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Gh is adigraph found in many languages.
InEnglish,⟨gh⟩ historically represented[x] (thevoiceless velar fricative, as in theScottish Gaelic wordloch), and still does inlough and certain otherHiberno-English words, especiallyproper nouns. In the dominant dialects of modern English,⟨gh⟩ is almost always either silent or pronounced/f/ (seeOugh). It is thought that before disappearing, the sound became partially or completely voiced to[ɣx] or[ɣ], which would explain the new spelling — Old English used a simple⟨h⟩ — and the diphthongization of any preceding vowel.
Alexander John Ellis reported it being pronounced as[x] on theYorkshire-Lancashire border and close to the Scottish border in the late nineteenth century.[1]
It is also occasionally pronounced[ə], such as inEdinburgh as well as[θ] inKeighley.
When gh occurs at the beginning of a word in English, it is pronounced/ɡ/ as in "ghost", "ghastly", "ghoul", "ghetto", "ghee" etc. In this context, it does not derive from a former/x/.
American Literary Braille has a dedicated cell pattern for the digraph⟨gh⟩ (dots 126, ⠣).
InMiddle Dutch,⟨gh⟩ was often used to represent/ɣ/ (thevoiced velar fricative) before⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩, and⟨y⟩. This usage survives in place names such asGhent.
The spelling of English wordghost with a⟨gh⟩ (fromMiddle Englishgost) was likely influenced by the Middle Dutch spellinggheest (Modern Dutchgeest).
InItalian andRomanian,⟨gh⟩ represents/ɡ/ (thevoiced velar plosive) before⟨e⟩ and⟨i⟩. InGalician, it is often used to represent the pronunciation ofgheada.
InIrish,⟨gh⟩ represents/ɣ/ (thevoiced velar fricative) and/j/ (thevoiced palatal approximant). Word-initially it represents thelenition of⟨g⟩, for examplemo ghiall[mˠəˈjiəl̪ˠ] 'my jaw' (comparegiall[ˈɟiəl̪ˠ] 'jaw').
In Igbo, the ⟨gh⟩ digraph is used in words like agha (war) and is pronounced /ɣ/.[citation needed]
InJuǀʼhoan, it's used for theprevoiced aspirated velar plosive/ɡ͡kʰ/.
In theMalay and Indonesian alphabet,⟨gh⟩ is used to represent thevoiced velar fricative (/ɣ/) in Arabic origin words.
TheMaltese language has a related digraph,⟨għ⟩. It is considered a single letter, calledgħajn (the same word foreye andspring, named for the corresponding Arabic letterʿayn). It is usually silent, but it is necessary to be included because it changes the pronunciation of neighbouring letters, usually lengthening the succeeding vowels. At the end of a word, when not substituted by an apostrophe, it is pronounced[ħ]. Its function is thus not unlike modern Englishgh, except that the English version comes after vowels rather than before like Maltesegħ (għajn would be pronounced like aaiyn if spelled in English).
In theRoman Swahili alphabet,⟨gh⟩ is used to represent thevoiced velar fricative (/ɣ/) in Arabic origin words.
In CanadianTlingit⟨gh⟩ represents/q/, which in Alaska is written⟨ǥ⟩.
InDaighi tongiong pingim,⟨gh⟩ represents/ɡ/ (thevoiced velar stop) before⟨a⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨o⟩, and⟨u⟩.
InUyghur Latin script,gh represents[ʁ].
InVietnamese alphabet,⟨gh⟩ represents/ɣ/ before⟨e⟩,⟨ê⟩,⟨i⟩.
In theromanization of various languages,⟨gh⟩ usually represents thevoiced velar fricative (/ɣ/). Like⟨kh⟩/x/,⟨gh⟩ may also be pharyngealized, as in severalCaucasian andNative American languages.In transcriptions ofIndo-Aryan languages such asSanskrit andHindi, as well as their ancestor,Proto-Indo-European,⟨gh⟩ represents a voiced velar aspirated plosive/ɡʱ/ (often referred to as a breathy or murmured voiced velar plosive).
TheUkrainian National transliteration system uses⟨gh⟩ to avoid occurrence of another digraph, usually⟨zh⟩ which is used for another type of phoneme. Such as the word "pack" (a group of animals) in Ukrainian would be Romanized as zghraia (Ukrainian:зграя) rather than zhraia, which could be misconstrued to intend*жрая. The Ukrainian transliteration standardDSTU 9112:2021 (based onISO 9:1995) uses⟨gh⟩ to represent common Ukrainian letterг (thevoiced glottal fricative/ɦ/).