Ghain


Ghain, ghayn, or () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents the voiced velar fricative (). In name and shape, it is a variant of .

A voiced uvular fricative (usually reconstructed for Proto-Semitic) merged with Ayin in most languages except for Arabic, Ugaritic and older varieties of the Canaanite languages. All Canaanite languages later also merged it with Ayin, and this merger was complete in Tiberian Hebrew. The South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for , .

The letter () is sometimes used to represent the sound /g/ in loan words in Arabic, such as the word for "English", Ingliizi (إنغليزي).

See also

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