Ch (digraph): Difference between revisions
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'''Ch''' is a [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] in the [[Roman alphabet]]. It is treated as a letter of its own in the [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]], [[Czech alphabet|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Quechua]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Breton language|Breton]] and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] [[Lacinka]] [[alphabet]]s. It used to be a letter in the [[Writing system of Spanish#Alphabet|Spanish alphabet]] until |
'''Ch''' is a [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] in the [[Roman alphabet]]. It is treated as a letter of its own in the [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]], [[Czech alphabet|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Quechua]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Breton language|Breton]] and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] [[Lacinka]] [[alphabet]]s. It used to be a letter in the [[Writing system of Spanish#Alphabet|Spanish alphabet]] until 1994, but is now treated as a digraph. In [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], it also used to be considered a letter for collation purposes but this is no longer common. |
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==Voiceless postalveolar fricative== |
==Voiceless postalveolar fricative== |
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Revision as of 15:12, 24 May 2006
Ch is a digraph in the Roman alphabet. It is treated as a letter of its own in the Chamorro, Czech, Slovak, Quechua, Welsh, Breton and Belarusian Lacinka alphabets. It used to be a letter in the Spanish alphabet until 1994, but is now treated as a digraph. In Vietnamese, it also used to be considered a letter for collation purposes but this is no longer common.
Voiceless postalveolar fricative
In French and Breton, "ch" represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ].
Voiceless postalveolar affricate
In English or Spanish as well as others, "ch" represents the voiceless postalveolar affricate [t͡ʃ].
in Italian
Ch represents the sound [k] (before -i and -e).
Voiceless velar fricative
In several Gaelic languages, several Germanic languages, many Slavic languages (including Czech), Welsh and others, "ch" represents the voiceless velar fricative [x]. Additionally, "ch" is frequently used in transliterating into many European languages from Greek, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, and many others.
Breton and Manx have evolved modified forms of this digraph for representing [x], as opposed to [ʃ] or [tʃ]. In Breton, [x] is represented by "c'h", and in Manx by "çh".
Voiceless palatal fricative
In German, "ch" represents two allophones: the voiceless velar fricative x when following back vowels or [a] (the so-called "Ach-laut") and the voiceless palatal fricative [ç] when in initial position or following front vowels (the so-called "Ich-Laut").
Ch in Czech
Structure
The letter ch is a digraph consisting of the sequence of Latin alphabet graphemes C and H, however it is a single phoneme (pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative; IPA /x/) and represents a single entity in Czech collation order, inserted between H and I. In capitalized form, Ch is used at the beginning of a sentence (Chechtal se. He giggled.), while CH or Ch can be used for standalone letter in lists etc.
History
In the 15th century, the Czech language used to contain many digraphs like modern Polish does, but most of them were replaced by single letters with diacritic marks by the reform of John Huss, so the Ch digraph is the last one left in the modern Czech.
Alternate representations
In the Czech extension to international Morse code, the letter Ch is '- - - -'
In the Czech extension to Braille the letter Ch is represented as the dot pattern ⠻.
In computing, Ch is represented as a sequence of C and H, not as a single character.
Due to the similar pronunciation to the Greek letter χ, Czech computer people may also use X instead of ch when communicating via Internet (bychom - byxom, pochyby - poxyby). In practice this is done very rarely.