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{{Redirect|Soft G|the Turkish letter “yumuÅŸak ge“|Äž}}{{Short description|Pronunciation of “G” in Latin-based orthographies}}{{More citations needed|date=October 2006}}{{IPA notice}}File:Stephen Webby slide at the 2013 Webby Awards.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Steve Wilhite’s slide at the 2013 Webby Awards regarding the (Pronunciation of GIF|pronunciation of GIF]].|alt=A slide with a black background. The text written in white and all caps is: “It’s pronounced ‘JIF’ not ‘GIF’”.)In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages, the letter {{angle bracket|g}} is used in different contexts to represent two distinct phonemes that in English are called hard and soft {{angle bracket|g}}. The sound of a hard {{angle bracket|g}} (which often precedes the non-front vowels {{angle bracket|a o u}} or a consonant) is usually the voiced velar plosive {{IPA|[É¡]}} (as in gain or go) while the sound of a soft {{angle bracket|g}} (typically before {{grapheme|i}}, {{grapheme|e}}, or {{grapheme|y}}) may be a fricative or affricate, depending on the language. In English, the sound of soft {{angle bracket|g}} is the affricate {{IPAslink|dÊ’}}, as in general, giant, and gym. A {{angle bracket|g}} at the end of a word usually renders a hard {{angle bracket|g}} (as in “rag“), while if a soft rendition is intended it would be followed by a silent {{angle bracket|e}} (as in “rage“).

History

This alternation has its origins in a historical palatalization of {{IPA|/É¡/}} which took place in Late Latin, and led to a change in the pronunciation of the sound {{IPA|[É¡]}} before the front vowels {{IPA|[e]}} and {{IPA|[i]}}.{{Harvcoltxt|Arnaud|1945|p=38}} Later, other languages not descended from Latin, such as English, inherited this feature as an orthographic convention. The Scandinavian languages, however, have undergone their shift independently.

English

{{see also|wikt:Appendix:List of English words where G is pronounced exceptionally|label 1=List of English words where G is pronounced exceptionally}}In English orthography, the pronunciation of hard {{angle bracket|g}} is {{IPA|/É¡/}} and that of soft {{angle bracket|g}} is {{IPA|/dÊ’/}}; the French soft {{angle bracket|g}}, {{IPA|/Ê’/}}, survives in a number of French loanwords (e.g. regime, genre), [Ê’] also sometimes occurs as an allophone of [dÊ’] in some accents in certain words.In words of Greco-Latinate origin, the soft {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciation occurs before {{angle bracket|e i y}} while the hard {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciation occurs elsewhere.{{Harvcoltxt|Emerson|1997|p=266}} In some words of Germanic origin (e.g. get, give), loan words from other languages (e.g. geisha, pierogi), and irregular Greco-Latinate words (e.g. gynecology), the hard pronunciation may occur before {{angle bracket|e i y}} as well. The orthography of soft {{angle bracket|g}} is fairly consistent: a soft {{angle bracket|g}} is almost always followed by {{angle bracket|e i y}}. The notable exceptions are gaol (now more commonly spelled jail) and margarine (a French borrowing whose original hard {{angle bracket|g}} softened for unknown reasons, even though the name Margaret has a hard {{angle bracket|g}}). The soft pronunciation of algae, the only one heard in North America, is sometimes cited as an exception, but it is actually conformant, {{angle bracket|ae}} being an alternate digraph spelling for a vowel in the {{angle bracket|e i y}} family. Though this pronunciation is listed first in some British dictionaries, hard pronunciation due to misinterpretation of orthographic {{angle bracket|ae}} is widespread in British English and is listed second or alone in some British dictionaries. In some words, a soft {{angle bracket|g}} has lost its trailing {{angle bracket|e}} due to suffixing, but the combination {{angle bracket|dg}} would imply the soft pronunciation anyway (e.g. fledgling, judgment, pledgor).Digraphs and trigraphs, such as {{angle bracket|ng}}, {{angle bracket|gg}}, and {{angle bracket|dge}}, have their own pronunciation rules.While {{angle bracket|c}}, which also has hard and soft pronunciations, exists alongside {{angle bracket|k}} (which always indicates a hard pronunciation), {{angle bracket|g}} has no analogous letter or letter combination which consistently indicates a hard {{angle bracket|g}} sound, even though English uses {{angle bracket|j}} consistently for the soft {{angle bracket|g}} sound (the rationale for the spelling change of “gaol” to “jail“). This leads to special issues regarding the coherence of orthography when suffixes are added to words that end in a hard-{{angle bracket|g}} sound. This additionally leads to many words spelled with g {{angle bracket|e i y}} and pronounced with a hard {{angle bracket|g}}, including what may be the most common g {{angle bracket|e i y}} word “get”. It has also resulted in the file format GIF having two possible pronunciations, with both hard {{angle bracket|g}} and soft {{angle bracket|g}} in common use.

Suffixation

When suffixes are added to words ending with a hard or soft {{angle bracket|g}} {{Not a typo|(such as -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -ism, -ist, -edness, -ish(ness), -ily, -iness, -ier, -iest, -ingly, -edly, and -ishly)}}, the sound is normally maintained. Sometimes the normal rules of spelling changes before suffixes can help signal whether the hard or soft sound is intended. For example, as an accidental byproduct of the rule that doubles consonants in this situation after a short vowel, a double {{angle bracket|gg}} will normally indicate the hard pronunciation (e.g. bagged is pronounced {{IPA|/ˈbæɡd/}}, not as {{IPA|/ˈbædÊ’d/}}).There are occasional exceptions where alternations between the hard and soft sound occur before different suffixes. Examples are analogous (hard) vs. analogy (soft); similarly, prodigal with prodigy. These are generally cases where the entire word, including the suffix, has been imported from Latin, and the general Romance-language pattern of soft {{angle bracket|g}} before front vowels, but hard {{angle bracket|g}} otherwise, is preserved.Sometimes a silent letter is added to help indicate pronunciation. For example, a silent {{angle bracket|e}} usually indicates the soft pronunciation, as in change; this may be maintained before a suffix to indicate this pronunciation (as in changeable), despite the rule that usually drops this letter. A silent {{angle bracket|i}} can also indicate a soft pronunciation, particularly with the suffixes -gion and -gious (as in region, contagious). A silent {{grapheme|u}} can indicate a hard pronunciation in words borrowed from French (as in analogue, league, guide) or words influenced by French spelling conventions (guess, guest); a silent {{grapheme|h}} serves a similar purpose in Italian-derived words (ghetto, spaghetti).A silent {{angle bracket|e}} can occur at the end of a word – or at the end of a component root word that is part of a larger word – after {{angle bracket|g}} as well as word-internally. In this situation, the {{angle bracket|e}} usually serves a marking function that helps to indicate that the {{angle bracket|g}} immediately before it is soft. Examples include image, management, and pigeon. Such a silent {{angle bracket|e}} also indicates that the vowel before {{angle bracket|g}} is a historic long vowel, as in rage, oblige, and range. When adding one of the above suffixes, this silent {{angle bracket|e}} is often dropped and the soft pronunciation remains. While {{angle bracket|dge}} commonly indicates a soft pronunciation, the silent {{angle bracket|e}} may be dropped before another consonant while retaining the soft pronunciation in a number of words such judgment and abridgment. Also, the word veg, a clipped form of vegetate, retains the soft pronunciation despite being spelled without a silent {{angle bracket|e}} (i.e., pronounced as if spelled vedge). Similarly, soft {{angle bracket|g}} is sometimes replaced by {{angle bracket|j}} in some names of commercial entities, such as with “Enerjy Software”, or “Majic 105.7” in Cleveland, Ohio and some names commonly spelled with {{angle bracket|j}} are given unusual soft {{angle bracket|g}} spellings such as Genna and Gennifer.

Letter combinations

English has many words of Romance origin, especially from French and Italian. The ones from Italian often retain the conventions of Italian orthography whereby {{angle bracket|gh}} represents hard {{angle bracket|g}} before e and i and gi and ge represent soft {{angle bracket|g}} (often even without any semivowel/vowel sound, thus representing /dÊ’/ just as j usually does in English orthography). The ones from French and Spanish often retain the conventions of French orthography and Spanish orthography whereby {{angle bracket|gu}} represents hard {{angle bracket|g}} before e and i and gi and ge represent soft {{angle bracket|g}} (often realized as /Ê’/ in French and as /h/ or /χ/ in Spanish). A consequence of these orthographic tendencies is that g before o or a is almost never soft {{angle bracket|g}} in English—one way in which English orthography, which is generally not especially phonemic or regular, displays strong regularity in at least one aspect. A few exceptions include turgor and digoxin, for which the most common pronunciations use soft {{angle bracket|g}} despite the lack of “softness signal” gi or ge. But both of those words also have hard {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciations that are accepted variants, which reflects the spelling pronunciation pressure generated by the strong regularity of the digraph conventions. A number of two-letter combinations (digraphs) follow their own pronunciation patterns and, as such, may not follow the hard/soft distinction of {{angle bracket|g}}. For example, {{angle bracket|ng}} often represents {{IPAslink|Å‹}} (as in ring) or {{IPA|/Å‹É¡/}} as in finger. The letters {{angle bracket|nge}}, when final, represent {{IPA|/ndÊ’/}}, as in orange; when not final their pronunciation varies according to the word’s etymology (e.g. {{IPA|/ndÊ’/}} in danger, {{IPA|/Å‹g/}} in anger, {{IPA|/Å‹/}} in banger). In most cases, {{angle bracket|gg}} represents {{IPAslink|g}} as in dagger, but it may also represent {{IPA|/dÊ’/}} as in suggest and exaggerate. (The same pair of facts can also be said of how {{angle bracket|cc}} relates to hard and soft C, as, for example, in (wikt:succinct#Pronunciation|succinct) and (wikt:flaccid#Pronunciation|flaccid).) Other letter combinations that don’t follow the paradigm include {{angle bracket|gh}}, {{angle bracket|gn}}, and {{angle bracket|gm}}.The digraph {{angle bracket|gu}} is sometimes used to indicate a hard {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciation before {{angle bracket|i e y}} (e.g. guess, guitar, Guinness), including cases where {{angle bracket|e}} is silent (e.g., rogue, intrigue, catalogue, analogue). In some cases, the intervening {{angle bracket|u}} is pronounced as /w/ (distinguish, unguent).

Other languages

Latin script

All modern Romance languages make the hard/soft distinction with {{angle bracket|g}}, except a few that have undergone spelling reforms such as Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) or Haitian Creole and archaic variants like Sardinian. The hard {{angle bracket|g}} is {{IPA|[É¡]}} in almost all those languages (with the exception of Galician, which may instead be a voiceless pharyngeal fricative), though the soft {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciation, which occurs before {{angle bracket|i e y}}, differs amongst them as follows:

• {{IPA|[dÊ’]}} in Italian{{Harvcoltxt|Hall|1944|p=82}} and Romanian{{Harvcoltxt|Gönczöl-Davies|Deletant|2002|p=xvi}}{{Harvcoltxt|ChiÈ›oran|2001|p=10}}
• {{IPA|[Ê’]}} in French and Portuguese{{Harvcoltxt|Mateus|d’Andrade|2000|p=7}}
• {{IPA|[(d)Ê’]}} in Catalan{{Harvcoltxt|Wheeler|1979|pp=7, 11}}
• {{IPA|[x]}} or {{IPA|[h]}} in Spanish, depending on the dialect{{Harvcoltxt|Hualde|2005|pp=4–5}}

Different languages use different strategies to indicate a hard pronunciation before front vowels:

• Italian and Romanian{{Harvcoltxt|Venezky|1970|p=261}} writing systems use {{angle bracket|gh}} (e.g. Italian laghi, Romanian ghìd),
• French, Catalan,{{Harvcoltxt|Wheeler|1979|p=7}} Spanish, and Portuguese orthographies use a silent {{angle bracket|u}} (e.g. French guerre, Catalan guerra, Spanish guitarra, Portuguese guitarra). With the exception of Portuguese, a trema over the {{angle bracket|u}} is used to indicate that it is not silent (e.g. Spanish vergüenza is pronounced {{IPA|[berˈɣwenθa]}}, with both a hard {{angle bracket|g}} and non-mute {{angle bracket|u}}).
  • In Portuguese (especially Brazilian Portuguese) this was also used until the most recent orthographic reform (the new orthography now being compulsory in Brazil after a 2009-2016 transition period). The new orthography maintains the {{Angle bracket|gu}} for a hard g, but there is no marking of whether the {{angle bracket|u}} is silent; the reader must already know the pronunciation of words with a {{angle bracket|gu}} (or {{angle bracket|qu}}) digraph (previous: guitarra vs pingüim, current: guitarra and pinguim).Most Recent Changes to the Portuguese Language Brazil-Help.com, access date: 28 July 2016

A soft pronunciation before non-front vowels is usually indicated by a silent {{angle bracket|e}} or {{angle bracket|i}} (e.g. Italian giorno, French mangeons), though Spanish, Portuguese, French and Catalan use {{angle bracket|j}} as in jueves.Several North Germanic languages also make a hard/soft distinction. Again, the hard {{angle bracket|g}} is {{IPA|[É¡]}} in most of these languages, but the soft {{angle bracket|g}} differs as follows:

• {{IPA|[j]}} in Swedish before {{angbr|e i y ä ö}}{{Harvcoltxt|Andersson|2002|p=275}}
• {{IPA|[j]}} in Norwegian before {{angbr|i y ei øy}}
• {{IPA|[tʃ]}} in Faroese before {{angbr|e i y ey}}, but not before {{angbr|ei}}{{Harvcoltxt|Þráinsson|Petersen|Jacobsen|Hansen|2012|p=20}}

Icelandic orthography is a bit more complicated by having lenited pronunciations of {{angle bracket|g}}. {{cn|date=December 2020}}In German, the g is mostly a hard g, also before e and i: geben (to give), Geld (money), Gier (greed), Gift (poison, venom). Soft g occurs in loanwords, usually preserving the original pronunciation. So in words of French origin like Orange (orange), logieren (to lodge) or Etage (floor), the g is pronounced as {{IPA|[Ê’]}}; words taken from English like Gin or Gender use the {{IPA|/dÊ’/}}-sound. However others, such as agieren (act, agitate), Generation (generation) or Gymnasium (academic high school), are pronounced with a hard g. Some pronunciations vary by region: The word Giraffe is pronounced with a soft G in Austria, but with a hard G in Germany. The g in Magnet is pronounced as a hard g, but the gn in Champagner is pronounced like the French gn in champagne. The letter combination ng is usually merged to a velar nasal, and the g is not spoken in its own right; e.g., in the German word Finger, it is not audible as in the English word finger. However, when those letters are pronounced separately, as in compound words like Eingabe (input) or also in verbs like fingieren (to feign), both the n and the hard g is clearly audible. There are exceptions in loanwords like French-derived rangieren (to rank, to shunt), spoken with a velar nasal and a soft g ({{IPA|[Ê’]}}).Other languages typically have hard {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciations except possibly in loanwords where it may represent {{IPA|[Ê’]}} or {{IPA|[dÊ’]}}.The orthography of Luganda is similar to Italian in having a soft {{angle bracket|g}} pronunciation before front vowels (namely {{angle bracket|i y}}) and {{angle bracket|gy}} indicates this soft pronunciation.Because Esperanto orthography is phonemic, {{angle bracket|g}} always represents a hard g; a soft g is represented by the accented letter {{angle bracket|ĝ}}.The Vietnamese alphabet does not have a hard or a soft {{angle bracket|g}} per se. However, since it was inherited from European Romance languages (Portuguese and Italian) except the diacritics which were from Greek; the letter {{angle bracket|g}} never occurs in “soft positions”, i.e. before {{angle bracket|e}}, {{angle bracket|ê}} and {{angle bracket|i}} where the digraph {{angle bracket|gh}} (colloquially known as gờ ghép “composed {{angle bracket|g}}“) is used instead. Likewise, the trigraph {{angle bracket|ngh}} (ngờ ghép “composed {{angle bracket|ng}}“) also replaces the digraph {{angle bracket|ng}} in those positions. “gh” can be explained as following Italian convention, and “ngh” as a form of analogy. However, there still is {{angle bracket|gi}} which is considered a digraph on its own, shortened to {{angle bracket|g}} before {{angle bracket|i}}, even in the word gì.

Other scripts

In Modern Greek, which uses the Greek alphabet, the Greek letter gamma (uppercase: {{angle bracket|Γ}}; lowercase: {{angle bracket|γ}}) – which is ancestral to the Roman letters {{angle bracket|g}} and {{angle bracket|c}} – has “soft-type” and “hard-type” pronunciations, though Greek speakers do not use such a terminology. The “soft” pronunciation (that is, the voiced palatal fricative {{IPA|[ʝ]}}) occurs before {{angle bracket|αι}} and {{angle bracket|ε}} (both which represent {{IPA|[e]}}), and before {{angle bracket|ει}}, {{angle bracket|η}}, {{angle bracket|ι}}, {{angle bracket|οι}}, and {{angle bracket|υι}} (which all represent {{IPA|[i]}}). In other instances, the “hard” pronunciation (that is, the voiced velar fricative {{IPA|[É£]}}) occurs.In the Russian alphabet (a variant of Cyrillic), {{angle bracket|г}} represents both hard (твёрдый {{IPA|[ˈtvʲordɨj]}}) and soft (мягкий {{IPA|[ˈmʲæxʲkʲɪj]}}) pronunciations, {{IPA|[É¡]}} and {{IPA|[ɡʲ]}}, respectively. The soft pronunciation of {{angle bracket|г}} occurs before any of the “softening” vowels {{angle bracket|е Ñ‘ и ÑŽ я ÑŒ}} and the hard pronunciation occurs elsewhere. However, the letter {{angle bracket|ж}} functions as a “soft g” in the Romance sense, with alterations between {{angle bracket|г}} and {{angle bracket|ж}} common in the language (e.g. ложиться, “to lie (down)”, past tense лёг; подруга, “girlfriend”, diminutive подружка). In other Slavic languages, there are similar phenomena involving {{angle bracket|g}} (or {{angle bracket|h}}) and {{angle bracket|ž}} (or {{angle bracket|ż}}).In Modern Hebrew, which uses the Hebrew alphabet, the letter gimel ({{angle bracket|×’}}) typically has the {{IPA|[É¡]}} sound within Hebrew words, although in some Sephardic dialects, it represents {{IPA|[É¡]}} or {{IPA|[dÊ’]}} when written with a dagesh (i.e., a dot placed inside the letter: {{angle bracket|×’Ö¼}}), and {{IPA|[É£]}} when without a dagesh. An apostrophe-like symbol called a Geresh can be added immediately to the left of a gimel (i.e., {{angle bracket|ג׳}}) to indicate that the gimel represents an affricate {{IPA|/dÊ’/}}).

See also

• English orthography
• G
• Hard and soft C
• Hard and soft G in Dutch
• Pronunciation of GIF

Notes

{{reflist}}

References

• {hide}citation|last=Andersson|first=Erik|editor-last=König|editor-first=Ekkehard|year=2002|chapter=Swedish|title=The Germanic Languages|series=Routledge language family descriptions|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-28079-6|pages=271–312|editor2-last=van der Auwera|editor2-first=Johan|postscript=

{edih}

• {{citation|doi=10.2307/318102|last=Arnaud|first=Leonard E.|year=1945|title=Teaching the Pronunciation of “C” and “G” and the Spanish Diphthongs|journal=The Modern Language Journal|volume=29|issue=1|pages=37–39|postscript=|jstor=318102

}}

• {hide}citation|last=ChiÈ›oran|first=Ioana|year=2001|title=The Phonology of Romanian: A Constraint-based Approach|place=Berlin & New York|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter|isbn=3-11-016766-2|postscript=

{edih}

• {{citation|doi=10.2307/455654|last=Emerson|first=Ralph H.|year=1997|title=English Spelling and Its Relation to Sound|journal=American Speech|volume=72|issue=3|pages=260–288|postscript=|jstor=455654

}}

• {hide}Citation|last=Gönczöl-Davies|first=Ramona|last2=Deletant|first2=Dennis|year=2002|title=Colloquial Romanian: the complete course for beginners |publisher=Routledge|postscript=

{edih}

• {{citation|doi=10.2307/475860|last=Hall|first=Robert Jr.|year=1944|title=Italian Phonemes and Orthography|journal=Italica|volume=21|issue=2|pages=72–82|postscript=|jstor=475860

}}

• {hide}Citation|last=Hualde|first=José Ignacio |year=2005|title=The sounds of Spanish |publisher=Cambridge University Press|postscript=

{edih}

• {hide}Citation|last=Mateus|first=Maria Helena |last2=d’Andrade|first2=Ernesto |year= 2000|title=The Phonology of Portuguese|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-823581-X|postscript=

{edih}

• {{Citation|last=Þráinsson|first=Höskuldur|last2=Petersen|first2=Hjalmar P.|last3=Jacobsen|first3=Jógvan í Lon|last4=Hansen|first4=Zakaris Svabo|year=2012|title=Faroese - An Overview and Reference Grammar|publisher=Fróðskapur - Faroe University Press|isbn=978-99918-65-40-9|postscript=

}}

• {{citation|last=Venezky|first=Richard L.|year=1970|title=Principles for the Design of Practical Writing Systems |journal=Anthropological Linguistics|volume=12|issue=7|pages=256–270|postscript=

}}

• {hide}Citation|last=Wheeler|first=Max W|year=1979|title=Phonology Of Catalan|place=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell|postscript=

{edih}