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Gha

{{Short description|Letter in mostly Turkic-Latin script}}

{{Other uses|GHA (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox grapheme

| name = Gha

| letter = Ƣ ƣ

| variations = ğ, ꝙ

| image = File:Latin letter Ƣƣ.svg

| imageclass = skin-invert-image

| imagesize = 200px

| imagealt =

| script = Latin script

| type = Alphabet

| typedesc = ic

| language = Azerbaijani language

| phonemes = [{{IPA link|ɣ}}]
[{{IPA link|ʁ}}]

| unicode = U+01A2, U+01A3

| alphanumber = 18 (after Q)

| number =

| fam1 = O34

| fam2 = File:Proto-semiticQ-01.svg

| fam3 = File:Protoquf.svg

| fam4 = File:Phoenician_qoph.svg

| fam5 = Ϙ ϙ

| fam6 = 𐌒

| fam7 = Q

| fam8 = File:Sütterlin-Q.png

| usageperiod = ~1900 to 1983

| children = {{bull}}(None)

| sisters = Q
Φ φ
Փ փ
Ֆ ֆ

| equivalents = ğ, q, g, gh, Ғ

| associates =

| direction = Left-to-Right

}}

The letter Ƣ (minuscule: ƣ) was used in the Latin orthographies of various, mostly Turkic languages, such as Azeri or the Jaꞑalif orthography for Tatar.{{cite web|url=http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/pdf/gha.pdf|title=Some examples of LATIN LETTER OI (gha) (U+01A2, U+01A3) in Tatar and Uighur printing, with remarks on the recommended glyphs}} It was also included in the pinyin-based alphabets for Kazakh and Uyghur and in the 1928 Soviet Kurdish Latin alphabet.{{cite book|language=ru|title=Культура и письменность Востока|trans-title=Eastern Culture and Literature|year=1928|volume=2}} It usually represents a voiced velar fricative {{IPAblink|ɣ}} but is sometimes used for a voiced uvular fricative {{IPAblink|ʁ}}. All orthographies that used the letter were phased out, and it is not supported in all Latin fonts. It can still be seen in pre-1983 books published in the People’s Republic of China.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

File:Sütterlin-Q.png script]]

Historically, it is derived from a handwritten form of the small Latin letter q around 1900. The majuscule is then based on the minuscule. Its use for {{IPAblink|ɣ}} stems from the linguistic tradition of representing such sounds (and similar ones) by q in Turkic languages and in transcriptions of Arabic or Persian (compare kaf and qaf).{{cite web|url=http://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2008-m09/0068.html|title=Unicode mailing list}}

In alphabetical order, it comes between G and H.

Modern replacements

Unicode

{{more|Unicode#Alias}}

In Unicode, the majuscule Ƣ is encoded in the Latin Extended-B block at U+01A2 and the minuscule ƣ is encoded at U+01A3.{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0180.pdf|title=Unicode chart}} The assigned names, "{{sc2|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OI}}" and "{{sc2|LATIN SMALL LETTER OI}}" respectively, are acknowledged by the Unicode Consortium to be mistakes, as gha is unrelated to the letters O and I.{{cite web|url=http://unicode.org/notes/tn27/|title=Unicode Technical Note #27: Known Anomalies in Unicode Character Names}} The Unicode Consortium therefore has provided the character name aliases "{{sc2|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER GHA}}" and "{{sc2|LATIN SMALL LETTER GHA}}".

In popular culture

Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow features an episode purporting to be the story of a Soviet officer, Tchitcherine, dispatched to Kirghizstan to serve on a committee tasked with devising an alphabet for the Kyrgyz 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.

References

{{reflist}}

{{Latin script|Q|}}

Gha