for /kʷʰ/.

‹ḵw› is used in Alaskan Tlingit to represent /qʷʰ/, which in Canada is written khw.

‹kx› in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /kʔ/.

‹ky› is used in Tibetan Pinyin to represent /tʃʰ/.

L

‹lh› is a digraph in Occitan, Gallo, and Portuguese, where it represents a palatal lateral approximant [ʎ]. In many American Indian languages 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›.

‹lj› is a letter in some Slavic languages, such as the Latin version of Serbo-Croatian and in romanised Macedonian, 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.

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. There are dedicated Unicode glyphs, lj, Lj, and LJ.

‹ll› and ‹l·l› (see article)

‹ly› (see article)

‹lw› is used for /lʷ/ in Arrernte.

‹lx› in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ʔl/.

M

‹mb› is a digraph present in many African languages where it represents (IPA) /mb/ or /ᵐb/. It is used in Irish to indicate the eclipsis of b and represents [m]; for example ár mbád [ɑːɾ mɑːd̪] "our boat" (cf. [bɑːd̪] "boat"). The Irish digraph is capitalized mB, for example i mBaile Átha Cliath "in Dublin". In English, mb represents /m/ when final, as in lamb.

‹mg› is used in Pinyin to represent /ŋɡ/ in languages such as Yi. (The more common diacritic ng› is restricted in Pinyin to the sound /ŋ/.)

‹mh› is a digraph in Irish, where it stands for the lenition of m› and represents [v] or [w]; for example mo mháthair [mə ˈwɑːhəɾʲ] or [mə ˈvɑːhəɾʲ] "my mother" (cf. máthair [ˈmɑːhəɾʲ] "mother"). In Welsh it stands for the nasal mutation of p› and represents [m̥]; for example fy mhen [ə 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. It also occurs in Shona. 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-.

‹ml› is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /mˡ/.

‹mn› is a digraph used 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, and between vowels it represents /mn/, as in damnation. In French it represents /n/, as in automne and condemner.

‹mp› is a digraph present in many African languages where it represents (IPA) /mp/ or /^mp/. Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph μπ for /b/, as β is used for /v/.

‹mv› is a digraph present in many African languages where it represents (IPA) /mv/ or /^mv/.

‹mw› is used for /mʷ/ in Arrernte.

‹mx› in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ʔm/.

N

‹n’› is used in the Xhosa and Shona languages to represent /ŋ/. Since ‹’› is not a letter in either language, ‹n’› is not technically a digraph.

‹nb› is used in Pinyin to represent /mb/ in languages such as Yi.

‹nc› is used in various scripts. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents the sound /ɲɟ/. In Xhosa and Zulu it represents the click /ᵑǀ/.

‹nd› is a digraph present in many African languages where it represents /nd/ or /ⁿd/, and capitalized ‹Nd›. It is used in Irish for the eclipsis of ‹d›, and represents /n/, for example in ár ndoras [ɑːɾ ˈnɔɾəs] "our door" (cf. doras [ˈd̪ɔɾəs] "door"). In this function it is capitalized ‹nD›, e.g. i nDoire "in Derry".

‹ng› is a digraph in English and several other European and derived orthographies, where it generally represents the velar nasal [ŋ]. It is considered a single letter in many Austronesian languages (Māori, Tagalog, Tongan, Kiribatian, Tuvaluan, Indonesian), the Welsh language, and Rheinische Dokumenta, to represent velar nasal (IPA: /ŋ/); and in some African languages (Lingala, Bambara, Wolof) to represent prenasalized /ɡ/ (/ŋ͡ɡ/ or /ⁿɡ/).

The Finnish language uses the digraph 'ng' to denote 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.

In Irish ng is used word-initially as the eclipsis of g and represents [ŋ], e.g. ár ngalar [ɑːɾ ˈŋɑɫəɾ] "our illness" (cf. [ˈɡɑɫəɾ]. In this function it is capitalized nG, e.g. 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 came to represent 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.

‹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 that of Tagalog and Chamorro, 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).

‹ng’› is used for /ŋ/ in Swahili and languages with Swahili-based orthographies. Since ‹’› is not a letter in Swahili, ‹ng’› is technically a digraph, not a trigraph.

‹nh› (see article)

‹nj› is a letter present in South Slavic languages such as Croatian and Serbian and in romanised Macedonian. Ljudevit Gaj, Croatian, first used this digraph in 1830. It is also used in the Albanian alphabet. In all of these languages, it represents the palatal nasal /ɲ/. For example, the Croatian and Serbian word konj is pronounced /koɲ/. The digraph was created in the 19th century by analogy with a digraph of the Cyrillic alphabet, which developed into the ligature ‹Њ›. There are dedicated glyphs in Unicode, NJ, Nj, nj.

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 the orthography of many Bantu languages like Lingala, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, for /ŋk/ or /^ŋk/. 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/.

‹nn› is used in Irish orthography for the Old Irish "fortis sonorants" /Nˠ/ ("broad", i.e. non-palatalized or velarized) and /Nʲ/ ("slender", i.e. palatalized) in non-initial position. In modern Irish, the "broad" sound is /n̪ˠ/, while the slender sound can be any of /nʲ/, /n̠ʲ/, or /ɲ/, depending on dialect and position in the word. 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.

‹np› is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /mb/.

‹nq› is used in various scripts. 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/.

‹ns› is a digraph present in many African languages where it represents (IPA) /ns/ or /ⁿs/.

‹nt› is a letter present in many African languages where it represents(IPA) /nt/ or /ⁿt/ .

‹nw› is used in Igbo to represent /ŋʷ/, and in Arrernte for /nʷ/.

‹nx› is a digraph used for the click /ᵑǁ/ in scripts such as Xhosa and Zulu, and in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ʔn/.

‹ny› (see article)

‹nz› is a digraph present in many African languages where it represents (IPA) /nz/, /ⁿz/ or /nʒ/, /ⁿʒ/.

O

‹o′› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the glottalized or creaky vowel /o̰/. It is also used for [o] and [ø] in Romanized Uzbek (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 ‹ō› or ‹ŏ›.

‹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 to represent /o/.

‹oe› is a digraph found in many languages. In English, oe represents the /oʊ/ sound as in hoe and sometimes the /uː/ sound as in shoe. Afrikaans and Dutch oe is [u], as in doen. In French it stands for the vowels [œ], as in œil [œj], and [e] as in oesophage [ezɔfaːʒ], and in Standard Cantonese Pinyin it represents the vowel [ɵ] ~ [œː]. It is an alternative way to write the letter ö in German when this character is unavailable.

‹oê› is used in French to write the vowel sound [wa] in a few words before what had historically been an s, as in poêle [pwal] "stove".

‹õe› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent [õĩ̯]. It is used in plural forms of some words ended in ‹ão›, such as anão–anões and campeão–campeões.

‹oh› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the breathy or murmured vowel /o̤/.

‹oi› is used in various languages. In English, oi represents the /oɪ̯/ sound as in coin and join. And in French, it represents the /wɑ/, which was historically – and still in some cases – "oy." In Irish it's used to represent /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /ɪ/, /əi̯/, /iː/, /oː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

‹oí› is used in Irish to represent /iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

‹oî› is used in French to write the vowel sound /wa/ before what had historically been an s, as in boîtier or cloître.

‹ói› is used in Irish to represent /oː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

‹om› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /õ/.

‹ôm› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /õ/ before a consonant.

‹on› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /õ/ before a consonant, and in French to write /ɔ̃/.

‹ôn› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /õ/ before a consonant.

‹ön› is used in Tibetan Pinyin to represent /ø̃/. It is alternately written oin.

‹oo› is used in many languages. In English, oo commonly represents two sounds: /uː/ as in "moon" and "food", and /ʊ/ as in "wood" and "foot". Historically, both derive from the sound [oː], which is also the digraph’s pronunciation in most other languages. In German, the digraph represents [oː] in a few words such as Moor.

‹oq› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the pharyngealized vowel /oˁ/.

‹or› is a digraph used in Taiwanese, where it represents mid central vowel /ə/ or close-mid back rounded vowel /o/.

‹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, or /uː/ as in group. The ou in out originally represented [uː], as in French, but its pronunciation has changed as part of the Great Vowel Shift.

In Dutch ou represents [ʌu] in the Netherlands or [oʊ] in Flanders. In French, ou represents the vowel [u], as in vous [vu] "you", or the approximant consonant [w], as in oui [wi] "yes".

This digraph stands for the close-mid back rounded vowel [o] or for the falling diphthong [ou], according to dialect.

‹oû› is used in French to write the vowel sound /u/ before what had historically been an s, as in soûl /sul/ "drunk".

‹ow› is a digraph found in English, where it 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/ or /ɑː/ 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).

‹oy› is a digraph found in many languages. In English and Faroese, oy represents the /oɪ/. Examples in English: toy and annoy.

‹oŷ› is an obsolete digraph once used in French.

‹øy› is used in Norwegian to represent /øʏ/.

P

‹pf› in German represents a labial affricate /pf/. It can be initial (Pferd, 'horse'), medial (Apfel, 'apple'), or final (Knopf, 'button').

Where it appears in English, usually in names or words recently derived from German, it is ordinarily simplified to ‹f›.

‹ph› is a digraph in the English Language and many other languages that represents /f/. Ph in English generally occurs in words derived from Greek, due to Latin transcription of Greek phi (Φ φ) as ‹ph›. In Ancient Greek, this letter originally represented /pʰ/ (an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive). In some non-standard spellings of English, like leet, ph may be used as a replacement of all occurrences of f. Exceptionally, ‹ph› represents /v/ in the name Stephen and some speakers' pronunciation of the word nephew.

The French and German languages and the auxiliary languages Interlingua and Occidental also use the digraph for Greek loanwords. In German, ph can be replaced by f; the replacement is allowed in certain cases according to the German spelling reform of 1996. In most Romance (such as Spanish) and Germanic languages, f is used in place of ph. Languages written in a Cyrillic script, such as Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian, regularly use Ф ф – similar to the Greek Φ φ – where the Romance and Germanic languages use ph or f. In Welsh, ph represents /f/ in native words, but only word-initially as the result of an initial consonant mutation of a word beginning with p. Irish uses f for words of Greek origin, while ph represents the lenited form of p, resulting in the sound /f/ as well. In Vietnamese, ph is exclusively used because the letter f does not exist. In Old High German, ph stands for the affricate /pf/. In the romanizations of Indo-Aryan languages and of Thai, ph represents the aspirated sound [pʰ]. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used to represent [pʼ].

‹pl› is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound [pˡ].

‹pm› is used for /^pm/ in Arrernte.

‹pn› is a digraph for an initial sound /n/ in words of Greek origin such as pneumatic. When not initial, it represents the sequence /pn/, as in apnea.

‹pp› is used in romanized Korean to represent the fortis sound /p͈/.

‹ps› is a digraph for an initial sound /s/ in words of Greek origin such as psyche. When not initial, it represents the sequence /ps/, as in ellipse. It is also used in the Shona language to write a whistled sibilant cluster /ps͎/.

‹pt› is used in several languages to represent /t/ in words of Greek origin, where it was /pt/. An example in English is pterosaur /ˈtɛrəsɔr/, and an exception is ptarmigan /ˈtɑrmɨɡən/, which is Gaelic, not Greek. When not initial, pt represents the sequence /pt/, as in apt.

‹pw› is used for /pʷ/ in Arrernte.

Q

‹qg› is a digraph used to write the click /ǃχ/ in Naro.

‹qh› is used in various scripts. In Quechua and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents the sound /qʰ/. In Xhosa, it represents the click /ǃʰ/.

‹qu› is used in French, Spanish and Portuguese orthography to represent /k/ before the vowel letters e, i, where the letter c represents the sound /θ/ (Castilian Spanish) or /s/ (French, Latin American Spanish and Portuguese). In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used to represent /qʷ/.

‹qw› is used in some languages for the sound /qʷ/. In Mi'kmaq it is used for /xʷ/.

R

‹rd› is used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara to represent a retroflex stop (IPA: /ʈ/).

‹rh› is found in English language with words from the Greek language and transliterated through the Latin language. Examples include "rhapsody", "rhetoric" and "rhythm". These were pronounced in Ancient Greek with an "h" sound coming just after the "r" sound (see spiritus asper), though in English this never applied. The word "rhyme", however, is an artifact; originally "rime", the respelling first appeared in the early seventeenth century. (Ancient Greek poetry like Latin poetry, did not employ rhyme; the word 'rhyme' is of Old English origin.) The digraph may also be found within words, but always at the start of a word component, e.g., "polyrhythmic". German, French, and the auxiliary language Interlingua use rh in the same way. ‹Rh› is also found in the Welsh language where it represents a voiceless alveolar trill (r̥), that is a voiceless "r" sound. It can be found anywhere; the most common occurrence in the English language 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-.

‹rl› is used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara to represent a retroflex lateral, written /ɭ/ in the IPA.

‹rn› is used in the Norwegian language found in words like, garn and barn. It represents the retroflex nasal /ɳ/. It is also used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara to represent the retroflex nasal. In the Greenlandic language, it represents /ɴ/

‹rr› is used in English language for ‹r›, depending on etymology. It normally appears in words of Latin or Romance origin, and "rrh" in words of ancient Greek origin. It is quite a common digraph, found in words as diverse as arrest, carry, and sorry. 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, Italian or Albanian, "rr" represents the alveolar trill /r/ 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, "rr" is furthermore a geminate (long) consonant /rː/. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik it is used for /χ/.

‹rs› is used in Norwegian and Swedish to represent /ʂ/.

‹rt› is a digraph used for Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara to represent a retroflex stop /ʈ/.

‹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 "March" and "river". ‹Rz› represents the same sound as ‹ż›, the only difference being that ‹ż› evolved from a *g while ‹rz› is descended from a palatalized ar ( *rʲ ). ‹Rz› usually corresponds to Czech ‹ř›, though the pronunciations are different. When preceded by a voiceless consonant (ch, k, p, t) or end of a word, ‹rz› devoices to ‹sz›, as in przed "before", pronounced [ˈpʂɛt].

S

‹sc› is used in Italian to represent /ʃː/ before the front vowel letters e, i. It is used for /s/ in French and English words like science.

‹sç› is used in French to represent /s/ in a few verb forms such as simple past acquiesça /akjɛsa/.

‹sh› (see article; see also ſh› below, which has the capitalized forms SH and ŞH)

‹si› is used in English to represent /ʒ/ in words such as fusion.

‹sj› is a digraph of the Latin alphabet. It is used Swedish to write the sje sound /ɧ/ (see also ‹sk›) and in Dutch, Faroese, Danish and Norwegian 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 and ö) word or root initially (as in sked (spoon)), while normally representing [sk] in other positions. In Norwegian it is used to write voiceless postalveolar fricative ʃ (only in front of i, y, ei and øy).

‹sl› is used in the Iraqw language to write the lateral fricative /ɬ/. (Sl is used in the French tradition to transcribe /ɬ/ in other languages.)

‹sr› is used in Kosraean to represent /ʂ/.

‹ss› is used in Pinyin to represent /z/ in languages such as Yi. In other languages, such as French 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. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound /s͈/.

‹sv› is used in the Shona language to write the whistled sibilant /s͎/. This was written ȿ from 1931 to 1955.

‹sx› in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /sʔ/, and in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ‹ŝ›.

‹sy› is a digraph used write the sound /ʃ/ in Malay.

‹sz› (see article)

T

‹tc› is used to represent the palatal click /ǂ/ in the orthography of Naro, and to write the affricate /tʃ/ in that of Sandawe.

‹tg› is used to represent /tχ/ in the orthography of Naro. In the Catalan alphabet, it represents /dʑ/.

‹th› (see article)

‹tj› is used in Norwegian and Faroese words like tjære/tjøra ('tar') to represent /ç/. In the closely related Swedish alphabet, it represents /ɕ/, as in tjära /ˈɕæːɾa/. It is, or was, also used to represent /tʃ/ in many Dutch-based orthographies in Indonesia and Surinam. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop, written /ṯ/ or /ḏ/. This sound is also written ‹dj›, ‹ty›, ‹dy›, ‹c›, or ‹j›.

‹tl› is used in various orthographies to represent the affricate /tɬ/.

‹tł› is used in the transcription of Athabascan languages to represent a lateral affricate /tɬ/ or /tɬʰ/.

‹tn› is used to represent a prestopped nasal /^tn/ in the orthography of Arrernte.

‹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 the orthography of 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 alphabet, where it represents an apical voiceless alveolar affricate /t̺s̺/. It contrasts with ‹tz›, which is laminal /t̻s̻/. In the orthography of 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.

The Wade-Giles and Yale romanizations of Chinese use ‹ts› to represent an unaspirated voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/). Wade-Giles also uses ‹ts› to represent the aspirated equivalent /tsʰ/). These are equivalent to Pinyin ‹z› and ‹c›, respectively. The Hepburn romanization of Japanese uses ‹ts› to represent 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 the orthography of Tagalog is used to represent [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›, respectively.

‹ts̃› was used in the orthography of medieval Basque to represent a voiceless postalveolar affricate [t͡ʃ]; this is now represented by ‹tx›.

‹tt› is used in the orthography of Basque to represent /c/, and in romanized Kabyle to represent [ts]. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound [t͈].

‹tw› is used to represent /tʷ/ in the orthography of Arrernte.

‹tx› is used in the Basque, Catalan alphabets, as well as some indigenous languages of South America, to represent a voiceless postalveolar affricate [t͡ʃ] ([tɕ] in Catalan). In the orthography of Nambikwara it represents a glottalized /tʔ/.

‹ty› is used in the Hungarian alphabet to represent /cç/, a voiceless palatal affricate; in Hungarian, digraphs are considered single letters, and acronyms keep them intact. In the orthography of Xhosa, ‹ty› represents [tʲʼ]. In that of Shona, it represents [tʃk]. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop, either voiceless [ṯ] or voiced [ḏ]. (This sound is also written ‹tj›, ‹dj›, ‹dy›, ‹c›, and ‹j›).

‹tz› is used in the orthographies of Basque and German to represent the voiceless alveolar affricate [t͡s]). In Basque, this sound is laminal and contrasts with the apical affricate represented by ‹ts›.

U

‹u′› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the glottalized or creaky vowel /ṵ/.

‹uc› is used in Nahuatl to represent /kʷ/ before a consonant. Before a vowel, ‹cu› is used.

‹ue› is a digraph found in many languages. In English, ue represents the /ju/ or /u/ sound as in cue or true, respectively. In German, it is used to transcribe the letter Ü, and as such may appear in proper names of people, representing [ʏ] or [yː].

‹ug› is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik to represent /ɣʷ/.

‹uh› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the breathy or murmured vowel /ṳ/. In Nahuatl, it's used to represent /w/ before a consonant. Before a vowel, ‹hu› is used.

‹ui› is a digraph found in Dutch, where it stands for the diphthong [œy]. In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, it's [ɪ] after a velarized (broad) consonant, and in Irish, it is used to represent /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /iː/ /uː/ between a broad and a slender consonant. In German, it represents the diphthong [ʊɪ̯], which appears only in interjections such as "pfui!". In English, it represents the sound [uː] in fruit, juice, suit and pursuit. However, in many English words, this does not hold. For example, it fails in words where the u in ui functions as a modifier of a preceding g (forcing g to remain [g] rather than shifting to [dʒ] in guild, guilt, guilty, sanguine, Guinan, etc.), doing the same with c (in words like circuit and biscuit), or in cases of unusual etymological spelling or syllable separation (e.g. build, suite, and intuition). In Mandarin pinyin, it is /u̯ei̯/ after a consonant. (In initial position, this is spelled wei.) In French, it is not a digraph, but a predictable sequence [ɥi], as in huit "eight".

‹uí› is used in Irish to represent /iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

‹úi› is used in Irish to represent /uː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

‹um› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ũ/, and in French to write /œ̃/ (/œm/ before a vowel).

‹úm› is used in Portuguese orthography to represent /ũ/ before a consonant.

‹un› is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese orthography 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 orthography to represent /ũ/ before a consonant.

‹ün› is used in Tibetan Pinyin to represent /ỹ/.

‹uŋ› is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel [ũ].

‹uo› is used in Pinyin to write the vowel /o/ in languages such as Yi, where o stands for /ɔ/.

‹uq› is a digraph in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the pharyngealized vowel /uˁ/.

‹ur› is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik to represent /ʁʷ/, and in Pinyin to write the trilled vowel /ʙ̝/ in languages such as Yi.

‹uu› is used in Dutch to represent /y/. In languages with phonemic long vowels, it may be used to write /uː/.

‹uw› is a digraph that occurs in Dutch, as in ‹uw› (yours), duwen (to push)

‹ux› is used in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ‹ŭ›.

V

‹vh› is a digraph used to represent [v] in the Shona language.

‹vv› is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik to represent [f].

W

‹wh› is used in English language for /hw/, the continuation of the PIE labiovelar formerly spelled hw. Most English interrogative words begin with this phoneme, whence their name wh-words. However, this digraph has usually come to represent /h/ when followed by the letter 'o', as in "who" or "whole". /hw/ has merged with /w/ in most varieties of English in the wine-whine merger. In the Māori language, ‹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.

‹wr› is a digraph now used by most English dialects to represent /r/. It once was not a digraph but represented the predictable sequence /wr/, a value it retains in a few dialects documented in the twentieth century.

‹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.

‹wx› in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ʔw/.

X

‹xg› is a digraph used to write the click /ǁχ/ in Naro.

‹xh› is a digraph in Albanian, where it represents the sound of the voiced postalveolar affricate consonant /dʒ/, as in the surname Hoxha /ˈhɔdʒa/. In Pashto too it represents /dʒ/. In Zulu and Xhosa it represents the voiceless aspirated alveolar lateral click [kǁʰ], for example in the name of the language Xhosa [ˈkǁʰoːsa]. In Walloon to write a sound that is variously /h/ or /ʃ/, depending on the dialect. In Canadian Tlingit it represents /χ/, which in Alaska is written x.

‹xi› is used in British English to represent /kʃ/ in words such as connexion. In American English, this is spelled c plus the digraph ‹ti›, connection.

‹xu› is a digraph that was used in the Ossete Latin alphabet to represent /χʷ/.

‹xw› is used in the Tlingit language to represent /xʷ/.

‹xy› is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents the sound /ç/.

‹xö› is a digraph of the Latin alphabet. It is used as a letter of the Seri alphabet, where it represents a labialized uvular fricative (IPA: /χʷ/). It is placed between X and Y in alphabetical order.

‹x̱w› is used in Alaskan Tlingit to represent /χʷ/, which in Canada is written xhw.

Y

‹yh› is a digraph that was used in the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, for the "ejective y" or palatalized glottal stop (IPA: /ʔʲ/) in Pular (a Fula language). In the current orthography it is now written ƴ. In Xhosa it is used for the sound / j̈ /. In a handful of Australian languages, it represents a "dental semivowel".

‹yi› is used in Mandarin pinyin and Romanized Korean to write the vowel /i/ in initial position.

‹yk› is used in Yanyuwa to represent a pre-velar stop, /ɡ̟ ~ k̟/.

‹ym› is used in French to write the vowel sound /ɛ̃/ (/im/ before another vowel), as in thym /tɛ̃/ "thyme".

‹yn› is used in French to write the vowel sound /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 /y/ in non-initial position. (See jyu.)

‹yw› is used for /jʷ/ in Arrernte.

‹yx› in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ʔj/.

‹yy› is a digraph that is used in some languages such as Finnish to write the long vowel /yː/.

Z

‹zh› is a digraph consisting of the letters Z and H. This digraph represents the voiced postalveolar fricative ([ʒ]), like the ‹s› in pleasure, in Albanian and in Native American orthographies such as Navajo. It is used to represent the same sound in some English-language dictionaries, as well as to transliterate Cyrillic ‹ж› and Persian ‹ژ› , which also represent postalveolar fricatives. ‹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 the Tamil language is transliterated into the roman script, ‹zh› represents a retroflex approximant.

‹zs› is the last (forty-fourth) letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its name is "zsé" and represents /ʒ/, a voiced postalveolar fricative, similar to J in Jacques and si in vision. ‹Zs› is only a digraph in Hungarian. A few examples are rózsa "rose" and zsír "fat".

‹zv› is used in the Shona language to write the whistled sibilant /z͎/. This was written ɀ from 1931 to 1955.

‹zz› is used in Pinyin to represent /dz/ in languages such as Yi. It is also used with that value in romanized Kabyle.

Other letters

‹ɛn›, capital ‹Ɛn›, is used in many West African languages to represent the nasal vowel /ɛ̃/. Ɛ is an "open e".

‹ɔn›, capital ‹Ɔn›, is used in many West African languages to represent the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/. Ɔ is an "open o".

‹œu›, capitalized ‹Œu›, is used in French to represent 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›.

‹ſh›, capitalized ‹SH› or sometimes ‹ŞH›, was a digraph used in the Slovene Bohorič alphabet to represent /ʃ/. The first element, ‹ſ›, is an archaic non-final form of the letter ‹s›.

See also

• Trigraph
• Tetragraph
• Pentagraph
• Hexagraph
• List of Latin letters