Cryptic crossword clue
Letter to linguistics scholar has fruit around border 8

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word GRAPHEME

I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
G
R
A
P
H
E
M
E

Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Letter to linguistics scholar" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case letter to linguistics scholar = grapheme.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

What does GRAPHEME mean?

GRAPHEME noun
  1. A fundamental unit of a writing system, corresponding to (for example) letters in the English alphabet or jamo in Korean Hangeul.
  2. In alphabetic writing, the shortest group of letters composing a phoneme.

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