List of Latin-script digraphs

This is a list of digraphs used in various Latin alphabets. Capitalization involves only the first letter (ch – Ch) unless otherwise stated (ij – IJ).

Letters with diacritics are arranged in alphabetic order according to their base. That is, ⟨å⟩ is alphabetized with ⟨a⟩, not at the end of the alphabet as it would be in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. Substantially modified letters such as ⟨ſ ⟩ (a variant of ⟨s⟩) and ⟨ɔ⟩ (based on ⟨o⟩) are placed at the end.

Apostrophe

⟨’b⟩ (capital ⟨’B⟩) is used in the Bari alphabet for /ɓ/.

⟨’d⟩ (capital ⟨’D⟩) is used in the Bari alphabet for /ɗ/.

⟨’y⟩ (capital ⟨’Y⟩) is used in the Bari alphabet for /ʔʲ/. It is also used for this sound in the Hausa language in Nigeria, but in Niger, Hausa ⟨’y⟩ is replaced with ⟨ƴ ⟩.

A

⟨a’⟩ is used in Taa orthography, where it represents the glottalized or creaky-voiced vowel /a̰/.

⟨aa⟩ is used in the orthographies of Dutch, Finnish and other languages with phonemic long vowels for /aː/. It was formerly used in Danish and Norwegian (and still is in some proper names) for the sound /ɔ/, now spelled ⟨å⟩.

Zhe (Cyrillic)

Zhe (Ж ж; italics: Ж ж) is a letter of the Cyrillic script.

It commonly represents the voiced palato-alveolar sibilant /ʒ/ (listen), or the somewhat similar voiced retroflex sibilant /ʐ/ (listen) in Russian and in other languages, like the pronunciation of ⟨s⟩ in "treasure".

Zhe is romanized as ⟨zh⟩ or ⟨ž⟩.

History

It is not known how the character for Zhe was derived. No similar letter exists in Greek, Latin or any other alphabet of the time, though there is some graphic similarity with its Glagolitic counterpart Zhivete ⟨Ⰶ⟩ (Image: ) which represents the same sound. However, the origin of Zhivete, like that of most Glagolitic letters, is unclear. One possibility is that it was formed from two connecting Hebrew letters Shin ⟨ש⟩, the bottom one inverted.

In the Early Cyrillic alphabet the name of Zhe was живѣтє (živěte), meaning "live" (imperative).

Zhe was not used in the Cyrillic numeral system.

Usage

Zhe is used in the alphabets of all Slavic languages using a Cyrillic alphabet, and of most non-Slavic languages which use a Cyrillic alphabet. The position in the alphabet and the sound represented by the letter vary from language to language.