Rh (digraph)

Rh (digraph)

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 "rhapsody", "rhetoric" and "rhythm". These were pronounced in Ancient Greek with an "h" sound coming just before the "r" sound (see "spiritus asper"), 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".

German, French, and the auxiliary language Interlingua use "rh" in the same way.

This digraph is also found in the Welsh language where it represents a voiceless alveolar trill (IPA2|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".

In Wade-Giles transliteration, it is used for the syllable-final rhotic of Mandarin Chinese. In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, initial "rh-" indicates an even tone on a syllable beginning in IPA|/ʐ/, which is otherwise spelled "r-."


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