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Ghayn

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Ghayn
غ
Usage
Writing system	Arabic script
Type	Abjad
Language of origin	Arabic language
Sound values	ɣ, ʁ
Alphabetical position	19 Numerical value: 1000
History
Development	ع غ
Other
Associated numbers	1000
Writing direction	Right-to-left
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Arabic letter غ‎ (Arabic: غَيْنْ, ghaynorġayn) is the nineteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet, one of the six letters not in the twenty-two akin to the Phoenician alphabet (the others being thāʼ, khāʼ, dhāl, ḍād, ẓāʼ). It represents the sound /ɣ/or/ʁ/. In name and shape, it is a variant of ʻayn (ع‎). Its numerical value is 1000 (see Abjad numerals). In the Persian language, it represents [ɣ]~[ɢ] and is the twenty-second letter in the new Persian alphabet.

Ghayn is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

History[edit]

Proto-Semitic ġ (usually reconstructed as voiced velar fricative /ɣ/orvoiced uvular fricative /ʁ/) merged with ʻayn in most Semitic languages except for Arabic, Ugaritic, and older varieties of the Canaanite languages. The South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for ġ, 𐩶. Biblical Hebrew, as of the 3rd century BCE, apparently still distinguished the phonemes ġ and ḫ /χ/, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint, such as that of the name "Gomorrah" as Gomorras (Γομορραν) for the Hebrew ‘Ămōrā (עֲמֹרָה). Canaanite languages, including Hebrew, later also merged ġ with ʻayin, and the merger was complete in Tiberian Hebrew.

Proto-Semitic	Akkadian	Arabic		Canaanite		Hebrew		Aramaic		South Arabian		Geʻez
ġ	-	غ	gh		ġ, ʻ	ע	ʻ	ע	ʻ		ġ	ዐ	ʻ

Usage[edit]

The letter ghayn (غ) is preferred in the Levant (nowadays), and by Aljazeera TV channel, to represent /ɡ/, e.g., هونغ كونغ (Hong Kong), البرتغال (Portugal), and غاندالف (Gandalf). Foreign publications and TV channels in Arabic, e.g. Deutsche Welle,^[1] and Alhurra,^[2] follow this practice. It is then often pronounced /ɡ/, not /ɣ/, though in many cases, غ is pronounced in loanwords as expected (/ɣ/, not /ɡ/).

Other letters can be used to transcribe /ɡ/ in loanwords and names, depending on whether the local variety of Arabic in the country has the phoneme /ɡ/, and if it does, which letter represents it, and whether it is customary in the country to use that letter to transcribe /ɡ/. For instance, in Egypt, where ج is pronounced as [ɡ] in all situations, even in speaking Modern Standard Arabic^[3] (except in certain contexts, such as reciting the Qur'an), ج is used to transcribe foreign [ɡ] in all contexts. The same applies to coastal Yemen, as well as southwestern and eastern Oman. In Algerian Arabic, Hejazi Arabic and Najdi Arabic it is qāf (ق‎). In Iraq, gaf (گ‎) is more used. In Morocco, gāf (ݣ‎) or kāf (ك‎) is used. In Tunisia and Algeria, ڨ‎ or qāf ق‎ is used.

When representing the sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as ע׳. In English, the letter غ in Arabic names is usually transliterated as gh, ġ, or simply g: بغداد Baghdād 'Baghdad', قرغيزستان Qirghizstan 'Kyrgyzstan', or غزة Ghazzah 'Gaza', the latter of which does not render the sound [ɣ]~[ʁ] accurately. The closest equivalent sound to be known to most English-speakers is the Parisian French "r" [ʁ].

Related characters[edit]

For the related characters, see ng (Arabic letter)

Character encodings[edit]

See also[edit]

• Ng (Arabic letter)
• Arabic phonology
• Cyrillic Ghayn, used for several Central Asian languages

References[edit]