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Also known as: G
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g, seventh letter of the alphabet. The history of this letter began with the Latin alphabet. The Greek alphabet from which, through Etruscan, the Latin was derived, represented the voiced velar stop by its third letter gamma (Γ). This passed into Latin and was used in its rounded form C to represent the same sound, as in the word recei (probably an early dative form of rex, “king”), occurring in an early Latin inscription. The letter, however, came to represent the unvoiced velar stop, thus ousting K. This was probably due to Etruscan influence. To avoid confusion a new letter G was differentiated from C and used to represent the voiced velar, while C henceforward stood for the unvoiced velar only. The new letter was placed in the alphabet in the place of Greek zeta (Ζ) which was not required in the Latin alphabet.
The uncial form of the letter in the 6th and 7th centuries was a transitional form between C and G. The form with a rounded head, from which the modern minuscule g is derived, appears first in Latin cursive writing about the beginning of the 7th century, taking the place of earlier forms. A minuscule flat-headed form was adopted by Irish writing of the 6th and 7th centuries, and such a form had been in use in Latin cursive from the 5th through the 8th century. A form appears in Merovingian (pre-Carolingian French) writing in the 8th century, and a descendant of this was adopted into the Carolingian hand.
The flat-headed form was adopted by the early English hand from the Irish and remained the only form of the letter in use in England until the introduction of Carolingian writing by Norman scribes in the 12th century. Meanwhile, certain changes had taken place in the sound represented by the letter. The voiced velar had become palatalized before the front vowels e and i. Thus the flat-headed form of the letter, the only form in use in pre-Norman England, represented the velar before back vowels, the palatal before front vowels. It also stood for the sound now represented by y initially before front vowels. In Middle English the palatal stop developed into the sound now represented by j, a similar change having taken place in the development of the Latin velar on the continent. This sound was therefore introduced to English ears by the Normans, and in the Middle English period the two forms of the minuscule letter were in use to represent different sounds. The round-headed form represented the voiced velar (modern “hard” g) and the sound of j, while the flat-headed form represented the palatal stop and the sound of y. As the palatal stop (in such words as might, high, or enough) disappeared from the language, the use of the flat-headed form was discontinued. It survived in remote parts, and by its similarity to the form of z produced confusion with the latter.
In modern English the letter represents two sounds: (1) the voiced velar; (2) the sound of j before the vowels e, i, and y in words of Romance origin—gesture, ginger, gymnastics (contrast give, gilt). The combination gh often has the sound of f (as in cough, rongh, laugh), yet not consistently, for in some words it is silent (ought, though, through).
This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.
