This article is about the Middle English letter ȝ. For the number, see 3. For the IPA letter ʒ, see Ezh. For the Anglo-Saxon rune transcribed as ȝ, see Gyfu.
In Middle English writing, tailed z came to be indistinguishable from yogh.
InMiddle Scots, the character yogh became confused with a cursive z and the early Scots printers often used z when yogh was not available in their fonts.[1] Consequently, some Modern Scots words have a z in place of a yogh—the common surname Menzies was originally written Menȝies (pronounced mingis).
Yogh is shaped similarly to the Cyrillic letterЗ and the Arabic numeral 3, which are sometimes substituted for the character in online reference works. There is some confusion about the letter in the literature, as the English language was far from standardised at the time. Capital Ȝ is represented in Unicode by code point U+021CȜLATIN CAPITAL LETTER YOGH, and lower case ȝ by code point U+021DȝLATIN SMALL LETTER YOGH.
It stood for /ɡ/ and its various allophones—including [ɡ] and the voiced velar fricative[ɣ]—as well as the phoneme /j/ (⟨y⟩ in modern English orthography). In Middle English, it also stood for the phoneme /x/ and its allophone [ç] as in ⟨niȝt⟩ ("night", in an early Middle English way still often pronounced as spelled so: [niçt]), and also represented the phonemes /j/ and /dʒ/. Sometimes, yogh stood for /j/or/w/, as in the word ⟨ȝoȝelinge⟩[ˈjowəlɪŋɡə], "yowling".
InMiddle Scots, it represented the sound /j/ in the clusters /lj/, /ŋj/ and /nj/ written lȝ and nȝ.[4] Yogh was generally used for /j/ rather than y.
In medieval Cornish manuscripts, yogh was used to represent the voiced dental fricative[ð], as in its ⟨ȝoȝo⟩, now written ⟨dhodho⟩, pronounced [ðoðo].
The original Germanic g sound was expressed by the gyfu rune in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc (which is itself sometimes rendered as ȝ in modern transliteration). Following palatalization, both gyfu and Latin g in Old English expressed the /j/ sound before front vowels. For example, "year" was written as gear, even though the word had never had a g sound (deriving from Proto-Germanic*jērą).
With the re-introduced possibility of a /ɡ/ sound before front vowels, notably in the form of loanwords from the Old Norse (such as gere from Norse gervi, Modern English gear), this orthographical state of affairs became a source of confusion, and a distinction of "real g" (/ɡ/) from "palatalized g" (/j/) became desirable.
In the Old English period, ᵹ was simply the way Latin g was written in the Insular script introduced at the Christianisation of England by the Hiberno-Scottish mission. It only came to be used as a letter distinct from g in the Middle English period, where it evolved in appearance into ȝ, now considered a separate character.
In the 14th century, the digraph gh arose as an alternative to yogh for /x/, and eventually overtook yogh in popularity; still, the variety of pronunciations persisted, as evidenced by cough, taught, and though.[clarification needed] The process of replacing the yogh with gh was slow, and was not completed until the arrival of printing presses (which lacked yogh) in England around the end of the fifteenth century. Not every English word that contains a gh was originally spelled with a yogh: for example, spaghettiisItalian, where the h makes the g hard (i.e., [ɡ] instead of [dʒ]); ghoulisArabic, in which the gh was /ɣ/.
The medieval author Orm used this letter in three ways when writing Early Middle English. By itself, it represented /j/, so he used this letter for the y in "yet". Doubled, it represented /i/, so he ended his spelling of "may" with two yoghs. Finally, the digraph of ȝh represented /ɣ/.[5]
In the late Middle English period, yogh was no longer used: niȝt came to be spelled night. Middle English re-imported G in its French form for /ɡ/ (As a further side note, French also used ⟨y⟩ to represent /j/ in words like voyage and yeux).
In words of French and Gaelic origin, the Early Scotspalatal consonant/ɲ/ had become /nj/ or in some cases /ŋj/, and the palatal consonant /ʎ/ had become /lj/ by the Middle Scots period.[4] Those were variously written nȝ(h)e, ngȝe, ny(h)eorny(i)e, and lȝ(h)e, ly(i)eorlyhe (cf. gn and gliinItalian). By the Modern Scots period the yogh had been replaced by the character z, in particular for /ŋj/, /nj/ (nȝ) and /lj/ (lȝ), written nz and lz. The original /hj/ and /çj/ developed into /ʃ(j)/ in some words such as ȜetlandorZetland for Shetland.[1] Yogh was also used to represent /j/ in words such as ȝe, ȝhistirday (yesterday) and ȝoung but by the Modern Scots period y had replaced yogh.[6] The pronunciation of MacKenzie (and its variant spellings) (from Scottish Gaelic MacCoinnich[maxˈkʰɤɲɪç]), originally pronounced [məˈkɛŋjiː] in Scots,[1] shows where yogh became z. Menzies Campbell is another example.
In Middle Scots orthography, the use of yogh became confused with a cursive z and the early Scots printers often used z when yogh was not available in their fonts.
The yogh glyph can be found in surnames that start with a Y in Scotland and Ireland; for example the surname Yeoman, which would have been spelled Ȝeman. Sometimes, the yogh would be replaced by the letter z, because the shape of the yogh was identical to some forms of handwritten z.
InUnicode 1.0, the character yogh was mistakenly unified with the quite different character ezh (Ʒ ʒ), and yogh itself was not added to Unicode until version 3.0.
Examples of Middle English words containing a yogh[edit]
These are examples of Middle English words that contain the letter yogh in their spellings.[7]
Aucholzie – a settlement in Glenmuick, Aberdeenshire from the Scottish Gaelic: achadh coille meaning "the field of the wood", also the adjacent stream Allt Cholzie and nearby ruined farmstead Mill of Aucholzie;
Balzeordie and Castletoun of Balzeordie – two farms near BrechininAngus and a neighbouring wood Balzeordie Den, site of a minor hillfort known by the same name;
Barncailzie Wood – a Wood in Galloway that lends its name to a former hunting lodge;
The Branziet – pronounced bringit (IPA /brɪŋɪt/), a farm and settlement near Bardowie, East Dunbartonshire that lends its name to the Branziet Burn and Branziet Bridge;
Bunzion – pronounced bunion (IPA /bʌnjən/), Lower and Upper Bunzion are farms in the Parish of Cults, Fife;
Calzeat – an obsolete place name from the Parish of Broughton, Glenholm and KilbuchoinPeebleshire which, since 1971, has leant its name to textile manufacturer Calzeat and Company Limited;
Calziebohalzie – a former farmstead in Stirlingshire with a rare instance of a word containing two yoghs, from the Scottish Gaelic: Coille Buachaille (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation:[kʰɤʎəˈpuəxɪʎə]);
Dalmunzie – now pronounced as written, a historic castle in Perthshire repurposed as a hotel;[10]
Dalzellowlie, Dallzellowlie or Dalziellily – a colliery located between Maybole and GirvaninSouth Ayrshire whose deposits were contested between the estates of Culzean and Kilhenzie and were set on fire more than once, burning for many decades and becoming known as Burning Hills;
Easter Dalziel – pronounced deeyel (IPA /diːˈɛl/) from Gaelic Dail Gheal ([t̪alˈʝal̪ˠ]) meaning "white field";
Edzell – now pronounced as written, a village in Angus and the nearby Hill of Edzell, Edzell Castle, Mains of Edzell farm and the nearby settlement Edzell Woods;
Falgunzeon – a farm in Dumfries and Galloway that lends its name to the adjacent Falgunzeon Hill;
Hill of Foulzie – near Macduff in Aberdeenshire and four surrounding farm steadings Foulzie, Backhill of Foulzie, Over Foulzie and Newton of Foulzie;
Funzie – pronounced finnie (IPA /ˈfɪni/), a village on Fetlar that lends its name to nearby Funzie Ness, Funzie Bay, Haa of Funzie, Loch of Funzie, Muckle Funziegord Geo and the historic dividing wall Funzie Girt;
Kilchenzie or Kilkenzie – a small settlement on the Kintyre peninsula, from Choinnich (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation:[ˈxɤɲɪç]), the genitive of Coinneach (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation:[ˈkʰɤɲəx]) "Kenneth";
Kilhenzie Castle – pronounced kilhinny, a late medieval, baronial keepinCarrick, South Ayrshire, also from Choinnich and which takes its name from the surrounding features Kilhenzie Burn, Kilhenzie Wood and the Back Hill of Kilhenzie;
Kilrenzie, a remote settlement in the parish of Colmonell in South Ayrshire;
Kirkgunzeon – pronounced kirkgunion (IPA /kɜːrkɡʌnjən/), a village and civil parish in Dumfries and Galloway that lends its name to the adjacent stream Kirkgunzeon Lane and the nearby Isles of Kirkgunzeon Farm and Cottage;
Lochranza – pronounced as written, but found as Loch Ranga as recently as the late 19th century, a village on the Isle of Arran;
Malzie or Culmalzie, (sometimes Culmazie) – a site in The Machars in Dumfries & Galloway somewhat dubiously supposed to relate to Saint Mhaillidh[11] which lends its name to the Water of Malzie – a tributary of the River Bladnoch and Corsemalzie – a nearby country house hotel;
Menzie Cleugh – a gully or ravine in the sea cliff near Coldingham in the Borders reputedly derived from the name of a person who resided there;
Monzie – pronounced money (IPA /ˈmʌni/), from the Gaelic Moighidh, "a level tract", a parish in Perthshire near Crieff which lends its name to Monzie Castle and the Falls of Monzie;
Pinzarie – pronounced pingery, a farm steading and ruined farm steading, Old Pinzarie underneath Pinzarie Hill upstream from Tynron on the course of the Shinnel Water;
Pitcalzean – an obscure archaeological enclosure near the village of Nigg, Highland[13] that lends its name to nearby Pitcalzean House;
Alzie – a surname, historically found in Renfrewshire, Glasgow and Lanarkshire and possibly an alternate spelling of Algie. The name fell into disuse in the early nineteenth century;
Cadzow – see placename;
Dalziel – pronounced deeyel (IPA /diːˈɛl/) or dehyell, from Gaelic Dail Gheal ([t̪alˈʝal̪ˠ]); also spelled Dalyell and Dalzell;
Gilzean – pronounced gilain, a variant of Maclean, from Gaelic MacGilleEathain ([maxkʲɪˈʎe.ɛɲ]). However, many now pronounce the 'z', including footballer Alan Gilzean;[15]
Malzie – a now defunct surname possibly related to the Dumfries & Galloway placename;
McFadzean – pronounced macfadyen (IPA /məkˈfɑːdjɪn/), scotticised version of the Gaelic surname MacPhaidin also found, primarily in Ireland, anglicised as MacFadden;
MacKenzie – now pronounced as written, though as late as 1946 George Black recorded the original form pronounced makenyie (IPA /məˈkɛŋji/), from the Gaelic MacCoinnich ([maxˈkʰɤɲɪç]) as standard;[16]
Gaberlunzie – most correctly pronounced gaberlunyie (IPA /ɡæbərˈlʌnji/) but now often pronounced as written, a licensed beggar;
Spulzie — pronounced spooly with a variety of spellings including spuilzie and spulyie, both the taking of movable goods and the term for a process of restitution for such crimes;
Tailzie – pronounced [ˈteɪli]inScots law: a defunct since 2000 term for an entailed estate/interest in one;
Tuilzie – now standardised to Tulyie a struggle or fight, from the Old French 'toeillier' meaning to strive, dispute or struggle;[20]
Ulzie – pronounced ooly, oil. Found in reference to 'The Ulzie Ball' held by Longforgan weavers once daylight had returned sufficiently to allow work without the use of oil lamps.[21]
The symbol actually used in Egyptologyis, two half-rings opening to the left. Since Unicode 5.1, it has been assigned its own codepoints (uppercase U+A722 Ꜣ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF, lowercase U+A723 ꜣ LATIN SMALL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF); a fallback is the numeral 3.
^"English gilds: the original ordinances of more than one hundred early English gilds", Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, University of Michigan, 1999, retrieved 2011-06-23
(speculated origin)
, two half-rings opening to the left. Since Unicode 5.1, it has been assigned its own codepoints (uppercase U+A722 Ꜣ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF, lowercase U+A723 ꜣ LATIN SMALL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF); a fallback is the numeral 3.
