This is a list of digraphs used in various Latin alphabets. Letters with diacritics are arranged in alphabetical order according to their base, e.g. ⟨å⟩ is alphabetised with ⟨a⟩, not at the end of the alphabet, as it would be in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Substantially-modified letters, such as ⟨ſ⟩ (a variant of ⟨s⟩) and ⟨ɔ⟩ (based on ⟨o⟩), are placed at the end.
Capitalisation only involves the first letter unless otherwise stated. For instance, ⟨ch⟩ becomes ⟨Ch⟩. Exceptions: In Dutch, ⟨ij⟩ becomes ⟨IJ⟩, and in Irish, digraphs marking eclipsis are capitalised on the second letter, i.e. ⟨mb⟩ becomes ⟨mB⟩.
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Apostrophe
Source:
⟨ʼb⟩ (capital ⟨ʼB⟩) is used in Bari for /ɓ/.
⟨ʼd⟩ (capital ⟨ʼD⟩) is used in Bari for /ɗ/.
⟨ʼm⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark or yin tone /m/. It is also often represented by /ʔm/.
⟨ʼn⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark /n/.
⟨ʼng⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark /ŋ/.
⟨ʼny⟩ is used in the Wu MiniDict Romanisation for dark /ȵ/.
⟨ʼy⟩ (capital ⟨ʼY⟩) is used in Bari and Hausa (in Nigeria) for /ˀj/, but in Niger, Hausa ⟨ʼy⟩ is replaced with ⟨ƴ ⟩.
A
⟨aʼ⟩ is used in Taa for the glottalized or creaky-voiced vowel /a̰/.
⟨aa⟩ is used in Dutch, Finnish and other languages with phonemic long vowels for /aː/. It was formerly used in Danish and Norwegian (and still is in some proper names) for [ɔ] or [ʌ] (in Danish), until it was replaced with ⟨å⟩. There is a ligature ⟨Ꜳ⟩. In Cantonese romanisations such as Jyutping or Yale, it is used for /aː/, contrasting with ⟨a⟩ /ɐ/.
⟨ae⟩ is used in English for , Latin loanwords with ⟨ae⟩ are generally pronounced with (e.g. Caesar), prompting Noah Webster to shorten this to ⟨e⟩ in his 1806 spelling reform for American English.
In Irish, ⟨ae⟩ represents /eː/ between two "broad" (velarized) consonants, e.g. Gael /ɡeːlˠ/ "a Gael". In Latin, ⟨ae⟩ originally represented the diphthong /ae/, before it was monophthongized in the Vulgar Latin period to /ɛ/; in medieval manuscripts, the digraph was frequently replaced by the ligature ⟨æ⟩.
In German, ⟨ae⟩ is a variant of ⟨ä⟩ found in some proper names or in contexts where ⟨ä⟩ is unavailable.
In Dutch, ⟨ae⟩ is an old spelling variant of ⟨aa⟩ but now only occurs in names of people or (less often) places and in a few loanwords from Greek and Latin.
In Zhuang, ⟨ae⟩ represents /a/ (⟨a⟩ represents /aː/).
In Revised Romanization of Korean, ⟨ae⟩ represents /ɛ/.
⟨ãe⟩ is used in Portuguese for stressed /ɐ̃ĩ̯/ when in the final syllable, e.g. mãe /mɐ̃ĩ̯/ and capitães /ka.pi.ˈtɐ̃ĩ̯s/.
⟨ah⟩ is used in Taa for breathy or murmured /a̤/. In German and English it typically represents a long vowel .
⟨ai⟩ is used in many languages, typically representing the diphthong /aɪ/. In English, due to the Great Vowel Shift, it represents as in pain and rain, while in unstressed syllables it may represent , e.g. bargain and certain(ly).
B
⟨bb⟩ is used in Pinyin for /b/ in languages such as Yi, where ⟨b⟩ stands for /p/. It was used in Portuguese until 1911 in European orthography and 1943 in Brazilian orthography. It had the same sound as ⟨b⟩ and was only used for etymological purposes. In Hungarian, it represents geminated /bː/. In English, doubling a letter indicates that the previous vowel is short (so ⟨bb⟩ represents ). In ISO romanized Korean, it is used for the fortis sound /p͈/, otherwise spelled ⟨pp⟩; e.g. hobbang. In Hadza it represents the ejective /pʼ/. In several African languages it is implosive /ɓ/. In Cypriot Arabic it is /bʱ/.
⟨bd⟩ is used in English for in a few words of Greek origin, such as bdellatomy. When not initial, it represents , as in abdicate.
⟨bf⟩ is used in Bavarian and several African languages for the /b̪͡v/.
⟨bh⟩ is used in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages for a murmured voiced bilabial plosive (/bʱ/), and for equivalent sounds in other languages. In Juǀʼhoan, it's used for the similar prevoiced aspirated plosive /b͡pʰ/. It is used in Irish to represent /w/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /vʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), word-initially it marks the lenition of ⟨b⟩, e.g. mo bhád /mˠə waːd̪ˠ/ "my boat", bheadh /vʲɛx/ "would be". In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /v/, or in a few contexts as /w/~/u/ between a broad vowel and a broad consonant or between two broad vowels, as in labhair /l̪ˠau.ɪɾʲ/. In the orthography used in Guinea before 1985, ⟨bh⟩ was used in Pular (a Fula language) for the voiced bilabial implosive /ɓ/, whereas in Xhosa, Zulu, and Shona, ⟨b⟩ represents the implosive and ⟨bh⟩ represents the plosive /b/. In some orthographies of Dan, ⟨b⟩ is /b/ and ⟨bh⟩ is /ɓ/.
⟨bm⟩ is used in Cornish for an optionally pre-occluded /m/; that is, it represents either /m/ or /mː/ (in any position); /ᵇm/ (before a consonant or finally); or /bm/ (before a vowel); examples are mabm ('mother') or hebma ('this').
⟨bp⟩ is used in Sandawe and romanized Thai for /p/. ⟨bp⟩ (capital ⟨bP⟩) is used in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨p⟩, to represent /bˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /bʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
⟨bv⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiced labiodental affricate /b̪͡v/.
C
⟨cc⟩ was formerly used in Spanish-based spelling systems for Quechua and Aymara for /q/, as in Ccozcco (modern Qusqu) ('Cuzco'). In Italian, ⟨cc⟩ before a front vowel represents a geminated /tʃ/, as in lacci /ˈlat.tʃi/. In Piedmontese and Lombard, ⟨cc⟩ represents /tʃ/ at the end of a word. In Hadza it is the glottalized click /ᵑǀˀ/. In English crip slang, ⟨cc⟩ can sometimes replace the letters ⟨ck⟩ or ⟨ct⟩ at the ends of words, such as with thicc, protecc, succ and fucc.
⟨cg⟩ was used for [ddʒ] or [gg] in Old English (ecg in Old English sounded like 'edge' in Modern English, while frocga sounded like 'froga'), where both are long consonants. It is used for the click /ǀχ/ in Naro, and in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless dental click /ǀ/.
⟨ch⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it can represent , , , or . See article.
⟨çh⟩ is used in Manx for /tʃ/, such as in the word çhengey ("speech"), as a distinction from ⟨ch⟩ which is used for /x/.
⟨cɥ⟩ is used in the 1644 orthography for Mochica, representing an undetermined palatal sound, possibly something like /c/ or /ʨ/.
⟨čh⟩ is used in Romani and the Chechen Latin alphabet for /tʃʰ/. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for /tʃʼ/.
⟨ci⟩ is used in the Italian for /tʃ/ before the non-front vowel letters ⟨a, o, u⟩. In English, it usually represents whenever it precedes any vowel other than ⟨i⟩. In Polish, it represents /t͡ɕ/ whenever it precedes a vowel, and /t͡ɕi/ whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ⟨ć⟩ appearing in other situations. In Romanian, it represents /tʃ/. The digraph is found at the end of a word (deci, atunci, copaci) or before ⟨a, o, u⟩ (ciorba, ciuleandra).
⟨cj⟩ is used in Friulian for /c/ such as in words cjocolate /cokoˈlate/. It's also used in local orthographies of Lombard to represent /tʃ/ derived from Latin ⟨cl⟩.
D
⟨dc⟩ is used in Naro for the click /ᶢǀ/, and in Juǀʼhoan for the prevoiced ejective /d͡tʃʼ/.
⟨dd⟩ is used in English to indicate a with a preceding (historically) short vowel (e.g. jaded has a "long a" while ladder has a "short a"). In Welsh, ⟨dd⟩ represents a voiced dental fricative /ð/. It is treated as a distinct letter, named èdd, and placed between ⟨D⟩ and ⟨E⟩ in alphabetical order. In the ISO romanization of Korean, it is used for the fortis sound /t͈/, otherwise spelled ⟨tt⟩; examples are ddeokbokki and bindaeddeok. In Basque, it represents a voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, as in onddo "mushroom". In several African languages it is implosive /ɗ/.
⟨dg⟩ is used in English for in certain contexts, such as with judgement and hedge.
⟨dh⟩ is used in the Albanian, Swahili, and revived Cornish for the voiced dental fricative /ð/. The first examples of this digraph are from the Oaths of Strasbourg, the earliest French text, where it denotes the same sound /ð/ developed mainly from intervocalic Latin -t-.
In early traditional Cornish ⟨ȝ⟩ (yogh), and later ⟨th⟩, were used for this purpose. Edward Lhuyd is credited for introducing the grapheme to Cornish orthography in 1707 in his Archaeologia Britannica. In Irish it represents /ɣ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) or /j/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩); at the beginning of a word it shows the lenition of ⟨d⟩, e.g. mo dhoras /mˠə ɣɔɾˠəsˠ/ "my door" (cf. doras /d̪ˠɔɾˠəsˠ/ "door"). In Scottish Gaelic it represents /ɣ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) or /ʝ/ or /j/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
In the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, ⟨dh⟩ was used for the voiced alveolar implosive /ɗ/ in Pular. It is currently written ⟨ɗ⟩. In the orthography of Shona it is the opposite: ⟨dh⟩ represents /d/, and ⟨d⟩ /ɗ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, ⟨dh⟩ represents a dental stop, /t̪/.
In addition, ⟨dh⟩ is used in various romanization systems. In transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages, for example, it represents the murmured voiced dental plosive /d̪ʱ/, and for equivalent sounds in other languages. It transcribes Dha (Indic). In Juǀʼhoan, it's used for the similar prevoiced aspirated plosive /d͡tʰ/. In the romanization of Arabic, it denotes ⟨ﺫ⟩, which represents /ð/ in Modern Standard Arabic.
E
⟨e′⟩ is used in Taa, where it represents the glottalised or creaky vowel /ḛ/.
⟨ea⟩ is used in many languages. In English, ⟨ea⟩ usually represents the monophthong as in meat; due to a sound change that happened in Middle English, it also often represents the vowel as in sweat. Rare pronunciations occur, like in break, great, steak, and yea, and in the archaic ealdorman. When followed by ⟨r⟩, it can represent the standard outcomes of the previously mentioned three vowels in this environment: as in beard, as in heard, and as in bear, respectively; as another exception, occurs in the words hearken, heart, and hearth. It often represents two independent vowels, like (seance), (reality), (create), and or (lineage). Unstressed, it may represent (ocean) and or (Eleanor). In Romanian, it represents the diphthong /e̯a/ as in beată ('drunk female'). In Irish, ⟨ea⟩ represents /a/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic, ⟨ea⟩ represents /ʲa/, /ɛ/ or /e/ between a slender and a broad context, depending on context or dialect. In Old English, it represents the diphthong /æɑ̯/. ⟨Ea⟩ is also the transliteration of the ⟨ᛠ⟩ rune of the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc.
⟨eá⟩ is used in Irish for /aː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨eà⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /ʲaː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨éa⟩ is used in Irish for /eː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
⟨èa⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /ia/ between a slender and a broad consonant, unless the broad consonant is m, mh, or p, in which case it represents /ɛ/.
⟨ee⟩ represents a long mid vowel in a number of languages. In English, ⟨ee⟩ represents as in teen. In Dutch and German, ⟨ee⟩ represents /eː/ (though it is pronounced [eɪ] in majority of northern Dutch dialects). In the Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /iː/, or /ei/ for characters which might be pronounced as /iː/ in other dialects. In Bouyei, ⟨ee⟩ is used for plain /e/, as ⟨e⟩ stands for /ɯ/.
⟨eh⟩ is used in Taa for the murmured vowel /e̤/. In the Wade-Giles transliteration of Mandarin Chinese, it is used for /ɛ/ after a consonant, as in yeh /jɛ/. In German, ⟨eh⟩ represents /eː/, as in Reh.
F
⟨ff⟩, which may be written as the typographic ligature ⟨ff⟩, is used in English and Cornish for the same sound as single ⟨f⟩, /f/. The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or for etymological reasons, in latinisms. Very rarely, ⟨ff⟩ may be found word-initially in English, such as in proper names (e.g., Rose ffrench, Jasper Fforde). In Welsh, ⟨ff⟩ represents /f/, while ⟨f⟩ represents /v/. In Welsh, ⟨ff⟩ is considered a distinct letter, and placed between ⟨f⟩ and ⟨g⟩ in alphabetical order. In medieval Breton, vowel nasalisation was represented by a following ⟨ff⟩. This notation was reformed during the 18th century, though proper names retain the former convention, which leads to occasional mispronunciation.
⟨fh⟩ is used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic for the lenition of ⟨f⟩. This happens to be silent, so that ⟨fh⟩ in Gaelic corresponds to no sound at all, e.g. the Irish phrase cá fhad /kaː ˈad̪ˠ/ "how long", where fhad is the lenited form of fad /fˠad̪ˠ/ "long". However, in three Scottish Gaelic words, fhèin, fhuair, and fhathast, it is pronounced as /h/.
⟨fx⟩ is used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ɸʔ/.
G
⟨gʻ⟩ is used in Uzbek to represent /ɣ/.
⟨gb⟩ is used in some African languages for a voiced labial-velar plosive, /ɡ͡b/.
⟨gc⟩ is used in languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu, for the click /ᶢǀ/. ⟨gc⟩ (capital ⟨gC⟩) is used in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨c⟩, to represent /g/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /ɟ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).
⟨ge⟩ is used in French for /ʒ/ before ⟨a, o, u⟩ as in geôle /ʒol/.
⟨gg⟩ is used in English for before ⟨y⟩, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨e⟩ (e.g. doggy). It is also used in Pinyin for /ɡ/ in languages such as Yi. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik, it represents /x/. In Greenlandic, it represents /çː/. In the ISO romanization of Korean, it is used for the fortis sound /k͈/, otherwise spelled ⟨kk⟩ (e.g. ggakdugi). In Hadza it is ejective /kxʼ/. In Italian, ⟨gg⟩ before a front vowel represents a geminated /dʒ/, as in legge /ˈled.dʒe/. In Piedmontese and Lombard, ⟨gg⟩ is an etymological spelling representing an /tʃ/ at the end of a word which is the unvoicing of an ancient /dʒ/.
⟨gh⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it can be silent or represent or . See article.
⟨gi⟩ is used in Vietnamese for /z/ in northern dialects and /j/ in the southern ones. In Italian, it represents /dʒ/ before the non-front vowel letters ⟨a o u⟩. In Romansh it represents /dʑ/ before ⟨a o u⟩ (written ⟨g⟩ before front vowels).
⟨gj⟩ is used in Albanian for the voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, though for Gheg speakers it represents /dʒ/. In the Arbëresh dialect, it represents the voiced velar plosive /ɡʲ/. In Norwegian and Swedish ⟨gj⟩ represents /j/ in words like gjorde ('did'). In Faroese, it represents /dʒ/. It is also used in the Romanization of Macedonian as a Latin equivalent of Cyrillic ⟨Ѓ⟩. Also, it's used in Friulian to represent /ɟ/ (whilst /dʒ/ is one of the pronunciations of the letter ⟨z⟩). It can be found in some local orthographies of Lombard to represent /dʒ/ derived from Latin ⟨gl⟩. Before the letter Đ was introduced into Gaj's Latin alphabet in 1878, the digraph ⟨gj⟩ had been used instead; and it remained in use till the beginning of the 20th century.
H
⟨hh⟩ is used in Xhosa to write the murmured glottal fricative /ɦ̤/, though this is often written ⟨h⟩. In the Iraqw language, ⟨hh⟩ is the voiceless epiglottal fricative /ʜ/, and in Chipewyan it is a velar/uvular /χ/. In Esperanto orthography, it is an official surrogate of ⟨ĥ⟩, which represents /x/.
⟨hj⟩ is used in the Italian dialect of Albanian for /xʲ/. In Faroese, it represents either /tʃ/ or /j/, and in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, it represents /j/. In Icelandic it is used to denote /ç/.
⟨hl⟩ is used for /ɬ/ or /l̥/ in various alphabets, such as the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong (/ɬ/) and Icelandic (/l̥/). See also reduction of Old English /hl/.
⟨hm⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents /m̥/.
⟨hn⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents /n̥/. It is also used in Icelandic to denote the same phoneme. See also reduction of Old English /hn/.
⟨hr⟩ is used for /ɣ/ in Bouyei. In Icelandic it is used for /r̥/. See also reduction of Old English /hr/.
⟨hs⟩ is used in the Wade-Giles transcription of Mandarin Chinese for /ɕ/, equivalent to Pinyin ⟨x⟩.
⟨hu⟩ is used primarily in the Classical Nahuatl language, in which it represents /w/ before a vowel; for example, Wikipedia in Nahuatl is written Huiquipedia. After a vowel, ⟨uh⟩ is used. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, ⟨hu⟩ was used for /ʁʷ/, similar to French roi. The sequence ⟨hu⟩ is also found in Spanish words such as huevo or hueso; however, in Spanish this is not a digraph but a simple sequence of silent ⟨h⟩ and the vowel ⟨u⟩.
⟨hv⟩ is used Faroese and Icelandic for /kv/ (often /kf/), generally in wh-words, but also in other words, such as Faroese hvonn. In the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages it is used for the supposed fricative /ɣ͜β/.
I
⟨i′⟩ is used in Taa to represent the glottalized or creaky vowel /ḭ/.
⟨ia⟩ is used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic for the diphthong /iə/.
⟨ie⟩ is used in English, where it usually represents as in pries and allied or as in priest and rallied. Unique pronunciations are in sieve, in friend, and in lingerie. Unstressed it can represent , as in spaniel and conscience, or or as in mischief and hurriedly. It also can represent many vowel combinations, including in diet and client, in diester and quiescent, in alien and skier, in oriental and hygienic, and in British medieval.
In Dutch and Afrikaans, ⟨ie⟩ represents the tense vowel /i/. In German, it may represent the lengthened vowel /iː/ as in Liebe (love) as well as the vowel combination /iə/ as in Belgien (Belgium). In Latvian and Lithuanian, ⟨ie⟩ is considered two letters for all purposes and represents /iæ̯/, commonly (although less precisely) transcribed as /i̯e/. In Maltese, ⟨ie⟩ is a distinct letter and represents a long close front unrounded vowel, /iː/ or /iɛ/. In Pinyin it is used to write the vowel /e/ in languages such as Yi, where ⟨e⟩ stands for /ɛ/. In Old English ⟨ie⟩ was one of the common diphthongs, the umlauted version of ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨eo⟩. Its value is not entirely clear, and in Middle English it had become /e/.
⟨îe⟩ is used in Afrikaans for /əːə/.
⟨ig⟩ is used in Catalan for /t͡ʃ/ (ch as in cheese) in the coda.
⟨ih⟩, is used in Taa to represent the breathy or murmured vowel /i̤/. It is also used in Tongyong Pinyin and Wade-Giles transcription for the fricative vowels of Mandarin Chinese, which are spelled ⟨i⟩ in Hanyu Pinyin.
⟨ii⟩ is used in many languages such as Portuguese (e.g. Aniilar, Sacerdócii) and Finnish (e.g. Riikka, Niinistö, Siitala, Riikkeli), Italian (e.g. Riina), Estonian (e.g. Riik), Scots (e.g. Auld Nii, Iisay), with phonemic long vowels for /iː/.
⟨ií⟩ is used in Portuguese for /iji/.
J
⟨jh⟩ is used in Walloon to write a consonant that is variously /h/, /ʒ/ or /ç/, depending on the dialect. In Tongyong pinyin, it represents /tʂ/, written ⟨zh⟩ in standard pinyin. ⟨jh⟩ is also the standard transliteration for the Devanāgarī letter ⟨झ⟩ /dʒʱ/.
In Esperanto, it is an official surrogate of ⟨ĵ⟩, which represents /ʒ/. In Latin American Spanish, it is sometimes used in first names (like Jhon and Jhordan) to represent /ɟʝ/ and distinguish it from the typical sound of ⟨j⟩ in Spanish, /x/.
⟨jj⟩ is used in Pinyin for /dʑ/ in languages such as Yi. In romanized Korean, it represents the fortis sound /tɕ͈/. In Hadza it is ejective /tʃʼ/.
⟨jö⟩ is used as a letter of the Seri alphabet, where it represents a labialized velar fricative, /xʷ/. It is placed between J and L in alphabetical order.
⟨jr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ɖʐ/.
⟨jx⟩ is used in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĵ⟩, which represents /ʒ/.
K
⟨k'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /kʼ/.
⟨kg⟩ is used for /kχ/ in southern African languages such as Setswana and Sotho. For instance, the Kalahari is spelled Kgalagadi /kχalaχadi/ in Setswana.
⟨kh⟩, in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, represents the aspirated voiceless velar plosive (/kʰ/). For most other languages, it represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/, for example in transcriptions of the letter ḫāʾ (خ) in standard Arabic, standard Persian, and Urdu, Cyrillic Х, х (kha), Spanish ⟨j⟩, as well as the Hebrew letter kaf (כ) in instances when it is lenited. When used for transcription of the letter ḥet (ח) in Sephardic Hebrew, it represents the voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/. In Canadian Tlingit it represents /qʰ/, which in Alaska is written ⟨k⟩. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for /kʼ/.
⟨kj⟩ is used Swedish and Norwegian for /ɕ/ or /ç/. See also ⟨tj⟩. In Faroese, it represents /tʃ/. In the romanization of Macedonian, it represents /c/.
⟨kk⟩ is used in romanized Korean for the fortis sound /k͈/, in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for ejective /kʼ/, and in Cypriot Arabic for /kʰː/.
⟨kl⟩ is used in Zulu to write a sound variously realized as /kʟ̥ʼ/ or /kxʼ/.
⟨km⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye doubly articulated and nasally released /k͡pŋ͡m/.
⟨kn⟩ is used in English to write (formerly pronounced /kn/) at the beginning of some words of Germanic origin, such as knee and knife. It is used in Yélî Dnye for nasally released /kŋ/.
⟨kp⟩ is used as a letter in some African languages, where it represents a voiceless labial-velar plosive /k͡p/.
⟨kr⟩ is used in Xhosa for /kxʼ/.
L
⟨lh⟩, in Occitan, Gallo, and Portuguese, represents a palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/. In many Indigenous languages of the Americas it represents a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages it represents a dental lateral, /l̪/. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial ⟨lh⟩ indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in /l/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨l⟩. In Middle Welsh it was sometimes used to represent /ɬ/ as well as ⟨ll⟩, in modern Welsh it has been replaced by ⟨ll⟩. In Tibetan, it represents the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant /ɬ/, as in Lhasa.
⟨lj⟩ is a letter in some Slavic languages, such as the Latin orthographies of Serbo-Croatian, where it represents a palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/. For example, the word ljiljan is pronounced /ʎiʎan/. Ljudevit Gaj first used the digraph ⟨lj⟩ in 1830; he devised it by analogy with a Cyrillic digraph, which developed into the ligature ⟨љ⟩. In Swedish, it represents /j/ in initial position e.g. ljus.
The sound /ʎ/ is written ⟨gl⟩ in Italian, in Castilian Spanish and Catalan as ⟨ll⟩, in Portuguese as ⟨lh⟩, in some Hungarian dialects as ⟨lly⟩, and in Latvian as ⟨ļ⟩. In Czech and Slovak, it is often transcribed as ⟨ľ⟩; it is used more frequently in the latter language. While there are dedicated Unicode codepoints, U+01C7 (LJ), U+01C8 (Lj) and U+01C9 (lj), these are included for backwards compatibility (with legacy encodings for Serbo-Croatian which kept a one-to-one correspondence with Cyrillic Љљ) and modern texts use a sequence of Basic Latin characters.
⟨ll⟩ and ⟨l·l⟩ are used in several languages. See article.
⟨ḷḷ⟩ is used in Asturian for a sound that was historically /ʎ/ but which is now an affricate, [t͡s], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ].
⟨lr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ɭ /.
⟨lv⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /l͜β/.
⟨lw⟩ is used for /lʷ/ in Arrernte.
M
⟨mb⟩, in many African languages, represents /mb/ or /ᵐb/. In English, it represents when final, as in lamb (see reduction of /mb/). In Standard Zhuang and in Bouyei, ⟨mb⟩ is used for /ɓ/. ⟨mb⟩ (capital ⟨mB⟩) is used word initially in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨b⟩, to represent /mˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /mʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩); e.g. ár mbád /aːɾˠ mˠaːd̪ˠ/ "our boat" (cf. /bˠaːd̪ˠ/ "boat"), i mBaile Átha Cliath "in Dublin".
⟨md⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and prenasalized /n͡mt͡p/.
⟨mf⟩, in many African languages, represents /mf/ or /ᵐf/.
⟨mg⟩ is used in Pinyin for /ŋɡ/ in languages such as Yi, where the more common digraph ⟨ng⟩ is restricted to /ŋ/. It is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and prenasalized /ŋ͡mk͡p/. It is also used in Filipino.
⟨mh⟩ is used in Irish, as the lenition of ⟨m⟩, to represent /w/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /vʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), e.g. mo mháthair /mˠə ˈwaːhəɾʲ/ "my mother" (cf. máthair /ˈmˠaːhəɾʲ/ 'mother'). In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /v/, or in a few contexts as /w/~/u/ between a broad vowel and a broad consonant or between two broad vowels, as in reamhar /ˈrˠɛ̃ũ.əɾ/. In Welsh it stands for the nasal mutation of ⟨p⟩ and represents the voiceless /m̥/; for example fy mhen /və m̥ɛn/ 'my head' (cf. pen /pɛn/ 'head'). In both languages it is considered a sequence of the two letters ⟨m⟩ and ⟨h⟩ for purposes of alphabetization. In Shona, Juǀʼhoan and several other languages, it is used for a murmured /m̤/. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial ⟨mh⟩- indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in /m/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨m⟩-. In several languages, such as Gogo, it's a voiceless /m̥/.
⟨ml⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, where it represents /mˡ/.
⟨mm⟩ is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized /ˀm/. It is used in Cornish for an optionally pre-occluded /m/; that is, it is pronounced either /m/ or /mː/ (in any position); /ᵇm/ (before a consonant or finally); or /bm/ (before a vowel); examples are mamm ('mother') or hemma ('this').
N
⟨nʼ⟩ is used in Xhosa and Shona for /ŋ/. Since ⟨ʼ⟩ is not a letter in either language, ⟨nʼ⟩ is not technically a digraph.
⟨nb⟩ is used in Pinyin for /mb/ in languages such as Yi. It is also used in Fula in Guinea for /ᵐb/ (written as ⟨mb⟩ in other countries).
⟨nc⟩ is used in various alphabets. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents /ɲɟ/. In Tharaka it is /ntʃ/. In Xhosa and Zulu it represents the click /ᵑǀ/.
⟨nd⟩ (capital ⟨Nd⟩) is used in many African languages to represent /nd/ or /ⁿd/. In Standard Zhuang and Bouyei, it represents /ɗ/. ⟨nd⟩ (capital ⟨nD⟩) is used word initially in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨d⟩, to represent /n̪ˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /n̠ʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩), e.g. ár ndoras /aːɾˠ ˈn̪ˠɔɾˠəsˠ/ "our door" (cf. doras /ˈd̪ˠɔɾˠəsˠ/ "door"), i nDoire "in Derry".
⟨nf⟩, equivalent to ⟨mf⟩ for /mf/ or /ᵐf/. In Rangi ⟨nf⟩ is /ᵐf/ while ⟨mf⟩ is /m.f/.
⟨ng⟩ is used in English and several other languages to represent the velar nasal /ŋ/. It is considered a single letter in many Austronesian languages (Māori, Tagalog, Tongan, Gilbertese, Tuvaluan, Indonesian, Chamorro), Welsh, and Rheinische Dokumenta, for velar nasal /ŋ/; and in some African languages (Lingala, Bambara, Wolof) for prenasalized /ɡ/ (/ⁿɡ/).
For the development of the pronunciation of this digraph in English, see NG-coalescence and G-dropping.
Finnish uses ⟨ng⟩ to represent the phonemically long velar nasal /ŋː/ in contrast to ⟨nk⟩ /ŋk/, which is its "strong" form under consonant gradation, a type of lenition. Weakening /k/ produces an archiphonemic "velar fricative", which, as a velar fricative does not exist in Standard Finnish, is assimilated to the preceding /ŋ/, producing /ŋː/. (No /ɡ/ is involved at any point, despite the spelling ⟨ng⟩). The digraph ⟨ng⟩ is not an independent letter, but it is an exception to the phonemic principle, one of the few in standard Finnish.
O
⟨o′⟩ is used for /o/ and /ø/ in Uzbek, with the preferred typographical form being ⟨oʻ⟩ (Cyrillic ⟨ў⟩). Technically it is not a digraph in Uzbek, since ⟨ʻ⟩ is not a letter of the Uzbek alphabet, but rather a typographic convention for a diacritic. In handwriting the letter is written as ⟨õ⟩.
It is also used in Taa, for the glottalized or creaky vowel /o̰/.
⟨oa⟩ is used in English, where it commonly represents as in road, coal, boast, coaxing, etc. In Middle English, where the digraph originated, it represented /ɔː/, a pronunciation retained in the word broad and derivatives, and when the digraph is followed by an "r", as in soar and bezoar. The letters also represent two vowels, as in koala , boa , coaxial , oasis , and doable .
In Malagasy, it is occasionally used for /o/.
⟨oe⟩ is found in many languages. In English, it represents as in hoe and sometimes as in shoe. It may also represent in AmE pronunciation of Oedipus, (o)esophagus (also in BrE), and (o)estrogen, in boehmite (AmE) and surnames like Boehner and Groening (as if spelled Bayner and Gray/Greyning respectively), and in foetus (BrE and CoE) and some speakers' pronunciation of Oedipus and oestrogen.
It represents /u/ in Afrikaans and Dutch, e.g. doen; it also represented the same phoneme in the Indonesian language before the 1972 spelling reform.
In French, it is ligatured to ⟨œ⟩ and stands for the vowels /œ/ (as in œil /œj/) and /e/ (as in œsophage /ezɔfaʒ ~ øzɔfaʒ/). Unligatured ⟨oe⟩ is used in the word moelle, where it represents /wa/.
It is an alternative way to write ⟨ö⟩ or ⟨ø⟩ in German or Scandinavian languages when this character is unavailable.
In romanization of Wu Chinese and in Royal Thai General System of Transcription, it represents /ɤ/.
P
⟨p'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /pʼ/.
⟨pf⟩ is used in English for in German loanwords, e.g. Pfizer.
In German, it is used for the affricate /pf/, e.g. Pferd "horse", Apfel "apple", and Knopf "button".
⟨ph⟩ in used in English and French for /f/, mostly in words derived from Greek, but also some words derived from Vietnamese.
In Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh it represents the lenition/aspiration of ⟨p⟩.
It represents /f/ in Vietnamese, where ⟨f⟩ is not used.
⟨pl⟩ is used in the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, for /pˡ/.
⟨pm⟩ is used for /ᵖm/ in Arrernte.
⟨pn⟩ is used in English for initially in words of Greek origin such as pneumatic.
⟨pp⟩ is used in romanized Korean for the fortis sound /p͈/, and in Cypriot Arabic for /pʰː/. It was used in Portuguese until 1947, e.g. guardanappo, appa and mappelido.
⟨ps⟩ is used in English and Portuguese for /s/ initially in words of Greek origin such as psyche (English) and Psychòtico (Portuguese).
In Shona it represents a whistled sibilant cluster /ps͎/.
⟨pt⟩ is used in several languages for /t/ in words of Greek origin, where it was /pt/, e.g. in English pterosaur .
⟨pw⟩ is used in Arrernte for /pʷ/.
Q
⟨q'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /qʼ/.
⟨qg⟩ is used in Naro for the click /ǃχ/. It was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless alveolar click /ǃ/.
⟨qh⟩ is used in various alphabets. In Quechua and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, it represents /qʰ/. In Xhosa, it represents the click /ǃʰ/.
⟨qk⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless alveolar click /ǃ/ (equivalent to ⟨qg⟩).
⟨qq⟩ is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for ejective /qʼ/. In Hadza it represents the glottalized click /ᵑǃˀ/.
⟨qu⟩ is used in Aragonese, Asturian, Catalan, French, Galician, Mirandese, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish for /k/ before ⟨e, i⟩, where ⟨c⟩ represents /θ/ (Castilian Spanish, Asturian, Aragonese and most of Galicia) or /s/ (Catalan, French, American Spanish, Occitan and Portuguese). In French, ⟨qu⟩ is also usually /k/ before ⟨a, o⟩. In English, it represents in words derived from those languages (e.g., quiche), and in other words, including borrowings from Latin (e.g., quantity).
In German, it represents /kv/.
In the Ossetian Latin alphabet, it was used for /qʷ/.
In Vietnamese it is used to represent /kw/ or /w/.
In Cornish, it represents /kw/.
⟨qü⟩ is used in Catalan and formerly Portuguese for /kw/ before ⟨e, i⟩.
⟨qv⟩ is used in Bouyei for /ˀw/.
⟨qw⟩ is used in some languages for /qʷ/. In Mi'kmaq it represents /xʷ/.
R
⟨rd⟩ is used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara for a retroflex stop, /ʈ/.
In Norwegian and Swedish it represents voiced retroflex plosive, [ɖ].
In Scottish Gaelic it sometimes represents /rˠʃt̪/ when broad, or /rˠʃtʲ/ when slender, though this epenthetic consonant is not found in all dialects.
⟨rh⟩ is used in English for Greek words transliterated through Latin, e.g. rhapsody, rhetoric, and rhythm. These were pronounced in Ancient Greek with a voiceless "r" sound, /r̥/, as in Old English ⟨hr⟩. The digraph may also be found within words, but always at the start of a word component, e.g., "polyrhythmic". German, French, and Interlingua use ⟨rh⟩ in the same way.
In Welsh, it represents a voiceless alveolar trill (r̥), that is a voiceless "r" sound. It can be found anywhere; the most common occurrence in English from Welsh is in the slightly respelled given name "Rhonda".
In Wade-Giles transliteration, ⟨rh⟩ is used for the syllable-final rhotic of Mandarin Chinese.
In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial ⟨rh⟩- indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in /ʐ/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨r⟩-.
In Purépecha, it is a retroflex flap, /ɽ/.
⟨rl⟩ is used in the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, as well in Norwegian and Swedish, for a retroflex lateral /ɭ/.
In Greenlandic, it represents /ɬː/ as the result of an assimilation of a consonant cluster with a uvular consonant as the first component.
S
⟨sc⟩ is used in Italian for /ʃː/ before the front vowel letters ⟨e, i⟩. It is used for /s/ in Catalan, Latin American Spanish, French, English, Occitan and Brazilian Portuguese (e.g. French/English reminiscence, Spanish reminiscencia, Brazilian Portuguese reminiscência, Catalan reminiscència, Occitan reminiscéncia); in European Portuguese this changed to /ʃ/ in the early 20th century, although in careful speech it can be /ʃs/. However, it represents in modern pronunciations of crescent in British and non-Canadian Commonwealth English. In Old English it usually represented /ʃ/.
⟨sç⟩ is used in French for /s/ in a few verb forms such as simple past acquiesça /akjɛsa/. It is also used in Portuguese as in the imperative/conjunctive form of verbs ending with ⟨scer⟩: crescer cresça. Still pronounced /s/ in Brazilian Portuguese, in European Portuguese this changed to /ʃ/ in the early 20th century, although in careful speech it can be /ʃs/.
⟨sg⟩ is used in Piedmontese and Corsican for /ʒ/.
⟨sh⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it represents . See separate article. See also ⟨ſh⟩ below, which has the capitalized forms SH and ŞH.
⟨si⟩ is used in English for in words such as fusion (see yod-coalescence).
In Polish, it represents /ɕ/ whenever it precedes a vowel, and /ɕi/ whenever it precedes a consonant (or at the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ⟨ś⟩ appearing in other situations.
In Welsh ⟨si⟩ is used for /ʃ/ as in siocled /ʃɔklɛd/ ('chocolate').
⟨sj⟩ is used Swedish to write the sje sound /ɧ/ (see also ⟨sk⟩) and in Faroese, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch to write the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/.
⟨sk⟩ is used in Swedish to write the sje sound /ɧ/. It takes by rule this sound value before the front vowels (⟨e, i, y, ä, ö⟩) word or root initially (as in sked (spoon)), while normally representing /sk/ in other positions. In Norwegian and Faroese, it is used to write the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ (only in front of ⟨i, y, ei, øy/oy⟩).
T
⟨t'⟩ is used in Nuxalk for /tʼ/.
⟨tc⟩ is used for the palatal click /ǂ/ in Naro, and to write the affricate /tʃ/ in Sandawe, Hadza and Juǀʼhoan.
⟨tf⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiceless dental affricate /t͡θ/
⟨tg⟩ is used for /tχ/ in Naro. In Catalan, it represents /d͡ʒ/.
In Romansh orthographies it represents the Alveolo-palatal consonant /tɕ/.
⟨th⟩ is used in several languages. In English, it can represent , or . See article. See also: Pronunciation of English th.
⟨ti⟩, before a vowel, is usually pronounced /sj/ in French and /tsj/ in German and is commonly in English, especially in the suffix -tion.
⟨tj⟩ is used in Norwegian and Faroese words like tjære/tjøra ('tar') for /ç/ (Norwegian) and /tʃ/ (Faroese). In the closely related Swedish alphabet, it represents /ɕ/, as in tjära /ˈɕæːɾa/. It is also the standard written form of /tʃ/ in Dutch and was likewise used in Dutch-based orthographies that used to apply for languages in Indonesia and Surinam.
In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop, transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ṯ/ or /ḏ/ depending on voicing. This sound is also written ⟨dj⟩, ⟨ty⟩, ⟨dy⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨j⟩.
In Catalan it represents /d͡ʒ/.
In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the ejective affricate /tʃʼ/.
⟨tk⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the uvularized ejective /tᵡʼ/.
U
⟨u′⟩ is used in Taa for the glottalized or creaky vowel /ṵ/.
⟨ua⟩ is used in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and the Romanized Popular Alphabet used to write Hmong, to represent the diphthong /uə/.
⟨uc⟩ is used in Nahuatl for /kʷ/ before a consonant. Before a vowel, ⟨cu⟩ is used.
⟨ue⟩ is found in many languages. In English, it represents or as in cue or true, respectively.
In German, it is /ʏ/ or /yː/ (equivalent to ⟨ü⟩), appearing mainly in proper nouns.
In Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /yː/ in a non-initial position.
⟨ûe⟩ is used in Afrikaans to represent /œː/.
⟨ug⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik for /ɣʷ/.
⟨uh⟩ is used in Taa for the breathy or murmured vowel /ṳ/. In Nahuatl, it is used for /w/ before a consonant. Before a vowel, ⟨hu⟩ is used.
⟨ui⟩ is sometimes acts as a digraph in English. It represents in fruit, juice, suit and pursuit. However, after ⟨g⟩, the ⟨u⟩ functions as a modifier (marking ⟨g⟩ as rather than ), e.g. guild, guilty, sanguine, Guinea, guide etc.), it is also used for other sounds, in cases of unusual etymological spelling, e.g. circuit, biscuit, build.
In Scots, it represents /ø/, e.g. bluid "blood", duin "done", muin "moon" and spuin "spoon".
In Dutch, it represents the diphthong /œy/.
Irish, it is /ɪ/ after a broad (velarized) consonant.
V
⟨vb⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labiodental flap /ⱱ/.
⟨vg⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless palatal click /ǂ/.
⟨vh⟩ represents /v̤/ in Shona. It was also used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the aspirated palatal click /ǂʰ/.
⟨vk⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless palatal click /ǂ/ (equivalent to ⟨vg⟩).
⟨vn⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the palatal nasal click /ᵑǂ/.
⟨vv⟩ is used in Central Alaskan Yup'ik for /f/.
⟨vr⟩ is used in Quechua.
W
⟨wh⟩ is used in English for , the continuation of the PIE labiovelar */kʷ/ (which became ⟨qu⟩ in Latin and the Romance languages). Most English question words begin with this digraph, hence the terms wh-word and wh-question. In Old English, /hw/ was spelled ⟨huu⟩ or ⟨hƿ⟩, and only the former was retained during the Middle English period, becoming ⟨hw⟩ during the gradual development of the letter ⟨w⟩ during the 14th-17th centuries. In most dialects it is now pronounced , but a distinct pronunciation realized as a voiceless w sound, [ʍ], is retained in some areas: Scotland, central and southern Ireland, southeastern United States, and (mostly among older speakers) in New Zealand. In a few words (who, whose, etc.) the digraph represents universally. For details, see Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩.
In Māori, ⟨wh⟩ represents /ɸ/ or more commonly /f/, with some regional variations approaching /h/ or /hw/.
In the Taranaki region, for some speakers, this represents a glottalized /wʼ/.
In Xhosa, it represents /w̤/, a murmured variant of /w/ found in loan words.
In Cornish, it represents /ʍ/.
⟨wr⟩ is used in English for words which formerly began /wr/, now reduced to /r/ in virtually all dialects.
⟨wu⟩ is used in Mandarin pinyin to write the vowel /u/ in initial position, as in the name Wuhan. It is sometimes found with this value in Romanized Korean as well, as in hanwu.
In Cantonese Romanisation, it is used to represent /wuː/ in an initial position or /uː/ in a non-initial position.
⟨ww⟩ is used in Haida (Bringhurst orthography) for glottalized /ˀw/.
⟨wx⟩ is used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀw/.
X
⟨xc⟩ is used etymologically in Portuguese for /s/ or /ʃ(s)/ before the front vowel letters ⟨e, i⟩.
⟨xf⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labialized fricative /xʷ/.
⟨xg⟩ is used to write the click /ǁχ/ in Naro. It was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless lateral click /ǁ/.
⟨xh⟩ is used in Albanian to write the voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/, as in the surname Hoxha /ˈhɔdʒa/.
In Zulu and Xhosa it represents the voiceless aspirated alveolar lateral click /kǁʰ/, e.g. Xhosa /ˈkǁʰoːsa/.
In Walloon it represents a consonant that is variously /h/, /ʃ/, /ç ~ x/, depending on the dialect.
In Canadian Tlingit it represents /χ/, which is represented by ⟨x̱⟩ in Alaska.
⟨xi⟩ is used in English for in words such as flexion. (It is equivalent to ⟨c⟩ plus the digraph ⟨ti⟩, as in action.)
⟨xk⟩ was used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless lateral click /ǁ/ (equivalent to ⟨xg⟩).
⟨xö⟩ is used as a letter of the Seri alphabet, where it represents a labialized uvular fricative, /χʷ/. It is placed between ⟨x⟩ and ⟨y⟩ in alphabetical order.
⟨xs⟩ is used etymologically in Portuguese. In the word exsudar /ˌe.su.ˈda(ʁ)/ in Brazilian Portuguese, it stands for /s/. In European Portuguese this digraph changed to /ʃs/ in the early 20th century and the word came to be pronounced as /ɐjʃ.su.ˈðaɾ/.
Y
⟨ye⟩ used in various languages. In English it represents word finally, e.g. bye or dye.
⟨yh⟩ was used in the pre-1985 orthography of Guinea, for the "ejective y" or glottalic palatal approximant [ˀj] or [j̰] in Pular (a Fula language) and Hausa. In the current orthography it is now written ⟨ƴ⟩. In Xhosa it represents /j̤/. In a handful of Australian languages, it represents a "dental semivowel".
⟨yi⟩ is used in Mandarin pinyin to write /i/ when it forms an entire syllable.
⟨yk⟩ is used in Yanyuwa for a pre-velar stop, /ɡ̟ ~ k̟/.
⟨ym⟩ is used in French to write /ɛ̃/ (/im/ before another vowel), as in thym /tɛ̃/ "thyme".
⟨yn⟩ is used in French to write /ɛ̃/ in some words of Greek origin, such as syncope /sɛ̃kɔp/ "syncope".
⟨yr⟩ is used in Pinyin to write the trilled vowel /r̝/ in languages such as Yi.
⟨yu⟩ is used in romanized Chinese to write the vowel /y/ present in most dialects. In Mandarin pinyin it is used for /y/ in initial position, whereas in Cantonese Jyutping it is used for /yː/ in non-initial position. In the Yale romanization of Cantonese and Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /jyː/ in an initial position and /yː/ in a non-initial position.
⟨yw⟩ is used for /jʷ/ in Arrernte and for doubly articulated /ɥ/ in Yélî Dnye.
It is used in Cornish for the diphthongs /iʊ/, /ɪʊ/, or /ɛʊ/.
⟨yx⟩ in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /ˀj/.
⟨yy⟩ is used in some languages such as Finnish to write the long vowel /yː/.
Z
⟨zh⟩ represents the voiced postalveolar fricative (/ʒ/), like the ⟨s⟩ in pleasure, in Albanian, Kirundi, Xhosa, Sotho, Venda, Swazi, and Native American orthographies such as Ojibwe, Navajo and other Athabaskan languages (Dene, Dogrib, North and South Slavey, Kaska, Hän, Gwich'in and Dena'ina).
It is used for the same sound in some English-language dictionaries, as well as to transliterate the sound when represented by Cyrillic ⟨ж⟩ and Persian ⟨ژ⟩ into English, but is rarely seen in English words, appearing primarily in foreign borrowings (e.g. muzhik) and slang (e.g. zhoosh).
It is found in Breton in words that are pronounced with /z/ in some dialects and /h/ in others.
In Hanyu Pinyin, ⟨zh⟩ represents the voiceless retroflex affricate /tʂ/.
When Malayalam and Tamil are transliterated into the Latin script, ⟨zh⟩ represents a retroflex approximant (Malayalam ഴ and Tamil ழ ⟨ḻ⟩ [ɻ]).
⟨zi⟩ in Polish represents /ʑ/ whenever it precedes a vowel, and /ʑi/ whenever it precedes a consonant (or in the end of the word), and is considered a graphic variant of ⟨ź⟩ appearing in other situations.
⟨zl⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiced lateral fricative /ɮ/.
⟨zr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ʐ/.
⟨zs⟩ is the last (forty-fourth) letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its name is zsé [ʒeː] and represents /ʒ/, a voiced postalveolar fricative, similar to ⟨j⟩ in Jacques and beside ⟨s⟩ in vision. A few examples are rózsa "rose" and zsír "fat".
⟨zv⟩ is used in Shona to write the whistled sibilant /z͎/. This was written ⟨ɀ⟩ from 1931 to 1955.
Other
⟨ɛn⟩, capital ⟨Ɛn⟩, is used in many West African languages for the nasal vowel /ɛ̃/. ⟨ɛ⟩ is an "open e".
⟨ɔn⟩, capital ⟨Ɔn⟩, is used in many West African languages for the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/. ⟨ɔ⟩ is an "open o".
⟨œu⟩, capital ⟨Œu⟩, is used in French for the vowels /œ/ and /ø/. The first element of the digraph, ⟨œ⟩, is itself is a ligature of ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩, and ⟨œu⟩ may also be written as the trigraph ⟨oeu⟩.
⟨ŋg⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ᵑɡ/.
⟨ŋk⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ᵑk/.
⟨ŋm⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the labial-velar nasal /ŋ͡m/.
⟨ŋv⟩, capital ⟨Ŋv⟩, was used for /ŋʷ/ in the old orthography of Zhuang and Bouyei; this is now spelled with the trigraph ⟨ngv⟩.
⟨ŋʼ⟩ is used in Adzera for the prenasalized glottal stop /ⁿʔ/.
⟨ſh⟩, capital ⟨SH⟩ or sometimes ⟨ŞH⟩, was a digraph used in the Slovene Bohorič alphabet for /ʃ/. The first element, ⟨ſ⟩, the long s, is an archaic non-final form of the letter ⟨s⟩.
⟨ǃʼ⟩ ⟨ǀʼ⟩ ⟨ǁʼ⟩ ⟨ǂʼ⟩ are used in Juǀʼhoan for its four glottalized nasal clicks, /ᵑǃˀ, ᵑǀˀ, ᵑǁˀ, ᵑǂˀ/.
⟨ǃg⟩ ⟨ǀg⟩ ⟨ǁg⟩ ⟨ǂg⟩ are used in Khoekhoe for its four tenuis clicks, /ǃ, ǀ, ǁ, ǂ/.
⟨ǃh⟩ ⟨ǀh⟩ ⟨ǁh⟩ ⟨ǂh⟩ are used in Khoekhoe for its four aspirated nasal clicks, /ᵑ̊ǃʰ, ᵑ̊ǀʰ, ᵑ̊ǁʰ, ᵑ̊ǂʰ/, and in Juǀʼhoan for its plain aspirated clicks, /ǃʰ, ǀʰ, ǁʰ, ǂʰ/.
