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G
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

G(namedgee/di/)[1]istheseventhletterintheISObasicLatin
alphabet.

Contents
1History
1.1Typographicvariants
2Use

Cursivescript'g'andcapital'G'

3Equivalentlettersinotherscripts
4Relatedlettersandothersimilarcharacters
5Computingcodes
6Otherrepresentations
7Seealso
8References
9Externallinks

History
Theletter'G'wasintroducedintheOldLatinperiodasavariantof
'C'todistinguishvoiced//fromvoiceless/k/.Therecordedoriginatorof'G'isfreedmanSpuriusCarvilius
Ruga,thefirstRomantoopenafeepayingschool,whotaughtaround230BC.Atthistime,'K'hadfallen
outoffavor,and'C',whichhadformerlyrepresentedboth//and/k/beforeopenvowels,hadcometo
express/k/inallenvironments.
Ruga'spositioningof'G'showsthatalphabeticorderrelatedtotheletters'valuesasGreeknumeralswasa
concerneveninthe3rdcenturyBC.Sampson(1985)suggeststhat:"Evidentlytheorderofthealphabet
wasfelttobesuchaconcretethingthatanewlettercouldbeaddedinthemiddleonlyifa'space'was
createdbythedroppingofanoldletter."[2]Accordingtosomerecords,theoriginalseventhletter,'Z',had
beenpurgedfromtheLatinalphabetsomewhatearlierinthe3rdcenturyBCbytheRomancensorAppius
Claudius,whofounditdistastefulandforeign.[3]
Eventually,bothvelarconsonants/k/and//developedpalatalizedallophonesbeforefrontvowels
consequentlyintoday'sRomancelanguages,'c'and'g'havedifferentsoundvaluesdependingoncontext.
BecauseofFrenchinfluence,Englishorthographysharesthisfeature.

Typographicvariants
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Themodernlowercase'g'hastwotypographicvariants:thesingle
storey(sometimesopentail)' 'andthedoublestory(sometimes
looptail)' '.Thesinglestoreyformderivesfromthemajuscule
(uppercase)formbyraisingtheserifthatdistinguishesitfrom'c'to
thetopoftheloop,thusclosingtheloop,andextendingthevertical
strokedownwardandtotheleft.Thedoublestoryform(g)had
developedsimilarly,exceptthatsomeornateformsthenextended
thetailbacktotheright,andtotheleftagain,formingaclosedbowl
orloop.Theinitialextensiontotherightwasabsorbedintothe
upperclosedbowl.Thedoublestoryversionbecamepopularwhen
printingswitchedto"Romantype"becausethetailwaseffectively
shorter,makingitpossibletoputmorelinesonapage.Inthe
doublestoryversion,asmalltopstrokeintheupperright,often
terminatinginanorbshape,iscalledan"ear".
Typographicvariantsincludea
Generally,thetwoformsarecomplementary,butoccasionallythe
doublestoreyandsinglestoreyg.
differencehasbeenexploitedtoprovidecontrast.The1949
PrinciplesoftheInternationalPhoneticAssociationrecommends
using foradvancedvoicedvelarplosives(denotedbyLatinsmallletterscriptG)and forregularones
wherethetwoarecontrasted,butthissuggestionwasneveracceptedbyphoneticiansingeneral,andtoday'
'isthesymbolusedintheInternationalPhoneticAlphabet,with' 'acknowledgedasanacceptablevariant
andmoreoftenusedinprintedmaterials.

Use
InEnglish,theletterappearseitheraloneorinsomedigraphs.Alone,itrepresents
avoicedvelarplosive(//or"hardG"),asingoose,gargoyleandgame
avoicedpalatoalveolaraffricate(/d/or"softG"),generallybefore'i'or'e',asingiant,gingerand
geologyor
avoicedpalatoalveolarsibilant(//)insomewordsofFrenchorigin,suchasrouge,beigeandgenre.
InwordsofRomanceorigin,'g'ismainlysoftbefore'e'(includingthedigraphsaeandoe),'i',and'y'and
hardotherwise.TherearemanyEnglishwordsofnonRomanceoriginwhere'g'ishardthoughfollowedby
'e'or'i'(e.g.get,gift),andafewinwhich'g'issoftthoughfollowedby'a'suchasgaol,margarine,andan
alternativepronunciationofvegan.
Thedigraph'dg'represents
avoicedpalatoalveolaraffricate(/d/)asinbridgeorjudge.
Thedigraph'ng'representseither
avelarnasal(//)asinlengthandsing,or
aconsonantclusterofthelatterwiththehardG(//)asinjungleandfinger,or
aconsonantclusterof/nd/,asinspongeorbinge.
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Thedigraph'gh'(whichmostlycameaboutwhentheletteryogh,whichtookvariousvaluesincluding//,/
/,/x/and/j/,wasremovedfromthealphabet)nowrepresentsagreatvarietyofvalues,including
//wordinitiallyandinloanwordslikespaghetti
asanindicatorofaletter's"long"pronunciationinwordslikesighandnight
silentasineightandplough
/f/inenough
betweentwovowels,asimpleclusterof/h/asinpigheaded
Thedigraph'gn'mayrepresent
initially,/n/asingnomeandgnostic
finally,/n/withapreceding"long"vowelasinsign
betweentwovowels,asimpleclusterof/n/asinsignature
/nj/inloanwordssuchaslasagna
Whilethesoftvalueof'g'variesindifferentRomancelanguages(//inFrenchandPortuguese,[(d)]in
Catalan,/d
/inItalianandRomanian,and/x/insomeSpanishdialects,and/h/inotherdialects),inall
exceptRomanianandItalian,soft'g'hasthesamepronunciationasthe'j'.
InItalianandRomanian,'gh'isusedtorepresent//beforefrontvowelswhere'g'wouldotherwise
representasoftvalue.InItalianandFrench,'gn'isusedtorepresentthepalatalnasal//,asoundsomewhat
similartothe'ny'inEnglishcanyon.InItalian,thetrigraph'gli',whenappearingbeforeavowel,represents
thepalatallateralapproximant//inthedefinitearticleandpronoungli/i/,thedigraph'gl'representsthe
samesound.
NonRomancelanguagestypicallyuse'g'torepresent//regardlessofposition.
AmongstEuropeanlanguagesDutchisanexceptionasitdoesnothave//initsnativewords,andinstead
'g'representsavoicedvelarfricative//,asoundthatdoesnotoccurinmodernEnglish,butthereisa
dialectalvariationmanyNetherlandicdialectsuseavoicelessfricative([x]or[])instead,andinsouthern
dialectsitmaybepalatalizedto[].Nevertheless,wordfinallyitisalwaysvoicelessinalldialects,
includingstandardNetherlandicandstandardBelgianDutch.Ontheotherhand,somedialects(like
Amelands),mayhaveaphonemic//.
Faroeseuses'g'torepresent/d/,inadditionto//,andalsousesittoindicateaglide.
InMaori(TeReoMori),'g'isusedinthecombination'ng'whichrepresentsthevelarnasal//andis
pronouncedlikethe'ng'insinger.
InolderCzechandSlovakorthographies,'g'wasusedtorepresent/j/,while//waswrittenas''(gwith
caron).

Equivalentlettersinotherscripts
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Strictlyspeaking,theletter'g'isnotpresentinotherscripts,butthevoicedvelarplosive(//or"hardG")
soundispresentinmanyworldlanguages,andisrepresentedbymanydifferentgraphemes.
TheCyrillicscriptanalogueismarkedas''(e.g.inRussian,Bulgarian,Macedonian,Serbian,etc.)or''(in
Ukrainianasadditionalletterwithaslightlydifferentpronunciation).TheHebrewanalogueisgimel''.
Devanagarihasformsforbothaspiratedandunaspirated'g'sounds.(,)
ClassicalArabicdidnothaveplain//initsnativewords(thepalatalizedform//or//isbelievedtohave
beenused),butthesoundisstandardinModernStandardArabicinEgypt,soas[]isthestandardsoundin
EgyptianArabic,inwhichloanwordsarenormallytranscribedwith''(Gm).However,foreignwords
containing//maybetranscribedusingotherletters,suchas:(Gf,notpartofstandardletters),(qf),
(kf),(Ghain)inloanwordsorinvarietiesofArabic,butnotinEgypt,because''isnormally
pronounced[]inallcases.

Relatedlettersandothersimilarcharacters
:LatinletterscriptsmallG
:LatinletterGwithcircumflex
:LatinletterGwithbreve
:Latingamma
:Latinletteryogh
:Greeklettergamma
:Cyrillicletterge
:Cyrilliclettergje
:Cyrillicletterghayn
:HebrewletterGimel

Computingcodes
Character

Unicodename

LATINCAPITALLETTERG

LATINSMALLLETTERG

Encodings

decimal

hex

decimal

hex

Unicode

71

U+0047

103

U+0067

UTF8

71

47

103

67

&#71

&#x47

&#103

&#x67

199

C7

135

87

71

47

103

67

Numericcharacterreference
EBCDICfamily
ASCII1

1AlsoforencodingsbasedonASCII,includingtheDOS,Windows,ISO8859andMacintoshfamiliesof

encodings.
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Otherrepresentations
NATOphonetic

Morsecode

Golf

Signalflag

Flagsemaphore

Braille
dots1245

Seealso
CarolingianG
hardandsoftG
insularG
letterGinfreemasonry

References
1. ^TheAmericanHeritageDictionaryoftheEnglishLanguage.1976.
2. ^Evertype.com(http://www.evertype.com/standards/wynnyogh/thorn.html)
3. ^EncyclopaediaRomana(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/zed.html)

Externallinks
MediarelatedtoGatWikimediaCommons
ThedictionarydefinitionofGatWiktionary
ThedictionarydefinitionofgatWiktionary
LewisandShortLatinDictionary:G(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?
doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2319181)
Retrievedfrom"http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=G&oldid=614155173"
Categories: ISObasicLatinletters
Thispagewaslastmodifiedon23June2014at22:49.
TextisavailableundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionShareAlikeLicenseadditionaltermsmay
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apply.Byusingthissite,youagreetotheTermsofUseandPrivacyPolicy.Wikipediaisa
registeredtrademarkoftheWikimediaFoundation,Inc.,anonprofitorganization.

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