Gha | |
---|---|
Ƣ ƣ | |
ğ, ꝙ | |
![]() | |
Usage | |
Writing system | Latin script |
Type | Alphabetic |
Language of origin | Azerbaijani language |
Sound values | [ ɣ ] [ ʁ ] |
In Unicode | U+01A2, U+01A3 |
Alphabetical position | 8 (after G) |
History | |
Development | |
Time period | ~1900 to 1983 |
Descendants | •(None) |
Sisters | Q Φ φ Փ փ Ֆ ֆ |
Transliterations | ğ, q, g, gh, Ғ |
Variations | ğ, ꝙ |
Other | |
Writing direction | Left-to-Right |
The letter Ƣ (minuscule: ƣ) has been used in the Latin orthographies of various, mostly Turkic languages, such as Azeri or the Jaꞑalif orthography for Tatar. [1] It is also included in pinyin alphabets for Kazakh and Uyghur; and in the 1928 Soviet Kurdish Latin alphabet. [2] It usually represents a voiced velar fricative [ ɣ ] but is sometimes used for a voiced uvular fricative [ ʁ ]. All orthographies that used the letter have been phased out and so it is not well-supported in fonts. It can still be seen in pre-1983 books published in the People’s Republic of China.[ citation needed ]
Historically, it is derived from a handwritten form of the small Latin letter q around 1900. The majuscule is then based on the minuscule. Its use for [ ɣ ] stems from the linguistic tradition of representing such sounds (and similar ones) by q in Turkic languages and in transcriptions of Arabic or Persian (compare kaf and qaf). [3]
In Unicode, the majuscule Ƣ is encoded in the Latin Extended-B block at U+01A2 and the minuscule ƣ is encoded at U+01A3. [4] The assigned names, "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OI" and "LATIN SMALL LETTER OI" respectively, are acknowledged by the Unicode Consortium to be mistakes, as gha is unrelated to the letters O and I. [5] The Unicode Consortium therefore has provided the character name aliases "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER GHA" and "LATIN SMALL LETTER GHA". [4]
Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow features an episode purporting to be the story of a Soviet officer, Tchitcherine, dispatched to Kirghizstan to serve on a committee tasked with devising an alphabet for the Kyrgyz language. Tchitcherine's particular contribution is the invention of the letter Ƣ, which is thus perhaps the only obsolete letter of a Central Asian language that may be familiar to the non-specialist, English-reading public through a widely circulated novel.