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In English, gh historically represented [x] (the voiceless velar fricative, as in the Scottish Gaelic word loch), and still does in lough and certain other Hiberno-English words, especially proper nouns. In the dominant dialects of modern English, gh is almost always either silent or pronounced /f/ (see Ough).
The word is intended to be pronounced in the same way as fish (/ f ɪ ʃ /), using these sounds: gh, pronounced / f / as in enough / ɪ ˈ n ʌ f / or tough / t ʌ f /; o, pronounced / ɪ / as in women / ˈ w ɪ m ɪ n /; ti, pronounced / ʃ / as in nation / ˈ n eɪ ʃ ən / or motion / ˈ m oʊ ʃ ən /. The key to the phenomenon is that the ...
A period / full stop was used for forceful pronunciation. E.g., (.f) was a "violently hissed (f)", and (.gh) a "violently buzzed [= voiced] (gh)". In the case of .r , it produced a trill. However, with other letters for alveolar consonants it was taken to mean 'advanced', with "the tip of the tongue on gums" (presumably dental, though that ...
Conversely, gh is never pronounced /f/ in syllable onsets other than in inflected forms, and is almost never pronounced /ɡ/ in syllable codas (the proper name Pittsburgh is an exception). Some words contain silent letters , which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation.
The digraphs gh and ph become f when pronounced /f/. Examples: draught → draft, sulphur → sulfr, photograph → fotograf. The letter g is changed to j when pronounced /dʒ/ or /ʒ/. Examples: judge → juj, rouge → ruje. The combinations ig and igh are changed to y when pronounced /aɪ/. Examples: flight → flyt, sign → syn.
The soft pronunciation of г occurs before any of the "softening" vowels е ё и ю я ь and the hard pronunciation occurs elsewhere. However, the letter ж functions as a "soft g" in the Romance sense, with alterations between г and ж common in the language (e.g. ложиться, "to lie (down)", past tense лёг; подруга ...
This letter is pronounced [ħ] and it conflicts with the [h] sound of another letter, so an upper case “H” is used. خ: x Pronounced [x]. د: d Pronounced [d]. ذ * Pronounced [ð]. It has a dot above it so the single asterisk that looks similar to a dot above the line was used. ر: r Pronounced [r]. ز: z Pronounced [z]. س: s Pronounced ...
It is also occasionally pronounced [ə], such as in Edinburgh. When gh occurs at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced hard (/ɡ/) as in “ghost” and “ghetto". In a few words of Greek origin, the digraph gm is pronounced /m/, with the (g) being silent, such as in “phlegm”, “paradigm” and "diaphragm".