In the Latin script, pentagraphs are found primarily in Irish orthography. There is one archaic pentagraph in German orthography, which is found in the English words Nietzschean and derivatives (Nietzscheanism, Nietzscheanist, Nietzscheism, Nietzscheist).
Irish
Used between a velarized ("broad") and a palatalized ("slender") consonant:
⟨abhai⟩, ⟨obhai⟩, ⟨odhai⟩, and ⟨oghai⟩ are used to write /əu̯/ (/oː/ in Ulster)
⟨amhai⟩ is used to write /əu̯/
⟨adhai⟩ and ⟨aghai⟩ are used to write /əi̯/ (/eː/ in Ulster)
⟨aidhe⟩, ⟨aighe⟩, ⟨oidhi⟩, ⟨oidhe⟩, ⟨oighi⟩ and ⟨oidhe⟩ are used to write /əi̯/
⟨omhai⟩ is used to write /oː/
⟨umhai⟩ is used to write /uː/
Used between a slender and a broad consonant:
⟨eabha⟩ and ⟨eobha⟩ used to write /əu̯/ (/oː/ in Ulster)
⟨eamha⟩ is used to write /əu̯/
⟨eadha⟩ and ⟨eagha⟩ are used to write /əi̯/ (/eː/ in Ulster)
⟨eomha⟩ is used to write /oː/
Used between two slender consonants:
⟨eidhi⟩ and ⟨eighi⟩ are used to write /əi̯/:
Dutch
⟨sjtsj⟩ is used as the transcription of the Cyrillic letter Щ, representing the consonant /ɕː/ in Russian, for example in the name Chroesjtsjov.
English
⟨augha⟩ is used in the English names Gaughan and Vaughan to represent the sound /ɔː/.
French
⟨chtch⟩ is used as the transcription of the Cyrillic letter Щ, representing the consonant /ɕː/ in Russian, for example in the name Khrouchtchev.
⟨cques⟩ is pronounced as /k(ə)/ when the silent plural suffix -s is added to the tetragraph cque and in the proper name Jacques.
German
⟨tzsch⟩ was once used in German to write the sound /tʃ/. It has largely been replaced by the tetragraph ⟨tsch⟩, but is still found in proper names such as Tzschirner, Nietzsche, and Delitzsch.
This page was last edited on 14 November 2023, at 16:30