Ğ
Template:Short description Template:Infobox grapheme Ğ (g with breve; minuscule: ğ) is a Latin letter found in the Turkish and Azerbaijani alphabets as well as the Latin alphabets of Zazaki, Laz, Crimean Tatar, Tatar, and Kazakh. It traditionally represented the voiced velar fricative Template:IPA or the voiced uvular fricative Template:IPA. However, in Turkish, the phoneme has in most cases been reduced to a silent letter, serving as a vowel-lengthener. But for Crimean Tatar spelling in Romania it represents the voiced palato-alveolar affricate Template:IPA.
Turkish use
Current use
In Turkish, the Template:Angbr is known as Template:Lang (Template:IPA; 'soft g') and is the ninth letter of the Turkish alphabet. It always follows a vowel, and can be compared to the Template:Lang ('soft g') in Danish.
Similarly to Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar and other Turkic languages, Turkish used to have a /ɣ/ phoneme which could occur in all positions. However, the phoneme was gradually lost as it fortified to a /g/ if not preceded by a vowel and eroded away elsewhere. The fortified form is now written with a ⟨g⟩, while the eroded form is shown with a ⟨ğ⟩; showing that in native Turkish words which have vowels in contact with each other, there used to be a consonant separating them (in fact Turkish language resources will still insist native words do not have consecutive vowels). In loanwords, consecutive vowels are not separated with a ğ, but in speech they may be separated by a glottal stop. For example, the Arabic loanword Template:Lang or Template:Lang may be pronounced as either Template:IPA or Template:IPA.
The realization of the phoneme depends on its location in a word and the surrounding vowels:<ref name="GökselKerslake2005">Template:Cite book</ref>
| spelling | pronunciation | spelling | pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ağ | Template:IPA | eğ | Template:IPA |
| iğ | Template:IPA | ığ | Template:IPA |
| oğ | Template:IPA | uğ | Template:IPA |
| öğ | Template:IPA | üğ | Template:IPA |
| ağa | Template:IPA | ığı | Template:IPA |
| uğu | Template:IPA | ||
| eğe | Template:IPA | iği | Template:IPA |
| üğü | Template:IPA | ||
| ağu | Template:IPA | oğa | Template:IPA |
| oğu | Template:IPA | uğa | Template:IPA |
| öğe | Template:IPA | öğü | Template:IPA |
| üğe | Template:IPA | ||
| ağı | Template:IPA* | ığa | Template:IPA |
| eği | Template:IPA* | iğe | Template:IPA |
- in word-final and syllable-final positions it lengthens the preceding vowel, for example: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('mountain[s]'), Template:Lang Template:IPA ('shallow'); when following a front vowel (e, i), it may sound Template:IPAslink instead: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('cane');
- between identical back vowels (a, ı, u) it is silent: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('shelter'), Template:Lang Template:IPA ('good luck');
- between identical front vowels (e, i, ü) it is either silent: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('that I love'), or pronounced Template:IPA: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('wedding');
- between different rounded vowels (o, u, ö, ü), or between rounded (o, u, ö, ü) and unrounded (a, e) vowels it is mostly silent, but may be a bilabial glide: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('cold'), Template:Lang Template:IPA ('onion');
- ağı may sound as two vowels or as long a: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('heavy');
- ığa is always two vowels: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('which fits');
- in eği and iğe it is either silent or pronounced Template:IPA as if written y: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('not'), Template:Lang Template:IPA ('other'); in colloquial speech eği is long i: Template:Lang Template:IPA;
- eği and ağı in the future suffix -(y)AcAK- are formally Template:IPA/Template:IPA or colloquially Template:IPAblink/Template:IPA: Template:Lang Template:IPA ('I will love'); Template:Lang Template:IPA ('I will write').
Some webpages may use Template:Angbr (uppercase) and Template:Angbr (lowercase) for Template:Angbr because of improper encoding; see Turkish characters for the reasons of this.
Historical use
The letter, and its counterpart in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet, Template:Angbr, were once pronounced as a consonant, Template:IPA, the voiced velar fricative, until very recently in the history of Turkish, but it has undergone a sound change by which the consonant was completely lost and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel occurred, hence its function today. The sound change has not completely eliminated the sound in some Turkish dialects. The previous consonantal nature of the sound is evinced by earlier English loanwords from Turkish, such as yogurt/yoghurt (modern Turkish Template:Lang) and agha (modern Turkish Template:Lang), and the corresponding velar fricative found in cognate words in the closely related Azerbaijani language and the Turkish-influenced Crimean Tatar language. In Old Turkic (as well as earlier during Proto-Turkic times), this voiced velar fricative originated as an allophone of Template:IPA, the voiced velar stop, when it occurred intervocalically. The expected process of lenition (weakening and eventual loss of the intervocalic Proto-Turkic consonant *Template:IPA) is thus complete in Turkish and underway in many other Common Turkic languages.
Azerbaijani use
In Azerbaijani Template:Angbr represents Template:IPAslink, the voiced velar fricative. In Azerbaijani, ğ never occurs at the beginning of a word.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Crimean Tatar use
In Crimean Tatar, Template:Angbr represents Template:IPAslink the voiced velar fricative.
Dobruja Tatar use
For Crimean Tatar spelling used in Romania, also known as Dobrujan Tatar it represents the voiced palato-alveolar affricate Template:IPA.
Tatar use
The Turkic Tatar language is written mostly in Cyrillic, but a Latin-based alphabet is also in use. In the Latin alphabet, ğ represents Template:IPAslink, the voiced uvular fricative.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Cyrillic, Tatar uses г for both g and ğ without distinction.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>
Tatar ğ / г is the Arabic ghayn غ. In Arabic words and names where there’s an ayin ع, Tatar adds the ghayn instead (عبد الله, ʻAbd Allāh, ’Abdullah; Tatar: Ğabdulla, Габдулла; Yaña imlâ: غابدوللا /ʁabdulla/).<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the Mishar Tatar Dialect, ğ is not pronounced, and thus, a word like şiğır (شعر, шигыр, "poem") is şigır or şiyır for Mishars (who in Finland use the Latin alphabet).<ref>Jazyki Rossijskoi Federatsii i sosednih gosudarstv. Tom 3, pp. 67–68. Moskva: Nauka, 2005. ISBN 5-02-011237-2. (In Russian)</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kazakh use
Template:See also The current Kazakh Latin alphabet proposal, last updated in March 2021 and commissioned by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, uses ğ to replace the Kazakh Cyrillic Ғ to represent the IPA Template:IPA. The earlier 2020 proposal listed Ǵ instead, but was replaced after public criticism.
Friulian use
The Faggin–Nazzi alphabet for Friulian language uses the caron, owing to its Slavic influence. However, Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr is often substituted with Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr due to the former's lack of availability in fonts and input systems. This is because Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr is in Latin Extended-A alongside Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr, the other caron bearing letters in the alphabet, whereas Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr is in Latin Extended-B, which is available in fewer fonts and input systems. Ǧǧ/Ğğ represents tje phoneme /dʒ/.
Character encoding
See also
References
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