Wh (digraph)

Wh (tiny wh ) is a Digramme of the Latin alphabet composed of a W and a H.

Linguistics

English

In English, wh represents the Phonème (a deaf labiovelar fricative Consonant), the continuation of the labiovelar Consonant proto-indo-European (spelled hw and represented by the antiquated letter Hwair).

Many English interrogative words begin with this phoneme (like what , where , etc). The phoneme is not any more employed in the major part of the varieties of English and is marked (a labiovelar Consonant spirante voiced).

Maori

In the Languages maori, wh represents the phonemes or , but certain tribes of the northern coast of the New Zealand pronounce it or . When Europeans unloaded in New Zealand, this accent of the northern coast is that which they heard in first and used “wh” to transcribe it.

Data-processing representation

With the difference of other digraphs, there does not exist any encoding of Wh in the shape of only one sign. It is always carried out by joining the letters W and H.

See too

• Digraph
• Hwair
• additional Letters of the Latin alphabet

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