The letters in the words "phone," "they," and "church" are examples of what linguistic feature?

The letters in the words "phone," "they," and "church" represent a specific linguistic feature known as a consonant digraph. A consonant digraph occurs when two consonants are combined, and together they produce a single sound that is different from the sounds produced by the individual letters alone.

In "phone," the "ph" creates the /f/ sound. In "they," the "th" combines to form a voiced dental fricative sound /ð/. In "church," the "ch" represents the /tʃ/ sound. Each of these combinations demonstrates how consonants can work together to create distinct sounds, which is the defining characteristic of a consonant digraph.

The other choices do not accurately describe the linguistic feature at play in these words. Consonant blends involve two consonants appearing next to each other where each sound is still pronounced individually, while other terms like consonant shift and continental shift do not relate to the sounds created by combining consonants in this way. Thus, the presence of these digraphs in "phone," "they," and "church" identifies them as consonant digraphs.