Rh (digraph)

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Rh is a digraph found in some languages. Most words in the English language that begin with this digraph were originally from the Greek language as transliterated through the Latin language. Examples include "rhetoric" and "rhythm". These were pronounced in Ancient Greek with an "h" sound coming just before the "r" sound, though in English this never applied. The word "rhyme", however, is an artefact; originally "rime", the respelling first appeared in the early seventeenth century. (Ancient Greek poetry, as well as that of Latin, did not rhyme; this word is of Old English in origin.) The digraph may also be found within words, but always at the start of a word component, e.g., "polyrhythmic".

The digraph is currently found in the Welsh language where it represents a voiceless alveolar trill (/r̥/), that is a voiceless "r" sound. It can be found anywhere; the most common occurrence in the English language from Welsh is in the slightly respelled given name "Rhonda".

The Latin alphabet
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
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