A trigraph (from the Greek: τρεῖς, treîs, "three" and γράφω, gráphō, "write") is a group of three characters 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/, rather than the consonant cluster/sx/. In the word beautiful, the sequence eau is pronounced /juː/, and in the French word château it is pronounced /o/. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a sequence of letters in English is a trigraph, because of the complicating role of silent letters. There are however a few productive trigraphs in English such as tch as in watch, and igh as in high.
The trigraph sch in German is equivalent to the English sh and pronounced /ʃ/. In Dutch, which is closely related to German, this same trigraph is pronounced /sx/. In Italian, however, sch represents the sounds /sk/ before e or i, as in bruschetta/bruˈskɛtta/. In neither language is this trigraph regarded as an independent letter of the alphabet. In Hungarian, the trigraph dzs is treated as a distinct letter, with its own place in the alphabet, and it is pronounced like the English j/dʒ/. The combination gli in Italian can also be a trigraph, representing the palatal lateral approximant/ʎ/ before vowels other than i, as in aglio, pronounced [ˈaʎʎo].
Trigraphs in non-Latin scripts
Although trigraphs are not uncommon in Latin-script alphabets, they are rare elsewhere. There are several in Cyrillic alphabets, which for example uses five trigraphs and a tetragraph in the Kabardian alphabet: гъу/ʁʷ/, кӏу/kʷʼ/, къу/qʷʼ/, кхъ/q/, and хъу/χʷ/, and also a tetragraphкхъу/qʷ/. While most of these can be thought of as consonant + /w/, the letters in кхъ/q/ cannot be so separated: the х has the negative meaning that кхъ is not ejective, as къ is /qʼ/. (See List of Cyrillic digraphs.)
Hangul has a few vowel trigraphs, ㅙ /wɛ/ and ㅞ /we/ (from oai and uei), which are not entirely predictable. However, as ㅐ/ɛ/ and ㅔ/e/ are considered as single letters in modern Korean, ㅙ and ㅞ are considered as digraphs now. There is also a single obsolete consonant trigraph, ㅹ[β], a theoretical form not actually found in any texts. It is composed of digraph ㅃ[b] and a circle-shaped single letter ㅇ, which means the letter "to lighten" sounds, linguistically to change stop consonants to the fricative consonants in cases of bilabial consonants (for ᄛ, ㅇ changes alveolar tap to alveolar lateral approximant or retroflex lateral approximant). Because these letters are created to transcribe consonants of Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca), these are disappeared soon. In modern days, ㅃ is used for different sound, [pʰ].
Japanese kana use trigraphs for (C)yō sequences, as in きょう kyou/kjoo/ ("today"); the う is only pronounced /o/ after another /o/.
In Inuktitut syllabics, the digraph ᖕ ng cannot be followed by a vowel. For that, it must form a trigraph with g:
ᙰ ŋai, ᖏ ŋi, ᖑ ŋu, ᖓ ŋa.
It also forms a trigraph with n for ŋŋ: ᖖ.
Discontinuous (split) trigraphs
The sequence of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent. This is the case with English silent e, which has been claimed to modify preceding digraphs as well as preceding single vowel letters. For example, the sequence ou...e has the sound /uː/ in English joule. There are twenty-eight combinations in English, ⟨ai—e, al—e, ar—e, au—e, aw—e, ay—e, ea—e, ee—e, ei—e, er—e, eu—e, ey—e, ia—e, ie—e, ir—e, is—e, oi—e, oo—e, or—e, ou—e, ow—e, oy—e, ui—e, ur—e, uy—e, ye—e, yr—e⟩,[1] though it has been argued that a trigraph analysis is unnecessary.[2]
The Indic alphabets are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels, such as Thai แ...ะ /ɛ/, เ...าะ /ɔ/, เ...อะ /ɤʔ/. Technically, however, these may be considered diacritics, not full letters; whether they are trigraphs is thus a matter of definition, though they can in turn take modifying vowel diacritics, as in เ◌ียะ /iaʔ/ and เ◌ือะ /ɯaʔ/.
^John Mountford (1998) An Insight Into English Spelling
^Brooks (2015) Dictionary of the British English Spelling System, p. 463
January 13, 2023
trigraph, orthography, trigraph, from, greek, τρεῖς, treîs, three, γράφω, gráphō, write, group, three, characters, used, represent, single, sound, combination, sounds, that, does, correspond, written, letters, combined, contents, latin, script, trigraphs, trig. A trigraph from the Greek treῖs treis three and grafw graphō write is a group of three characters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined Contents 1 Latin script trigraphs 2 Trigraphs in non Latin scripts 3 Discontinuous split trigraphs 4 See also 5 ReferencesLatin script trigraphs EditFurther information List of Latin script trigraphs For example in the word schilling the trigraph sch represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative ʃ rather than the consonant cluster sx In the word beautiful the sequence eau is pronounced juː and in the French word chateau it is pronounced o It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a sequence of letters in English is a trigraph because of the complicating role of silent letters There are however a few productive trigraphs in English such as tch as in watch and igh as in high The trigraph sch in German is equivalent to the English sh and pronounced ʃ In Dutch which is closely related to German this same trigraph is pronounced sx In Italian however sch represents the sounds sk before e or i as in bruschetta bruˈskɛtta In neither language is this trigraph regarded as an independent letter of the alphabet In Hungarian the trigraph dzs is treated as a distinct letter with its own place in the alphabet and it is pronounced like the English j dʒ The combination gli in Italian can also be a trigraph representing the palatal lateral approximant ʎ before vowels other than i as in aglio pronounced ˈaʎʎo Trigraphs in non Latin scripts EditAlthough trigraphs are not uncommon in Latin script alphabets they are rare elsewhere There are several in Cyrillic alphabets which for example uses five trigraphs and a tetragraph in the Kabardian alphabet gu ʁʷ kӏu kʷʼ ku qʷʼ kh q and hu xʷ and also a tetragraph khu qʷ While most of these can be thought of as consonant w the letters in kh q cannot be so separated the h has the negative meaning that kh is not ejective as k is qʼ See List of Cyrillic digraphs Tsakonian has tsx tʃ The orthography used for the Yiddish language by YIVO uses the Hebrew script trigraph דזש dalet zayin shin to refer to dʒ Hangul has a few vowel trigraphs ㅙ wɛ and ㅞ we from oai and uei which are not entirely predictable However as ㅐ ɛ and ㅔ e are considered as single letters in modern Korean ㅙ and ㅞ are considered as digraphs now There is also a single obsolete consonant trigraph ㅹ b a theoretical form not actually found in any texts It is composed of digraph ㅃ b and a circle shaped single letter ㅇ which means the letter to lighten sounds linguistically to change stop consonants to the fricative consonants in cases of bilabial consonants for ᄛ ㅇ changes alveolar tap to alveolar lateral approximant or retroflex lateral approximant Because these letters are created to transcribe consonants of Mandarin late imperial lingua franca these are disappeared soon In modern days ㅃ is used for different sound pʰ Japanese kana use trigraphs for C yō sequences as in きょう kyou kjoo today the う is only pronounced o after another o In Inuktitut syllabics the digraph ᖕ ng cannot be followed by a vowel For that it must form a trigraph with g ᙰ ŋai ᖏ ŋi ᖑ ŋu ᖓ ŋa It also forms a trigraph with n for ŋŋ ᖖ Discontinuous split trigraphs EditThe sequence of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent This is the case with English silent e which has been claimed to modify preceding digraphs as well as preceding single vowel letters For example the sequence ou e has the sound uː in English joule There are twenty eight combinations in English ai e al e ar e au e aw e ay e ea e ee e ei e er e eu e ey e ia e ie e ir e is e oi e oo e or e ou e ow e oy e ui e ur e uy e ye e yr e 1 though it has been argued that a trigraph analysis is unnecessary 2 The Indic alphabets are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels such as Thai ae a ɛ e aa ɔ e xa ɤʔ Technically however these may be considered diacritics not full letters whether they are trigraphs is thus a matter of definition though they can in turn take modifying vowel diacritics as in e iya iaʔ and e uxa ɯaʔ See also EditDigraph Hexagraph Multigraph orthography Pentagraph Tetragraph List of Cyrillic digraphs and trigraphs List of Latin digraphs List of Latin letters Trigraph programming Typographic ligatureReferences Edit John Mountford 1998 An Insight Into English Spelling Brooks 2015 Dictionary of the British English Spelling System p 463 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Trigraph orthography amp oldid 1124787051, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
