List of Latin-script digraphs

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⟩.

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 /iː/ (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 /ɑː/.

⟨ai⟩ is used in many languages, typically representing the diphthong /aɪ/. In English, due to the Great Vowel Shift, it represents /eɪ/ as in pain and rain, while in unstressed syllables it may represent /ə/, e.g. bargain and certain(ly).

In French, it represents /ɛ/. In Irish, it represents /a/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /a/ or /ɛ/ between a broad and a slender consonant, except when preceding word-final or pre-consonant ⟨ll, m, nn⟩ (e.g. cainnt /kʰaiɲtʲ/, or pre-consonant ⟨bh, mh⟩ (e.g. aimhreit /ˈaivɾʲɪtʲ/.

In the Kernowek Standard orthography of Cornish, it represents /eː/, mostly in loanwords from English such as paint.

⟨aí⟩ is used in Irish for /iː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

⟨aî⟩ is used in French for /ɛː/, as in aînesse /ɛːnɛs/ or maître /mɛːtʁ/.

⟨ái⟩ is used in Irish for /aː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

⟨ài⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /aː/ or sometimes /ɛː/, between a broad and a slender consonant.

⟨ãi⟩ is used in modern Portuguese for stressed /ɐ̃ĩ̯/ before consonants, although it is very rare since this diphthong is usually found stressed only at the end of words and therefore spelt as ⟨ãe⟩. Alas, it is currently found in some words such as cãibra /ˈkɐ̃ĩ̯.bɾɐ/. In 1931, in European Portuguese's orthography, it replaced ⟨ãe⟩ in all its occurrences due to a small orthographic reform, but this change was soon reverted in 1945 as part of an orthographic agreement with Brazil to match Brazilian Portuguese's orthography, which still kept ⟨ãe⟩.

⟨am⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐ̃ũ̯/ in past verb conjugations word finally, /ɐ̃/ before a consonant, and /am/ before a vowel. In French, it represents /ɑ̃/ in lieu of ⟨an⟩ before ⟨b, m, p⟩.

⟨âm⟩ is used in Portuguese for a stressed /ɐ̃/ before a consonant.

⟨an⟩ is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese it is used for /ɐ̃/ before a consonant. In French it represents /ɑ̃/ (/an/ before a vowel). In Breton it represents /ɑ̃n/.

⟨aⁿ⟩ is used in Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī for /ã/.

⟨ân⟩ is used in Portuguese for a stressed /ɐ̃/ before a consonant.

⟨än⟩ is used in Tibetan Pinyin for /ɛ̃/. It is alternately written ⟨ain⟩.

⟨ån⟩ is used in Walloon, for the nasal vowel /ɔ̃/.

⟨aŋ⟩ is used in Lakhota for the nasal vowel /ã/

⟨ao⟩ is used in many languages, such as Piedmontese and Mandarin Pinyin, to represent /au̯/.

In Irish, it represents /iː/ (/eː/ in Munster) between broad consonants.

In Scottish Gaelic, it represents /ɯː/ between broad consonants. In French, it is found in a few words such as paon representing /ɑ̃/ and as paonne representing /a/.

In Malagasy, it represents /o/.

In Wymysorys, it represents /œʏ̯/.

⟨ão⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐ̃ũ̯/, but only when it appears stressed, since unstressed /ɐ̃ũ̯/ is spelt ⟨am⟩ word finally, this distinction usually happens in verb conjugations. E.g. eles fizeram /ˈe.lis fiˈzɛ.ɾɐ̃ũ̯/ "they made", and eles farão /ˈe.lis fa.ˈɾɐ̃ũ̯/ "they will make".

⟨aq⟩ is used in Taa, for the pharyngealized vowel /aˤ/.

⟨au⟩ is used in English for /ɔː/. It occasionally represents /aʊ/, as in flautist. Other pronunciations are /æ/ or /ɑː/ (depending on dialect) in aunt and laugh, /eɪ/ in gauge, /oʊ/ in gauche and chauffeur, and /ə/ as in meerschaum and restaurant.

In German and Dutch, it represents /au/ and /ʌu/, respectively (/au/ in some northern and /ɔu/ in some southern Dutch and some Flemish dialects).

In French, it represents /o/ or sometimes /ɔ/.

In Icelandic and Norwegian it represents /œy/ and /æʉ/, respectively.

In several Romanizations of Wu Chinese, it represents /ɔ/.

In the Cornish Kernowek Standard, it is used for /ɔ(ː)/, as in caul "cabbage" or dauncya "to dance".

⟨äu⟩ is used in German for the diphthong /ɔɪ/ in declension of native words with ⟨au⟩; elsewhere, /ɔɪ/ is written as ⟨eu⟩. In words, mostly of Latin origin, where ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are separated by a syllable boundary, it represents /ɛ.ʊ/, e.g. Matthäus (a German form for Matthew).

⟨aw⟩ is used in English in ways that parallel English ⟨au⟩, though it appears more often at the end of a word.

In Cornish, it represents /aʊ/ or /æʊ/.

In Welsh, it represents /au/.

⟨ay⟩ is used in English in ways that parallel ⟨ai⟩, though it appears more often at the end of a word.

In French, it represents /ɛj/ before a vowel (as in ayant) and /ɛ.i/ before a consonant (as in pays).

In Cornish, it represents /aɪ/, /əɪ/, /ɛː/, or /eː/.

⟨a_e⟩ (a split digraph) is used in English for /eɪ/.

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 /b/). 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 /d/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as bdellatomy. When not initial, it represents /b.d/, 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/.

⟨bz⟩ is used in Shona for a whistled sibilant cluster /bz͎/.

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 /tʃ/, /k/, /ʃ/, /x/ or /h/. 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 /ʃ/ 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⟩.

⟨ck⟩ is used in many Germanic languages in lieu of ⟨kk⟩ or ⟨cc⟩ to indicate either a geminated /kː/, or a /k/ with a preceding (historically) short vowel. The latter is the case with English tack, deck, pick, lock, and buck (compare backer with baker). In German, ⟨ck⟩ indicates that the preceding vowel is short. Prior to the German spelling reform of 1996, it was replaced by ⟨k-k⟩ for syllabification. The new spelling rules allow only syllabification of the ⟨ck⟩ as a whole:

• Old spelling: Säcke: Säk-ke ('sacks')
• New spelling: Säcke: Sä-cke

Among the modern Germanic languages, ⟨ck⟩ is used mainly in Alsatian, English, German, Luxembourgish, Scots, Swedish, and other West Germanic languages in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Similarly, ⟨kk⟩ is used for the same purpose in Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, and other West Germanic languages in the Netherlands and Belgium. Compare the word nickel, which is the same in many of these languages except for the customary ⟨ck⟩ or ⟨kk⟩ spelling. The word is nickel in English and Swedish, Nickel in German, and nikkel in Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic and Norwegian.

It was also used in the Tindall orthography of Khoekhoe for the voiceless dental click /ǀ/ (equivalent to ⟨cg⟩).

It is also used in Cornish for /k/ at the end of a syllable after a short vowel; only in loanwords (mostly from English) in the Standard Written Form (SWF), more widely in Kernowek Standard.

⟨cn⟩ is used in English for /n/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as cnidarian. When not initial, it represents /kn/, as in acne. It is used in Scottish Gaelic for /kʰɾ/, and nasalises the following vowel, as in cneap /kʰɾʲɛ̃hp/.

⟨cö⟩ is used in Seri for a labialized velar plosive, /kʷ/. It is placed between ⟨c⟩ and ⟨d⟩ in alphabetical order.

⟨cr⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for /ʈʂ/.

⟨cs⟩ is used in the Hungarian for a voiceless postalveolar affricate, /tʃ/. It is considered a distinct letter, named csé, and is placed between ⟨c⟩ and ⟨d⟩ in alphabetical order. Examples of words with ⟨cs⟩ include csak ('only'), csésze ('cup'), cső ('pipe'), csípős ('peppery').

⟨ct⟩ is used in English for /t/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as ctenoid. When not initial, it represents /kt/, as in act. Is used in Portuguese for /t/ in some words, e.g. retrospecto but not in tacto.

⟨cu⟩ is used in languages such as Nahuatl (that is, based on Spanish or Portuguese orthography) for /kʷ/. In Nahuatl, ⟨cu⟩ is used before a vowel, whereas ⟨uc⟩ is used after a vowel.

⟨cw⟩ is used in modern scholarly editions of Old English for /kw/, which was spelled ⟨cƿ⟩, ⟨cuu⟩ or ⟨cu⟩ in manuscripts. In Middle English these were all replaced by Latin ⟨qu⟩.

⟨cx⟩ is used in Esperanto as an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĉ⟩, which represents /tʃ/.

⟨cz⟩ is used in Polish for /ʈ͡ʂ/ as in cześć^ⓘ ('hello'). In Kashubian, ⟨cz⟩ represents /tʃ/. In French and Catalan, historical ⟨cz⟩ contracted to the ligature ⟨ç⟩, which represents /s/ when followed by ⟨a, o, u⟩. In Hungarian, it was formerly used for /ts/, which is now written ⟨c⟩. In English, ⟨cz⟩ is used to represent /tʃ/ in the loanwords Czech, Czechia, and Czechoslovakia.

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 /d/ with a preceding (historically) short vowel (e.g. jaded /ˈdʒeɪdɪd/ has a "long a" while ladder /ˈlædər/ 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 /dʒ/ 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.

Represents /ɖ/ in Javanese and Somali.

⟨dj⟩ is used in Faroese, Portuguese, French and many French-based orthographies for /dʒ/. In Jarai, it's used for /ʄ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop such as /ṯ/ or /ḏ/; this sound is also written ⟨dy⟩, ⟨tj⟩, ⟨ty⟩, or ⟨c⟩. It is also formerly used in Indonesian as /d͡ʒ/.

⟨dl⟩ is used in Hmong's Romanized Popular Alphabet for /tˡ/. In Navajo, it represents /tɬ/, and in Xhosa it represents /ɮ̈/. In Hadza it is ejective /cʎʼ/.

⟨dł⟩ is used in Tlingit for /tɬ/ (in Alaska, ⟨dl⟩ is used instead).

⟨dm⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated and nasally released /t͡pn͡m/.

⟨dn⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for nasally released /tn/. In Cornish, it is used for an optionally pre-occluded /n/; that is, it is pronounced either /n/ or /nː/ (in any position); /ᵈn/ (before a consonant or finally); or /dn/ (before a vowel); examples are pedn ('head') or pednow ('heads').

⟨dp⟩ is used in Yélî Dnye for doubly articulated /t͡p/.

⟨dq⟩ is used for the click /ᶢǃ/ in Naro.

⟨dr⟩ is used in Malagasy for /ɖʐ/. See ⟨tr⟩. It is used in Fijian for 'ndr' nasalized (/ɳɖr/). In some Amerindian languages it represents /ʈʂ/ as in Gwichʼin and sporadically /ɖ/ everywhere as in Paiwan and Maba

⟨ds⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the prevoiced ejective /d͡tsʼ/.

⟨dt⟩ is used in German, Swedish, and Sandawe orthography as well as the romanization of Thai for /t/. ⟨dt⟩ (capital ⟨dT⟩) is used in Irish, as the eclipsis of ⟨t⟩, to represent /d̪ˠ/ (beside ⟨a, o, u⟩) and /tʲ/ (beside ⟨e, i⟩).

⟨dv⟩ is used in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages for the voiced dental affricate /d͡ð/.

⟨dx⟩ is used in some Zapotecan languages for a voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/. (It is placed between ⟨D⟩ and ⟨E⟩ in alphabetical order.) In Juǀʼhoan it is used for the prevoiced uvularized plosive /d͡tᵡ/.

⟨dy⟩ is used in Xhosa for /dʲʱ/. In Shona, it represents /dʒɡ/. In Tagalog it is used for /dʒ/. In the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages such as Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Pitjantjatjara, it represents a postalveolar stop such as /ṯ/ or /ḏ/. This sound is also written ⟨tj⟩, ⟨dj⟩, ⟨ty⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨j⟩.

⟨dz⟩ is used in several languages, often to represent /d͡z/. See article.

⟨dź⟩ is used in the Polish and Sorbian alphabets for /d͡ʑ/, the voiced alveolo-palatal affricate, as in dźwięk /d͡ʑvʲɛŋk/. ⟨dź⟩ is never written before a vowel (⟨dzi⟩ is used instead, as in dziecko /d͡ʑɛt͡skɔ/ 'child').

⟨dż⟩ is used in the Polish for a voiced retroflex affricate /ɖ͡ʐ/ (e.g. dżem^ⓘ 'jam').

⟨dž⟩ is used in Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Lithuanian, and Latvian to represent /d͡ʒ/. See article.

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 /iː/ 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 break, great, steak, and yea, and /ɔː/ 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, /ɑːr/ 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 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 /iː/ 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.

⟨ei⟩ This digraph was taken over from Middle High German, where it represented /ei/. 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, ⟨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 southern and western Faroese dialects, it represents the diphthong /aɪ/, while in northern and eastern dialects, it represents the diphthong /ɔɪ/. In Portuguese, ⟨ei⟩ represents /ɐj/ in Greater Lisbon, so are ⟨éi⟩ and ⟨êi⟩, but /ej ~ e/ or /ɛj/ in Brazil, East Timor, Macau, rest of Portugal, and Portuguese-speaking African countries.

In Welsh and Afrikaans, ⟨ei⟩ represents /əi/. In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, it represents /ɛ/ or /e/, or /ɪ/ when unstressed, before a slender consonant. In Dutch, ⟨ei⟩ represents /ɛi/. In French, ⟨ei⟩ represents /ɛ/, as in seiche.

In Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language it is used for /eː/.

⟨eî⟩ is used in French for /ɛː/, as in reître /ʁɛːtʁ/.

⟨éi⟩ is used in Irish for /eː/ between slender consonants.

⟨èi⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /ɛː/ or /eː/ between slender consonants.

⟨ej⟩ is used in Swedish in some short words, such as leja /leːja/ or nej /nɛj/.

⟨em⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word and /ẽ/ before a consonant. In French orthography, it represents a /ɑ̃/ when it is followed by ⟨b⟩ or ⟨p⟩.

⟨ẽm⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ẽĩ/ at the end of a word.

⟨ém⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word.

⟨êm⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ at the end of a word and /ẽ/ before a consonant.

⟨en⟩ is used in Portuguese 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, it represents /ɑ̃/ or /ɛ̃/.

⟨én⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ɐĩ̯ ~ ẽĩ̯/ before a consonant.

⟨ên⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ẽ/ before a consonant.

⟨eo⟩ is used in Irish for /oː/ (/ɔ/ in 4 words) between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it is used for /ʲɔ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In the Jyutping romanization of Cantonese, it represents /ɵ/, an allophone of /œː/, while in the Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /œː/. In the Revised Romanization of Korean, ⟨eo⟩ represents the open-mid back unrounded vowel /ʌ/, and in Piedmontese it is /ɛu̯/. In English ⟨eo⟩ is a rare digraph without a single pronunciation, representing /ɛ/ in feoff, jeopardy, leopard and the given names Geoffrey and Leonard, /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.

⟨eò⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /jɔː/ word-initially, and /ɔː/ elsewhere.

⟨eq⟩ is used in Taa for the pharyngealized vowel /eˤ/.

⟨eu⟩ is found in many languages, most commonly for the diphthong /eu/. Additionally, in English, ⟨eu⟩ represents /juː/ as in neuter (/uː/ in yod-dropping accents); however, the ⟨eu⟩ in "maneuver/manoeuvre" always represents /uː/ even in most non yod-dropping accents. In German, it represents /ɔʏ/ as in Deutsch; and in French, Dutch, Breton, and Piedmontese, it represents /ø/. In Cornish, it represents either long /øː ~ œː/ and short /œ/ or long /eː/ and short /ɛ/. In Scottish Gaelic it normally represents /ia/, as in beul /pial̪ˠ/, except when preceding ⟨m⟩ (e.g. leum /ʎeːm/) and usually ⟨b, mh, bh⟩, or in certain high-register words such as treun /t̪ʰɾeːn/ where it represents /eː/, and in southern dialects it is /eː/ in most contexts. In Yale romanization of Cantonese it represents /ɵ ~ œː/, while in the Cantonese Romanisation, it represents /œː/. In romanization of Wu Chinese, it represents /ø/, depending on the lect. In Sundanese, it represents /ɤ/ as in beureum ('red'). In the Revised Romanization of Korean and Acehnese, it represents /ɯ/.

⟨eû⟩ is used in French for /ø/, as in jeûne /ʒøn/.

⟨ew⟩ is used in English 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/.

⟨êw⟩ is used in the Kernowek Standard orthography of Cornish for either /ɛʊ/ or /oʊ/. This distribution can also be written ⟨ôw⟩.

⟨ey⟩ is used in English for a variety of sounds, including /eɪ/ in they, /iː/ in key, and /aɪ/ in geyser. In Faroese, it represents the diphthong /ɛɪ/. In Cornish, it represents the diphthong /ɛɪ/ or /əɪ/.

⟨e_e⟩ (a split digraph) is used in English 'long e', historically for Middle English /eː/ which evolved into /iː/.

⟨eⁿ⟩ is used for /ẽ/ in Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī.

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 /ɡ/ 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 /ɡ/ or /f/. 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.

⟨gk⟩ is used in Sandawe and the romanization of Thai for /k/; in Limburgish it represents /ɡ/. Modern Greek uses the equivalent digraph γκ for /g/, as γ is used for /ɣ/ ~ /ʝ/.

⟨gl⟩ is used in Italian and some African languages for /ʎ/.

⟨gm⟩ is used in English for /m/ in a few words of Greek origin, such as phlegm and paradigm. Between vowels, it simply represents /ɡ.m/, as in paradigmatic.

⟨gn⟩ is used in Latin, where it represented /ŋn/ in the classical period. Latin velar-coronal sequences like this (and also ⟨cl cr ct gd gl gr x⟩) underwent a palatal mutation to varying degrees in most Italo-Western Romance languages. For most languages that preserve the ⟨gn⟩ spelling (such as Italian and French), it represents a palatal nasal /ɲ/ (or more precisely /ɲː/ in Italian), and is similarly used in Romanization schemes such as Wugniu for /ȵ/. This was not the case in Dalmatian and the Eastern Romance languages where a different mutation changed the velar component to a labial consonant as well as the spelling to ⟨mn⟩. In Portuguese, ⟨gn⟩ represents /n/, as if there was no ⟨g⟩, e.g. assignatura, signal, impregnado and plurissignificação. It is used in Scottish Gaelic for /kr/, and nasalises the following vowel, as in gnè /krʲɛ̃ː/.

In English, ⟨gn⟩ represents /n/ initially (see /gn/ reduction) and finally (i.e. gnome, gnu, benign, sign). When it appears between two syllables, it represents /ɡ.n/ (e.g. signal). In Norwegian and Swedish, ⟨gn⟩ represents /ŋn/ in monosyllabic words like agn, and between two syllables, tegne. Initially, it represents /ɡn/, e.g. Swedish gnista /ˈɡnɪsta/.

⟨gñ⟩ was used in several Spanish-derived orthographies of the Pacific for /ŋ/. It is one of several variants of the digraph ⟨ñg⟩, and is preserved in the name of the town of Sagñay, Philippines.

⟨go⟩ is used in Piedmontese for /ɡw/ (like the “gu” in Guatemala).

⟨gq⟩ is used in languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu, for the click /ᶢǃ/. In the Taa language, it represents /ɢ/.

⟨gr⟩ is used in Xhosa for /ɣ̈/.

⟨gu⟩ is used in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Catalan for /ɡ/ before front vowels ⟨i e⟩ (⟨i e y⟩ in English and French) where a "soft g" pronunciation (English /dʒ/; Spanish /x/; French, Portuguese and Catalan /ʒ/) would otherwise occur. In English, it can also be used to represent /ɡw/. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it is used for /ɡʷ/.

⟨gü⟩ is used in Spanish, Catalan and formerly Portuguese for /ɡw/ before front vowels ⟨i e⟩ where the digraph ⟨gu⟩ would otherwise represent /ɡ/.

⟨gv⟩ is used for /kʷ/ in Standard Zhuang and in Bouyei. In the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages it is used for the labialized fricative /ɣʷ/.

⟨gw⟩ is used in various languages for /ɡʷ/, and in Dene Suline it represents /kʷ/.

⟨ǥw⟩, capital ⟨Ǥw⟩ (or ⟨G̱w⟩), is used in Tlingit for /qʷ/ (in Alaska); in Canada, this sound is represented by ⟨ghw⟩.

⟨gx⟩ is used in languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu, for the click /ᶢǁ/. In Esperanto, it is an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĝ⟩, which represents /dʒ/.

⟨gy⟩ is used in Hungarian for a voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/. In Hungarian, the letter's name is gyé. It is considered a single letter, and acronyms keep the digraph intact. The letter appears frequently in Hungarian words, such as the word for "Hungarian" itself: magyar. In the old orthography of Bouyei, it was used for /tɕ/. It is also commonly used in Burmese romanization schemes to represent /dʒ/.

⟨gǃ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced alveolar click /ᶢǃ/.

⟨gǀ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced dental click /ᶢǀ/.

⟨gǁ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced lateral click /ᶢǁ/.

⟨gǂ⟩ is used in Juǀʼhoan for the voiced palatal click /ᶢǂ/.

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/.

⟨hw⟩ is used in modern editions of Old English for /hw/, originally spelled ⟨huu⟩ or ⟨hƿ⟩ (the latter with the wynn letter). In its descendants in modern English, it is now spelled ⟨wh⟩ (see there for more details). It is used in some orthographies of Cornish for /ʍ/.

⟨hx⟩ is used in Pinyin for /h/ in languages such as Yi (⟨h⟩ alone represents the fricative /x/), and in Nambikwara it is a glottalized /hʔ/. In Esperanto orthography, it is an unofficial surrogate of ⟨ĥ⟩, which represents /x/.

⟨hy⟩ is used in Hepburn romanization of the Japanese language to transcribe /ç/, which is the syllable hi before a y-vowel, such as hya, hyu, and hyo, which appear in Chinese loanwords. Was also used in Portuguese until 1947. It appeared in words like: Hydroginástica and Hypóthese.

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 /aɪ/ as in pries and allied or /iː/ as in priest and rallied. 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 /iːiː/ 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/.

⟨ij⟩ is used in Dutch for /ɛi/. See article.

⟨il⟩ is used in French for /j/, historically /ʎ/, as in ail /aj/ "garlic". Can also be written as ⟨ille⟩ as in vieille /vjɛj/.

⟨im⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ĩ/.

⟨ím⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ĩ/ before a consonant.

⟨ĩm⟩ is used in Portuguese for the diphthong /ĩə/.

⟨in⟩ is used in many languages to write a nasal vowel. In Portuguese before a consonant, and in many West African languages, it is /ĩ/, while in French it is /ɛ̃/.

⟨ín⟩ is used in Portuguese for /ĩ/ before a consonant.

⟨în⟩ is used in French for the vowel /ɛ̃/ that was once followed by a historical ⟨s⟩, as in vous vîntes /vu vɛ̃t/ "you came".

⟨iŋ⟩ is used in Lakota for the nasal vowel /ĩ/.

⟨io⟩ is used in Irish for /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic it is used for /i/ and sometimes /(j)ũ(ː)/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

⟨ío⟩ is used in Irish for /iː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

⟨ìo⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /iː/ and /iə/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

⟨iq⟩ is used in Taa to represent the pharyngealized vowel /iˤ/.

⟨iu⟩ is used in Irish for /ʊ/ between a slender and a broad consonant. In Scottish Gaelic, it is used for /(j)u/ 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.

⟨iù⟩ is used in Scottish Gaelic for /(j)uː/ between a slender and a broad consonant.

⟨iw⟩ is used in Welsh and Cornish for the diphthong /iʊ/ or /ɪʊ/.

⟨ix⟩ is used in Catalan for /ʃ/ (Eastern Catalan) or /jʃ/ (Western Catalan) after a vowel.

⟨i_e⟩ (a split digraph) indicates an English 'long i', historically iː but now most commonly realised as /aɪ/.

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 /n/ (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/.

⟨ks⟩ is used in Cornish for either /ks/ or /ɡz/.

⟨ku⟩ is used in Purépecha for /kʷ/. It also had that value in the Ossete Latin alphabet.

⟨kv⟩ is used for /k^wh/ in some dialects of Zhuang.

⟨kw⟩ is used in various languages for the labialized velar consonant /kʷ/, and in Dene Suline (Chipewyan) for /k^wh/. Used informally in English for phonemic spelling of qu, as in kwik (from quick), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European */ɡʷ/.

⟨ḵw⟩ is used in Alaskan Tlingit for /q^wh/, which in Canada is written ⟨khw⟩.

⟨kx⟩ in used in Nambikwara for a glottalized /kʔ/, and in Juǀʼhoan for the ejective /kxʼ/.

⟨ky⟩ is used in Tibetan Pinyin for /tʃʰ/. It is commonly used in Burmese romanization schemes to represent /tʃ/ (⟨ch⟩ is already used to represent aspirated /tʃʰ/).

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