Ghe with upturn

Ghe with upturn (Ґ ґ; italics: Ґ ґ), also known as Ge or G, is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is part of the Ukrainian alphabet, the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet and both the Carpathian Rusyn alphabets, and also some variants of the Urum and Belarusian (i.e. Belarusian Classical Orthography) alphabets. In these languages it is usually called ge, while the letter it follows, ⟨Г г⟩ is called he. In the Unicode system for text encoding, this letter is called ghe with upturn.
The letterform of this letter is based on the letterform of the letter ⟨Г г⟩, but its handwritten and italic lowercase forms do not follow the italic modification of ⟨г⟩: г.
It represents the voiced velar plosive , like the pronunciation of ⟨g⟩ in "go".
Ghe with upturn is usually romanized using the Latin letter g, or sometimes ġ with a dot or g̀ with a grave accent.
History
The common Slavic voiced velar plosive is represented in most Cyrillic orthographies by ⟨Г⟩, called ге, ge, in most languages. In Ukrainian, however, around the early 13th century, the sound lenited to the voiced velar fricative (except in the cluster *zg), and around the 16th century, debuccalized to the voiced glottal fricative . The phoneme continued to be represented by ⟨Г⟩, called ге, he, in Ukrainian.
Within a century after this sound change began, was re-introduced from Western European loanwords. Since then, it has been represented by several different notations in writing.
In early Belarusian and Ukrainian orthographies, Latin ⟨g⟩ or the Cyrillic digraph ⟨кг⟩ (kh) were sometimes used for the sound of Latin ⟨g⟩ in assimilated words. The first text to consequently employ the letter ⟨ґ⟩ was the 16th-century Peresopnytsia Gospel. The use of the letter was not confined to the Old- and Middle-Ukrainian-speaking territory, and there was a fully-fledged use in the 16th-century printer Pyotr Mstislavets's edition of The Four Gospels. Later, distinguishing of the sound and using the digraph gradually disappeared from Belarusian orthography.
As far as linguistic studies are concerned, the letter ⟨ґ⟩ was first introduced into the Slavic alphabet in 1619 by Meletius Smotrytsky in his "Slavic Grammar" (Грамматіки славєнскиѧ правилноє Сѵнтаґма). Later, for an identical purpose, it was saved in the new orthography of Ukrainian.
The letter ⟨ґ⟩ was officially eliminated from the Ukrainian alphabet in the Soviet orthographic reforms of 1933, to bring the Ukrainian language closer to Russian, its function being subsumed into that of the letter ⟨г⟩, pronounced in Ukrainian as . However, ⟨ґ⟩ continued to be used by Ukrainians in Galicia (part of Poland until 1939) and in the Ukrainian diaspora worldwide, who all continued to follow the Kharkiv orthography of 1928 (the so-called skrypnykivka, after Mykola Skrypnyk). It was reintroduced to Soviet Ukraine in a 1990 orthographic reform under glasnost, just before independence in 1991. A 2017 study of legal documents found that the letter had returned to active usage in Ukraine.
In Belarusian, the plosive realization of the Proto-Slavic voiced velar plosive has been preserved root-internally in the consonant clusters ⟨зг⟩, ⟨жг⟩, ⟨дзг⟩, and ⟨джг⟩ (in words such as мазгі , вэдзгаць or джгаць but not on a morphological boundary, as in згадаць , in which is a prefix). It is present in common loanwords such as ганак , гузік , or гандаль . In the 20th century, some Belarusian linguists, notably Jan Stankievič, promoted both the reintroduction of the practice of pronouncing Latin ⟨g⟩, at least in newly assimilated words, and the adoption of the letter ⟨ґ⟩ to represent it. However, consensus on this has never been reached, and the letter has never been part of the standard Belarusian alphabet and saw only sporadic periods of use. For example, a code of alternative Belarusian orthography rules, based on the proposal of Vincuk Viačorka and published in 2005, has the optional letter ⟨ґ⟩ included in the alphabet, but it can be replaced by ⟨г⟩.
Usage in Slavic languages
Belarusian
The letter ґ next to г is used in the so-called "Taraškievica" - the classical spelling of the Belarusian language.
An attempt to differentiate in writing the transmission of sounds /ɣ/ and /g/, using along with the letter Г, г, a special letter Ґ, ґ, which differed in size and shape, took place in the history of the Old Belarusian language.
In A. Jelsky's publication in 1895, a new sign was introduced for the fricative /ɣ/ inherent in the Belarusian language, in contrast to the Russian breakthrough [g]. The new letter г̑ differed in contours from the letter Г, г by the presence of a diacritical mark in the form of a bracket bent downwards. In the publication of folklore and ethnographic work by A.K. Serzhputovsky in 1911, the sign Ґ, ґ with a curved upward horizontal line was proposed for the same purpose. The same sign was used in the alphabet of Kupala's collection in 1908 and became part of the alphabet approved by the first normative grammar of the Belarusian language by Branislaw Tarashkyevich, only with a different purpose - to convey a sonorous soft palate breakthrough /g/. But in 1933 the letter Ґ, ґ, was excluded from the Belarusian alphabet, as well as from the Ukrainian one.
Belarusian Classical Orthography
§ 61. G When adopting foreign proper names, explosive /g/ can be transmitted through a letter ґ (“ґе”): Ґіём, Ґасконь etc.
In the literary Belarusian language, an explosive sound /g/ (and its soft equivalent /gʲ/) pronounced in Belarusian sound combinations [z̪g], [d͡z̞g], [d͡ʐg]: во[зґ]ры, ма[зґ’]і, ро[зґ’]і, абры[зґ]лы, бра[зґ]аць, пляву[зґ]аць, вэ[дзґ]аць, [джґ]аць and in a number of borrowed words: [ґ]анак, [ґ]арсэт, [ґ]валт, [ґ]зымс, [ґ]онта, [ґ]узік, а[ґ]рэст, [ґ’]ер[ґ’]етаць, цу[ґ]лі, шва[ґ’]ер etc. This marked the beginning of the restoration in the twentieth century of the use of the letter ґ, which was used in the Old Belarusian language.
In proper names with a non-Slavic lexical basis, explosive /g/ is traditionally pronounced in Belarusian as fricative /ɣ/; preservation of /g/ in pronunciation does not qualify as a violation of the orthoepic norm: [Г]арыбальдзі and [Ґ]арыбальдзі, [Г]рэнляндыя and [Ґ]рэнляндыя, [Г’]ётэ and [Ґ’]ётэ, [Г’]ібральтар and [Ґ’]ібральтар.
The sound [g] in Belarusian also exists in place of etymological [k] before voiced consonants, as a result of assimilation. This assimilation is not reflected in writing, so the letter к is used in this case: анэкдот, вакзал, пакгаўз, экзамэн, эксгумацыя.
Ukrainian
The letter Ґ ґ in the Ukrainian language represents the voiced velar plosive /g/.
It is usually romanized as the letter g (while the letter Г г is transliterated as h, and Cyrillic Х х as kh or ch). Some European standards use ġ with a dot or g̀ with a grave accent (see Preußische Instruktionen, ISO 9).
Current orthography
§ 6. Letter Ґ
1. In Ukrainian and long-borrowed/Ukrainianized words: аґрус, ґава, ґазда, ґандж, ґанок, ґатунок, ґвалт, ґеґати, ґедзь, ґелґотати, ґелґотіти, ґерґелі, ґерґотати, ґерґотіти, ґиґнути, ґирлиґа, ґлей, ґніт (in the lamp), ґоґель-моґель, ґонт(а), ґрасувати, ґрати (noun), ґречний, ґринджоли, ґрунт, ґудзик, ґуля, ґуральня, джиґун, дзиґа, дзиґлик, дриґати і дриґати, ремиґати etc. and in their derivatives: аґрусовий, ґаздувати, ґвалтувати, ґерґіт, ґратчастий, ґрунтовий, ґрунтувати(ся), ґудзиковий, ґулька, проґавити etc.
2. In proper names — toponyms of Ukraine: Ґорґани (massif), Ґоронда, Уґля (villages in Zakarpattia), in the surnames of Ukrainians: Ґалаґан, Ґалятовський, Ґеник, Ґерзанич, Ґердан, Ґжицький, Ґиґа, Ґоґа, Ґойдич, Ґонта, Ґриґа, Ґудзь, Ґула, Ломаґа.
§ 122. Sounds [g], [h]
1. The sound /g/ and similar sounds denoted by the letter g are usually transmitted by the letter г: авангард, агітація, агресор, блогер, гвардія, генерал, гламур, графік, грог, ембарго, маркетинг, міграція; лінгвістика, негативний, серфінг, синагога, Вахтанг, Гарсія, Гайнетдін, Ердоган, Гвінея, Гольфстрим, Гренландія, Грузія, Гете, Георг, Гурамішвілі, Люксембург, Магомет, Фольксваген, Чикаго.
2. The letter ґ conveys the sound /g/ in long-borrowed common names, such as ґанок, ґатунок, ґвалт, ґрати, ґрунт, etc. (see § 6) and their derivatives: ґанковий, ґратчастий, ґрунтовний etc.
3. In surnames and names of people it is allowed to transmit the sound /g/ in two ways: by adapting to the sound system of the Ukrainian language — with the letter г (Вергілій, Гарсія, Гегель, Георг, Гете, Грегуар, Гуллівер) and by imitating a foreign language /g/ — with the letter ґ (Верґілій, Ґарсія, Геґель, Ґеорґ, Ґете, Ґреґуар, Ґуллівер etc.)
Form
Regular (non-cursive) uppercase and lowercase forms of this letter look similar to the corresponding regular (non-cursive) uppercase and lowercase forms of the letter Г г, but with additional upturn. Handwritten (cursive) uppercase and lowercase forms of this letter are displayed by the image to the left.
Related letters and other similar characters
Г г : Cyrillic letter Ge (distinguished and named He in the Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets)
Γ γ : Greek letter Gamma
G g : Latin letter G
Ġ ġ : Latin letter Ġ
Computing codes
References
Further reading
Bušlakoŭ, Juraś, Vincuk Viačorka, Źmicier Sańko, Źmicier Saŭka. 2005. Klasyčny pravapis. Zbor praviłaŭ: Sučasnaja narmalizacyja [Classical orthography. Set of rules: Contemporary normalization]. (PDF.) Vilnia—Miensk: Audra.
Лёсік, Язэп. 1927. “Да рэформы беларускай азбукі”, у: Працы акадэмічнае конфэрэнцыі па рэформе беларускага правапісу і азбукі. Менск: Інстытут Беларускае Культуры.
Станкевіч, Ян. 2002. “Гук «ґ» у беларускай мове” [The G sound in Belarusian], у: Ян Станкевіч, Збор твораў у двух тамах. Т. 2. - Менск: Энцыклапедыкс.
External links