Trigraph (orthography)

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A trigraph (from the Greek words treis = three and graphein = write) is a group of three letters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined. For example, in the word "schilling", the trigraph "sch" represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. In the word night, "igh" represents the vowel /aɪ/ (a diphthong). Another example of a triphthong is "eau" in the English word beautiful, or in the French word château.

The trigraph "sch" originates from German, where it is equivalent to the English "sh"; it is not regarded as an independent letter in German orthography. In Hungarian, the trigraph "dzs" is treated as a letter, with its own place in the alphabet. It is prononounced like an English "j" /dʒ/.

Longer "multigraphs" are also known. It is quite possible that the longest one is an "octagraph" "schtschj" used in German language to represent a Russian language palatalized phoneme щь (which is represented by a digraph in Russian). According to the Peterburg phonetics school, this is not a regular phoneme of the Russian language, so the record may as well be attributed to the "heptagraph" "schtsch" for the phoneme щ as in the German spelling of the Slavic word borshch/borscht (Ukrainian/Russian spelling: борщ borshch, German spelling: Borschtsch).^[1]

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[edit] References

^ Wikipedia in Russian

Latin alphabet

Digraphs	Aa aa Ae ae Ai ai Au au Aw aw Ay ay Bh bh Ch ch C̱h c̱h Ck ck Cö cö Cs cs Cu cu Dd dd Dh dh Dj dj Dx dx Dz dz Dž dž Ea ea Ee ee Ei ei Eu eu Ew ew Ey ey Ff ff Fh fh Gb gb Gh gh Għ għ Gi gi Gj gj Gn gn Gy gy Hs hs Hu hu Ie ie IJ ij Jö jö Kh kh Kp kp Ku ku Lh lh Lj lj Ll ll Ly ly Mb mb Mh mh Mp mp Nd nd Ng ng Nh nh Nj nj Nk nk Ns ns Nt nt Ny ny Nz nz Oa oa Oe oe Oi oi Oo oo Ou ou Ow ow Oy oy Ph ph Qu qu Rd rd Rh rh Rl rl Rn rn Rr rr Rt rt Rz rz Sh sh Sv sv Sy sy Sz sz Th th Tj tj Tr tr Ts ts Tx tx Ty ty Tz tz Ue ue Ui ui Wh wh Xh xh Xö xö Yh yh Yk yk Zh zh Zs zs Zv zv
Trigraphs	Dzs dzs Ngb ngb Ngh ngh Ngk ngk Nkp nkp Nth nth Nyk nyk Rnd rnd Sch sch
Tetragraphs	Eeuw eeuw Ieuw ieuw Ough ough