What is Digraph (orthography)?
A '''digraph''' (from the {{lang-el|δίς}}, ''dís'', 'double' and γράφω, ''gráphō'', 'write'), also known as a '''bigraph''', '''digram''' or '''bigram''', is a string of two letters where the number of written characters does not match the number of sounds that are spoken. In other words, two [[letter]]s are used to represent one [[phoneme]] (distinct sound). For example, since there are no single letters in [[English alphabet]] to represent the sounds /ʃ/, /tʃ/, and /θ/, English uses a string of two letters to represent the sounds in the same order ''sh'', ''ch'', and ''th.'' While other sounds such as /f/ and /ʍ/ already have letters that correspond to the sounds, ''f'' and ''hw'', digraphs ''ph'' and ''wh'' are used in some words to show their [[Etymology|etymologies]] (origins of words) rather than their current [[pronunciation]]. == List of English digraphs == * ''[[Ch (digraph)|Ch]]'' corresponds to /tʃ/ and /k/ in [[English language|English]]. * ''[[Sh (digraph)|Sh]]'' corresponds to /ʃ/ in English. * ''[[Th (digraph)|Th]]'' corresponds to /θ/ and /ð/ in English. * ''Ph'' corresponds to /f/ in English. * ''Wh'' corresponds to /ʍ/ in English. == List of Cyrillic digraphs == * ''Ғә'' ''corresponds /ʁʷ/ or /ɣʷ/.'' == Related pages == * [[Trigraph]], a similar string of three letters {{stub}} [[Category:Linguistics]]