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 post-alveolar fricative (IPA: /ʃ/). In the word "night", "igh" represents the vowel (IPA: /aɪ/) (a diphthong). Other examples are "beautiful" (eau), "adieu" (ieu).
Languages other than English also use trigraphs. Some languages use trigraphs to represent their native triphthongs when using plain Latin alphabet without diacritics.
An example of a trigraph is the Hungarian letter dzs. Even though composed of three characters, it is only one letter. It is prononounced like an English "j" /dʒ/. The only trigraph in German is "sch", which is equivalent to the English "sh".
For more explanations on trigraphs, see the digraph article.
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]
References
See also
- Digraph (orthography)
- Category:Trigraphs
- Category:Tetragraphs
| 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 |
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