List of Latin-script tetragraphs


This is a list of quadrigraphs in the Latin script. These are most common in Irish orthography. For Cyrillic quadrigraphs, see quadrigraph.

Arrernte

Quadrigraphs in Arrernte transcribe single consonants, but are largely predictable from their components.
represents.
represents.
and represent.
represents.

English

The majority of English quadrigraphs make vowel sounds:
There are four examples of vowel quadrigraphs that are found only in proper nouns:
Three consonant quadrigraphs exist in English that are more commonly sounded as two separate digraphs. However, when used in word-initial position they become one single sound:
In word-final position, the French quadrigraph is sometimes used for in some loan words, such as sacque.

French

is pronounced in words such as joaillier and quincaillier.
Additionally, trigraphs are sometimes followed by silent letters, and these sequences may be considered with quadrigraphs:
is pronounced in words such as grecque and Mecque, where the trigraph is followed by the feminine suffix -e.
represents when the silent plural suffix -x is added to the trigraph ; e.g., oiseaux.

German

represents in loanwords such as Dschungel, Aserbaidschan, Tadschikistan, Kambodscha, and Dschingis Khan.
represents, which is a relatively common phoneme in German, appearing in words like deutsch, Deutschland, Tschechien, and tschüss.
represents in a few German names such as Zschopau and Zschorlau.

Halkomelem

There are several Halkomelem alphabets. The Cowichan alphabet includes the quadrigraph for the sound.

Hmong

There are several sequences of four letters in the Romanized Popular Alphabet that transcribe what may be single consonants, depending on the analysis. However, their pronunciations are predictable from their components. All begin with the of prenasalization, and end with the of aspiration. Between these is a digraph, one of , , , or , which may itself be predictable.
represents.
represents.
represents.
represents.

Irish

Between two broad velarized consonants:
Between two slender consonants:
Between a broad and a slender consonant:
Between a slender and a broad consonant:

Juǀʼhoan

The apostrophe was used with four trigraphs for click consonants in the 1987 orthography of Juǀʼhoan. The apostrophe is considered a diacritic rather than a letter in Juǀʼhoan.
for
for
for
for

Others

and are used in Dutch for the sounds and, as in sneeuw, "snow" and nieuw, "new". alone stands for, so these sequences are not predictable.
is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the prevoiced affricate.
is used for in Swahili-based alphabets. However, the apostrophe is a diacritic in Swahili, not a letter, so this is not a true quadrigraph.
is used in Yanyuwa to write a pre-velar nasal,.
and are used in Piedmontese to represent and, respectively, at the end of a word, to avoid confusion with the digraphs for and for ; word-internally, the trigraphs and are used.
is used in the Puter orthographic variety of the Romansh language for the sequence . It is not part of the orthography of Rumantsch Grischun, but is used in place names like S-chanf and in the Puter orthography used locally in schools again since 2011.
is used in Xhosa to write the sound. It is often replaced with the ambiguous trigraph.
is used in various Northern Athabaskan languages for, the dental ejective affricate.