[General] origins of English digraphs

I've always assumed it's not a coincidence that our three main digraphs all contain h (ch, sh, th), but I've never known why. Any ideas? If not, who might know?

[jlinger]

Three main digraphs? There are many others, many without the "h": ci, sc, ng, qu - or the vowel digraphs of oo, ow, ae, ee, ou, eu, and others, I'm sure I've missed.

Mostly, I think, they are around to respect the word origins, to make it easier to understand, for example, the difference between rime and rhyme or seen and scene at a glance while reading, as I suspect (without checking) that the different homonyms have different origins.

[anupumh]

Originally Posted by jlinger

Three main digraphs? There are many others, many without the "h": ci, sc, ng, qu - or the vowel digraphs of oo, ow, ae, ee, ou, eu, and others, I'm sure I've missed.

Mostly, I think, they are around to respect the word origins, to make it easier to understand, for example, the difference between rime and rhyme or seen and scene at a glance while reading, as I suspect (without checking) that the different homonyms have different origins.

What is the importance of Diagraphs in English??

[Soup]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I've always assumed it's not a coincidence that our three main digraphs all contain h (ch, sh, th), but I've never known why. Any ideas? If not, who might know?

Click here. See the middle of page 39.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by anupumh

What is the importance of Diagraphs in English??

Digraph is a term, a name that represents a sound that is written with more than one letter, like the German trigraph sch.

Learn more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraph_(orthography)