Editing Digraph (orthography) (section)

==Split digraphs==
{{anchor|Split digraphs}}
The pair of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent. This is the case with English [[silent e]]. For example, the sequence ''a_e'' has the sound {{IPA|/eɪ/}} in English ''cake.'' This is the result of three historical sound changes: ''cake'' was originally {{IPA|/kakə/}}, the [[open syllable]] {{IPA|/ka/}} came to be pronounced with a [[long vowel]], and later the final [[schwa]] dropped off, leaving {{IPA|/kaːk/}}. Later still, the vowel {{IPA|/aː/}} became {{IPA|/eɪ/}}. There are six such digraphs in English, {{angle bracket|a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e, y_e}}.<ref>Brooks (2015) ''Dictionary of the British English Spelling System,'' p. 460 ''ff''</ref>

However, alphabets may also be designed with discontinuous digraphs. In the [[Tatar language|Tatar]] [[Cyrillic alphabets|Cyrillic alphabet]], for example, the letter ''ю'' is used to write both {{IPA|/ju/}} and {{IPA|/jy/}}. Usually the difference is evident from the rest of the word, but when it is not, the sequence ''ю...ь'' is used for {{IPA|/jy/}}, as in ''юнь'' {{IPA|/jyn/}} 'cheap'.

The [[Brahmic scripts|Indic alphabets]] are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels, such as Thai เ...อ {{IPA|/ɤː/}} in เกอ {{IPA|/kɤː/}}. Technically, however, they may be considered [[diacritic]]s, not full letters; whether they are digraphs is thus a matter of definition.