A pentagraph (from the Greek : π?ντε , pente , "five" and γρ?φω, graph? , "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 of the letters. ^[1] In German , for example, the pentagraph tzsch represents the [t?] sound of the English digraph ch, and indeed is found in the English word Nie tzsch ean . Irish has several pentagraphs. ^{[ examples needed ]}

Latin-script pentagraphs [ edit ]

Cyrillic-script pentagraphs [ edit ]

In Cyrillic used for languages of the Caucasus , there are a couple five-letter sequences used for 'strong' (typically transcribed in the IPA as geminate, and doubled in Cyrillic) labialized consonants. Since both features are predictable from the orthography, their pentagraph status is dubious.

The pentagraph ⟨ ххь?в ⟩ is used in Archi for [χː??] : ^[2] a labialized ⟨ххь?⟩ [χː?] , which is the ' strong ' counterpart of the pharyngealized voiceless uvular fricative ( [χ?] ), written using the trigraph ⟨хь?⟩ , whose graph is in turn an unpredictable derivation of ⟨х⟩ ( [χ] ) and thus a true trigraph. It occurs, for example, in the word ххьIв елтIбос ("rummage through someone else's things"). ^[3]

See also [ edit ]

• Trigraph
• Tetragraph
• Hexagraph
• Heptagraph

References [ edit ]