Pentagraph
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pentagraph (from the Greek: πέντε, pénte, "five" and γράφω, gráphō, "write") is a sequence of five letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds, that do not necessarily correspond to the individual values of the letters. In German, for example, the pentagraph tzsch represents the sound of the English digraph ch. Irish has a number of pentagraphs. English, like most languages, has none.
[edit] List of pentagraphs
- Irish
Used between a velarized ("broad") and a platalized ("slender") consonant:
To write the sound /əu̯/ (in Donegal, /oː/):
- ‹abhai›, ‹amhai›, ‹obhai›, ‹odhai›, and ‹oghai›
To write the sound /əi̯/ (in Donegal, /eː/):
- ‹adhai›, ‹aghai›
To write the sound /əi̯/:
- ‹oidhi› and ‹oighi›
To write the sound /oː/:
- ‹omhai›
Used between a slender and a broad consonant:
To write the sound /əu̯/ (in Donegal, /oː/):
- ‹eabha› and ‹eamha›
To write the sound /əi̯/ (in Donegal, /eː/):
- ‹eadha›
Used between two slender consonants:
- To write the sound /əi̯/: ‹eidhi› and ‹eighi›
- 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 It has largely been replaced by the tetragraph ‹tsch›, but is still found in proper names such as Nietzsche.
- Cyrillic
In the Cyrillic alphabet used for languages of the Caucasus, there are a couple pentagraphs used for 'strong' (typically transcribed in the IPA as geminate, and doubled in Cyrillic) labialized consonants. Since the both features are predictable from the orthography, their multigraph status is not clearcut.
- ‹ккъӀв› is used in Archi for [qː’ʷˤ]: a labialized ( ‹в›) strong ‹къӀ› [q’ˤ], the pharyngealized (‹Ӏ›) homologue of ‹къ› [q’].
- ‹ххьӀв› is used in Arch for [χːʷˤ]: a labialized ‹ххьI› [χːˤ], which is the 'strong' homologue of ‹хьI› [χˤ], in turn an unpredictable derivation of ‹х› [χ].
