- Ghain
Ghain, ghayn, or ArabDIN|ġayn ( _ar. ﻍ) is one of the six letters in the
Arabic alphabet not in the twenty-two akin to thePhoenician alphabet (the others being ArabDIN|ṯāʼ , ArabDIN|ḫāʼ , ArabDIN|ḏāl , ArabDIN|ḍād , ArabDIN|ẓāʼ ). It is the twenty second alphabet in newPersian alphabet . It represents thevoiced velar fricative (IPA|/ɣ/).In name and shape, it is a variant of ArabDIN|ʻayn .A
voiced uvular fricative IPA|/ʁ/ (usually reconstructed forProto-Semitic ) merged withAyin in most languages except for Arabic,Ugaritic and older varieties of theCanaanite languages . Canaanite languages and Hebrew later also merged it with Ayin, and this merger was complete inTiberian Hebrew . TheSouth Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for transl|sem|ġ, .The letter ArabDIN|ġayn ( _ar. ﻍ) is sometimes used to represent the
voiced velar plosive /g/ in loan words in Arabic, such as the word for "Bulgaria" (بلغاريا), where in some cases in alteration with kaf ك is used as in "English". This is the mode of arabisation in dialects in which the letter gim ج is pronounced asvoiced postalveolar affricate [ʤ] , and in dialects where it is promounced as [ʒ] , but not in those that sound it as avoiced velar plosive [ɡ] in which gim is used instead."Ghain" is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
Origins of Ghain
Ghain is believed to have come from the following
hieroglyph V28 that depicts two twisted fibers. This coincidentally superficially resembles the IPA symbol IPA| [ɣ] upside down. IPA| [ɣ] is conventionally used for the sound of ghain.
ee also
*
Arabic phonology
*Ghayn , the corresponding letter in the Cyrillic orthographies for several Central Asian languagesExternal links
* [http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/28_chart.html Ancient Hebrew Alphabet - Chart]
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