Update:
2020-08-23 06:20 PM -0400
TIL
Romabama rules
- a transcription-transliteration system
for BEPS (Burmese-English-Pali-Sanskrit)
languages:
name changed from Introduction to Romabama on 2020July01
RBM-rule4.htm
by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.),
Daw Khin Wutyi, B.Sc., and staff of Tun
Institute of Learning (TIL). Not for
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RBM-rules-indx.htm
Rule 04. - vowels
01. Silent e and <e> as part of
digraph <ei>
02. Graphemes with regular English
vowels, a, e, i, o, u
: refer to my notes on
a, ä, á,
æÑ , Æ/È ,
AI ,
e, é, É,
è, È ,
i, iän, ïn~,
í/é,
ín, ìn, I,
iRRi ,
o,
OA ,
u, U,
UKT 200812: One important obstacle which I had not anticipated became
obvious in assigning
disyllabic words which begin with English vowels (a, e, i, o, u) into the
family of AK-BNK5.
UKT notes
• Latin-digraphs - vowels
Contents of this page
UKT 200820: One question that's nagging me is on Silent e or Magic e
- the darling of kindergarten teachers. Does it belong to English vowels - a, e,
i, o, u - or to something else.?
From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_e 200820
"In English orthography, many words feature
a silent 〈e〉 (single, final,
non-syllabic <e>), most commonly at the end
of a word or morpheme. Typically it represents a
vowel sound that was formerly pronounced, but became
silent* in late Middle English or Early Modern English. //
In a large class of words, as a consequence of a
series of historical sound changes, including
the Great Vowel Shift, the
presence of a suffix on the end of a word influenced the development of the
preceding vowel, and in a smaller number of cases it affected the
pronunciation of a preceding consonant. When the inflection disappeared
in speech, but remained as a historical remnant in the spelling, this
silent
〈e〉 was reinterpreted synchronically as a marker of the surviving
sounds. ... ... ..."
* UKT 200821: English grammarians or philologists have a habit of making
letters which they could no longer handle to be simply silent.
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter 200822
"In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that,
in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's
pronunciation. ... ... ... One of the noted difficulties of English spelling
is a high number of silent letters.
Edward Carney distinguishes different kinds of "silent" letters, which
present differing degrees of difficulty to readers."
I got the cue from the above "when the inflection disappeared in speech"
that the Britannic languages and even culture (such as beliefs in magical
spells and dragons, dragon-killer "Saint George") was somehow connected to
ancient Burma (city of Tagaung and Maung Pauk Kyeing). Note that English has a
thibilant «þa.» /θ/ same as Burmese
{þa.}. In the middle of the connection is the country of Georgia, its patron
saint - St. George, and the circularly rounded script with თ «Tan» which
uncannily resembles Bur-Myan
{ta.} in shape and in sound. Were the Britannic languages un-inflected like the
Burmese? These could be changed by Alfred the Great who with his Christian and
Latin missionary zeal, must have suppressed the uninflected speeches and
beliefs. The disappearance of inflection in speech must have occurred
when the English people had undergone Renaissance together with other
Europeans, and recovered their roots.
• e without diacritic (the "silent e"
aka the "magic e") will be
used occasionally for sounds of vowels
followed by "killed" consonants. This is
equivalent to split vowels in both
¤ Bangla-Bengali ো (U09CB) and
ৌ (U09CC), and
¤ Bur-Myan
{au:} and
{au}.
The English-Latin "silent-E"
or the "magic-E" may be
looked upon as a split-vowel similar
to those in Bangla-Bengali and Bur-Myan.
Thus, into the split vowel, < i--e>,
the consonant <d> is dropped to
give <ide> in <tide>.
However, since both IPA and in Skt-Dev, do not use split vowels , I have avoided
them in Romabama.
Silent e usually obscures the end sounds.
For instance that the ending in <kate>
is a non-nasal <t> sound and that
<kane> ends in <n> a nasal sound, is not obvious. Whether the ending is a
non-nasal or a nasal is important in Bur-Myan.
{kait} {kate} /keɪt/
{kain} {kane} /keɪn/
{lain} {lane} /leɪn/
Note: Similar to the Vowels, Nasal endings can be realized
in three registers:
{kain.},
{kain},
{kain:}
{lain.},
{lain},
{lain:}.
• however, an <e> forming part of
the nuclear vowel is not to be confused with
the silent e.
{keik} /kaɪk/ and
{leik} /laɪk/
-- the <e> present here is
part of the nuclear vowel-digraph <ei>.
It is a monophthong.
Do not forget that nasal endings can be
realized in three registers:
(Remember {ng} stands for IPA / ŋ/
and that <g> is silent.
Noting how
{kûn}
is spelled, there would be no confusion if we
were to drop the <g> from {ng}.). Extending this idea, we arrived at:
{keín.},
{keín},
{keín:}
{leín.},
{leín},
{leín}
-- the <e> present here is part
of the peak vowel-digraph <ei>.
(Contrast with
{kín.},
{kín},
{kín:}.)
The absence of a letter standing for the sound
of /ŋ/ is one of un-surmountable problems
of transliteration.
{kauk} -- here <au> is the nuclear vowel-digraph.
It is not a diphthong: it is a monophthongal digraph.
Contents of this page
UKT 200817:
See my notes on digraphs in Romabama, taken from Wiki#1
Latin-digraphs
Vowels are, by definition, always
pronounceable - e.g. syllabic. There is no
difference between letter and
syllable in the following. In Bur-Myan - a pitch-register language -
there are 3 kinds or registers which differ in time of duration: 1
eye-blink, 2 blnk, and 3 blnk (or 2 blnk with emphasis - emphatic 2 blnk).
I'll sometimes call the "register" as "tone" which is more familiar but not
accurate.
In Mon-Myan, we also find 3 kinds but the not the same as in Bur-Myan. The kinds of
Mon-Myan vowels are: 1/2 blnk, 1 blnk, and 2 blnk.
To reconcile Bur-Myan and
Mon-Myan, I've propose a unified system, which works well wih English-Latin,
and Sanskrit-Devanagari.
Contents of this page
letter a
{a.}/{aa.}
syllable:
{a.},
{a},
{a:}
Contents of this page
letter ä
{än}
syllable:
{än.},
{än}, ... ,
• ä (Alt0228) (Latin small letter A with
diaeresis or 'double-dot'), nasal sounds
with "Dot-above"
{þé:þé:tïn}
{än} sign
. Do not be confused with "Dot-below"
{auk-mric} - MLC MED2006-620.
{a.þän} - voice, sound, noise - MED2010-599
{a.häin-þa.ka.} -
'not being cruel' -
UHS-PMD0153
{þoän:} - numeral three
Also see my notes on <än>
Contents of this page
letter á
{re:hkya. a·þût}
syllable
{át}/{aat}
UKT 200818: What I need here is "long a". If only ā had
been an ASCII character there would have been no need for á
(Alt0225). For long vowels "double characters" such as aa , ii
, uu might be an option.
• á (Alt0225) for denoting
{re:hkya. a·þût}
ending in a killed non-nasal, such as in
{aat} . The alternative is not to use á , but to use aa :
{Daat-hsi} - petrol, gasoline -- MED2010-218
I usually write <aa> for this. Though
convenient, it is not always suitable for
writing vowels ending in killed non-nasals,
and á (Alt0225) is sometimes used. The suggestion using of r in
{Dart-hsi} has been ruled out, because there is no r sound involved.
Contents of this page
letter æÑ
{Ña.kri:þût}
syllable
{þæÑ.}
{þæÑ}
{þæÑ:}
• æ (Alt0230) commonly called "English short a" is used in combination with Ñ
(Alt0209) to denote
killed-Nya-major
{Ña.kri:þût} as in
{kyæÑ}.
See UKT notes: <æ>
UKT 150410, 151222. Transcription of two common
words, "Myanmarpré"
{mrûn-ma-præÑ} and "Naypyidaw"
{né-præÑ-tau} is never satisfactory, because
of the front mid-vowel (tentatively represented
by æ ) checked by
{Ña.kri:þût}.
The most responsible akshara
is r2c5 Bur-Myan Nya-major
{Ña.}. Being a c5 it had been identified
as a nasal similar to Nya-minor
{ña.}. That brought up a problem with
r2c5 cell of the Myanmar akshara matrix.
There were two contenders for the same cell,
Nya-major
{Ña.kri:}, and Nya-minor
{ña.}. It is well-known to native Bur-Myan speakers that
{Ña.kri:þût} never ends in a nasal sound, whereas
{ña.lé:þût} ends in a nasal sound. This fact identifies
Nya-major
{Ña.kri:} to be the Palatal-approximant,
similar to the Velar-approximant
{ya.} /j/
leaving
Nya-minor
{ña.} is the sole occupier of r2c5 cell.
I am now left with the problem of pronouncing
the English æ (Alt0230) & Æ
(Alt0198), for which I have to rely on
Daniel Jone's Pronouncing Dictionary DJPD16-009 -
DJPD16-indx.htm >
let-a.htm (link chk 151222)
We see the statement on p9. "The vowel digraph
[ae] is a fairly low-frequency spelling.
In some cases, the American spelling of words
containing [ae] omits the [a], e.g. in
<aesthetic>, which is spelt in American
English as <esthetic> ". Using
æ is a problem in itself, and I have
been looking for other digraphs.
Consider the word,
{kyæÑ-hsûn} - cartridge, shell - MED2010-034.
[The frequently used
{kyéÑ hsän} is not entirely incorrect, though allowed by the noted grammarian Shin Kic'si.]
Analysing the mid-vowels have been difficult
because English has only /e/ for the front,
and /ɔ/ (known as "open O")
for the back. We will have to leave the
back mid-vowels for a while and concentrate
on the front vowels
{è:} and
{é} to solve the problem of
{Ña.kri:þût}.
Checking the vowel
{é} or
{É} by killed-consonants has always been difficult
for me since childhood. This checking is
found in commonly and frequently used words
such as:
{é}:
{hké} -->
{hkít} 'Times' or 'Era'
{é}:
{þé} -->
{þít~ta} 'box'
{è:}: ? -->
{ÉÑ.þæÑ} 'guest'
Now throw in the Mon-Myan
{ou}
, and I am stumped!
See: Mon-Myan Language: Speech and Script
-
MonMyan-indx.htm >
spk-all-indx.htm (link chk 200812),
and go to
spk-all01.htm
The problem becomes compounded when Bur-Myan
Nya-major
{Ña.} is involved, because it had been
thought to be a nasal. It is true that Nya-minor
{ña.} is a nasal, and a Palatal-nasal at that.
However, by taking Nya-major
{Ña.} to be the Palatal-approximant sitting
side-by-side with the Velar-approximant Yapalak
{ya.} /j/, the problem of two aksharas vying
for the same cell r2c5 is solved. See
Rime and Rhyme in - Romabama-rule1.htm
(link chk 200812)
Contents of this page
letter Æ checking Vowel-Letter
{É}
syllable
{ÆÑ}
• Æ (Alt0198) in combination with Ñ (Alt0209)
to denote spellings involving vowel-letter
{ÆÑ} , e.g.,
{ÆÑ.þæÑ} - guest - MED2010-625
UKT 200817: formerly, I used to write
{éÑ.þæÑ}, where vowel letter
{é} is checked by killed-Nya-major.
Being a vowel letter belonging to the group of vowel letters, { I }, {U},
should have been written { É }, and the nuclear vowel should have been written either as
{ÆÑ}
I still have to make a choice between
{ÆÑ.þæÑ}, {ÈÑ.þæÑ}, or even {éÑ} for
.
Contents of this pagec
letter AI checking Vowel-Letter
{I.}
syllable:
{AIk~ka.}
UKT 200818:
• cap i is used to represent vowel-letters
{I.} (1 eye-blnk) and
{I} (2 blnk). They are the allophones of IPA /i/ and in colloquial Bur-Myan are 
{i.} and
{
i }. There are no vowel-letter for
{i:}.
The letter AI is the nuclear vowel
{Ñu-k~li þa.ra.} for syllables ending in Pali-conjuncts
{paaHT hsín.}. I became aware of this when I was studying Burmese Traditional
Medicine:
The pronunciation of the name Bur-Myan
{aiþ~þa.ra.mu-li} &
Skt-Dev इसरमूल
(Aristolochia indica
Nagathain vol. 4, p.061) is always a problem
because the vowel used is the vowel letter
{I.} & इ with the pronunciation
/
{i.}/. If we were to include the vowel letter, we get
{AIþ~þa.mu-li}.
There are over 100 entries of this category in
UHS PMD0189-0197.
The first entry is:
{AIk~ka.} - m. bear - UHS PMD0189-c2
Contents of this page
UKT 200818:
Note that usual Eng-Latin definitions of diacritics
do not apply in Romabama. For example,
é (Alt0201) is given as the 'Latin small
letter E with acute accent' and è (Alt0232)
as the 'Latin small letter E with grave
accent. In Romabama they simply stand for
mid-front vowels, é being more 'close' than è.
Eng-Lat has
only one vowel e for two of Bur-Myan:
1.
Thawehto-é
{é}, and 2. a-Naukpic
{è}.
To make up for this deficit in Eng-Lat, I just use the French-Lat, é and è. I
was quite happy until I venture into Mon-Myan which needs another vowel to
correspond to one of the Skt-Dev ओ औ pair. I've tentatively chosen
a-Shépyit
.
On second thought, maybe I should include the Recha
.
See also graphemes æ (Alt0230) and
Æ (Alt0198) above.
In Pali-Myan, there is only one
{a.þûN}-pair, traditionally given as e and o . Since, o is
also used for Bur-Myan words such as
{ko}, I've been trying to find one for Pali-Myan o , as in Gotama
Buddha. The spelling for the Buddha is now Gautama in accordance with the
Skt-Dev spelling Siddhārtha Gautama.
I must simply admit that the
{a.þûN} vowels are in a mess.
Contents of this page
letter é (Alt0233) for
{é}
syllable {hkét}/{hkít}
UKT 200818: See í/é
The Bur-Myan term for "Age, Period, or Time" is
{hkét}. However the pronunciation is close to {hkít}. The vowel Thawehto
{þa.wé-hto:} /e/ is on the left of the
{hka.} (name
{hka.hkwé:}-akshara). The vowel /e/ is on the left, suggests the influence of
south Indian usage in Bur-Myan. Was it always the case?
Or was it due to influence of Pali? Since, the Thawehto
{þa.wé-hto:} is not only on the left but also on the same level as consonants,
it sometimes plays havoc when a new learner of the language is trying to spell
his words. Because of this defect I've suggested the use of Super-Thawehto as in
. See its effect on the Motto of Shin Kic-si.
Contents of this page
letter É
{É} and for vowel-letter in fossilized
characters
{É}
{É-ka.} - acre -- MED2010-613
{nhÉIk} derived from
{nheik}
{rwÉ} derived from
{ruèý} pronounced as
/
{rwé.}/
{iÉ} derived from
{é.} -->
{i.}
{lÉ-kaung:} derived from
{læÑ-kaung:}
UKT 121202, 150411: The
writers-on-palm-leaves, had always
a reason to economise on space, and
had used
{lÉ-kaung:} to save space. You will note
that the shape of Bur-Myan numeral Four
{lé:} pronounced as
{lé:} 'bow' has the same shape as the first part of
{lÉ-kaung:}. I have seen such shortened
form. e.g.
{þæÑ} written as
- which of course is not legal. When the word
{þæÑ} is used as a sentence ender, the readers can easily identify it.
Contents of this page
{è:maung:} - n. ¹.
lance adorned with a long tassel used
by the royal cavalry.
². gong used in ancient times
to alert soldiers at night.
- MED2010-615
{èý:.} (1/2 blk);
{èý} (2 blk);
{è:} (2 blk + emphasis)
The Romabama {:.} is derived from Tamil visarga
ஃ (U+0B83).
UKT 150411:
{è:maung:} with
{è:} (2 blk + emphasis) is a Bur-Myan word.
Since Mon-Myan has no register with emphasis,
the word is not Mon-Myan.
Contents of this page
UKT 200818: Comparison of the table of Vowel-Letters and that of ordinary vowels
which uses Vowel-Signs with {a.} as the dummy character, shows Vowel-Letters
being spelled with capital letters and Vowel-Signs using small capital letters:
{I.} { I } corresponding to {i.} {i}, {U.} {U} to {u.} {u}, {É} to {é}, and
{AU:} to {au:} . However, there is no Vowel-Letter to correspond to {è:} and the
use of {È} is therefore contrary to my own convention.
{a.Daip~pÈý}/{a.Daip~paèý} - meaning, sense - MED2010-565
Consider,
{a.Daip~pÈý} just as an exception for the present.
Contents of this page
letter i
{i.}
syllable
{i.}
{i}
{i:}
Contents of this page
letter iän
{i.} modified by dot-above
• iän (i + Alt0228) - a difficult and controversial
vowel is met in Skt-Myan
{þiän~ha.} सिंह - the
equivalent of
{þi-ha.} 'lion'. Note the rendering of the syllable
सिं = स ि ं
. Change of order: स
ं ि --> संि will not
give you सिं . It shows that
{i.} is the main syllable which has been modified by Dot-above
{þé:þé:tín}. I doubt that
{i.} can be modified by Dot-below
{auk-mric}
.
Contents of this page
letter ïn~ reserved for
{kín:si:}
• ï (Alt0239), n and ~ (Tilde) is used to represent
{kín:si:}
:
the term literally means 'ridden by a centipede'
and stands for a rime ending in killed
{gna.}/
{ng} :
{ ïn~ga.laip} - n. English
- MED2010-622
Contents of this page
letter í/é reserved for checking vowel /e/
UKT 200819 See above é
• í (Alt0237) for denoting
{þa.wé-hto: a-þût} /e/ as
{hkít} - n. ¹. extent; domain
². age; period; era; times - MED2010-064
- sounds like /kʰɪt/ - UKT100615
UKT 200524: Though í is suitable for present-day pronunciation of
{hkít}, it does not show its relation to checking of
. I'm now thinking of spelling
as {hkét} as an alternative.
UKT 161007: If only the effect of killed-{sha.} was similar to that of killed-{sa.},
a pronunciation similar to
{ic} will be realized.
See
-
MC-indx.htm >
MCv1pp-indx.htm > p004.htm
(link chk 161007).
Contents of this page
letter ín reserved for
{gna.þût}
UKT 200819: Being unable to find a suitable monograph for
{gna.}/
{ng},
I've decided to go after the Nuclear vowel
{Ñu-k~li þa.ra.} preceding it by use of a convention
covering most of the nasal endings.
Contents of this page
letter ìn reserved for checking long vowel
{re:hkya. a·þût}
• ì (Alt0236) for denoting
{re:hkya. a·þût}
ending in a killed Nyalé as in
{ ìñ}
{yìñ} - n. vehicle;
craft - MED2010-386
letter I
Vowel-Letters of /i/
UKT 200819: Vowel-Letters are important in Pali-Myan. The first two
vowel-letters are
{I.} and
{I} - the allophones of /i/. They they are not checked by consonants in
Bur-Myan, there are over a hundred of entries in UHS PMD where the
{I.} is checked by {þaaHT-hsín.}.
See
AI
Contents of this page
letter iRRi
highly rhotic Skt-Dev vowels
- UKT 140512, 150412, 151223, 200819
Though commonly known as Vocalic R are not
consonants but vowels not related to /r/.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%9A_(Indic) 200819
" ... As an Indic vowel, R comes in two
normally distinct forms:
1) as an independent letter, and
2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant."
There are two Skt-Dev vowels not present in
Bur-Myan. One produces the highly rhotic
Sanskrit sounds commonly found in Skt-Dev
texts of Classical Sanskrit of Panini.
There is another opposing pair with lateral sounds ऌ {iLi.} & ॡ {iLi}. They are said to be
present in Védic, but almost unknown in Classical Sanskrit.
The following scheme is from A Practical
Sanskrit Introductory by Charles Wikner
http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/index.html 110528
• The Skt-Dev grapheme of the Classical Sanskrit
ऋ is realized in words like the
Rig ऋक् of Rig veda.
How to represent this sound graphically has
been a problem for some time. I was thinking to use
{yRi.} [With this note, I remember my old
Organic Chemistry lecturer from Kerala State
in India, Mr. B. K. Menon, who always pronounce <yellow>
as <ellow>.] However, it is now
realized that the best way is
{iRi.} (1 blk) &
{iRi} (2 blk), because it is vowel by itself.
By taking
{iRi} &
{iRi} to be vowels, gives the vowel-signs as
(1 blk) &
(2 blk).
Contents of this page
letter o - vowel
syllable 
{o.},
{o},
{o:}
• ô (Alt0244) (Latin small letter O with
circumflex) - alternate form for
{o} .
See also consonants
v , w,
UKT 081012, 150412, 200819:
One of the principle objections MLC U Tun Tint has
made against Romabama is the choice of <o> for
.
He points out that <o> is the accepted MLC
transcription for
{AU} commonly pronounced as
/
{au:}/.
To remove such objections we may use:
{ô} (081012) . However, the spelling
"Ko Tun Tint" is undoubtedly more
natural and convenient than "Kou Tun Tint"
or "Kô Tun Tint".
Now that Mon-Myan vowel
{ou}
has been included in BEPS, the above problem is partially solved.
There is no
{ou} in Bur-Myan, but we find it in Mon-Myan. Now listen to the
-
{þa.wuN}-pair
- bk-cndl-v1pair<)) (link chk
200819)
-
{a.þa.wuN}-pair
- bk-cndl-v2pair<)) (link chk
200819)
Contents of this page
• *OA (digraph) for use in place of
{U.} for peak vowels in syllables without
consonants in the onset. Be careful of
the difference in grapheme shapes
between vowel-letter
{U.} and palatal nasal consonant
{ña.}. The difference in shape is in the
lengths of the foot. This difference in
shape could not be shown in days of the
hand operated typewriters and even to
the present day by most typesetters with the
result that both are represented the same:
(foot-length the same).
{OAc~sa} - n. property;
possession - MED2010-625
• * OÄN (trigraph) (Alt0196) for exclusive use
{OÄN}
UKT 150412:
{OÄN} is a very important syllable in
Skt-Myan but not in Pal-Myan. It is
the first utterance in Hindu (religion),
and (Hindu-tainted) Buddhist prayers.
For pure Theravada Buddhist prayers,
the first utterance is
{aún:}. (Hindu-tainted) Buddhist prayers
are usually met in Astrological prayers.
• OU (digraph). With the inclusion of Mon-Myan,
I have to come up with a sound,
{ou:}, that is not present in Bur-Myan. The
following note is taken from:
¤ Mon-Myan Language: Speech and Script
-
MonMyan-indx.htm >
spk-all-indx.htm >
spk-all01.htm (link chk 151222)
You will notice two sets of vowels in both
Bur-Myan & Mon-Myan:
{þa.wuN} 'beautiful matching pair' and the
second
{a.þa.wuN} 'ugly non-matching pair'. There
are three sub-pairs in
{þa.wuN}, in which the first sub-pair is the
short (vow-duration 1 blk), and the second
the long (2 blk).
Similarly, there are three sub-pairs in
{a.þa.wuN}, in which the first sub-pair
{é} &
{è:}, does not have such a beautiful
relationship. The problem becomes more acute
in second sub-pair because Bur-Myan has
{au:} only. There is no
{ou} in Bur-Myan, but we find it in Mon-Myan. Now listen to the
-
{þa.wuN}-pair
- bk-cndl-v1pair<)) (link chk 151223)
-
{a.þa.wuN}-pair
- bk-cndl-v2pair<)) (link chk 151223)
Contents of this page
• u (small u) û (Alt0251)
The English <u> has 2 sounds, /ʌ/
and /ʊ/, exemplified in <but>
/bʌt/ (DJPD16-075) and <put>
/pʊt/ (DJPD16-436. To differentiate
them in Romabama, I am using the forms
of u as, <û> for /ʌ/ and <u>
for /ʊ/. Thus,
{bût} /bʌt/
{pwut} /pʊt/
• U (cap U)
Contents of this page
Contents of this page
- UKT 200812
UKT 181120: For comparison, see Wikipedia:
1.
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin-script_digraphs 200817
2. -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin-script_trigraphs 200817
See my notes on digraphs in Romabama, taken from Wiki#1
Latin-digraphs
Though I hate to use digraphs, which are often mistaken for diphthongs, I still
have to use them in Romabama for consonants and vowels. I'm giving
some of them taken from the following Wikipedia article
From: Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin-script_digraphs 200812
〈aa〉 is used in the orthographies of Dutch, Finnish and other languages
with phonemic long vowels for
/aː/, as well as in the orthography of Northumbrian. It was formerly used
in Danish and Norwegian (and still is in some proper names) for the sound
/ɔ/, now spelled 〈å〉.
<æ>
〈ae〉 is used in Irish orthography, where it represents
/eː/ between two "broad" (velarized) consonants, e.g. Gael
/ɡˠeːlˠ/ ('a Gael').
In Latin orthography, 〈ae〉 originally represented the diphthong
/ai/, before it was monophthongized in the Vulgar Latin period to
/ɛ/; in medieval manuscripts, the digraph was frequently replaced by
the ligature 〈æ〉.
UKT 200813: I'm using <æ> for transcribing words with <Ñ> as coda:
-
{ÑæÑ:} - v. ². moan (in pain), groan - MLC MED2006-158c2
-
{næÑ:} - n. method, process, procedure - MLC MED2006-235c2
-
{mæÑ:} - adj. black, dark - MLC MED2006-254c5
In Modern English, Latin loanwords with 〈ae〉 are generally
pronounced with
/iː/ (e.g. Caesar), prompting Noah Webster to shorten this to
〈e〉 in his 1806 spelling reform for American English
In German orthography, 〈ae〉 is a variant of 〈ä〉
found in some proper names or in contexts where 〈ä〉 is
unavailable.
In the Dutch alphabet, 〈ae〉 is an old spelling variant of the 〈aa〉
digraph but now only occurs in names of people or (less often) places and in
a few loanwords from Greek and Latin
Go back <æ>
〈ai〉 is used in many languages, typically representing the diphthong
/aɪ/. In English, as a result of the Great Vowel Shift, the vowel of 〈ai〉
has shifted from this value to
/eɪ/ as in pain and rain, while it may have a sound of
/ə/ in unstressed syllables like bargain and certain(ly),
or
/ɛ/ in the stressed syllable of again(st) (AmE), depending on the
word; while in French, a different change, monophthongization, has
occurred, resulting in the digraph representing
/ɛ/. A similar change has also occurred during the development of Greek,
resulting in 〈αι〉 and the 〈ε〉 both having the same
sound; originally
/ɛ/, later
/e/. In German orthography, it represents
/aɪ/ as in Kaiser (which derived from Latin caesar).
However, most German words use 〈ei〉 for
/aɪ/. In the Kernowek Standard orthography of Cornish, it represents
/eː/, mostly in loanwords from English such as paint.
[1]
〈aí 〉 is used in Irish orthography for
/iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant
〈aî 〉 is used in French orthography for
/ɛː/, as in aînesse
/ɛːnɛs/ or maître
/mɛːtʁ/.
〈ái〉 is used in
Irish orthography for
/aː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
〈ãi〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐ̃ĩ̯/. It has, thus, the same value as 〈ãe〉, but the
latter is much more common.
〈am〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐ̃ũ̯/ at the end of a word,
/ɐ̃/ before a consonant, and
/am/ before a vowel; and in
French orthography for
/ɑ̃/ (/am/
before a vowel).
〈âm〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for a
stressed
/ɐ̃/ before a consonant.
〈an〉 is used in many languages to write a
nasal
vowel. In
Portuguese orthography it is used for
/ɐ̃/ before a consonant, in French it represents
/ɑ̃/, and in many
West
African languages it represents
/ã/.
〈ân〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for a
stressed
/ɐ̃/ before a consonant.
<än>
〈än〉 is used in
Tibetan Pinyin for
/ɛ̃/. It is alternately written
〈ain
002;.
UKT 200813: I'm using <æ> for transcribing words with
{þé:þé:tín}
-
{än} - n. ¹. molar. ². tray, drawer - MLC MED2006-616c2
Go back <än>
〈ån〉 is used in the
Walloon language, for the nasal vowel
/ɔ̃/.
〈aŋ〉 is used in
Lakhota for the nasal vowel
/ã/
〈ao〉 is used in the
Irish orthography for
/iː/ or
/eː/, depending on dialect, between broad consonants. In
French orthography, it is found in a few words such as paonne
representing
/a/. In
Malagasy, it represents
/o/, and in
Piedmontese,
/au̯/. In
Wymysorys, it represents
/a/ (also spelt
〈å〉).[2]
〈ão〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐ̃ũ̯/.
〈aq〉 is used in
Taa
orthography, for the
pharyngealized vowel
/aˤ/.
〈au〉 in
English is a result of various linguistic changes from Middle English,
having shifted from
*/au/ to
/ɔː/. In a number of dialects, this has merged with
/ɑː/. It occasionally represents the diphthong
/aʊ/, as in flautist. Other pronunciations are
/æ/ in North American English aunt and laugh,
/eɪ/ in gauge,
/oʊ/ as in gauche and chauffeur, and
/ə/ as in
meerschaum and restaurant.
In
German and
Dutch, it is used for the diphthongs
/au/ and
/ʌu/ respectively (/au/
in some northern and
/ɔu/ in some southern Dutch and some Flemish dialects).
In
French orthography,
〈au〉 represents
/o/ or sometimes
/ɔ/. It most frequently appears in the inflectional ending marking
plurals of certain kinds of words like cheval ('horse') or canal
('channel'), respectively having a plural in chevaux and canaux.
In
Icelandic orthography, it represents
/œy/.
In the
Kernowek Standard orthography of
Cornish,
〈au〉 stands for long
/ɔː/ or short
/ɔ/, as in caul ('cabbage') or dauncya ('to dance').[1]
〈äu〉 is used in
German orthography for the diphthong
/ɔɪ/ in declension of native words with au; elsewhere,
/ɔɪ/ is written as
〈eu〉. In words where ä|u is separated in two syllables,
mostly of Latin origin,
〈äu〉 is pronounced as
/ɛ.ʊ/, as in
Matthäus (one German form for
Matthew).
〈aû〉 was used in
French orthography but has been replaced by the trigraph eau.
〈aw〉 is used in
English orthography in ways that parallel English
〈au〉, though it appears more often at the end of a
word. In
Cornish,
〈aw〉 represents the diphthong
/aʊ/ or
/æʊ/.[1][3][4][5]
In
Welsh orthography,
〈aw〉 represents the diphthong
/au/.
〈ay〉 is used in
English orthography in ways that parallel English
〈ai〉, though it appears more often at the end of a
word. Unlike
〈ai〉,
〈ay〉 functions almost the same as
〈ey〉 (the
/i:/ sound in key) at the end of variant spellings of names like
Lindsay and Ramsay.
In
French orthography, it is usually used to represent /ɛj/ before a vowel (as
in ayant) and /ɛ.i/ before a consonant (as in pays).
In
Cornish,
〈ay〉 represents the sounds
/aɪ/,
/əɪ/,
/ɛː/, or
/eː/.[1][3][4][5]
〈a...e〉 (a
split digraph) indicates an English
'long a', historically
/a:/ but now most commonly realised as
/eɪ/.
〈e′〉 is used in the orthography of the
Taa
language, where it represents the
glottalized or
creaky
vowel
/ḛ/.
〈ea〉 is used in many
languages.
In
English orthography,
〈ea〉 usually represents the monophthong
/i/ as in meat; due to a
sound change that happened in Middle English, it also often represents the
vowel
/ɛ/ as in sweat. Rare pronunciations occur, like
/eɪ/ in just break, great, steak, and yea,
and
/æ/ in the archaic
ealdorman.
When followed by r, it can represent the standard outcomes of the
previously mentioned three vowels in this environment:
/ɪər/ as in beard,
/ɜːr/ as in heard, and
/ɛər/ as in bear, respectively; as another exception,
/ɑr/ occurs in the words hearken, heart and hearth.
It often represents two independent vowels, like
/eɪ.ɑː/ (seance),
/i.æ/ (reality),
/i.eɪ/ (create), and
/i.ɪ/ or
/i.ə/ (lineage). Unstressed, it may represent
/jə/ (ocean) and
/ɪ/ or
/ə/ (Eleanor). In the
Romanian alphabet, it represents the diphthong
/e̯a/ as in beată ('drunk female'). In
Irish orthography,
〈ea〉 represents
/a/ between a slender and a broad consonant. 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 orthography for
/aː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
〈éa〉 is used in
Irish orthography for
/eː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
〈ee〉 represents a long mid vowel in a number of languages. In
English orthography,
〈ee〉 represents
/iː/ as in teen. In both the
Dutch and
German alphabets,
〈ee〉 represents
/eː/ (though it is pronounced
/eɪ/ in majority of northern Dutch dialects). In
Bouyei,
〈ee〉 is used for plain
/e/, as
〈e〉 stands for
/ɯ/
〈eh〉 is used in the orthography of the
Taa
language 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 alphabet,
〈eh〉 represents
/eː/, as in Reh
〈ei〉 This digraph was taken over from
Middle High German writing systems, where it represented
/eɪ/. It usually represents a
diphthong.
In
Modern German,
〈ei〉 is predominant in representing
/aɪ/, as in Einstein, while the equivalent digraph
〈ai〉 appears in only a few words. In
English orthography,
〈ei〉 can represent many sounds, including
/eɪ/, as in vein,
/i/ as in seize,
/aɪ/ as in heist,
/ɛ/ as in heifer,
/æ/ as in enceinte, and
/ɪ/ or
/ə/ as in forfeit. See also
I before e except after c. In the southern and western
Faroese dialects, it represents the diphthong
/aɪ/, while in the northern and eastern dialects, it represents the
diphthong
/ɔɪ/.
In the
Welsh alphabet,
〈ei〉 represents
/əi/. In the
Irish and
Scottish Gaelic orthographies, it represents
/ɛ/ before a slender consonant. In the
Dutch alphabet and the
Afrikaans alphabet,
〈ei〉 represents
/ɛi/. In
French orthography,
〈ei〉 represents
/ɛ/, as in seiche.
〈eî〉 is used in
French orthography for
/ɛː/, as in reître
/ʁɛːtʁ/.
〈éi〉 is used in
Irish orthography for
/eː/ between slender consonants.
〈ej〉 is used in
Swedish Language in some short words, such as leja
/leːja/ or nej
/nɛj/.
〈em〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word and
/ẽ/ before a consonant. In French orthography, it can represent /ɑ̃/.
〈ém〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word.
〈êm〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word and
/ẽ/ before a consonant.
〈en〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word followed or not by an
/s/ as in hífen or hifens; and for
/ẽ/ before a consonant within a word. In
French orthography, it represents
/ɑ̃/ or
/ɛ̃/.
〈én〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ before a consonant.
〈ên〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ẽ/ before a consonant.
〈eo〉 is used in
Irish orthography for
/oː/ or occasionally
/ɔ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In the
Jyutping
romanization of
Cantonese, it represents
/ɵ/, an allophone of
/œː/. In the
Revised Romanization of Korean,
〈eo〉 represents the
open-mid back unrounded vowel
/ʌ/, and in
Piedmontese it is
/ɛu̯/. In
English orthography
〈eo〉 is a rare digraph without a single pronunciation,
representing
/ɛ/ in
feoff, jeopardy, leopard and the given name Geoffrey,
/iː/ in people,
/oʊ/ in
yeoman and
/juː/ in the archaic
feodary,
while in the originally Gaelic name
MacLeod it
represents
/aʊ/. However, usually it represents two vowels, like
/iː.ə/ in leotard and galleon,
/iː.oʊ/ in stereo and,
/iː.ɒ/ in
geodesy,
and, uniquely,
/uː.iː/ in
geoduck.
〈eq〉 is used in the orthography of the
Taa
language for the
pharyngealized vowel
/eˤ/.
〈eu〉 is found in many
languages,
most commonly for the diphthong
/eu/. Additionally, in
English orthography,
〈eu〉 represents
/juː/ as in neuter (though in yod dropping accents
/uː/ may occur); however, the eu in "maneuver/manoeuvre" always
represents
/uː/ even in most yod retaining accents. In the
German alphabet, it represents
/ɔʏ/ as in Deutsch; and in the
French,
Dutch,
Breton, and
Piedmontese orthographies, it represents
/ø/ as in feu. In
Cornish, it represents either long
/øː ~ œː/ and short
/œ/ or long
/eː/ and short
/ɛ/.[1][3][4][5]
In
Yale romanization of Cantonese it represents
/œː/. In the orthographies of
Sundanese and
Acehnese, both
Austronesian languages, it represents
/ɤ/ as in beureum ('red'). In the
Revised Romanization of Korean, it represents
/ɯ/.
〈eû〉 is used in
French orthography for
/ø/, as in jeûne
/ʒøn/.
〈ew〉 is used in
English orthography for
/juː/ as in few and flew. An exception is the pronunciation
/oʊ/ in sew, leading to the
heteronym sewer,(/ˈsuːər/,
'drain') vs sewer (/ˈsoʊər/,
'one who sews'). In
Cornish, it stands for
/ɛʊ/.[1][3][4][5]
〈êw〉 is used in the
Kernowek Standard orthography of
Cornish to refer to a sound that can be either
/ɛʊ/ or
/oʊ/. This distribution can also be written
〈ôw〉.[1]
〈ey〉 is used in
English orthography for a variety of sounds, including
/eɪ/ in they,
/iː/ in key, and
/aɪ/ in geyser. In the
Faroese alphabet, it represents the diphthong
/ɛɪ/. In
Cornish, it represents the diphthong
/ɛɪ/ or
/əɪ/.[1][3][4][5]
〈e...e〉 (a
split digraph) indicates an English
'long e', historically
/e:/ but now most commonly realised as
/i:/.
〈i′〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the
glottalized or
creaky
vowel
/ḭ/.
〈ie〉 is found in
English, where it usually represents the
/aɪ/ sound as in pries and allied or the
/iː/ sound as in priest and rallied. Followed by an r,
these vowels follow the standard changes to
/aɪə/ and
/ɪə/, as in brier and bier. Unique pronunciations are
/ɪ/ in sieve,
/ɛ/ in friend and
/eɪ/ in lingerie. Unstressed it can represent
/jə/, as in spaniel and conscience, or
/ɪ/ or
/ə/ as in mischief and hurriedly. It also can represent
many vowel combinations, including
/aɪə/ in diet and client,
/aɪɛ/ in diester and quiescent,
/iːə/ in alien and skier,
/iːɛ/ in oriental and hygienic, and
/iːʔiː/ in British medieval.
In
Dutch,
〈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, the
〈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/.
〈îe〉 is used in
Afrikaans for
/əːə/.
〈ig〉 is used in
Catalan for
/t͡ʃ/ in the
coda.
〈ih〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents 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 (Finnish (example:Riikka,
Niinistö, Siitala, Riikkeli), Italian (example:Riina), Estonian (example:Riik),
Scots (example:Auld Nii, Iisay), with phonemic long vowels for
/iː/.
〈ij〉
is used in
Dutch for
/ɛi/. See article.
〈il〉 is used in
French for
/j/, historically
/ʎ/, as in ail
/aj/ "garlic".
〈im〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ĩ/.
〈ím〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ĩ/ before a consonant.
〈in〉 is used in many languages to write a
nasal
vowel. In
Portuguese orthography before a consonant, and in many
West
African languages, it is
/ĩ/, while in French it is
/ɛ̃/.
〈ín〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ĩ/ before a consonant.
〈în〉 is used in
French to write a vowel sound
/ɛ̃/ that was once followed by a historical s, as in vous
vîntes
/vu vɛ̃t/ "you came".
〈iŋ〉 is used in
Lakhota for the nasal vowel
/ĩ/.
〈io〉 is used in
Irish for
/ɪ/,
/ʊ/, and
/iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
〈ío〉 is used in
Irish for
/iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
〈iq〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, it represents the
pharyngealized vowel
/iˤ/.
〈iu〉 is used in
Irish for
/ʊ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Mandarin
pinyin, it is
/i̯ou̯/ after a consonant. (In initial position, this is spelled you.)
〈iú〉 is used in
Irish for
/uː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.
〈iw〉 is used in
Welsh and
Cornish for the diphthong
/iʊ/ or
/ɪʊ/.[3][4][5]
〈ix〉 is used in
Catalan for
/ʃ/ after a vowel.
〈i...e〉 (a
split digraph) indicates an English
'long i', historically
/i:/ but now most commonly realised as
/aɪ/.
〈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 the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the
glottalized or
creaky
vowel
/o̰/.
〈oa〉 is used in
English, where it commonly represents the
/oʊ/ sound 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
/oʊ.ɑː/,
boas
/oʊ.ə/,
coaxial
/oʊ.æ/, oasis
/oʊ.eɪ/, and doable
/uː.ə/. In
Malagasy, it is occasionally used for
/o/.
〈oe〉 is found in many
languages.
In
English, it represents the
/oʊ/ sound as in hoe and sometimes the
/uː/ sound as in shoe. It may also represent the
/ɛ/ sound in
AmE pronunciation of
Oedipus,
(o)esophagus (also in
BrE), and (o)estrogen,
/eɪ/ in boehmite (AmE) and surnames like
Boehner and
Groening (as if spelled Bayner and Gray/Greyning
respectively), and
/iː/ in foetus (BrE and
CoE) and some speakers' pronunciation of Oedipus and oestrogen.
Afrikaans and
Dutch oe is
/u/, as in doen.
Ligatured to
〈œ〉
in
French, it stands for the vowels
/œ/ (as in œil
/œj/) and
/e/ (as in œsophage
/ezɔfaʒ ~ øzɔfaʒ/). It is an alternative way to write
〈ö〉 in German when this character is unavailable. In
Cantonese Pinyin it represents the vowel
/ɵ ~ œː/, and in
Zhuang it is used for
/o/ (〈o〉 is used for
/oː/). In
Piedmontese, it is
/wɛ/. In the
Kernewek Kemmyn orthography of
Cornish, it is used for a phoneme which is
[oː] long,
[oˑ] mid-length, and
[ɤ] short.[18]
〈oê〉 is used in
French to write the vowel sound
/wa/ in a few words before what had historically been an s, mostly
in words derived from
poêle
/pwal/ "stove". The diacriticless variant,
〈oe〉, rarely represents this sound except in words
related to
moelle
/mwal/ (rarely spelt
moëlle).
〈ôe〉 is used in
Afrikaans
for the vowel
/ɔː/.
〈õe〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/õĩ̯/. It is used in plural forms of some words ended in
〈ão〉, such as
anão–anões and
campeão–campeões.
〈oh〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the breathy or
murmured vowel
/o̤/.
〈oi〉 is used in various
languages.
In
English, oi represents the
/oɪ̯/ sound as in coin and join. In
French, it represents
/wa/, which was historically – and still is in some cases – written "oy."
In
Irish it is used for
/ɛ/, /ɔ/, /ɪ/, /əi̯/, /iː/, /oː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
In
Piedmontese, it is
/ui̯/.
〈oí〉 is used in
Irish for
/iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
〈oî〉 is used in
French to write
/wa/ before what had historically been an s, as in boîtier
or cloître.
〈ói〉 is used in
Irish for
/oː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
〈òi〉 is used in
Piedmontese for
/oi̯/.
〈om〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/õ/, and in French to write
/ɔ̃/.
〈ôm〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/õ/ before a consonant.
〈on〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/õ/ before a consonant, and in French to write
/ɔ̃/.
〈ôn〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/õ/ before a consonant.
〈ön〉 is used in
Tibetan Pinyin for
/ø̃/. It is alternately written
oin.
〈oo〉 is used in many
languages.
In
English, oo commonly represents two sounds:
/uː/ as in "moon" and "food", and
/ʊ/ as in "wood" and "foot". Historically, both derive from
the sound
/oː/, which is also the digraph's pronunciation in most other languages.
In
German and
Dutch, the digraph represents
/oː/. In
Cornish, it represents either
/oː/ or
/uː/.[1][3][4][5]
〈oq〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the
pharyngealized vowel
/oˤ/.
〈or〉, in
Daighi tongiong pingim, represents
mid central vowel
/ə/ or
close-mid back rounded vowel
/o/ in
Taiwanese Hokkien.[19][20]
〈ou〉 is used in
English for the
diphthong
/aʊ/, as in out
/aʊt/. This spelling is generally used before consonants, with
〈ow〉 being used instead before vowels and at the ends
of words. Occasionally ou may also represent other vowels –
/ʌ/ as in trouble,
/oʊ/ as in soul,
/ʊ/ as in would, or
/uː/ as in group. The ou in out originally
represented
/uː/, as in French, and its pronunciation has mostly changed as part of
the
Great Vowel Shift. However, the
/uː/ sound was kept before p.
In
Dutch
〈ou〉 represents
/ʌu/ in the Netherlands or
/oʊ/ in Flanders. In
Cornish, it represents
[uː],
[u], or
[ʊ].[1][3][4][5]
In
French, it represents the
vowel
/u/, as in vous
/vu/ "you", or the
approximant consonant
/w/, as in oui
/wi/ "yes".
In
Portuguese this digraph stands for the
close-mid back rounded vowel
/o/ or for the falling
diphthong
/ou/, according to dialect.
〈oû〉 is used in
French to write the vowel sound
/u/ before what had historically been an s, as in soûl
/su/ "drunk" (also spelt soul).
〈ow〉, in
English, usually represents the
/aʊ/ sound as in coward, sundowner, and now or the
/oʊ/ sound, as in froward, landowner, and know. An
exceptional pronunciation is
/ɒ/ in knowledge and
rowlock.
There are many English
heteronyms distinguished only by the pronunciation of this digraph, like:
bow (front of ship or weapon), bower (a dwelling or string player),
lower (to frown or drop), mow (to grimace or cut), row (a
dispute or line-up), shower (rain or presenter), sow (a pig or to
seed), tower (a building or towboat). In
Cornish, this represents the diphthong
/ɔʊ/[5]
or
/oʊ/;[1][3][4]
before vowels, it can also represent
/uː/.[1][3][4][5]
〈ôw〉 is used in the
Kernowek Standard orthography of
Cornish to refer to a sound that can be either
/ɛʊ/ or
/oʊ/. This distribution can also be written
〈êw〉.[1]
〈oy〉 is found in many
languages.
In
English and
Faroese, oy represents the diphthong
/ɔɪ/. Examples in English include toy and annoy. In
Cornish, it represents the diphthong
/oɪ/[1][3][4]~/ɔɪ/[5];
in the words oy ('egg') and moy ('much'), it can also be
pronounced
/uɪ/[1][3][4]~/ʊɪ/[5].
〈oŷ〉 is an obsolete digraph once used in
French.
〈øy〉 is used in
Norwegian for
/øʏ/.
〈o...e〉 (a
split digraph) indicates an English
'long o', historically
/ɔ:/ but now most commonly realised as
/oʊ/.
〈u′〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the
glottalized or
creaky
vowel
/ṵ/.
〈uc〉 is used in
Nahuatl for
/kʷ/ before a consonant. Before a vowel,
〈cu〉 is used.
〈ue〉 is found in many
languages.
In
English,
〈ue〉 represents /ju/ or /u/ as in cue or
true, respectively. In
German, it is equivalent to
Ü, and as such may
appear in proper names of people, representing
/ʏ/ or
/yː/.
〈ûe〉 is used in
Afrikaans
to represent
/œː/.
〈ug〉 is used in
Central Alaskan Yup'ik for
/ɣʷ/.
〈uh〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the breathy or
murmured vowel
/ṳ/. In
Nahuatl, it is used for
/w/ before a consonant. Before a vowel,
〈hu〉 is used.
〈ui〉 in
Dutch stands for the diphthong
/œy/. In
Irish and
Scottish Gaelic, it is
/ɪ/ after a
velarized (broad) consonant, and in Irish, it is used for
/ɪ/ /ʊ/ /iː/ /uː/ between a broad and a slender consonant. In
German, it represents the diphthong
/ʊɪ̯/, which appears only in
interjections such as "pfui!". In
English, it represents the sound
/uː/ in fruit, juice, suit and pursuit.
However, in many English words, this does not hold. For example, it fails in
words where the u in ui functions as a modifier of a preceding
g (forcing g to remain
/ɡ/ rather than shifting to
/dʒ/ in guild, guilt, guilty, sanguine,
Guinea,
etc.), doing the same with c (in words like circuit and biscuit),
or in cases of unusual etymological spelling or syllable separation (e.g.
build, suite, and intuition). In Mandarin
pinyin, it is
/wei̯/ after a consonant. (In initial position, this is spelled wei.)
In
French, it is not a digraph, but a predictable sequence
/ɥi/, as in huit "eight".
〈uí〉 is used in
Irish for
/iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
〈úi〉 is used in
Irish for
/uː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.
〈um〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ũ/, and in
French to write
/œ̃/ (only before a consonant and at the end of a word).
〈úm〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ũ/ before a consonant.
〈un〉 is used in many languages to write a
nasal
vowel. In
Portuguese orthography before a consonant, and in many
West
African languages, it is
/ũ/, while in French it is
/œ̃/, or among the younger generation
/ɛ̃/. In
pinyin,
/u̯ən/ is spelled un after a consonant, wen initially.
〈ún〉 is used in
Portuguese orthography for
/ũ/ before a consonant.
〈ün〉 is used in
Tibetan Pinyin for
/ỹ/.
〈uŋ〉 is used in
Lakhota for the nasal vowel
/ũ/.
〈uo〉 is used in
Pinyin to
write the vowel
/o/ in languages such as
Yi, where o stands for
/ɔ/.
〈uq〉, in the practical orthography of the
Taa
language, represents the
pharyngealized vowel
/uˤ/.
〈ur〉 is used in
Central Alaskan Yup'ik for
/ʁʷ/, and in
Pinyin to
write the
trilled vowel[citation
needed]
/ʙ̝/ in languages such as
Yi.
〈uu〉 is used in
Dutch for
/y/. In languages with phonemic long vowels, it may be used to write
/uː/.
〈uw〉 occurs in
Dutch, as in
〈uw〉 (yours), duwen (to push) . It is
used in
Cornish for the sound
/iʊ/[1][3][4][5]
or
/yʊ/.[5]
〈uy〉 is used in
Afrikaans
orthography for
/œy/.
〈ux〉 is used in
Esperanto orthography as an unofficial surrogate of
〈ŭ〉,
which represents
/u̯/.
〈u...e〉 (a
split digraph) indicates an English
'long u', historically
/u:/ but now most commonly realised as
/ju/.
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