Ge (Cyrillic)

Cyrillic letter Ghe
Numeric value:	3
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Ѐ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И Ѝ І Ї Й Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У Ў Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̄ А̊ А̃ Ӓ Ӓ̄ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ Ӕ Ғ Г̧ Г̑ Г̄ Ҕ Ӻ Ӷ Ԁ Ԃ Ꚃ Ꚁ Ꚉ Ԫ Ԭ Ӗ Е̄ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ӂ Җ Ꚅ Ӝ Ԅ Ҙ Ӟ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Ӡ Ԇ Ӣ И̃ Ҋ Ӥ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ Ԟ Ԛ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Ԡ Ԉ Ԕ Ӎ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ Ԣ Ԋ О̆ О̃ О̄ Ӧ Ө Ө̄ Ӫ Ҩ Ԥ Ҧ Р̌ Ҏ Ԗ Ҫ Ԍ Ꚑ Ҭ Ꚋ Ꚍ Ԏ У̃ Ӯ Ӱ Ӱ́ Ӳ Ү Ү́ Ұ Х̑ Ҳ Ӽ Ӿ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ꚕ Ҵ Ꚏ Ҷ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ꚓ Ꚗ Ꚇ Ҽ Ҿ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ Ҍ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̈́ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ԙ Ԝ Ӏ
Archaic letters
Ꙁ Ꙃ Ꙅ Ꙇ Ꙉ Ҁ Ѻ ОУ Ꙋ Ѡ Ѽ Ꙍ Ѿ Ꙏ Ѣ Ꙑ Ꙓ Ꙕ Ꙗ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ Ꙡ Ꙣ Ꙥ Ꙧ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ
List of Cyrillic letters Cyrillic digraphs

Ghe or Ge (Г г; italics: Г г) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is also known in some languages as He. It commonly represents the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/, like the pronunciation of ⟨g⟩ in "go".

Ghe is generally romanized using the Latin letter G; but when romanizing Belarusian, Ukrainian and Rusyn, the Latin letter H is used.

History

The Cyrillic letter Ghe was derived directly from the Greek letter Gamma (Γ γ), but the lowercase Ghe is a small version of the capital letter.

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

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

Usage in Slavic languages

South Slavic

In standard Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian the letter Ghe represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/, except when it is devoiced to [k] word-finally or before a voiceless consonant.

Russian

In standard Russian, Ghe represents the 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. In the Southern Russian dialect, the sound becomes the velar fricative /ɣ/, and sometimes the glottal fricative /ɦ/ in regions bordering Belarus and Ukraine.

It is acceptable to pronounce certain Russian words with [ɣ] (sometimes referred to as Ukrainian Ge): Бог, богатый, благо, Господь (Bog, bogatyj, blago, Gospod’), although not all speakers use or agree with this. The 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.^[1]

In the Russian nominal genitive ending -ого, -его, Ghe represents [v], including in the word сегодня ("today", from сего дня).

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

The Latin letter H of words of Latin, Greek, English, or German origin is usually transliterated into Russian with Ghe rather than Kha, e.g. hero → герой, hamburger → гамбургер, Haydn → Гайдн. This can occasionally cause ambiguity, as for example English Harry and Gary/Garry would be spelled the same in Russian (e.g., Гарри Поттер). The reasons for using Ghe to write h are fairly complex, but include the fact that Ghe is used for h in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and some Russian dialects, along with the perception that Kha sounds too harsh. Nevertheless, in newer loanwords (especially from English), the letter Kha is often used.

Belarusian and Ukrainian

In Ukrainian represents a voiced glottal fricative [ɦ]—a breathy voiced counterpart of the English [h].

In Belarusian (like in Southern Russian) the letter corresponds to velar fricative /ɣ/ and it soft counterpart /ɣʲ/.

In Ukrainian and Belarusian, a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ is present only in loanwords and written with the Cyrillic letter Ghe with upturn (Ґ ґ) in Ukrainian and with the digraph кг in Belarusian.

In both languages the letter is called He and transliterated with H rather than with G.

Usage in non-Slavic languages

In many non-Slavic languages it can represent both /g/ and /ʁ~ɣ/ (the latter mostly in Turkic and in some Finno-Ugric languages).

Related letters and other similar characters

• Γ γ: Greek letter Gamma
• G g: Latin letter G
• Ґ ґ: Cyrillic letter Ghe with upturn, now just named ghe (or ge) in Ukrainian
• Ѓ ѓ: Cyrillic letter Gje
• Ғ ғ: Cyrillic letter Ghayn
• ₴: Ukrainian hryvnia (Currency sign)

Computing codes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cyrillic G.

• The dictionary definition of Г at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of г at Wiktionary