Gh (digraph)

Gh (digraph)

Gh is a digraph found in many languages.

In Latin-based orthographies

English

In English, gh historically represented IPA| [x] (the voiceless velar fricative, as in the Scottish Gaelic word "loch"). In modern English, "gh" is almost always either silent or pronounced IPA|/f/ (see ough). It is thought that before disappearing, the sound became partially or completely voiced to IPA| [ɣx] or IPA| [ɣ] , which would explain the new spelling - Old English used a simple "h" - and the diphthongization of any preceding vowel.

When gh occurs at the beginning of a word in English, it is pronounced /g/ as in "ghost", "ghastly", "ghoul", "ghetto", "ghee" etc. In this context, it does not derive from a former IPA|/x/.

Irish

In Irish, gh represents IPA|/ɣ/ (the voiced velar fricative) and IPA|/j/ (the voiced palatal approximant). Word-initially it represents the lenition of g, for example "mo ghiall" IPA| [mə jiəɫ] "my jaw" (cf. "giall" IPA| [gʲiəɫ] "jaw").

Italian

In Italian and Romanian, gh represents IPA|/g/ (the voiced velar plosive) before -e and -i.

Maltese

The Maltese language has a related digraph, għ. It is considered a single letter, called "għajn" (the same word for eye and spring, named for the corresponding Arabic letter 'ayin). It is usually silent, but it is necessary to be included because it changes the pronunciation of neighbouring letters, usually lengthening the succeeding vowels. At the end of a word (when not substituted by an apostrophe), it is pronounced the same as ħ.

Tlingit

In Canadian Tlingit "gh" represents IPA|/q/, which in Alaska is written "ǥ".

In romanization

In the romanization of various languages, "gh" usually represents the voiced velar fricative (/IPA|ɣ/). Like "kh" /x/, "gh" /IPA|ɣ/ may also be heard pharyngealized (like in several Caucasian and Native American languages).In transcriptions of Indo-Aryan languages such as Sanskrit and Hindi, as well as their ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, "gh" represents a voiced velar aspirated plosive /IPA|gʰ/ (often referred to as a breathy murmurred voiced velar plosive)

ee also

* Phonological history of English consonants
* Yogh


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