=CH=, =GH=, =PH=, =SH=, =TH=,
=BH=, =DH=, =KH=, =LH=, =NH=, =RH=, =ZH=,
=WH=.
The first five are perfect digraphs, a phonic union of parts is
effected, and a new sound produced; thus, neither “hat,” with the sound
of c before it, nor “cat,” with its vowel aspirated, will give the sound
heard in “_ch_at” ∴ C + H is not = CH.
=CH= has three sounds:—_k_, (_ch_aos); _sh_, (ben_ch_); and a third,
compound, tsh (_ch_ur_ch_).
=GH= is a digraph to perpetuate the memory of English orthographical
anomalies.[11] It is used in writing seventy-five words, and in
sixty-three of them its presence is ignored entirely; in nine it is
equivalent to _ff_, and in three it represents a _g_. It signifies
nothing in “hi_gh_,” “Hu_gh_,” &c.; and in “flight,” “night,” &c., it
retains the same signification. In Old Saxon, and in Anglo-Saxon, “high”
was written _hea_, _heag_, _hig_, _heah_, _heh_, _hih_, &c. A spirit of
impartial justice instigated later writers to take in both the _g_ and
the _h_. Professor Meiklejohn (St. Andrews) mentions the opinion held by
some, that the Normans would not pronounce gutturals, and disregarded
the Saxon terminal _h_’s, wherefore the scribes attempted coercion by
strengthening their Aspirates with a _g_. The result must have been a
failure, since both the _h_’s and their g-prefixes became lost to the
pronunciation of most words. The English words in which GH is an initial
digraph are _ghastly_, _ghost_, and _gherkin_; in the two former the H
is altogether adventitious. There exists a proneness to transpose the
_h_ and the _t_ of height, (Saxon, _heath_, _hihth_, &c.), in
consequence of which, and with a superfluous _d_, it becomes “heidth.”
This mispronunciation is recorded by Jones as early as 1701. The
practice will arise from a natural tendency of the mind to bring into
conformity the sounds of words that are associated in their
meanings—leng_th_, dep_th_, bread_th_, wid_th_ _ergo_: “heidth”!
=PH= has the sound of _f_ (s_ph_ere). In Ste_ph_en and ne_ph_ew it
stands for _v_.
=SH= is the French _j_ (_j_oli), unvocalised. The Anglo-Saxons had not
this digraph, but it appeared some centuries after the conquest, which
suggests the possibility of its having been introduced by Norman
influences. Some curious philologist may perhaps undertake to
substantiate or demolish the theory that the Anglo-Saxons learnt to
pronounce SH by attempting to utter the French _j_. Certain it is that
the words _Je me jette à genoux_ would become changed into “Sheh me
shett ah sheenoo” by the average German of to-day. The substitution of
SH for _ss_ in the word _assume_ produces an odd-sounding archaism, yet
one that is occasionally met with in otherwise good speakers. According
to Jones, “a_sh_ume” was correct speech in the seventeenth century.
=TH= of _thin_ and =TH= of _then_ are elementary sounds represented
now-a-days by two letters each. The former is produced by passing
unvocalized breath through a narrow aperture left between the fore-part
of the tongue and the edge of the upper teeth (the central incisors);
the second by the same position of the speech-organs, but with breath
that is vocalized.[12] Common errors are, to confound the TH of _bath_,
_path_, _wreath_, &c., with that of _bathe_, _paths_, _wreathe_, &c. The
former are unvocalized, as in _thin_.
Of the digraphs of the second row little need be said. With one
exception they are rarely used. =BH=, =DH=, =KH=, and =ZH= are English
renderings of the aspirated consonants of Asiatic languages. =LH= is a
legacy from the Anglo-Saxon. =NH= is Portuguese. In =RH= the H is
excessively useless; it is disregarded, and the R remains unchanged.
That man deserved to have his name recorded who first invented the _h_
of “rhyme.” He will have traced a technical connection between _rime_
and “rhythm;” and will have followed the latter to its Greek source
(ῥυθμος). His next act, the insertion of _rime’s_ apparently lost _h_,
will have seemed to him one only of mere reparative justice. His
excellent motives and his perspicacity might have met the admiration of
posterity, had not his etymology been so egregiously faulty, and the
word _rime_, a direct descendant of the Saxon _rim_, and as independent
of a Greek as of a Cherokee origin. But the _h_ he inserted is there
still, and cannot be cast off by any daring iconoclast without an outcry
being raised in its behalf by alarmed traditionists: for our
orthographical creed is derived from our forefathers, impressed with the
accumulated evidences of their quaint blunders, their venerable
ignorance, and admirable errors of judgment, all to be assiduously
copied by each of us their descendants, as an alternative to being
scouted for bad spellers. Thus it is that things originating in a
weakness or perverse use of the reasoning faculties of an ancestor, may
grow to be regarded as a virtue in a descendant.