| 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 | 18 (afterQ) |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Time period | ~1900 to 1983 |
| Descendants | • (None) |
| Sisters | Q Φ φ Փփ Ֆֆ |
| Transliterations | ğ,q,g,gh,Ғ |
| Variations | ğ,ꝙ |
| Other | |
| Writing direction | Left-to-Right |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
The letterƢ (minuscule:ƣ) was used in theLatinorthographies of various, mostlyTurkic languages, such asAzeri or theJaꞑalif orthography forTatar.[1] It was also included in thepinyin-based alphabets forKazakh andUyghur and in the 1928Soviet Kurdish Latin alphabet.[2] It usually represents avoiced velar fricative[ɣ] but is sometimes used for avoiced uvular fricative[ʁ]. All orthographies that used the letter were phased out, and it is not supported in all Latinfonts. It can still be seen in pre-1983 books published in thePeople’s Republic of China.[citation needed]
Historically, it is derived from a handwritten form of the small Latin letterq around 1900. Themajuscule is then based on the minuscule. Its use for[ɣ] stems from the linguistic tradition of representing such sounds (and similar ones) byq in Turkic languages and in transcriptions ofArabic orPersian (comparekaf andqaf).[3]
In alphabetical order, it comes betweenG andH.
InUnicode, themajuscule Ƣ is encoded in the Latin Extended-B block at U+01A2 and theminuscule ƣ is encoded at U+01A3.[4] The assigned names, "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OI" and "LATIN SMALL LETTER OI" respectively, are acknowledged by theUnicode 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 novelGravity's Rainbow features an episode purporting to be the story of a Soviet officer, Tchitcherine, dispatched toKirghizstan to serve on a committee tasked with devising an alphabet for theKyrgyz 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.
