Velarization in the context of "El (Cyrillic)"

A multigraph (or pleograph) is a sequence of letters that behaves as a unit and is not the sum of its parts, such as English ⟨ch⟩ (typically pronounced /tʃ/) or French ⟨eau⟩ (pronounced [o]). The term is infrequently used, as the number of letters is usually specified:

Combinations longer than tetragraphs are unusual. The German pentagraph ⟨tzsch⟩ has largely been replaced by ⟨tsch⟩, remaining only in proper names such as ⟨Poenitzsch⟩ or ⟨Fritzsche⟩. Except for doubled trigraphs like German ⟨schsch⟩, hexagraphs are found only in Irish vowels, where the outside letters indicate whether the neighboring consonant is "broad" or "slender". However, these sequences are not predictable. The hexagraph ⟨oidhea⟩, for example, where the ⟨o⟩ and ⟨a⟩ mark the consonants as broad, represents the same sound (approximately the vowel in English write) as the trigraph ⟨adh⟩, and with the same effect on neighboring consonants.

In linguistics, fortis (/ˈfɔːrtɪs/ FOR-tiss; Latin for 'strong') and lenis (/ˈliːnɪs/ , /ˈlɛnɪs/ LEE-niss, LEN-iss; Latin for 'weak'), sometimes identified with 'tense' and 'lax', are pronunciations of consonants with relatively greater and lesser energy, respectively. English has fortis consonants, such as the p in pat, with a corresponding lenis consonant, such as the b in bat. Fortis and lenis consonants may be distinguished by tenseness or other characteristics, such as voicing, aspiration, glottalization, velarization, length, and length of nearby vowels. Fortis and lenis were coined for languages where the contrast between sounds such as 'p' and 'b' does not involve voicing (vibration of the vocal cords).