What Does digraph Mean
It called digraph to the sequence formed by a pair of letters representing a unique sound . The term is used in the field of linguistics .
The digraphs are sets of two letters whose representation is a single acoustic segment or a double segment with affricate articulation . In our language , we find digraphs like ll , ch and rr , among others.
In the case of ll and ch , for many years they were recognized as letters that were part of the alphabet . However, with the passage of time they lost that consideration, with which today it can be affirmed that both are digraphs ( ll made up of two letters L , while ch is made up of C and H ). "Run over" , "tacho" , "chicken" , "boy" , "there" and "snap" are examples of words that include these digits.
The digraph rr , meanwhile, appears when there are two Rs in intervocalic position (that is, located between vowels ): "grill" , "cigar" , "carriage" , "fox" .
There are digraphs, on the other hand, that arise from a specific location of certain phonemes . That is the case of what and gu .
The phoneme / k / , before an I or an E , gives rise to the digraph qu : "tachycardia" , "cheese" , "machinery" , "poker" . The presence of an I or an E before the phoneme / g / also generates a digraph, in this case a gu : "stew" , "warrior" , "guillotine" , "divulge" .
Returning to the digraph rr , it is important to note that it can never be located at the beginning of a word, nor at the end. Another of its most striking characteristics is that its sound cannot be reproduced at the end of a word, where we can only pronounce the r , its "soft" version. However, it is found at the beginning of many terms, although in those cases a single r is written , as with "break" and "recover . "
Something similar happens with the digraph qu , although with certain differences: it can never go to the end of a word, but it can go to the beginning. In addition, we can reproduce the same sound with the letters c and k , depending on the case: house , kilogram , wanted . Our diction allows us to pronounce this sound at the end, as in Iraq , but it is not a Spanish word.
The digraph gu has similar limitations, although there are no words that end with this sound. It is possible to reproduce it by using the g , if it is followed by the vowels o , a or u : «taste», «cat» or «drop».
The digraphs are very important in our language, since they present us with a series of rules and exceptions that we must know in order to write, read and speak correctly. However, for different reasons, spelling seems to have less and less relevance in modern life, and it is not uncommon to meet a young student who is unfamiliar with these and other language issues.
The spelling and grammatical self-correction that most computer programs offer us generate a lack of attention that over the years settles and replaces the active gaze of the past: it is no longer necessary to think about "how we write" but it is enough to focus on content . Of course, the problem does not end here, because if we do not know the language in depth, we will not be able to use it to its full extent, to express endless ideas.
Far from being a pessimistic or opposite view of advances in technology, this position aims to add rather than replace. This is the only way to enhance our skills: study all the concepts of the past and combine them with current knowledge, to be able to write, read and speak better than our ancestors .
Finally, it is important to mention that digraphs exist in many other languages . In Catalan we can find the digraph ny and in French, the digraph ou , to mention just two possibilities.