A tetragraph (from the el, τετρα-, ''tetra-'', "four" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a sequence of four 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 tetragraph ''tsch'' represents the sound of the English
digraph ''ch''. English does not have tetragraphs in native words (the closest is perhaps the sequence ''
-ough'' in words like ''through''), but ''chth'' is a true tetragraph when found initially in words of Greek origin such as ''chthonian.''
Phonemes spelled with multiple characters often indicate that either the phoneme or the script is alien to the language. For example, the
Cyrillic alphabets adapted to the
Caucasian languages
The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Linguistic comparison allows t ...
, which are phonologically very different from Russian, make extensive use of digraphs, trigraphs, and even a tetragraph in
Kabardian ''
кхъу
A tetragraph (from the el, τετρα-, ''tetra-'', "four" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a sequence of four letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds, that do not necessarily correspond to the indi ...
'' for . The
Romanized Popular Alphabet created for the
Hmong languages includes three tetragraphs: ''nplh, ntsh,'' and ''ntxh,'' which represent complex consonants.
List of tetragraphs
Latin script
Cyrillic script
In
Cyrillic used for
languages of the Caucasus
The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Linguistic comparison allows t ...
, there are tetragraphs as doubled digraphs used for 'strong' consonants (typically transcribed in the IPA as geminate), and also labialized homologues of trigraphs.
is used in
Kabardian for , the labialized homologue of , in turn unpredictably derived from ejective .
is used in
Avar for , the 'strong' homologue of , the ejective () homologue of . It is often substituted with .
is used in Avar for . It is often substituted with .
is used in Avar for . It is often substituted with .
is used in
Archi for
is used in Archi for
is used in Archi for
is used in Archi for
is used in Archi for
is used in Archi for
is used in Archi for
Canadian syllabics
Inuktitut syllabics has a series of trigraphs for ''ŋ'' followed by a vowel. For geminate ''ŋŋ'', these are form tetragraphs with ''n'':
:ᙱ ''ŋŋi'', ᙳ ''ŋŋu'', ᙵ ''ŋŋa''
These are literally ''nnggi, nnggu, nngga''.
See also
*
Digraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram (from the grc, δίς , "double" and , "to write") is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to th ...
*
Trigraph (orthography) A trigraph (from the el, τρεῖς, ''treîs'', "three" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a group of three characters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined.
L ...
*
Pentagraph
A pentagraph (from the el, 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 correspond to the individual values ...
*
Hexagraph
A hexagraph (from the el, ἕξ, ''héx'', "six" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a sequence of six letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds that do not correspond to the individual values of the lett ...
*
Heptagraph
A heptagraph is a sequence of seven letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds, that do not correspond to the individual values of the letters.
Heptagraphs are extremely rare. Morse code uses 2 heptagraph: , for ...
*
Multigraph (orthography)
A multigraph (or pleongraph) is a sequence of letters that behaves as a unit and is not the sum of its parts, such as English or French . The term is infrequently used, as the number of letters is usually specified:
* Digraph (two letters, as o ...
*
List of Cyrillic letters
This is a list of letters of the Cyrillic script. The definition of a Cyrillic letter for this list is a character encoded in the Unicode standard that a has script property of 'Cyrillic' and the general category of 'Letter'. An overview of ...
*
Unigraph (orthography)
A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...
References
{{reflist
4
*