Ge (Cyrillic)

From Textus Receptus


Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Д	Ђ
Ѓ	Е	Ѐ	Ё	Є	Ж	З
Ѕ	И	Ѝ	І	Ї	Й	Ј
К	Л	Љ	М	Н	Њ	О
П	Р	С	Т	Ћ	Ќ	У
Ў	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш
Щ	Ъ	Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ	Ӓ	Ә	Ӛ	Ӕ	Ғ	Ҕ
Ӻ	Ӷ	Ԁ	Ԃ	Ӗ	Ӂ	Җ
Ӝ	Ԅ	Ҙ	Ӟ	Ԑ	Ӡ	Ԇ
Ӣ	Ҋ	Ӥ	Қ	Ӄ	Ҡ	Ҟ
Ҝ	Ԟ	Ԛ	Ӆ	Ԓ	Ԡ	Ԉ
Ԕ	Ӎ	Ӊ	Ң	Ӈ	Ҥ	Ԣ
Ԋ	Ӧ	Ө	Ӫ	Ҩ	Ҧ	Ҏ
Ԗ	Ҫ	Ԍ	Ҭ	Ԏ	Ӯ	Ӱ
Ӳ	Ү	Ұ	Ҳ	Ӽ	Ӿ	Һ
Ҵ	Ҷ	Ӵ	Ӌ	Ҹ	Ҽ	Ҿ
Ӹ	Ҍ	Ӭ	Ԙ	Ԝ	Ӏ
Archaic letters
Ҁ	Ѻ	Ѹ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѣ	Ꙓ
Ꙗ	Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ
Ѱ	Ѳ	Ѵ	Ѷ	Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters
Cyrillic digraphs

Ge (Г, г; italics: Г, г) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. It is also known as He.

It commonly represents the sound /ɡ/ like the English pronunciation of the Latin letter G in "go".

History

The Cyrillic letter Ge was derived directly from the Greek letter Gamma (Γ, γ), but both capital and small Ge look like the capital letter Gamma.

In the Early Cyrillic alphabet its name was глаголи (ɡlaɡoli), meaning "do".

In the Cyrillic numeral system, Ge had a numerical value of 3.

Usage

In standard Serbian and Macedonian, Ge always represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/.

In standard Russian, it represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ except when it is devoiced to [k] word-finally or before a voiceless consonant and it represents [ɡʲ] before a palatalizing vowel. Also, in some masculine genitive and accusative case word endings, it represents /v/ when found between two vowels. In south-western Russia, the sound becomes a fricative [ɣ], and sometimes [ɦ] in regions bordering Belarus and Ukraine. It is acceptable to pronounce certain Russian words with [ɣ] (referred to as Ukrainian Ge): Bog, bogatyj, blago, Gospod’, although not all speakers use or agree with this. This sound is normally considered non-standard or dialectal in Russian and is avoided by educated Russian speakers. Бог (Bog, “God”) is always pronounced [box] in the nominative case.^[]

In the Russian adjective/pronoun ending -ого, -его, the letter Ge represents /v/, including in the word сегодня ("today", from "сего дня").

The letter Ge represents a devoiced [x] (not [k]) in front of the letter Ka in two words in Russian, namely, мягкий and лёгкий.

In Russian, the Latin letter H at the beginning of a word is transcribed with Ge rather than Kha as one might expect, for historical reasons of phonology/orthography.

In Bulgarian, like in Russian, it represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ except when it is devoiced to [k] word-finally or before a voiceless consonant and represents [ɡʲ] before a palatalizing vowel.

In the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, Ge is called He, and represents a voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/—a breathy voiced counterpart of the English h, (listen).

In Ukrainian, a voiced velar plosive is rarely present, and when present it is written with the Cyrillic letter Ge with upturn (Ґ, ґ).

Notes

1. "Звуки на месте буквы г" (Sounds in place of the letter г), map 14 in the Scholarly Dialectical Atlas (Russian)

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