List Of Latin Script Digraphs
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This is a list of digraphs used in various
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from ...
s. In the list,
letter Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet * Letterform, the g ...
s with
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
s are arranged in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
according to their base, e.g. is alphabetised with , not at the end of the alphabet, as it would be in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Substantially-modified letters, such as (a variant of ) and (based on ), are placed at the end.
Capitalisation Capitalization ( North American spelling; also British spelling in Oxford) or capitalisation (Commonwealth English; all other meanings) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in ...
only involves the first letter ( becomes ) unless otherwise stated ( becomes in
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, and digraphs marking
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
in Irish, are capitalised on the second letter, i.e. becomes ).


Apostrophe

Source: (capital ) is used in
Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...
for . (capital ) is used in Bari for . is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark or ''yin'' tone . It is also often written as . is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark . is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark . is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark . (capital ) is used in Bari and
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...
(in Nigeria) for , but in Niger, Hausa is replaced with .


A

is used in Taa for the
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
or creaky-voiced vowel . is used in
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, Finnish and other languages with phonemic long vowels for . It was formerly used in Danish and Norwegian (and still is in some proper names) for or (in Danish), until it was replaced with . There is a ligature . In
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
romanisations such as
Jyutping The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK). The name ''Jyutping'' (itself the Jyutping ro ...
or
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
, it is used for , contrasting with . is used in Irish for between two "broad" (
velarized Velarization merican spelling/small> or velarisation ritish spelling/sup> 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 Pho ...
) consonants, e.g. "a
Gael The Gaels ( ; ; ; ) are an Insular Celtic ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic ...
". : In
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, originally represented the
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
, before it was
monophthong A monophthong ( ) is a pure vowel sound, or one whose articulation at beginning and end is relatively fixed, with the tongue moving neither up nor down and neither forward nor backward towards a new position of articulation. A monophthong can be ...
ized in the
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
period to ; in medieval manuscripts, the digraph was frequently replaced by the
ligature Ligature may refer to: Language * Ligature (writing), a combination of two or more letters into a single symbol (typography and calligraphy) * Ligature (grammar), a morpheme that links two words Medicine * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture us ...
. : In Modern English, Latin loanwords with are generally pronounced with (e.g. ''Caesar''), prompting
Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...
to shorten this to in his 1806
spelling reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples a ...
for
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
. : In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, is a variant of found in some proper names or in contexts where is unavailable. : In
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, is an old spelling variant of but now only occurs in names of people or (less often) places and in a few loanwords from Greek and Latin. : In Zhuang, represents ( represents ). : In
Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...
, represents . is used in Portuguese for stressed when in the final syllable, e.g. ''mãe'' and ''capitães'' . is used in Taa for breathy or
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
. In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and English it typically represents a
long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not d ...
. is used in many languages, typically representing the diphthong . In English, due to the
Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of English phonology, pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), begi ...
, it represents as in ''pain'' and ''rain'', while in unstressed syllables it may represent , e.g. ''bargain'' and ''certain(ly)''. In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it represents . In Irish and it represents between a broad and a slender consonant. In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
, it represents or between a broad and a slender consonant, except when preceding word-final or pre-consonant (e.g. , or pre-consonant (e.g. . In the
Kernowek Standard Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...
orthography of Cornish, it represents , mostly in loanwords from English such as ''paint''. is used in Irish for between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for , as in or . is used in Irish for between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in Scottish Gaelic for or sometimes , between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in modern Portuguese for stressed before consonants, although it is very rare since this diphthong is usually found stressed only at the end of words and therefore spelt as . Alas, it is currently found in some words such as ''cãibra'' . In 1931, in
European Portuguese European Portuguese (, ), also known as Lusitanian Portuguese () or as the Portuguese (language) of Portugal (), refers to the dialects of the Portuguese language spoken in Portugal. The word "European" was chosen to avoid the clash of "Portugues ...
's orthography, it replaced in all its occurrences due to a small orthographic reform, but this change was soon reverted in 1945 as part of an orthographic agreement with Brazil to match
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
's orthography, which still kept . is used in Portuguese for in past verb conjugations word finally, before a consonant, and before a vowel. In French, it represents in lieu of before . is used in Portuguese for a stressed before a consonant. is used in many languages to write a
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...
. In Portuguese it is used for before a consonant. In French it represents ( before a vowel). In Breton language, Breton it represents . is used in
Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...
Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( ; , , ; POJ), also known as Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Hokkien Southern Min, particularly Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese and Amoy dialect, Amoy Hokkien, and it is widely employed as one of the writing syst ...
for . is used in Portuguese for a stressed before a consonant. is used in Tibetan Pinyin for . It is alternately written . is used in Walloon, for the nasal vowel . is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel is used in many languages, such as
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
and
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
, to represent . In Irish, it represents ( in
Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
) between broad consonants. In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
, it represents between broad consonants. In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it is found in a few words such as representing and as representing . In Malagasy, it represents . In
Wymysorys Wymysorys (, ), also known as Vilamovian, Wilamowicean, or Wilmesaurisch, is a West Germanic language spoken by the Vilamovian ethnic minority in the town of Wilamowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland ( in Wymysorys), on the border between Si ...
, it represents . is used in Portuguese for , but only when it appears stressed, since unstressed is spelt word finally, this distinction usually happens in verb conjugations. E.g. ''eles fizeram'' "they made", and ''eles farão'' "they will make". is used in Taa, for the
pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...
vowel . is used in English for . It occasionally represents , as in ''flautist''. Other pronunciations are or (depending on dialect) in ''aunt'' and ''laugh'', in ''gauge'', in ''gauche'' and ''chauffeur'', and as in ''
meerschaum Sepiolite, also known in English by the German name meerschaum ( , ; ; meaning " sea foam"), is a soft white clay mineral, often used to make tobacco pipes (known as meerschaum pipes). A complex magnesium silicate, a typical chemical formula f ...
'' and ''restaurant''. : In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, it represents and , respectively ( in some northern and in some southern Dutch and some Flemish dialects). : In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it represents or sometimes . : In Icelandic and Norwegian it represents and , respectively. : In several Romanizations of Wu Chinese, it represents . : In the Cornish
Kernowek Standard Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...
, it is used for , as in "cabbage" or "to dance". is used in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
for the diphthong in declension of native words with ; elsewhere, is written as . In words, mostly of Latin origin, where and are separated by a syllable boundary, it represents , e.g. (a German form for '' Matthew''). is used in English in ways that parallel English , though it appears more often at the end of a word. In Cornish, it represents or . In Welsh, it represents . is used in English in ways that parallel , though it appears more often at the end of a word. In French, it represents before a vowel (as in ) and before a consonant (as in ). In Cornish, it represents , , , or . (a
split digraph A digraph () or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. S ...
) is used in English for .


B

is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi, where stands for . It was used in Portuguese until 1911 in European orthography and 1943 in Brazillian orthography. It had the same sound as . Was used only for etymological purposes. In Hungarian, it represents
geminated In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
. In English, doubling a letter indicates that the previous vowel is short (so represents ). In ISO romanized
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, it is used for the fortis sound , otherwise spelled ; e.g. hobbang. In Hadza it represents the ejective . In several African languages it is implosive . In
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
it is . is used in English for in a few words of Greek origin, such as ''bdellatomy''. When not initial, it represents , as in ''abdicate''. is used in Bavarian and several
African languages The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SI ...
for the . is used in transcriptions of
Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...
s for a
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
voiced bilabial plosive The voiced bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b. The voiced bilabial stop o ...
(), and for equivalent sounds in other languages. In Juǀʼhoan, it's used for the similar
prevoiced Prevoicing, in phonetics, is voicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for speech pathology, prevoicing is transcri ...
aspirated plosive . It is used in Irish to represent (beside ) and (beside ), word-initially it marks the
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
of , e.g. "my boat", "would be". In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
, it represents , or in a few contexts as between a broad vowel and a broad consonant or between two broad vowels, as in . In the orthography used in Guinea before 1985, was used in Pular (a
Fula language Fula ( ),Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani ( ) or Fulah (, , ; Adlam script, Adlam: , , ; Ajami script, Ajami: , , ), is a Senegambian languages, Senegambian language spoken by arou ...
) for the
voiced bilabial implosive The voiced bilabial implosive 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 b_<. Features Features of th ...
, whereas in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
, Zulu, and
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
, represents the implosive and represents the plosive . In some orthographies of Dan, is and is . is used in Cornish for an optionally pre-occluded ; that is, it represents either or (in any position); (before a consonant or finally); or (before a vowel); examples are ('mother') or ('this'). is used in Sandawe and romanized Thai for . (capital ) is used in Irish, as the
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
of , to represent (beside ) and (beside ). is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for the
voiced labiodental affricate The voiced labiodental affricate ( in IPA) is a rare affricate consonant that is initiated as a voiced labiodental stop and released as a voiced labiodental fricative . Features Features of the voiced labiodental affricate: *There are two ...
. is used in
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
for a
whistled sibilant Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English word ...
cluster .


C

was formerly used in Spanish-based spelling systems for
Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...
and
Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...
for the sound , as in ''Ccozcco'' (modern ''Qusqu'') ('
Cuzco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous province and department. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire unti ...
'). In
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, before a
front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned approximately as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction th ...
represents a geminated , as in . In
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
and Lombard, represents the sound at the end of a word. In Hadza it is the glottalized click . In English crip slang, can sometimes replace the letters or at the ends of words, such as with ''thicc'', ''protecc'', ''succ'' and ''fucc''. was used for or in Old English ( in Old English sounded like 'edge' in Modern English, while sounded like 'froga'), where both are long consonants. It is used for the click in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
, and in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless dental click . is used in several languages. In English, it can represent , , , or . See article. is used in Manx for , such as in the word , meaning speech, as a distinction from which is used for . is used in
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...
and the Chechen Latin alphabet for . In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for . is used in the
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
for before the non-front vowel letters . In English, it usually represents whenever it precedes any vowel other than . In
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
, it represents whenever it precedes a vowel, and whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of appearing in other situations. In Romanian, it represents . The digraph is found at the end of a word (deci, atunci, copaci) or before the letters a, o, or u (ciorba, ciuleandra); the sound made by the letter c in front of the letters e or i becomes in front of the three aforementioned vowels, making the addition of the letter i necessary. is used in
Friulian Friulian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Friuli region in northeast Italy. * Sometimes, by improper extension, something of, from, or related to the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions o ...
for such as in words . It's also used in local orthographies of Lombard to represent derived from Latin . is used in many
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
in lieu of or to indicate either a
geminated In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
, or a with a preceding (historically)
short vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not ...
. The latter is the case with English ''tack'', ''deck'', ''pick'', ''lock'', and ''buck'' (compare ''backer'' with ''baker''). In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, indicates that the preceding vowel is short. Prior to the
German spelling reform of 1996 The German orthography reform of 1996 (') was a change to German spelling and punctuation that was intended to simplify German orthography and thus to make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the lan ...
, it was replaced by for syllabification. The new spelling rules allow only syllabification of the as a whole: :*Old spelling: : ('sacks') :*New spelling: : :Among the modern Germanic languages, is used mainly in Alsatian, English,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officiall ...
, Scots, Swedish, and other
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...
in
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
and
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. Similarly, is used for the same purpose in
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
, Danish,
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, Icelandic, Norwegian, and other West Germanic languages in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
and
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
. Compare the word ''nickel'', which is the same in many of these languages except for the customary or spelling. The word is ''
nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
'' in English and Swedish, ''
Nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
'' in German, and '' nikkel'' in Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic and Norwegian. :It was also used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless dental click (equivalent to ). :It is also used in Cornish for at the end of a syllable after a short vowel; only in loanwords (mostly from English) in the
Standard Written Form The Standard Written Form or SWF () of the Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography". It was the outcome of ...
(SWF), more widely in
Kernowek Standard Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...
. is used in English for in a few words of Greek origin, such as ''
cnidarian Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, ...
''. When not initial, it represents , as in ''acne''. It is used in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
for , and nasalises the following vowel, as in . is used in
Seri Seri, Séri, or SERI may refer to: People *Camille Séri (born 1999), French hurdler *Jean Michaël Seri, an Ivorian professional footballer Places *Seri Yek-e Zarruk, Iran *Seri, Bheri, Nepal *Seri, Karnali, Nepal *Seri, Mahakali, Nepal *Seri ...
for a
labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels invol ...
velar plosive, . It is placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for . is used in the Hungarian for a
voiceless postalveolar affricate The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , , (formerly ...
, . It is considered a distinct letter, named , and is placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. Examples of words with include ('only'), ('cup'), ('pipe'), ('peppery'). is used in English for in a few words of Greek origin, such as ''ctenoid''. When not initial, it represents , as in ''act''. Is used in Portuguese for in some words, e.g. but not in . is used in languages such as
Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...
(that is, based on
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
or
Portuguese orthography Portuguese orthography is based on the Latin alphabet and makes use of the acute accent, the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, and the cedilla to denote stress, vowel height, nasalization, and other sound changes. The diaeresis (dia ...
) for . In Nahuatl, is used before a vowel, whereas is used after a vowel. is used in modern scholarly editions of Old English for the sound , which was spelled , or in manuscripts. In Middle English these were all replaced by Latin . is used in
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
as an unofficial surrogate of , which represents . is used in
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
for as in ('hello'). In Kashubian, represents . In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
and Catalan, historical contracted to the
ligature Ligature may refer to: Language * Ligature (writing), a combination of two or more letters into a single symbol (typography and calligraphy) * Ligature (grammar), a morpheme that links two words Medicine * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture us ...
, which represents when followed by . In Hungarian, it was formerly used for the sound , which is now written . In English, is used to represent in the
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s ''Czech'', and ''Czechia''.


D

is used in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
for the click , and in Juǀʼhoan for the prevoiced ejective . is used in English to indicate a with a preceding (historically) short vowel (e.g. ''jaded'' has a "long a" while ''ladder'' has a "short a"). In Welsh, represents a
voiced dental fricative The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
. It is treated as a distinct letter, named , and placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. In the ISO romanization of
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, it is used for the fortis sound , otherwise spelled ; examples are and . In
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, it represents a
voiced palatal plosive The voiced palatal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a barred dotless that was initially created by turning the type for a ...
, as in "mushroom". In several African languages it is implosive .
Latin delta Latin delta (ẟ, lower-case only) is a latin alphabet, Latin letter similar in appearance to the Greek alphabet, Greek lowercase letter delta (letter), delta (δ), but derived from the handwritten Latin lowercase d. It is also known as "script d" ...
(ẟ, lowercase only) is represented by "dd" in
Modern Welsh The history of the Welsh language () spans over 1400 years, encompassing the stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. Origins Welsh evolved from British (Common Brittonic), the Celtic languag ...
. is used in English for in certain contexts, such as with ''judgement'' and ''hedge'' is used in the
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
,
Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...
, and revived Cornish for the
voiced dental fricative The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
. The first examples of this digraph are from the
Oaths of Strasbourg The Oaths of Strasbourg were a military pact made on 14 February 842 by Charles the Bald and Louis the German against their older brother Lothair I, the designated heir of Louis the Pious, the successor of Charlemagne. One year later the Treaty ...
, the earliest French text, where it denotes the same sound developed mainly from intervocalic Latin -''t''-. In early traditional Cornish (
yogh The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots: ; Middle English: ) is a Latin script letter that was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular form of the letter ''g'', Ᵹ ...
), and later , were used for this purpose.
Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd (1660– 30 June 1709), also known as Edward Lhwyd and by other spellings, was a Welsh scientist, geographer, historian and antiquary. He was the second Keeper of the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, and published the firs ...
is credited for introducing the grapheme to Cornish orthography in 1707 in his ''Archaeologia Britannica''. In Irish it represents (beside ) or (beside ); at the beginning of a word it shows the
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
of , e.g. "my door" (cf. "door"). In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
it represents (beside ) or or (beside ). :In the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, was used for the
voiced alveolar implosive The voiced alveolar implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The IPA symbol is lowercase letter ''d'' with a rightward hook protru ...
in Pular. It is currently written . In the orthography of
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
it is the opposite: represents , and . In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
, represents a dental stop, . :In addition, is used in various romanization systems. In transcriptions of
Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...
s, for example, it represents the
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
voiced dental plosive , and for equivalent sounds in other languages. In Juǀʼhoan, it's used for the similar
prevoiced Prevoicing, in phonetics, is voicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for speech pathology, prevoicing is transcri ...
aspirated plosive . In the romanization of Arabic, it denotes , which represents in Modern Standard Arabic. : Represents in Javanese and Somali. is used in Faroese alphabet, Faroese, Portuguese alphabet, Portuguese,
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
and many French-based orthographies for . In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop such as or ; this sound is also written , , , or . It is also formerly used in Indonesian as . is used in Hmong language, Hmong’s Romanized Popular Alphabet for . In Navajo language, Navajo, it represents , and in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
it represents . In Hadza it is ejective . is used in Tlingit alphabet, Tlingit for (in Alaska, is used instead). is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated and nasal release, nasally released . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for nasal release, nasally released . In Cornish, it is used for an optionally pre-occluded ; that is, it is pronounced either or (in any position); (before a consonant or finally); or (before a vowel); examples are ('head') or ('heads'). is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated . is used for the click in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
. is used in Malagasy for . See . It is used in Fijian language, Fijian for 'ndr' nasalized (). In some Amerindian languages it represents as in Gwichʼin and sporatically everywhere as in Paiwan and Maba is used in Juǀʼhoan for the prevoiced ejective . is used in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, Swedish, and Sandawe orthography as well as the romanization of Thai for . (capital ) is used in Irish, as the
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
of , to represent (beside ) and (beside ). is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for the voiced dental affricate . is used in some Zapotecan languages for a voiced postalveolar fricative . (It is placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
.) In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the
prevoiced Prevoicing, in phonetics, is voicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for speech pathology, prevoicing is transcri ...
uvularized plosive . is used in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
for . In
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
, it represents . In Tagalog language, Tagalog it is used for . In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop such as or . This sound is also written , , , , or . is used in several languages, often to represent . See article. is used in the Polish alphabet, Polish and Sorbian alphabet, Sorbian alphabets for , the voiced alveolo-palatal affricate, as in . is never written before a vowel ( is used instead, as in 'child'). is used in the Polish alphabet, Polish for a voiced retroflex affricate (e.g. 'jam'). is used in Serbo-Croatian, Slovak language, Slovak, Lithuanian language, Lithuanian, and Latvian language, Latvian to represent . See article.


E

is used in Taa, where it represents the glottalization, glottalised or creaky voice, creaky vowel . is used in many languages. In English, usually represents the monophthong as in ''meat''; due to a Phonological history of English high front vowels#Bred–bread merger, sound change that happened in Middle English, it also often represents the vowel as in ''sweat''. Rare pronunciations occur, like in ''break'', ''great'', ''steak'', and ''yea'', and in the archaic ''ealdorman''. When followed by , it can represent the standard outcomes of the previously mentioned three vowels in this environment: as in ''beard'', as in ''heard'', and as in ''bear'', respectively; as another exception, occurs in the words ''hearken'', ''heart'', and ''hearth''. It often represents two independent vowels, like (''seance''), (''reality''), (''create''), and or (''lineage''). Unstressed, it may represent (''ocean'') and or (''Eleanor''). In Romanian alphabet, Romanian, it represents the diphthong as in ('drunk female'). In Irish, represents between a slender and a broad consonant. In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
, represents , or between a slender and a broad context, depending on context or dialect. In Old English, it represents the diphthong . is also the transliteration of the rune of the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc. is used in Irish for between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
for between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in Irish for between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
for between a slender and a broad consonant, unless the broad consonant is m, mh, or p, in which case it represents . represents a long mid vowel in a number of languages. In English, represents as in ''teen''. In
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
and German alphabet, German, represents (though it is pronounced in majority of northern Dutch dialects). In the Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it represents as in English, or for characters which might be pronounced as in Weitou dialect, other dialects. In Bouyei language, Bouyei, is used for plain , as stands for . is used in Taa for the
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
vowel . In the Wade-Giles transliteration of Mandarin Chinese, it is used for after a consonant, as in ''yeh'' . In German alphabet, German, represents , as in . This digraph was taken over from Middle High German, where it represented . It usually represents a
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
. In Modern German, is predominant in representing , as in ''Einstein'', while the equivalent digraph appears in only a few words. In English, can represent many sounds, including , as in ''vein'', as in ''seize'', as in ''heist'', as in ''heifer'', as in ''enceinte'', and or as in ''forfeit''. See also I before e except after c. In southern and western Faroese language, Faroese dialects, it represents the diphthong , while in northern and eastern dialects, it represents the diphthong . In Portuguese, represents in Greater Lisbon, so do and , but or in Brazil, East Timor, Macau, rest of Portugal, and Portuguese-speaking African countries, In Welsh alphabet, Welsh, represents . In Irish and Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic, it represents or , or when unstressed, before a slender consonant. In
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
and Afrikaans alphabet, Afrikaans, represents . In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, represents , as in . In Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language it is used to transcribe the sound . is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for , as in . is used in Irish for between slender consonants. is used in Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic for or between slender consonants. is used in Swedish orthography, Swedish in some short words, such as or . is used in Portuguese for at the end of a word and before a consonant. In French orthography, it represents a when it is followed by or . is used in Portuguese for at the end of a word. is used in Portuguese for at the end of a word. is used in Portuguese for at the end of a word and before a consonant. is used in Portuguese for at the end of a word followed or not by an as in or ; and for before a consonant within a word. In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it represents or . is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in Irish for ( in 4 words) between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it is used for between a slender and a broad consonant. In the
Jyutping The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK). The name ''Jyutping'' (itself the Jyutping ro ...
romanization of
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
, it represents , an allophone of , while in the Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it represents . In the
Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...
, represents the open-mid back unrounded vowel , and in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
it is . In English is a rare digraph without a single pronunciation, representing in ''feoff'', ''jeopardy'', ''leopard'' and the given names ''Geoffrey'' and ''Leonard'', in ''people'', in ''yeoman'' and in the archaic ''Vassal, feodary'', while in the originally Gaelic name MacLeod it represents . However, usually it represents two vowels, like in ''leotard'' and ''galleon'', in ''stereo'' and, in ''geodesy'', and, uniquely, in ''geoduck''. is used in Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic for word-initially, and elsewhere. is used in Taa for the
pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...
vowel . is found in many languages, most commonly for the diphthong . Additionally, in English, represents as in ''neuter'' ( in yod-dropping accents); however, the in "maneuver/manoeuvre" always represents even in most non yod-dropping accents. In German alphabet, German, it represents as in ; and in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
,
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, Breton language, Breton, and
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
, it represents . In Cornish, it represents either long and short or long and short . In Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic it normally represents , as in , except when preceding (e.g. ) and usually , or in certain high-register words such as where it represents , and in southern dialects it is in most contexts. In Yale romanization of Cantonese it represents , while in the Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it represents . In romanization of Wu Chinese, it represents , depending on the lect. In Sundanese language, Sundanese and Acehnese language, Acehnese, it represents as in ('red'). In the
Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...
, it represents . is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for , as in . is used in English for as in ''few'' and ''flew''. An exception is the pronunciation in ''sew'', leading to the Heteronym (linguistics), heteronym ''sewer'',(, 'drain') vs ''sewer'' (, 'one who sews'). In Cornish, it stands for . is used in the
Kernowek Standard Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...
orthography of Cornish to refer to a sound that can be either or . This distribution can also be written . is used in English for a variety of sounds, including in ''they'', in ''key'', and in ''geyser''. In Faroese language, Faroese, it represents the diphthong . In Cornish, it represents the diphthong or . (a
split digraph A digraph () or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. S ...
) indicates an English Great Vowel Shift, 'long e', historically but now most commonly realised as . is used for in
Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...
Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( ; , , ; POJ), also known as Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Hokkien Southern Min, particularly Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese and Amoy dialect, Amoy Hokkien, and it is widely employed as one of the writing syst ...
.


F

, which may be written as the typographic ligature , is used in English and Cornish for the same sound as single , . The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or for etymology, etymological reasons, in latinisms. Very rarely, word-initial ff, may be found word-initially in English, such as in proper names (e.g., Rose ffrench, Jasper Fforde). In Welsh alphabet, Welsh, represents , while represents . In Welsh, is considered a distinct letter, and placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. In medieval Breton language, Breton, vowel nasalisation was represented by a following . This notation was reformed during the 18th century, though proper names retain the former convention, which leads to occasional mispronunciation. is used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic orthography, Scottish Gaelic for the lenition of . This happens to be silent, so that in Gaelic corresponds to no sound at all, e.g. the Irish phrase "how long", where is the lenited form of "long". However, in three Scottish Gaelic words, , , and , it is pronounced as . is used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a Glottalization, glottalized .


G

is used in Uzbek language, Uzbek to represent . is used in some
African languages The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SI ...
for a voiced labial-velar plosive, . is used in languages, such as
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and Zulu, for the click . (capital ) is used in Irish, as the
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
of , to represent (beside ) and (beside ). is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for before as in . is used in English for before , and (e.g. ''doggy''). It is also used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik, it represents . In Greenlandic language, Greenlandic, it represents . In the ISO romanization of
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, it is used for the fortis sound , otherwise spelled (e.g. ''ggakdugi''). In Hadza it is ejective . In
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, before a
front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned approximately as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction th ...
represents a geminated , as in . In
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
and Lombard, is an etymological spelling representing an at the end of a word which is the unvoicing of an ancient . is used in several languages. In English, it can be silent or represent or . See article. is used in Vietnamese alphabet, Vietnamese for in northern dialects and in the southern ones. In
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, it represents before the non-front vowel letters . In Romansh language, Romansh it represents before (written before
front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned approximately as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction th ...
s). is used in
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
for the
voiced palatal plosive The voiced palatal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a barred dotless that was initially created by turning the type for a ...
, though for Gheg speakers it represents . In the Arbëresh language, Arbëresh dialect, it represents the voiced velar plosive . In Norwegian alphabet, Norwegian and Swedish alphabet, Swedish represents in words like ('did'). In Faroese language, Faroese, it represents . It is also used in the Romanization of Macedonian as a Latin equivalent of Macedonian alphabet, Cyrillic . Also, it's used in
Friulian Friulian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Friuli region in northeast Italy. * Sometimes, by improper extension, something of, from, or related to the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions o ...
to represent (whilst is one of the pronunciations of the letter ⟨z⟩). It can be found in some local orthographies of Lombard to represent derived from Latin ⟨gl⟩. Before the letter Đ was introduced into Gaj's Latin alphabet in 1878, the digraph ⟨gj⟩ had been used instead; and it remained in use till the beginning of the 20th century. is used in Sandawe and the romanization of Thai for ; in Limburgish language, Limburgish it represents . Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph Gamma (letter), γKappa (letter), κ for , as Gamma (letter), γ is used for ~ . is used in
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and some African languages for . is used in English for in a few words of Greek origin, such as ''phlegm'' and ''paradigm''. Between vowels, it simply represents , as in ''paradigmatic''. is used in Latin spelling and phonology, Latin, where it represented in the classical period. Latin velar consonant, velar-coronal consonant, coronal sequences like this (and also ) underwent a Palatalization (sound change), palatal mutation to varying degrees in most Italo-Western Romance languages. For most languages that preserve the spelling (such as
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
), it represents a palatal nasal (or more precisely in Italian), and is similarly used in Romanization schemes such as Romanization of Wu Chinese, Wugniu for . This was not the case in Dalmatian language, Dalmatian and the Eastern Romance languages where a different mutation changed the velar component to a labial consonant as well as the spelling to . In Portuguese, represents , as if there was no , e.g. , , and . It is used in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
for , and nasalises the following vowel, as in . :In English, represents initially (see Phonological history of English consonant clusters#gn, /gn/ reduction) and finally (i.e. ''gnome, gnu, benign, sign''). When it appears between two syllables, it represents (e.g. ''signal''). In Norwegian alphabet, Norwegian and Swedish alphabet, Swedish, represents in monosyllabic words like , and between two syllables, . Initially, it represents , e.g. Swedish . was used in several Spanish-derived orthographies of the Pacific for . It is one of several variants of the digraph , and is preserved in the name of the town of Sagñay, Camarines Sur, Sagñay, Philippines. is used in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
for (like the “gu” in Guatemala). is used in languages, such as
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and Zulu, for the click . In the Taa language, it represents . is used in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
for . is used in English,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
,
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, Portuguese and Catalan orthography, Catalan for before front vowels ( in English and French) where a "soft g" pronunciation (English ; Spanish ; French, Portuguese and Catalan ) would otherwise occur. In English, it can also be used to represent . In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it is used for . is used in
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
, Catalan orthography, Catalan and formely Portuguese language, Portuguese for before front vowels where the digraph would otherwise represent . is used for in Standard Zhuang and in Bouyei language, Bouyei. In the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
it is used for the labialized fricative . is used in various languages for , and in Dene Suline language, Dene Suline it represents . , capital (or ), is used in Tlingit language, Tlingit for (in Alaska); in Canada, this sound is represented by . is used in languages, such as
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and Zulu, for the click . In
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, it is an unofficial surrogate of , which represents . is used in Hungarian for a
voiced palatal plosive The voiced palatal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a barred dotless that was initially created by turning the type for a ...
. In Hungarian, the letter's name is . 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: . In the old orthography of Bouyei language, Bouyei, it was used for . It is also commonly used in Romanization of Burmese, Burmese romanization schemes to represent . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced alveolar click . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced dental click . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced lateral click . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced palatal click .


H

is used in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
to write the voiced glottal fricative, murmured glottal fricative , though this is often written . In the Iraqw language, is the voiceless epiglottal fricative , and in Dene Suline language, Chipewyan it is a velar/uvular . In Esperanto orthography, it is h-system, an official surrogate of , which represents . is used in the Arbëresh language, Italian dialect of Albanian for . In Faroese language, Faroese, it represents either or , and in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, it represents . In Icelandic it is used to denote . is used for or in various alphabets, such as the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong () and Icelandic (). See also Phonological history of English consonant clusters#HL, reduction of Old English /hl/. is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, where it represents the sound . is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, where it represents the sound . It is also used in Icelandic to denote the same phoneme. See also Phonological history of English consonant clusters#HL, reduction of Old English /hn/. is used for in Bouyei language, Bouyei. In Icelandic it is used for . See also Phonological history of English consonant clusters#HL, reduction of Old English /hr/. is used in the Wade-Giles transcription of Mandarin Chinese for the sound , equivalent to
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
. is used primarily in the Classical Nahuatl language, in which it represents the sound before a vowel; for example, ''Wikipedia'' in Nahuatl is written . After a vowel, is used. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, was used for , similar to French . The sequence is also found in Spanish words such as or ; however, in Spanish this is not a digraph but a simple sequence of silent and the vowel . is used Faroese language, Faroese and Icelandic for (often ), generally in Interrogative word, wh-words, but also in other words, such as Faroese . In the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
it is used for the supposed fricative . is used in modern editions of Old English for , originally spelled or (the latter with the wynn letter). In its descendants in modern English, it is now spelled (see there for more details). It is used in some orthographies of Cornish for . is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi ( alone represents the fricative ), and in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara it is a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
. In Esperanto orthography, it is an unofficial surrogate of , which represents . is used in Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language to transcribe the sound , which is the syllable ''hi'' before a ''y''-vowel, such as ''hya'', ''hyu'', and ''hyo'', which appear in Chinese loanwords. Was also used in Portuguese until 1947. It appeared in words like: Hydroginástica and Hypóthese.


I

is used in Taa to represent the
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
or creaky voice, creaky vowel . is used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic for the diphthong . is used in English, where it usually represents the sound as in ''pries'' and ''allied'' or the sound as in ''priest'' and ''rallied''. Followed by an , these vowels follow the standard changes to and , as in ''brier'' and ''bier''. Unique pronunciations are in ''sieve'', in ''friend'', and in ''lingerie''. Unstressed it can represent , as in ''spaniel'' and ''conscience'', or or as in ''mischief'' and ''hurriedly''. It also can represent many vowel combinations, including in ''diet'' and ''client'', in ''diester'' and ''quiescent'', in ''alien'' and ''skier'', in ''oriental'' and ''hygienic'', and in British ''medieval''. :In
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
and
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
, represents the Tenseness, tense vowel . In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, it may represent the lengthened vowel as in (love) as well as the vowel combination as in (Belgium). In Latvian language, Latvian and Lithuanian language, Lithuanian, is considered two letters for all purposes and represents , commonly (although less precisely) transcribed as . In Maltese language, Maltese, is a distinct letter and represents a long close front unrounded vowel, or . In
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
it is used to write the vowel in languages such as Yi, where stands for . In Old English was one of the common diphthongs, the Germanic umlaut, umlauted version of and . Its value is not entirely clear, and in Middle English it had become . is used in
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
for . is used in Catalan for (ch as in cheese) in the Syllable coda, coda. , is used in Taa to represent the breathy or
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
vowel . It is also used in Tongyong Pinyin and Wade-Giles transcription for the fricative vowels of Mandarin Chinese, which are spelled in Hanyu Pinyin. is used in many languages such as Portuguese (e.g. Aniilar, Sacerdócii) and Finnish (e.g. Riikka, Niinistö, Siitala, Riikkeli), Italian (e.g. Riina), Estonian (e.g. Riik), Scots (e.g. Auld Nii, Iisay), with phonemic long vowels for . is used in Portuguese for . In Portuguese, when forming the superlative absolute synthetic form of adjectives that end in "-io," they often end up with "ii" in the spelling. This happens because the "-íssimo(a)" suffix is added directly to the adjective (e.g. feio(a) -> feiíssimo(a), sério(a) -> seriíssimo(a)). is used in Dutch orthography, Dutch for . See article. is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for , historically , as in (approximately in English) "garlic". Can also be written as as in . is used in Portuguese for . is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in Portuguese for the diphthong . is used in many languages to write a
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...
. In Portuguese before a consonant, and in many West African languages, it is , while in French it is . is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write a vowel sound that was once followed by a historical , as in "you came". is used in Lakota language, Lakota for the nasal vowel . is used in Irish for , , and between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic it is used for and sometimes between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in Irish for between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic for and between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in Taa to represent the
pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...
vowel . is used in Irish for between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic, it is used for between a slender and a broad consonant. In Mandarin pinyin, it is after a consonant. (In initial position, this is spelled ). is used in Irish for between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic for between a slender and a broad consonant. is used in Welsh language, Welsh and Cornish for the diphthong or . is used in Catalan for (Eastern Catalan) or (Western Catalan) after a vowel. (a
split digraph A digraph () or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. S ...
) indicates an English Great Vowel Shift, 'long i', historically but now most commonly realised as .


J

is used in Walloon to write a consonant that is variously , or , depending on the dialect. In Tongyong pinyin, it represents , written in standard pinyin. is also the standard transliteration for the Devanāgarī letter झ . In
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, it is h-system, an official surrogate of , which represents . In Latin American Spanish, it is sometimes used in first names (like Jhon and Jhordan) to represent and distinguish it from the typical sound of in Spanish, . is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi. In romanized
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, it represents the fortis sound . In Hadza it is ejective . is used as a letter of the
Seri Seri, Séri, or SERI may refer to: People *Camille Séri (born 1999), French hurdler *Jean Michaël Seri, an Ivorian professional footballer Places *Seri Yek-e Zarruk, Iran *Seri, Bheri, Nepal *Seri, Karnali, Nepal *Seri, Mahakali, Nepal *Seri ...
alphabet, where it represents a
labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels invol ...
voiceless velar fricative, velar fricative, . It is placed between J and L in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for . is used in
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
as an unofficial surrogate of , which represents .


K

is used in Nuxalk language, Nuxalk for . is used for in southern African languages such as Tswana language, Setswana and Sotho language, Sotho. For instance, the Kalahari is spelled in Setswana. , in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan language, Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, represents the Aspiration (phonetics), aspirated voiceless velar plosive (). For most other languages, it represents the voiceless velar fricative , for example in transcriptions of the letter () in standard Arabic, standard Persian, and Urdu, Cyrillic ''Х'', ''х'' (kha), Spanish , as well as the Hebrew letter kaph, kaf () in instances when it is Lenition, lenited. When used for transcription of the letter () in Sephardic Hebrew, it represents the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . In Canadian Tlingit language, Tlingit it represents , which in Alaska is written ''k''. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for . is used Swedish and Norwegian for or . See also . In Faroese language, Faroese, it represents . In the romanization of Macedonian, it represents . is used in romanized
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
for the Fortis and lenis, fortis sound , in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for ejective , and in
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
for . is used in Zulu to write a sound variously realized as or . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye double articulation, doubly articulated and nasal release, nasally released . is used in English to write the word-initial sound (Phonological history of English consonant clusters#kn, formerly pronounced /kn/) in some words of Germanic origin, such as ''knee'' and ''knife''. It is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for nasal release, nasally released . is used as a letter in some
African languages The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SI ...
, where it represents a voiceless labial-velar plosive . is used in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
for . is used in Cornish for either or . is used in Purépecha language, Purépecha for . It also had that value in the Ossete Latin alphabet. is used for in some dialects of Zhuang languages, Zhuang. is used in various languages for the labialized velar consonant , and in Dene Suline language, Dene Suline (Chipewyan) for . Used informally in English for phonemic spelling of ''qu (digraph), qu'', as in ''wikt:kwik, kwik'' (from ''quick''), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European . is used in Alaskan Tlingit language, Tlingit for , which in Canada is written . in used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
, and in Juǀʼhoan for the ejective . is used in Tibetan Pinyin for . It is commonly used in Romanization of Burmese, Burmese romanization schemes to represent (⟨ch⟩ is already used to represent aspirated ).


L

, in Occitan language, Occitan, Gallo language, Gallo, and Portuguese language, Portuguese, represents a palatal lateral approximant . In many Indigenous languages of the Americas it represents a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative . In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
it represents a dental lateral, . In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in , which is otherwise spelled . In Middle Welsh it was sometimes used to represent the sound as well as , in Welsh language, modern Welsh it has been replaced by . In Classical Tibetan, Tibetan, it represents the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant , as in ''Lhasa''. is a letter in some Slavic languages, such as the Latin orthographies of Serbo-Croatian, where it represents a palatal lateral approximant . For example, the word is pronounced . Ljudevit Gaj first used the digraph in 1830; he devised it by analogy with a Cyrillic script, Cyrillic digraph, which developed into the typographic ligature, ligature . In Swedish, it represents in initial position e.g. . :The sound is written in Italian, in Castilian Spanish and Catalan as , in Portuguese as , in some Hungarian dialects as , and in Latvian language, Latvian as . In Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak, it is often transcribed as ; it is used more frequently in the latter language. While there are dedicated Unicode codepoints, U+01C7 (LJ), U+01C8 (Lj) and U+01C9 (lj), these are included for backwards compatibility (with legacy encodings for Serbo-Croatian which kept a one-to-one correspondence with Cyrillic Љљ) and modern texts use a sequence of Basic Latin characters. and are used in several languages. See article. is used in Asturian language, Asturian for a sound that was historically but which is now an affricate, . is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated consonant, doubly articulated . is used for in Arrernte language#Orthography, Arrernte. in used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
. is used in Hungarian. See article.


M

, in many African languages, represents or . In English, it represents when final, as in ''lamb'' (see -mb, reduction of /mb/). In Standard Zhuang and in Bouyei language, Bouyei, is used for . (capital ) is used word initially in Irish, as the
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
of , to represent (beside ) and (beside ); e.g. "our boat" (cf. "boat"), "in Dublin". is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated and prenasalized . , in many African languages, represents or . is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi, where the more common digraph is restricted to . It is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated and prenasalized . is used in Irish, as the
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
of , to represent (beside ) and (beside ), e.g. "my mother" (cf. 'mother'). In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
, it represents , or in a few contexts as between a broad vowel and a broad consonant or between two broad vowels, as in .. In Welsh language, Welsh it stands for the Welsh morphology, nasal mutation of and represents the voicelessness, voiceless ; for example 'my head' (cf. 'head'). In both languages it is considered a sequence of the two letters and for purposes of alphabetization. In
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
, Juǀʼhoan and several other languages, it is used for a murmured . In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial - indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in , which is otherwise spelled -. In several languages, such as Gogo language, Gogo, it's a voiceless . is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, where it represents the sound . is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized . It is used in Cornish for an optionally pre-occluded ; that is, it is pronounced either or (in any position); (before a consonant or finally); or (before a vowel); examples are ('mother') or ('this'). is used in English to write the word-initial sound in a few words of Greek origin, such as ''mnemonic''. When final, it represents , as in ''damn'' or as in ''hymn'', and between vowels it represents as in ''damning'', or as in ''damnation'' (see Phonological history of English consonant clusters#mb, /mn/-reduction). In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
it represents , as in and . , in many African languages, represents or . Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph Mu (letter), μPi (letter), π for , as Beta (letter), β is used for . In Mpumpong language, Mpumpong of Cameroon, is a plain . is used in Juǀʼhoan for a pharyngealized or perhaps creaky . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated and prenasalized . , in many African languages, represents or . is used for in Arrernte language#Orthography, Arrernte. is used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
.


N

is used in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
for . Since is not a letter in either language, is not technically a digraph. is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi. It is also used in Fula language, Fula in Guinea for (written as in other countries). is used in various alphabets. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, it represents the sound . In Tharaka language, Tharaka it is . In
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and Zulu it represents the click . (capital ) is used in many African languages to represent or . In Standard Zhuang and Bouyei language, Bouyei, itrepresents . (capital ) is used word initially in Irish, as the
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
of , to represent (beside ) and (beside ), e.g. "our door" (cf. "door"), "in Derry". , equivalent to for or . In Rangi language, Rangi is while is . , in Sino-Tibetan languages, as in English and several other European and derived orthographies (for example Vietnamese language, Vietnamese), generally represents the velar nasal . It is considered a single letter in many Austronesian languages (Māori language, Māori, Tagalog language, Tagalog, Tongan language, Tongan, Gilbertese language, Gilbertese, Tuvaluan language, Tuvaluan, Indonesian language, Indonesian, Chamorro language, Chamorro), Welsh Language, Welsh, and Rheinische Dokumenta, for velar nasal ; and in some
African languages The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SI ...
(Lingala language, Lingala, Bambara language, Bambara, Wolof language, Wolof) for prenasalization, prenasalized (). :For the development of the pronunciation of this digraph in English, see NG-coalescence and G-dropping. :Finnish language, Finnish uses to represent the phonemically long velar nasal in contrast to , which is its "strong" form under consonant gradation, a type of lenition. Weakening produces an archiphoneme, archiphonemic "velar fricative", which, as a velar fricative does not exist in Standard Finnish, is assimilated to the preceding , producing . (No is involved at any point, despite the spelling ). The digraph is not an independent letter, but it is an exception to the Phonemic orthography, phonemic principle, one of the few in standard Finnish. : (capital ) is used word-initially in Irish, as the
eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterised by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...
of , to represent (beside ) or (beside ), e.g. "our illness" (cf. ), "in Galway". :In Tagalog and other Philippine languages, represented the prenasalized sequence during the Spanish era. The velar nasal, , was written in a variety of ways, namely "n͠g", "ñg", "gñ" (as in Sagñay, Camarines Sur, Sagñay), and—after a vowel—at times "g̃". During the standardization of Tagalog in the early part of the 20th century, became used for the velar nasal , while prenasalized came to be written . Furthermore, is also used for a common genitive case, genitive particle pronounced , to differentiate it from an adverbial particle . :In Uzbek language, Uzbek, it is considered as a separate letter, being the last (twenty-ninth) letter of the Uzbek alphabet. It is followed by the apostrophe (''tutuq belgisi''). is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik to write the voiceless nasal sound . , or more precisely , was a digraph in several Spanish-derived orthographies of the Pacific, such as Tagalog language, Tagalog and Chamorro language, Chamorro, where it represented the sound , as opposed to , which originally represented . An example is Chamorro (modern ) "to declare". Besides , variants of include (as in Sagñay, Camarines Sur, Sagñay), , and a , that is preceded by a vowel (but not a consonant). It has since been replaced by the trigraph or (see above). is used for in Swahili and languages with Swahili-based orthographies. Since is not a letter in Swahili, is technically a digraph, not a trigraph (orthography), trigraph. is used in several languages. See article. in
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
, it usually represents whenever it precedes a vowel, and whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ń appearing in other situations. (In some cases it may represent also before a vowel; for a better description, when, see Polish orthography#Other issues with i and j, the relevant section in the article on Polish orthography). is a letter in the Latin orthographies of Albanian language, Albanian, Slovene language, Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian. Ljudevit Gaj, a Croat, first used this digraph in 1830. In all of these languages, it represents the palatal nasal . For example, the Croatian and Serbian word "horse" is pronounced . The digraph was created in the 19th century by analogy with a digraph of Cyrillic script, Cyrillic, which developed into the typographic ligature, ligature . While there are dedicated Unicode codepoints, U+01CA (NJ), U+01CB (Nj) and U+01CC (nj), these are included for backwards compatibility (with legacy encodings for Serbo-Croatian which kept a one-to-one correspondence with Cyrillic Њњ) and modern texts use a sequence of Basic Latin characters. :In Faroese language, Faroese, it generally represents , although in some words it represent , like in ''banjo''. It is also used in some languages of Languages of Africa, Africa and Languages of Oceania, Oceania where it represents a Prenasalized consonant, prenazalized voiced postalveolar affricate or Voiced postalveolar fricative, fricative, or . In Malagasy, it represents . :Other letters and digraphs of the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from ...
used for spelling this sound are (in Polish language, Polish), (in Czech language, Czech and Slovakian language, Slovakian), (in Spanish language, Spanish), (in Portuguese language, Portuguese and Occitan language, Occitan), (in
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
), and (in Hungarian, among others). is used in many Bantu languages like Lingala, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, for or . In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara, it distinguishes a prenasalized velar stop, , from the nasal . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated . is used in Irish to represent the Irish phonology#Fortis and lenis sonorants, fortis nasals (beside ) and (beside ). It is used in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
to represent beside and beside . In Spanish language, Spanish historical has contracted to the
ligature Ligature may refer to: Language * Ligature (writing), a combination of two or more letters into a single symbol (typography and calligraphy) * Ligature (grammar), a morpheme that links two words Medicine * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture us ...
and represents the sound . In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, final ''-nn'' indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in , which is otherwise spelled ''-n''. It is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized . In
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
, it is in the middle of a word, and at the end. In Cornish, it is used for an optionally pre-occluded ; that is, it is pronounced either or (in any position); (before a consonant or finally); or (before a vowel); examples are ('head') or ('heads'). is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, where it represents the sound . is used in various alphabets. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, it represents the sound . In
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and Zulu it represents the click . In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, final ''-nq'' indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in , which is otherwise spelled ''-ng''. is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, where it represents the sound . In the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
it is . , in many African languages, represents or . is a letter present in many African languages where it represents or . Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph Nu (letter), νTau (letter), τ for , as Delta (letter), δ is used for . , equivalent to for or . is used in Igbo language, Igbo for , and in Arrernte language#Orthography, Arrernte for . is used for the click in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and Zulu, and in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
. is used in several languages for . See article. , in many African languages, represents ~ , ~ , ~ , or ~ . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the alveolar nasal click . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the dental nasal click . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the lateral nasal click . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the palatal nasal click . is used for medial in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
.


O

is used for and in Uzbek language, Uzbek, with the preferred typographical form being (Cyrillic ). Technically it is not a digraph in Uzbek, since is not a letter of the Uzbek alphabet, but rather a typographic convention for a diacritic. In handwriting the letter is written as . It is also used in Taa, for the
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
or creaky voice, creaky vowel . is used in English, where it commonly represents the sound as in ''road'', ''coal'', ''boast'', ''coaxing'', etc. In Middle English, where the digraph originated, it represented , 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'' , ''boa (disambiguation), boas'' , ''coaxial'' , ''oasis'' , and ''doable'' . In Malagasy, it is occasionally used for . is found in many languages. In English, it represents the sound as in ''hoe'' and sometimes the sound as in ''shoe''. It may also represent the sound in American English, AmE pronunciation of ''Oedipus'', ''(o)esophagus'' (also in British English, BrE), and ''(o)estrogen'', in ''boehmite'' (AmE) and surnames like ''John Boehner, Boehner'' and ''Matt Groening, Groening'' (as if spelled ''Bayner'' and ''Gray/Greyning'' respectively), and in ''foetus'' (BrE and Commonwealth English, CoE) and some speakers' pronunciation of ''Oedipus'' and ''oestrogen''. represents in
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
and
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, e.g. ; it also represented the same phoneme in the Indonesian language before the Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan, 1972 spelling reform. ligature (typography), Ligatured to in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it stands for the vowels (as in ) and (as in ). It is an alternative way to write or in German or Scandinavian languages when this character is unavailable. In romanization of Wu Chinese and in Royal Thai General System of Transcription, it represents . In the ILE romanization of Cantonese, ILE romanization of
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
it represents the vowel , while in the
Jyutping The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK). The name ''Jyutping'' (itself the Jyutping ro ...
romanisation of Cantonese it represents , and in Zhuang it is used for ( is used for ). In
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
, it is . In the Kernewek Kemmyn orthography of Cornish, it is used for a phoneme which is long, mid-length, and short. is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write the vowel sound in a few words before what had historically been an , mostly in words derived from "stove". The diacriticless variant, , rarely represents this sound except in words related to (rarely spelt ). is used in Afrikaans for the vowel . is used in Portuguese for . It is used in plural forms of some words ended in , such as – and –. is used in Taa, for the breathy or
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
vowel . is used in various languages. In English, it represents the sound as in ''coin'' and ''join''. In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it represents , which was historically – and still is in some cases – written . In Irish it is used for between a broad and a slender consonant. In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
it is used for , except before word-finally or pre-consonant, where it is . In
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
, it is . is used in Irish for between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write before what had historically been an , as in or . is used in Irish for between a broad and a slender consonant. It is also used in Portuguese. is used in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
for . It is used in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
for or is used in Portuguese for , and in French to write . is used in Portuguese orthography, Brazilian Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in Portuguese for before a consonant, and in French to write . is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in Tibetan Pinyin for . It is alternately written Oin (trigraph), oin. is used in many languages. In English, it generally represents sounds which historically descend from the Middle English phonology, Middle English pronunciation . After the
Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of English phonology, pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), begi ...
, this came to typically represent as in "m''oo''n" and "f''oo''d". Subsequently, in a handful of common words like "g''oo''d" and "fl''oo''d" the vowel was shortened to , and after the Phonological history of English close back vowels#FOOT–STRUT split, Middle English – split, these became and respectively. Like in Middle English, the digraph's pronunciation is in most other languages. In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, the digraph represents . In Cornish, it represents either or . In Tâi-lô orthography for Taiwanese Hokkien, it represents . Is used in Taa, for the
pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...
vowel . , in Daighi tongiong pingim, represents mid central vowel or close-mid back rounded vowel in Taiwanese Hokkien.董峰政, "Taiwanese Tong-iong Pingim Dictionary", 臺南市寧南語言文化協會, Tainan City, Jul 2006. is used in English for the
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
, as in ''out'' . This spelling is generally used before consonants, with being used instead before vowels and at the ends of words. Occasionally may also represent other vowels – as in ''trouble'', as in ''soul'', as in ''would'', as in ''group'', or as in the alternate American pronunciation of ''coupon''. The in ''out'' originally represented , as in French, and its pronunciation has mostly changed as part of the
Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of English phonology, pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), begi ...
. However, the sound was kept before . In
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
represents in the Netherlands or in Flanders. In Cornish, it represents , , or . In
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, it represents the vowel , as in "you", or the approximant consonant , as in "yes". In Portuguese language, Portuguese this digraph stands for the close-mid back rounded vowel or for the falling
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
, according to dialect. is used In Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language to transcribe the sound . is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write the vowel sound before what had historically been an , as in "drunk" (also spelt ). , in English, usually represents the sound as in ''coward'', ''sundowner'', and ''now'' or the sound, as in ''froward'', ''landowner'', and ''know''. An exceptional pronunciation is in ''knowledge'' and ''rowlock''. There are many English Heteronym (linguistics), heteronyms distinguished only by the pronunciation of this digraph, like: ''bow'' (front of ship or weapon), ''bower'' (a dwelling or string player), ''lower'' (to frown or drop), ''mow'' (to grimace or cut), ''row'' (a dispute or line-up), ''shower'' (rain or presenter), ''sow'' (a pig or to seed), ''tower'' (a building or towboat). In Cornish, this represents the diphthong or ; before vowels, it can also represent . is used in the
Kernowek Standard Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...
orthography of Cornish to refer to a sound that can be either or . This distribution can also be written . is found in many languages. In English and Faroese language, Faroese, represents the diphthong . Examples in English include ''toy'' and ''annoy''. In Cornish, it represents the diphthong ; in the words ('egg') and ('much'), it can also be pronounced . is an obsolete digraph once used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
. is used in Norwegian for . (a
split digraph A digraph () or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. S ...
) indicates an English Great Vowel Shift, 'long o', historically but now most commonly realised as .


P

is used in Nuxalk language, Nuxalk for . is used in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
for , e.g. "horse", "apple", and "button". In English, usually in recent loan words from German, it generally represents , such as in Pfizer. in used in English and French for , mostly in words derived from Greek language, Greek, but also some words derived from Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. In Irish, Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh language, Welsh it represents the
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
/Colloquial Welsh morphology, Aspirate mutation of . It represents in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese, where is not used. is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, for . is used for in Arrernte language#Orthography, Arrernte. is used in English for initially in words of Greek origin such as ''pneumatic''. is used in romanized
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
for the fortis sound , and in
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
for . It was used in Portuguese until 1947, e.g. , and . is used in English and Portuguese for initially in words of Greek origin such as ''psyche'' (English) and (Portuguese). In
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
it represents a
whistled sibilant Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English word ...
cluster . is used in several languages for in words of Greek origin, where it was , e.g. in English ''pterosaur'' . is used in Arrernte for . is used in
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
for .


Q

is used in Nuxalk language, Nuxalk for . is used in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
for the click . It was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless alveolar click . is used in various alphabets. In
Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...
and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, it represents . In
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
, it represents the click . was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless alveolar click (equivalent to ). is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for ejective . In Hadza it represents the glottalized click . is used in Aragonese language, Aragonese, Asturian language, Asturian, Catalan orthography, Catalan,
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, Galician language, Galician, Mirandese language, Mirandese, Occitan language, Occitan, Portuguese and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
for before , where represents (Castilian Spanish, Asturian language, Asturian, Aragonese language, Aragonese and most of Galician language, Galicia) or ( Catalan,
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, Spanish language in the Americas, American Spanish, Occitan language, Occitan and Portuguese language, Portuguese). In French, is also usually before . This dates to Latin , and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European labialized velar consonant ; in English this sound instead became written primarily as , due to Grimm's law changing > (written ), and Middle English spelling change switching to . In English, it represents in words derived from those languages (e.g., ''quiche''), and in other words, including borrowings from Latin (e.g., ''quantity''). In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, it represents . In the Ossetian language, Ossetian Latin alphabet, it was used for . In Vietnamese alphabet, Vietnamese it is used to represent or . In Cornish, it represents . is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
and formely Portuguese language, Portuguese for before . is used in Bouyei language, Bouyei for . is used in some languages for . In Mi'kmaq language, Mi'kmaq it represents . In the
Kernowek Standard Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...
and
Standard Written Form The Standard Written Form or SWF () of the Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography". It was the outcome of ...
orthographies for Revived Cornish, it represents . is used in Bouyei language, Bouyei for glottalized .


R

is used in the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara for a retroflex stop, . In Norwegian and Swedish it represents voiced retroflex plosive, . In Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic it sometimes represents when broad, or when slender, though this epenthetic consonant is not found in all dialects. is used in English for Greek language, Greek words transliteration, transliterated through Latin language, Latin. Examples include "rhapsody", "rhetoric" and "rhythm". These were pronounced in Ancient Greek with a voiceless "r" sound, , as in Old English . The digraph may also be found within words, but always at the start of a word component, e.g., "polyrhythmic".
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
, and Interlingua use in the same way. is also found in Welsh language, Welsh where it represents a voiceless alveolar trill (), that is a voiceless "r" sound. It can be found anywhere; the most common occurrence in English from Welsh is in the slightly respelled given name "Rhonda". In Wade-Giles transliteration, is used for the syllable-final rhotic of Mandarin Chinese. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial - indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in , which is otherwise spelled -. In Purépecha language, Purépecha, it is a retroflex flap, . is used in the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara, as well in Norwegian and Swedish, for a retroflex lateral, written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA. In Greenlandic language, Greenlandic, it represents as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component. is used in Inuktitut for . represents the retroflex nasal in Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara (see
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
), as well in Norwegian and Swedish. In Greenlandic language, Greenlandic, it represents . In Inuktitut, it represents . is used in Greenlandic language, Greenlandic for as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component. is used in English for . It normally appears in words of Latin or Romance languages, Romance origin, and in words of ancient Greek language, Greek origin. It is quite a common digraph. Some words with are relatively recent
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s from other languages; examples include ''burro'' from Spanish language, 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 language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, Basque or Albanian language, Albanian, "rr" represents the alveolar trill (or the voiced uvular fricative in Portuguese language, Portuguese) and contrasts with the single "r", which represents the alveolar tap (in Catalan and Spanish a single "r" also represents the alveolar trill at the beginning of words or syllables). In Italian and Finnish, "rr" is a geminate consonant, geminated (long) consonant . In Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik it is used for . In Cornish, it can represent either , , or . In Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic, it represents . was equivalent to and stood for (modern ''ř'') in medieval Czech language, Czech. In Greenlandic language, Greenlandic, it represents as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component. In Norwegian and Swedish, it represents the voiceless retroflex fricative, . is used in Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara, as well in Norwegian and Swedish, for a retroflex stop . In Scottish Gaelic alphabet, Scottish Gaelic it often represents when broad, or when slender, though this epenthetic consonant is not found in all dialects. is used for in Arrernte language#Orthography, Arrernte. is used in Polish alphabet, Polish and Kashubian alphabet, Kashubian for a voiced retroflex fricative , similar to English as in ''Zhivago''. Examples from Polish are "March" and "river". represents the same sound as , but they have a different origin. used to be pronounced the same way as Czech () in older Polish, but the sounds phonetic merger, merged, and the Polish orthography, orthography still follows etymology. When preceded by a voiceless consonant () or final-obstruent devoicing, end of a word, consonant voicing and devoicing, devoices to , as in "before".


S

is used in Italian orthography, Italian for before the front vowel letters . It is used for in Catalan, Latin American Spanish, French, English, Occitan and Brazilian Portuguese (e.g. French/English ''reminiscence'', Spanish , Brazilian Portuguese , Catalan , Occitan ); in European Portuguese this changed to in the early 20th century, although in careful speech it can be . However, it represents in modern pronunciations of ''crescent'' in British English, British and non-Canadian English, Canadian English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English. In Old English orthography, Old English it usually represented . is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for in a few verb forms such as simple past . It is also used in Portuguese as in the imperative/conjunctive form of verbs ending with : . Still pronounced in
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
, in
European Portuguese European Portuguese (, ), also known as Lusitanian Portuguese () or as the Portuguese (language) of Portugal (), refers to the dialects of the Portuguese language spoken in Portugal. The word "European" was chosen to avoid the clash of "Portugues ...
this changed to in the early 20th century, although in careful speech it can be . is used in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
and Corsican language, Corsican for . is used in several languages. In English, it represents . See Sh (digraph), separate article. See also #Other letters, below, which has the capitalized forms SH and ŞH. is used in English for in words such as ''fusion'' (see yod-coalescence). In
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
, it represents whenever it precedes a vowel, and whenever it precedes a consonant (or at the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of appearing in other situations. In Welsh language, Welsh is used for the sound as in ('chocolate'). is used Swedish to write the Voiceless palatal-velar fricative, ''sje'' sound (see also ) and in Faroese language, Faroese, Danish, Norwegian and
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
to write Voiceless postalveolar fricative . is used in Swedish to write the Voiceless palatal-velar fricative, ''sje'' sound . It takes by rule this sound value before the front vowels () word or root initially (as in (spoon)), while normally representing in other positions. In Norwegian and Faroese, it is used to write voiceless postalveolar fricative (only in front of ). is used in Iraqw language, Iraqw and Bouyei language, Bouyei to write the lateral fricative . ( is used in the French tradition to transcribe in other languages as well, as in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
.) is used in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
for as in instead of using . is used in Kosraean language, Kosraean for . In northern dialects of
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
it represents , as in . is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi. For its use in the Wade–Giles system of Romanization of Chinese, see Wade–Giles#Syllabic consonants, Wade–Giles → Syllabic consonants. In English, typically represents in the first of ''possess'' and its derivatives ''possessed'', ''possesses'', ''possession'', ''possessive'' and ''possessor'', ''brassiere'', ''dessert'', ''dissolution'' and its derivatives ''dissolved'', ''dissolves'' and ''dissolving'', ''Missoula, Montana, Missoula (Missoula County, Montana, County)'', ''Missouri(an)'', ''scissors'', and pronunciations of ''Aussie'' outside the United States; otherwise, it represents . In other languages, such as Catalan, Cornish,
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, Occitan language, Occitan, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik, where transcribes between vowels (and elsewhere in the case of Yup'ik), is used for in that position ( in Italian and also in some cases in Cornish); English sometimes also follows this convention. In romanized
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, it represents the fortis sound . In
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
it is used for . Also to note, there are spellings of words with as opposed to them with just one , varied in different types of English. For the word ''focus'', in British English the 3rd person singular, the past participle and the present participle are spelled with (i.e. ''focusses'', ''focussed'' and ''focussing'') whereas in American English and usually Canadian and Australian English they are spelled with one (i.e. ''focuses'', ''focused'' and ''focusing''). is used in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
for as in instead of using (or ). In some parts of northern Germany, the pronunciation (as in English) is still quite common in the local dialect. is used in
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
to write the
whistled sibilant Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English word ...
. This was written from 1931 to 1955. is used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
, and in Esperanto orthography it is an unofficial surrogate of , that represents . represents in Malay language, Malay and Tagalog language, Tagalog. is used in several languages. See article. and are used in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
for the sequence . and are used in
Piedmontese Piedmontese ( ; autonym: or ; ) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian ...
for the sequence .


T

is used in Nuxalk language, Nuxalk for . is used for the palatal click in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
, and to write the affricate in Sandawe, Hadza and Juǀʼhoan. is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for the voiceless dental affricate is used for in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
. In Catalan orthography, Catalan, it represents . In Romansh language, Romansh orthographies it represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate, Alveolo-palatal consonant . is used in several languages. In English, it can represent , or . See article. See also: Pronunciation of English th. , before a vowel, is usually pronounced in French and in German and is commonly in English, especially in the suffix ''wikt:-tion, -tion''. is used in Norwegian and Faroese language, Faroese words like / ('tar') for (Norwegian) and (Faroese). In the closely related Swedish alphabet, it represents , as in . It is also the standard written form of the sound in
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
and was likewise used in Dutch-based orthographies that used to apply for languages in Indonesia and Surinam. In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, Arrernte language, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara language, Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop, phonetic transcription, transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as or depending on voicing. This sound is also written , , , , or . In Catalan it represents . In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the ejective affricate . is used in Juǀʼhoan for the uvularized ejective . is used in various orthographies for the voiceless alveolar lateral affricate . In Catalan it represents , although it may be simplify to in some dialects. is used in the transcription of Athabascan languages for a lateral affricate or . is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated and nasal release, nasally released . In Catalan, it is used to represent , that can result not geminated as well, , as in (pronounced in standard Catalan and in Valencian language, Valencian). is used for a prestopped nasal in Arrernte language, Arrernte, and for the similar in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye. In Catalan it represents , although it may be simplify to in some dialects. is used in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye for double articulation, doubly articulated . generally represents a sound like a retroflex consonant, retroflex version of English "ch" in areas of German influence, such as Truk Lagoon, ''Truk'' lagoon, now spelled . For instance, in Malagasy it represents . In southern dialects of Vietnamese language, Vietnamese, represents a voiceless retroflex affricate . In the northern dialects, this sound is pronounced , just like what represents. was formerly considered a distinct letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, but today is not. is used in the
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, where it represents an apical consonant, apical voiceless alveolar affricate . It contrasts with , which is laminal consonant, laminal . It is mainly used to Latinize the letter Tse (Cyrillic) (ц) In
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...
, represents an alveolar ejective fricative or affricate ), depending on dialect. It is considered a distinct letter, and placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. It is also used in Catalan orthography, Catalan for . It is also used in Boko alphabet, Hausa Boko. In central-western Asturian language, Asturian it's used for . The Wade-Giles and Yale romanization of Mandarin, Yale romanizations of Chinese language, Chinese use for an aspiration (phonetics), unaspirated voiceless alveolar affricate . Wade–Giles also uses for the aspirated equivalent . These are equivalent to
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
and , respectively. The Hepburn romanization of Japanese language, Japanese uses for a voiceless alveolar affricate ). In native Japanese words, this sound only occurs before , but it may occur before other vowels in
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s. Other romanization systems write as . in Tagalog language, Tagalog is used for . The sequence occurs in English, but it has no special function and simply represents a sequence of and . It occurs word-initially only in some
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s, such as ''tsunami'' and ''tsar''. Most English-speakers do not pronounce a in such words and pronounce them as if they were spelled and or , respectively. was used in medieval Basque language, Basque and in Resurrección María de Azkue, Azkue's Basque dictionary for a
voiceless postalveolar affricate The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , , (formerly ...
; this is now represented by . is used in Basque language, Basque for , and in romanized Kabyle language, Kabyle for . In romanized
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, it represents the fortis sound , in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) it is ejective , and in
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
, it represents . is used for in Arrernte language, Arrernte. is used in Basque language, Basque, Catalan and some indigenous languages of South America, for a
voiceless postalveolar affricate The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , , (formerly ...
. In Nambikwara language, Nambikwara it represents a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
. In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the uvularized-release . is used in the Hungarian alphabet for , a voiceless palatal affricate; in Hungarian, digraphs are considered single letters, and acronyms keep them intact. In Xhosa, represents and the similar in the Algonquian Massachusett orthography. In
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
, it represents . In Tagalog it represents . In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details ...
such as Warlpiri language, Warlpiri, and Arrernte language, Arrernte, it represents a postalveolar stop, either voiceless or voiced . (This sound is also written , , , , and ). In
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
, it represents . is used in Basque language, Basque,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and
Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...
for the voiceless alveolar affricate ). In Basque, this sound is laminal and contrasts with the apical consonant, apical affricate represented by . It is also used in Catalan to represent the voiced alveolar affricate . In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the ejective affricate . For its use in the Wade–Giles system of Romanization of Chinese, see Wade–Giles#Syllabic consonants, Wade–Giles → Syllabic consonants.


U

is used in Taa for the
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
or creaky voice, creaky vowel . is used in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong language, Hmong, to represent the diphthong . is used in
Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...
for before a consonant. Before a vowel, is used. is found in many languages. In English, it represents or as in ''cue'' or ''true'', respectively. In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, it is or (equivalent to ), appearing mainly in proper nouns. In Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it represents in a non-initial position. is used in Afrikaans to represent . is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik for . is used in Taa for the breathy or
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...
vowel . In
Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...
, it is used for before a consonant. Before a vowel, is used. is used in
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
for the diphthong . In Irish, it is after a broad (
velarized Velarization merican spelling/small> or velarisation ritish spelling/sup> 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 Pho ...
) consonant. In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
it normally represents , however before or before preceding a vowel, it represents , and before or before word-finally or pre-consonant, it represents . In
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, it represents the diphthong , which appears only in interjections such as ''. In Mandarin pinyin, it is used for after a consonant (spelt in the initial position). In Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it represents or . In Scots orthography, Scots it represents , e.g. "blood", "done", "moon" and "spoon". In English, when used as a digraph, it represents in ''fruit'', ''juice'', ''suit'' and ''pursuit''. However, after , the functions as a modifier (marking as rather than ), e.g. ''guild'', ''guilty'', ''sanguine'', ''Guinea'', ''guide'' etc.), it is also used for other sounds, in cases of unusual etymological spelling, e.g. ''circuit'', ''biscuit'', ''build''. In Portuguese language, Portuguese, it represents the diphthong , as in "intention" or "to care", but in a very small selective group of words that come from Latin "much", it represents a nasalized , as in "very" or "much". was used in old Portuguese for , which in some dialects gets reduced to was used in old Portuguese for is used in Irish for between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in Irish for between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in Scottish Gaelic for between a broad and a slender consonant. is used in Portuguese for , and in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write (only before a consonant and at the end of a word). is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in many languages for a
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...
. In Portuguese before a consonant, and in many West African languages, it is , while in French it is , or among the younger generation . In pinyin, is spelled after a consonant, initially. is used in Portuguese for before a consonant. is used in Tibetan Pinyin for . is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel . is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi, where stands for . is used in Taa, for the
pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...
vowel . is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik for , and in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
to write the trill consonant, trilled vowel in languages such as Yi. is used in many languages with phonemic long vowels, for . In
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
, it is used for . is used in Dutch for , e.g. "yours", "to push". In Cornish it is used for or . is used in Afrikaans for . is X-sistemo, unofficially used in
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, instead of , for . (a
split digraph A digraph () or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. S ...
) is used in English for or .


V

is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for the labiodental flap . was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless palatal click . represents in
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
. It was also used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the aspirated consonant, aspirated palatal click . was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless palatal click (equivalent to ). was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the palatal nasal click . is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Central Alaskan Yup'ik for . is used in Quechuan languages, Quechua.


W

is used in English to represent Proto-Germanic , the continuation of the PIE Labialized velar consonant, labiovelar (which became in Latin and the Romance languages). Most English question words begin with this digraph, hence the terms ''wh-word'' and ''wh-question''. In Old English, was spelled or , and only the former was retained during the Middle English period, becoming during the gradual development of the letter during the 14th-17th centuries. In most dialects it is now pronounced , but a distinct pronunciation realized as a voiceless labio-velar approximant, voiceless w sound, [ʍ], is retained in some areas: Scotland, central and southern Ireland, southeastern United States, and (mostly among older speakers) in New Zealand. In a few words (''who'', ''whose'', etc.) the pronunciation used among almost all speakers regardless of geography is . For details, see Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩.
In Māori language, Māori, represents or more commonly , with some regional variations approaching or . In the Taranaki Region, Taranaki region, for some speakers, this represents a glottalized . In
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
, it represents , a murmured variant of found in loan words. In Cornish, it represents . is used in English for words which formerly began , now Phonological history of English consonant clusters#wr, reduced to /r/ in virtually all dialects. is used in Mandarin pinyin to write the vowel in initial position, as in the name ''Wuhan''. It is sometimes found with this value in Romanized Korean as well, as in hanwu. In Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it is used to represent in an initial position or in a non-initial position. is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized . is used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
.


X

is used etymologically in Portuguese language, Portuguese for before the front vowel letters . is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for the labialized fricative . is used to write the click in
Naro Naro ( ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Favara, Licata, Palma di ...
. It was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless lateral click . is used in Albanian language, Albanian to write the voiced postalveolar affricate , as in the surname . In Zulu and
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
it represents the aspiration (phonetics), voiceless aspirated alveolar lateral click , e.g. . In Walloon it represents a consonant that is variously , , , depending on the dialect. In Canadian Tlingit language, Tlingit it represents , which is represented by in Alaska. is used in English for in words such as ''flexion''. (It is equivalent to plus the digraph , as in ''action''.) was used in the Tindall orthography of
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for the voiceless lateral click (equivalent to ). is used as a letter of the
Seri Seri, Séri, or SERI may refer to: People *Camille Séri (born 1999), French hurdler *Jean Michaël Seri, an Ivorian professional footballer Places *Seri Yek-e Zarruk, Iran *Seri, Bheri, Nepal *Seri, Karnali, Nepal *Seri, Mahakali, Nepal *Seri ...
alphabet, where it represents a
labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels invol ...
voiceless uvular fricative, uvular fricative, . It is placed between and in
alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...
. is used etymologically in Portuguese. In the word in
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
, it stands for . In
European Portuguese European Portuguese (, ), also known as Lusitanian Portuguese () or as the Portuguese (language) of Portugal (), refers to the dialects of the Portuguese language spoken in Portugal. The word "European" was chosen to avoid the clash of "Portugues ...
this digraph changed to in the early 20th century and the word came to be pronounced as was used in the Ossete Latin alphabet for . is used in the Kurdish language, Kurdish and the Tlingit language for . is used in Alaskan Tlingit language, Tlingit for , which in Canada is written . is used in Hadza for the glottalized click , and in
Cypriot Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of C ...
for . is used in the Hmong language, Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet to write .


Y

used in various languages. In English it represents word finally, e.g. ''bye'' or ''dye''. was used in the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, for the "ejective y" or Palatalization (sound change), palatalized glottal stop () in Pular (a
Fula language Fula ( ),Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani ( ) or Fulah (, , ; Adlam script, Adlam: , , ; Ajami script, Ajami: , , ), is a Senegambian languages, Senegambian language spoken by arou ...
) and in
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...
to represent a creaky voiced Voiced palatal approximant, palatal approximant . In the current orthography it is now written . In
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
it represents . In a handful of Australian languages, it represents a "dental semivowel". is used in Mandarin pinyin to write when it forms an entire syllable. is used in Yanyuwa language, Yanyuwa for a pre-velar consonant, velar stop, . is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write ( before another vowel), as in "thyme". is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
to write in some words of Greek origin, such as "syncope". is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
to write the trill consonant, trilled vowel in languages such as Yi. is used in romanized Chinese to write the vowel . In Mandarin pinyin it is used for in initial position, whereas in Cantonese
Jyutping The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK). The name ''Jyutping'' (itself the Jyutping ro ...
it is used for in non-initial position. In the Yale romanization of Cantonese and Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation, Cantonese Romanisation, it represents in an initial position and in a non-initial position. is used for in Arrernte language#Orthography, Arrernte and for double articulation, doubly articulated in Yélî Dnye language, Yélî Dnye. It is used in Cornish for the diphthongs , , or . in used in Nambikwara language, Nambikwara for a
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...
. is used in some languages such as Finnish language, Finnish to write the long vowel . In Haida (Bringhurst orthography) it is represents glottalized . Used in some Asturian language, Asturian dialects to represent . (a
split digraph A digraph () or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. S ...
) indicates an English Great Vowel Shift, 'long y' (equivalent to ).


Z

represents the voiced postalveolar fricative (), like the in ''pleasure'', in Albanian language, Albanian and in Native American languages, Native American orthographies such as Navajo language, Navajo. It is used for the same sound in some English-language dictionaries, as well as to transliterate the sound when represented by Cyrillic and Persian alphabet, Persian into English, but is rarely seen in English words, appearing primarily in foreign borrowings (e.g. ''muzhik'') and slang (e.g. ''zhoosh''). as a digraph is rare in European languages using the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from ...
; in addition to Albanian it is found in Breton language, Breton in words that are pronounced with in some dialects and in others. In Hanyu Pinyin, represents the voiceless retroflex affricate . When Malayalam and Tamil language, Tamil are transliterated into the Latin script, represents a retroflex approximant (Malayalam ഴ and Tamil ழ ). in
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
represents whenever it precedes a vowel, and whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of appearing in other situations. is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for the voiced lateral fricative is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for . is the last (forty-fourth) letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its name is and represents , a voiced postalveolar fricative, similar to in ''Jacques'' and beside in ''vision''. A few examples are "rose" and "fat". is used in
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
to write the
whistled sibilant Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English word ...
. This was written from 1931 to 1955. is used in
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
for in languages such as Yi. It is also used with that value in romanized Kabyle language, Kabyle. In medieval Czech language, Czech, it stood for . In Hadza it is ejective .


Other

, capital , is used in many West African languages for the nasal vowel . is an "Latin epsilon, open e". , capital , is used in many West African languages for the nasal vowel . is an "open o". , capital , is used in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for the vowels and . The first element of the digraph, , is itself is a ligature (writing), ligature of and , and may also be written as the trigraph (orthography), trigraph . is used in the
General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
for . is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for . is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labial-velar nasal . , capital , was used for in the old orthography of Zhuang and Bouyei language, Bouyei; this is now spelled with the trigraph (orthography), trigraph . is used in Adzera for the prenasalized glottal stop . , capital or sometimes , was a digraph used in the Slovene Bohorič alphabet for . The first element, , the long s, is an archaic non-final form of the letter . are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four glottalized nasal clicks, . are used in
Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...
for its four tenuis click consonant, clicks, . are used in Khoekhoe for its four aspirated nasal clicks, , and in Juǀʼhoan for its plain aspirated clicks, . are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four affricate ejective-contour clicks, . are used in Khoekhoe for its four plain nasal clicks, . are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four affricate pulmonic-contour clicks, . was used in Yañalif and some Turkic languages for the diphthong .


See also

* Trigraph (orthography), Trigraph ** List of Latin-script trigraphs * Tetragraph ** List of Latin-script tetragraphs * Pentagraph ** List of Latin-script pentagraphs * Hexagraph * Heptagraph * List of Latin letters * List of Cyrillic digraphs


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Latin Digraphs Latin-script digraphs,