Ghayn

Ghayn
Ghayn
غ
Usage
Writing system	Arabic script
Type	Abjad
Language of origin	Arabic language
Alphabetical position	19; Numerical value: 1000
History
Development	𓎛 ع غ ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Other
Associated numbers	1000
Writing direction	Right-to-left

The Arabic letter غ‎ (Arabic: غَيْنْ, ghayn or ġayn) is the nineteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet, one of the six letters not in the twenty-two akin to the Phoenician alphabet (the others being thāʼ, khāʼ, dhāl, ḍād, ẓāʼ). It represents the sound /ɣ/ or /ʁ/. In name and shape, it is a variant of ʻayn (ع‎). Its numerical value is 1000 (see Abjad numerals). In the Persian language, it represents [ɣ]~[ɢ] and is the twenty-second letter in the new Persian alphabet.

Ghayn is 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

Proto-Semitic ġ (usually reconstructed as voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ or voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/) merged with ʻayn in most Semitic languages except for Arabic, Ugaritic, and older varieties of the Canaanite languages. The South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for ġ, 𐩶. Biblical Hebrew, as of the 3rd century BCE, apparently still distinguished the phonemes ġ and ḫ /χ/, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint, such as that of the name "Gomorrah" as Gomorras (Γομορραν) for the Hebrew ‘Ămōrā (עֲמֹרָה‎). Canaanite languages, including Hebrew, later also merged ġ with ʻayin, and the merger was complete in Tiberian Hebrew.

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

Usage

The letter ghayn (غ‎) is preferred in the Levant (nowadays), and by Aljazeera TV channel, to represent /ɡ/, e.g., هونغ كونغ (Hong Kong) and غاندالف (Gandalf). Foreign publications and TV channels in Arabic, e.g. Deutsche Welle,[1] and Alhurra,[2] follow this practice. It is then often pronounced /ɡ/, not /ɣ/, though in many cases, غ‎ is pronounced in loanwords as expected (/ɣ/, not /ɡ/).

Other letters can be used to transcribe /ɡ/ in loanwords and names, depending on whether the local variety of Arabic in 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, where ج‎ is pronounced as [ɡ] in all situations, even in speaking Modern Standard Arabic (except in certain contexts, such as reciting the Qur'an), ج‎ is used to transcribe foreign [ɡ] in all contexts. The same applies to coastal Yemen, as well as southwestern and eastern Oman.

When representing the sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as ע׳‎. In English, the letter غ‎ in Arabic names is usually transliterated as gh, ġ, or simply g: بغداد Baghdād 'Baghdad', or غزة Ghazzah 'Gaza', the latter of which does not render the sound [ɣ]~[ʁ] accurately. The closest equivalent sound to be known to most English-speakers is the Parisian French "r" [ʁ].

Related characters

Ain with two dots above

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ݝ‎	ـݝ‎	ـݝـ‎	ݝـ‎

Based on ghayn, called gīn (IPA: [ɡiːn]), historically used in the Arabic Afrikaans script to spell /ɡ/ in Afrikaans.
Also derived from ghayn, called ŋoon, used in the Wolofal alphabet to represent /ŋ/ in Wolof.

Ain with three dots above

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ڠ‎	ـڠ‎	ـڠـ‎	ڠـ‎

This letter is used to represent /ŋ/ in:

the Jawi script
the Pegon script
Arabic Afrikaans, called ngīn (IPA: [ŋiːn])

The Arabic letter ڠ‎ was also used historically in the Arebica script for Serbo-Croatian by Čičak-Al-Zubi to spell /d͡ʑ/.

Tamil ṅa

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ࢳ‎	ـࢳ‎	ـࢳـ‎	ࢳـ‎

This letter is also derived from ghayn, with three dots inside the descender, to represent /ŋ/ in the Arwi script used for Tamil.

Character encodings

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

References

"Leningrad لينينغراد spelled with غ rather than ج". Retrieved 14 December 2022.
""Blogger" بلوغر is spelled with غ, not ج about an article on Egypt quoting an Egyptian official Facebook post spelling it بلوجر with ج". Retrieved 14 December 2022.

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[1] "Leningrad لينينغراد spelled with غ rather than ج". Retrieved 14 December 2022.

[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". Retrieved 14 December 2022.