Digraph (orthography)

Digraph referred to in the graphematics two letters that stand for a phonetics. For more than two letters are used Greek numerals as prefixes, for example trigraph or tetra graph.

Definition

In a broader sense, there is a digraph of two graphemes, which can be assigned to a phoneme (eg, the consonant letter combination ch in the German phoneme / χ / and / ç / ). Likewise as digraph letter combination is referred to, which can be assigned a phoneme combination if their components are not clearly and separately with respect of each other on the components of the letter combination (eg ch in English the phoneme / tʃ / - it would not make sense that the c / t / h and assign the / ʃ / ).

Sometimes the term is also not used in this phonographic sense. In a phonemunabhängigen graphematic approach, but ( from distributional reasons) assumes that a grapheme can consist of multiple characters ( graph / glyphs) ( and, for example, ch and qu as each one grapheme rated), is the digraph as a term for such a grapheme used ( without implying something would be said about the mapping to phonemes ).

In a narrower sense digraphs are the pairs of letters that are considered as belonging together so closely in a language that they are treated, for example, in the alphabetical order like a letter. This use of the term can, however, differ from the first. The occurrence in the alphabetical order does not guarantee that it is in the associated articulation to a phoneme (or phoneme in the above sense ). ( It can be, for example, argue about whether dž is a digraph in the first sense in Croatian. This also depends on the assumed Phonemdefinition from. When / dʒ / evaluates the Croatian than two phonemes, the ingredients can be the loud- assign and letter combination clearly - d / d / and ž to / ʒ / -. , and dž is then no more a digraph such as dr)

Trigraph, Tetra graph ...

Accordingly, the term trigraph ( to Greek tri-, " three ", see Greek numerals ) for a combination of three letters used ( eg, sch in German and Swedish for the phoneme / ʃ /, ieh in German for / i ː / ). The series goes on and on: Tetra graph ( tetra "four" ), eg ough in English for / ɔ ː / in Brought, ZSCH for / tʃ / in proper names such as Zschopau, Pentagraph ( penta- "five" ), about tzsch for / tʃ / in proper names such as Nietzsche, etc. As Heptagraph ( hepta " seven " ) can be schtsch for transcription of the Russian grapheme " щ " mean, if one assumes that in the modern Russian this grapheme as a phoneme / ʃ ʲ ː / (formerly / ʃ ʲ tʃ ʲ / ) is spoken.

Use in transcriptions

Digraphs and multiple combinations are also used for the transliteration and transcription of other languages ​​, such as zh, sh in English for the "sh " sounds ( fricatives ) / ʒ, ʃ /.

They are also used in many cases the representation of diacritics (see tschech. č, ř with poln cz, rz ), when these are not even about technical reasons available.

The Latin letters are also due to the spread of the ASCII character set in the electronic data processing, general transcriptions for common (English latinisation or roma tion ). Other writing systems use a similar approach, such as traditional Chinese phonetic transcription Fǎnqiè (eg Chinese德 红, Pinyin dī - jīng for the articulation thing of the character丁).

Examples

Examples of multi- graphs (and other letter combinations ): 1 More autographs ( for a sound ) whose pronunciation can not be justified or sync only partially from the pronunciation of the individual letters, 2 more graphs ( for a sound ) whose pronunciation results from a force in the respective language, general discussion rule for the combination of the individual letters (productive, potentially series -forming rule) 3 More graphs and other special ligatures for combinations of sounds ( for diphthongs, affricates and others), whose pronunciation is not specified in an applicable in the respective language, general pronunciation rule for the combination of the individual letters. ( More graphs / letter combinations with its own place in the alphabet are printed in italics. )

Encoding

Unicode has compatibility reasons a few Latin digraphs assigned own codes: