Au (digraph)

Au (digraph)

au is a digraph that occurs in many languages.

In English

In English, "au" usually represents the IPA|/ɔ/ or /a/ (see caught-cot merger) sound, as in "faun" and "taunt". In some varieties of English, including many varieties of North American English, Scottish English and Irish English this vowel is merged with the IPA|/ɑ/ or IPA|/ɒ/ vowel in "hot". In Middle English, the digraph was pronounced as the diphthong /au/, as it is sometimes in modern English, like "glaucoma" and "flautist". Other pronunciations are IPA|/æ/ in American English "aunt" and "laugh", IPA|/ei/ uniquely in "gauge", IPA|/oʊ/ or IPA|/əʊ/ as in "gauche" and "chauffeur", and unstressed IPA|/ə/ as in "meerschaum" and "restaurant".

Icelandic

In Icelandic stands for [œy] .

French

In Modern French, "au" is pronounced /o/ or sometimes /ɔ/.

It is used as a rare plural for old words having a singular in -al, like “cheval” (horse) or “canal” (channel), respectively having a plural in “chev"au"x and “can"au"x”—the x here being the mark of plural. Consider the English “child”, which also changes in plural form (child"ren")

But Au is also a word by itself: the preposition at when preceding a masculine substantive (“"au" marché”—at the marketplace).

In other languages

In most other languages, this digraph makes the [au] diphthong or something similar. In German, au represents IPA| [aʊ] as in "Haus" (house), and äu represents IPA| [oʏ] as in "Häuser" (houses).


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