List of Latin-script tetragraphs

This is a list of quadrigraphs in the Latin script. These are most common in Irish orthography. For Cyrillic quadrigraphs, see quadrigraph.

Arrernte

Quadrigraphs in Arrernte transcribe single consonants, but are largely predictable from their components.

represents .

represents .

and represent .

represents .

English

The majority of English quadrigraphs make vowel sounds:

represents , as in straight.

represents in Received Pronunciation (RP), as in millionaire.

can represent in RP, as in bizarre.

represents in RP, as in catarrh.

can represent , as in caught.

can represent in RP, as in prayer.

represents in RP, as in mayor.

can represent three different sounds: as in weigh, as in height, and as in Leigh.

has ten possible pronunciations, five of which make vowel sounds: as in drought, as in bought, as in though, as in through, and as in thorough.

represents , as in queue.

represents in RP, as in myrrh.

There are four examples of vowel quadrigraphs that are found only in proper nouns:

represents in RP, as found in Shakespeare.

represents in RP, as found in Worcestershire.

represents in RP, as in Moore.

can represent , as in Hughes.

Three consonant quadrigraphs exist in English that are more commonly sounded as two separate digraphs. However, when used in word-initial position they become one single sound:

at the start of a word represents , as in chthonian.

at the start of a word represents , as in phthisis.

at the start of word represents as in shcherbakovite, a mineral named after Russian geochemist and mineralogist, . It is used as the transcription of the Cyrillic letter Щ and usually read as two separate digraphs, as in pushchairs or as in Pechishche, a place name in Belarus.

In word-final position, the French quadrigraph is sometimes used for in some loan words, such as sacque (an old spelling of sack).

French

is pronounced in words such as and quincaillier (which can also be written as joailler and quincailler since 1990).

Additionally, trigraphs are sometimes followed by silent letters, and these sequences may be considered with quadrigraphs:

is pronounced in words such as and , where the trigraph is followed by the feminine suffix .

represents when the silent plural suffix is added to the trigraph ; e.g., .

German

represents in loanwords such as ("jungle"), ("Azerbaijan"), ("Tajikistan"), ("Cambodia"), and ("Genghis Khan").

represents , which is a relatively common phoneme in German, appearing in words like ("German"), ("Germany"), ("Czech Republic"), and ("bye").

represents in a few German names such as Zschopau and Zschorlau.

Halkomelem

There are several Halkomelem alphabets. The Cowichan alphabet includes the quadrigraph for the sound . (ʼ is a letter of the alphabet, so tthʼ is made up of four letters.)

Hmong

There are several sequences of four letters in the Romanized Popular Alphabet that transcribe what may be single consonants, depending on the analysis. However, their pronunciations are predictable from their components. All begin with the of prenasalization, and end with the of aspiration. Between these is a digraph, one of , , , or , which may itself be predictable.

represents .

represents .

represents .

represents .

Irish

Between two broad velarized consonants:

and represent .

, , and represent ( in Donegal).

represents .

represents .

represents .

Between two slender (palatalized) consonants:

and represent ( in Donegal).

Between a broad and a slender consonant:

, , and represent .

Between a slender and a broad consonant:

represents ( in Donegal).

represents ( in Donegal) and when unstressed word finally ( in Mayo and Donegal).

represents and when unstressed word finally in Mayo and Donegal.

Juǀʼhoan

The apostrophe was used with four trigraphs for click consonants in the 1987 orthography of Juǀʼhoan. The apostrophe is considered a diacritic rather than a letter in Juǀʼhoan.

for

for

for

for

Others

and are used in Dutch for the sounds and , as in ' ("snow"), and ' ("new"). alone stands for , so these sequences are not predictable.

is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the prevoiced affricate .

is used for in Swahili-based alphabets. However, the apostrophe is a diacritic in Swahili, not a letter, so this is not a true quadrigraph.

is used for in most Philippine languages. An example is Tagalog ' ("noun") and Ilocano ' ("stupid").

is used in Yanyuwa to write a pre-velar nasal, .

and are used in Piedmontese to represent and , respectively, at the end of a word, to avoid confusion with the digraphs for and for (even though those are marginal phonemes); word-internally, the trigraphs and are used.

is used in the Puter orthographic variety of the Romansh language (spoken in the Upper Engadin area in Switzerland) for the sequence (while the similar trigraph denotes the sounds and ). It is not part of the orthography of Rumantsch Grischun, but is used in place names like S-chanf and in the Puter orthography used locally in schools again since 2011.

is used in Xhosa to write the sound . It is often replaced with the ambiguous trigraph .

is used in various Northern Athabaskan languages for , the dental ejective affricate.

References