Apentagraph (from theGreek:πέντε,pénte, "five" and γράφω,gráphō, "write") is a sequence of five letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds, that do not correspond to the individual values of the letters.[1] InGerman, for example, the pentagraphtzsch represents the[tʃ] sound of the Englishdigraphch, and indeed is found in the English wordNietzschean.Irish has several pentagraphs.[examples needed]
List of Latin-script pentagraphs
InCyrillic used forlanguages of the Caucasus, there are a couple five-letter sequences used for 'strong' (typically transcribed in the IPA as geminate, and doubled in Cyrillic) labialized consonants. Since both features are predictable from the orthography, their pentagraph status is dubious.
The pentagraph⟨ххьӏв⟩ is used inArchi for[χːˤʷ]:[2] alabialized⟨ххьӏ⟩[χːˤ], which is the 'strong' counterpart of thepharyngealizedvoiceless uvular fricative ([χˤ]), written using the trigraph⟨хьӏ⟩, whose graph is in turn an unpredictable derivation of⟨х⟩ ([χ]) and thus a true trigraph. It occurs, for example, in the wordххьIвелтIбос ("rummage through someone else's things").[3]