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Ghayn

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This article is about the Arabic letter. For the Cyrillic letter, seeGhayn (Cyrillic).
Ghayn
Arabic
غ‎
Phonemic representationɣ,ʁ
Position in Alpha bet28
Numerical value1000
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Ghayn
غ
Usage
Writing systemArabic script
TypeAbjad
Language of originArabic language
Sound valuesɣ,ʁ
Alphabetical position19
Numerical value:1000
History
Development
V28
Other
Associated numbers1000
Writing directionRight-to-left
This article containsphonetic transcriptionsin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.For the distinction between[ ],/ /and ⟨⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Arabic Alpha bet
Arabic script

The Arabic letterغ‎(Arabic:غَيْنْ,ghaynorġayn) is the nineteenth letter of theArabic Alpha bet,one of the six letters not in the twenty-two akin to thePhoenician Alpha bet(the others beingthāʼ,khāʼ,dhāl,ḍād,ẓāʼ). It is also one of the ten letters thePersian Alpha betadded from the twenty-two inherited from thePhoenician Alpha bet(the others beings̱e,xe,ẕâl,zâd,ẓâ,pe,che,žeandgaf). It represents the sound/ɣ/or/ʁ/.In name and shape, it is a variant ofʻayn(ع‎). Its numerical value is 1000 (seeAbjad numerals). In the Persian language, it represents[ɣ]~[ɢ]and is the twenty-second letter in the newPersian Alpha bet.

Ghaynis written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

Position in word Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help) 		غ‎ ـغ‎ ـغـ‎ غـ‎

History

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Proto-Semiticġ(usually reconstructed asvoiced velar fricative/ɣ/orvoiced uvular fricative/ʁ/) merged withʻaynin most Semitic languages except for Arabic,Ugaritic,and older varieties of theCanaanite languages.TheSouth Arabian Alpha betretained a symbol forġ,𐩶.Biblical Hebrew, as of the 3rd century BCE, apparently still distinguished the phonemesġandḫ/χ/,based on transcriptions in theSeptuagint,such as that of the name "Gomorrah"asGomorras(Γομορραν) for the Hebrew‘Ămōrā(עֲמֹרָה). Canaanite languages, including Hebrew, later also mergedġwith ʻayin, and the merger was complete inTiberian Hebrew.

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

Usage

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The letterghayn(غ) is preferred in theLevant(nowadays), and byAljazeeraTV channel, to represent/ɡ/,e.g.,هونغ كونغ(Hong Kong),البرتغال(Portugal),أغسطس(August), andغاندالف(Gandalf). Foreign publications and TV channels in Arabic, e.g.Deutsche Welle,[1]andAlhurra,[2]follow this practice. It is then often pronounced/ɡ/,not/ɣ/,though in many cases,غis pronounced in loanwords as expected (/ɣ/,not/ɡ/).

Other letters can be used to transcribe/ɡ/in loanwords and names, depending on whether the localvariety of Arabicin 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, whereجis pronounced as[ɡ]in all situations, even in speaking Modern Standard Arabic[3](except in certain contexts, such asreciting the Qur'an),جis used to transcribe foreign[ɡ]in all contexts. The same applies to coastalYemen,as well as southwestern and easternOman.InAlgerian Arabic,Hejazi ArabicandNajdi Arabicit isqāf(ق‎). In Iraq,gaf(گ‎) is more used. In Morocco,gāf(ݣ‎) orkāf(ك‎) is used. InTunisiaandAlgeria,ڨ‎ orqāfق‎ is used.

When representing the sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written asע׳.In English, the letterغin Arabic names is usually transliterated asgh,ġ,or simplyg:بغدادBaghdād'Baghdad',قرغيزستانQirghizstan'Kyrgyzstan',سنغافورةSinghafura'Singapore', orغزةGhazzah'Gaza', the latter of which does not render the sound[ɣ]~[ʁ]accurately. The closest equivalent sound to be known to mostEnglish-speakers is theParisianFrench"r"[ʁ].In theMaltese Alpha betwhich is written in theLatin Alpha bet,the onlySemitic languageto do so in itsstandard form,writes the ghayn as ⟨g⟩. It is usually represented asvoiced velar plosive.

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For the related characters, seeng(Arabic letter)andayin.

Character encodings

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Character information
Preview غ ﻍ ﻎ ﻏ ﻐ
Unicode name ARABIC LETTER GHAIN ARABIC LETTER GHAIN
ISOLATED FORM 		ARABIC LETTER GHAIN
FINAL FORM 		ARABIC LETTER GHAIN
INITIAL FORM 		ARABIC LETTER GHAIN
MEDIAL FORM
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1594 U+063A 65229 U+FECD 65230 U+FECE 65231 U+FECF 65232 U+FED0
UTF-8 216 186 D8 BA 239 187 141 EF BB 8D 239 187 142 EF BB 8E 239 187 143 EF BB 8F 239 187 144 EF BB 90
Numeric character reference غ غ ﻍ ﻍ ﻎ ﻎ ﻏ ﻏ ﻐ ﻐ
Character information
Preview ڠ ݝ ࢳ
Unicode name ARABIC LETTER AIN WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE ARABIC LETTER AIN WITH TWO DOTS ABOVE ARABIC LETTER AIN WITH THREE DOTS BELOW
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1696 U+06A0 1885 U+075D 2227 U+08B3
UTF-8 218 160 DA A0 221 157 DD 9D 224 162 179 E0 A2 B3
Numeric character reference ڠ ڠ ݝ ݝ ࢳ ࢳ

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Leningrad لينينغراد spelled with غ rather than ج".Retrieved14 December2022.
  2. ^""Blogger" بلوغر is spelled with غ, not ج about an article on Egypt quoting an Egyptian official Facebook post spelling it بلوجر with ج ".Retrieved14 December2022.
  3. ^al Nassir, Abdulmunʿim Abdulamir (1985).Sibawayh the Phonologist(PDF)(in Arabic). University of New York. p. 80.Retrieved23 April2024.
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