Gn (digraph)

Gn (digraph)

Gn is a digraph of the Latin Alphabet found in many languages.

In Latin, "gn" was pronounced IPA| [ŋn] . Latin velar-coronal digraphs like this (and also "cl", "cr", "ct", "gd", "gl", "gr", and "x") underwent a palatal mutation to varying degrees in most Italo-Western Romance languages, and in most of those languages that preserve the "gn" spelling (such as Italian and French), it is pronounced as a palatal nasal IPA| [ɲ] . This was not the case in Dalmatian and the Eastern Romance languages where a different mutation changed the velar component to a labial consonant, changing the spelling in those languages to "mn".

In English, the digraph is simply pronounced /n/ initially and finally(i.e. "gnome", "gnu", "benign", "sign"). When it appears between two syllables, the /g/ is pronounced within the first syllable, while the /n/ is pronounced in the second syllable (i.e. "signal").

In Norwegian, the digraph is pronounced IPA| [ŋn] in monosyllabic words like, "a"gn" and between two syllables, "te"gn"e". The same spelling represents the same sound in Swedish too. Initially it is simply [gn] , eg. Swedish "gnista" ['gnɪsta]

ee also

*GN (abbreviation)
*Ny (digraph)
*Ñ


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