G, THE seventh letter and fifth consonant of our al-ŋî phabet, though in the alphabets of all the oriental languages, the Hebrew, Phoenician, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, and even Greek, G is the third letter. The Hebrews call it ghimel or gimel, a camel, by reason of its supposed resemblance to the hump on the back of that animal; and it bears the same appellation in the Samaritan, Phoenician, and Chaldee; in the Syriac it is called gamel, in Arabic giim, and in Greek gamma. The gamma, Γ, of the Greeks is manifestly the ghimel, j, of the Hebrews or Samaritans; the difference between the gamma and ghimel consisting in this, that the one is turned to the right and the other to the left, according to the different manners of writing and reading which obtained amongst these different nations. From the Greeks the Latins borrowed their form of this letter; the Latin G being certainly a corruption of the Greek gamma, Γ, as might be easily shown, if our printers had all the characters and forms of this letter to be met with in the Greek and Latin manuscripts, through which the latter passed from l’ to G. Diomedes (lib. ii. cap. De Litera) calls G a new letter. His reason is, that the Romans had not introduced it before the first Punic war, as appears from the Columna Rostrata erected by Duilius, in which C is everywhere found instead of G. It was Sp. Carvilius who, as we learn from Terentius Scaurus, first distinguished between these two letters, and invented the figure of the G.

The G, however, is found instead of C on several medals (Vaillant, Num. Imperat. tom. i. p. 39); and Beger produces a medal of the Familia Ogulnia, where we find Gar instead of Car, which is the reading on those of Palin. But the C is more frequently seen on medals instead ofG, as Aucustalis, Calloecia, Cartacinensis, &c. ; not that the pronunciation of these words was altered, but only that the G was unskilfully or negligently cut by the workmen; as may be seen in different inscriptions of the eastern empire, where ave is frequently found for aug, and so in other cases. The northern nations frequently changed the G into V or W, as in Gallus, Wallus ; Gallia, Wallia, Vallia, &c. But it must not be supposed that the French have changed the W into G; because they wrote Gallus long before Wallus or ĩVallia was known, as appears from all the ancient Greek and Roman writers. And yet it is equally true that the French change the W of the northern nations, and V consonant, into G; as Willielmus, William, into Guillaume ; Wulphilas into Gul-philas ; Vascon into Gascon, and so in other cases.

The letter G is a mute, and cannot be any way sounded without the help of a vowel. It is formed by the reflection of the air against the palate by the tongue, as the air passes out of the throat, or, as Martianus Capella expresses it, G spiritus cum palaio ; so that G is a palatal letter. The modern G takes its form from that of the Latins. In English it has two sounds; one from the Greek Γ, which is called that of the hard G, because it is formed by a pressure somewhat hard of part of the tongue against the upper gum, a sound which it retains before a, a, u, I, r ; and the other, called that of the soft G, resembles that of j, and is commonly, though not always, found before e and í, as in gesture, giant, whilst at the end of a word it is always hard. To this rule, however, there are many exceptions. G is often hard before », as give, &c. and sometimes before e, as get, &c. It is also hard in derivatives from words ending in g, as singing, stronger, &c. and generally before er at the ends of words, as finger. G is mute before n, as gnash, sign. GA has the sound of the hard G in the beginning of a word, as ghostly ; in the middle, and sometimes at the end, it is quite silent, as right, though. At the end of a word Gh has often the sound of/ as laugh, rough, tough.

As a numeral, G was anciently used to denote 400; and with a dash over it thus, Ğ, 40,000. As an abbreviature, G. stands for Gaius, Gellius, gens, genius, &c. G. G. for gemina, gessit, gesserunt, Sec. G. C. for genio civitatis or Casaris. G. L. for Gaius libertus, or genius loci. G. V. S. for genio urbis sacrum; G. B. for genio bono; and G. T. for genio tutelari. In music, G is the character or mark of the treble cleff; and from its being placed at the head, or marking the first sound in Guido’s scale, the whole scale took the name of gamut.