Nh is a digraph of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

, a combination of N and H. Together with '' ilh'' and the

interpunct An interpunct , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script. (Word-separating spaces did no ...

, it is a typical feature of Occitan, a language illustrated by

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a '' trobai ...

s. It commonly represents the voiced palatal nasal � which is the same sound as the Spanish letter Ñ.

African languages

In some

African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern ...

, such as

Gogo Go go or Gogo may refer to: Geography * Ghogha, India, a town once also known as Gogo * Gogo, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso, a town * Gogo, Zoundwéogo, Burkina Faso, a city * Gogo Department, a department in central Burkina Faso * Gogo Formatio ...

, nh is a voiceless . In the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea for its languages, nh represented a velar , which is currently written ŋ.

Asian languages

In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

, initial ''nh-'' indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in , which is otherwise spelled ''n-.''

Japanese

Early

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, an ...

s of Japanese, influenced by Portuguese orthography, sometimes used nh to represent a prepalatal. Today, this is usually written ny.

Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, nh represents a palatal word-initially. It was formerly considered a distinct letter, but is no longer. When this digraph occurs word-finally, its phonetic value varies between dialects: * In the northern dialect, it represents a

velar nasal The voiced velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ''ng'' in English ''sing'' as well as ''n'' before velar consonants as in ''Englis ...

(), just as ng does; however, its presence may alter the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. For example, ''banh'' is pronounced , as opposed to (''bang''). * In the southern dialect, it represents an alveolar nasal () and shortens the preceding vowel. The

Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese m ...

inherited this digraph from the Portuguese orthography.

Australian languages

In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, nh represents a dental . Due to allophony, it may also represent a palatal .

American languages

In Purépecha and Pipil, it is a velar nasal, . In the Cuoq Orthography in Algonquin, and in the Fiero Orthography in

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

and Odaawaa, it indicates the vowel preceding it is nasalized. While in the Cuoq orthograph it is in all positions, in the Fiero orthography it is a final form; its non-final form is written as .

European languages

Occitan

In Occitan, nh represents a palatal . For n·h, see .

Portuguese

In Portuguese, nh represents a palatal . Due to allophony, it may represent the nasal palatal approximant in most Brazilian, Santomean and Angolan dialects. It is not considered a distinct letter. Portuguese borrowed this digraph from Occitan.Jean-Pierre JUGE (2001) ''Petit précis - Chronologie occitane - Histoire & civilisation'', p. 25

Galician

In Galician, there are two diverging norms which give ''nh'' differing values. * According to the Real Academia Galega norm, nh represents a velar , while ñ represents a palatal . * According to the reintegrationist norm, mh represents a velar nasal , while nh represents a palatal . In neither norm is ''nh'' considered a distinct letter.

Welsh

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

, nh is a voiceless alveolar nasal, (a under the nasal mutation).

References

External links

Practical Orthography of African Languages
{{Latin script Latin-script digraphs