Eng or engma ( capital: Ŋ,

lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

: ŋ) is a letter of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...

, used to represent a

voiced velar nasal The voiced velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ''ng'' in English ''sing'' as well as ''n'' before velar consonants as in ''Englis ...

(as in English ''sii'') in the written form of some languages and in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

. In Washo, lower-case represents a typical sound, while upper-case represents a

voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies ...

sound. This convention comes from

Americanist phonetic notation Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA), the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet or the American Phonetic Alphabet (APA), is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American ...

History

The ''

First Grammatical Treatise The First Grammatical Treatise ( is, Fyrsta málfræðiritgerðin ) is a 12th-century work on the phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language. It was given this name because it is the first of four grammatical works bound in the Icelandic ...

'', a 12th-century work on the

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

of the Old Icelandic language, uses a single

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called '' graphemi ...

for the eng sound, shaped like a g with a stroke .

Alexander Gill the Elder Alexander Gill the Elder (7 February 1565 – 17 November 1635), also spelled Gil, was an English scholar, spelling reformer, and high-master of St Paul's School, where his pupils included John Milton. He was the author of an English grammar, w ...

uses an uppercase G with a hooked tail and a lowercase n with the hooked tail of a

script g G, or g, is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''gee'' (pronounced ), plural ''gees''. History Th ...

for the same sound in ''Logonomia Anglica'' in 1619.

William Holder William Holder FRS (1616 – 24 January 1698) was an English clergyman and music theorist of the 17th century. His most notable work was his widely known 1694 publication ''A Treatise on the Natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony''. Life He ...

uses the letter in ''Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters'', published in 1669, but it was not printed as intended; he indicates in his

errata An erratum or corrigendum (plurals: errata, corrigenda) (comes from la, errata corrige) is a correction of a published text. As a general rule, publishers issue an erratum for a production error (i.e., an error introduced during the publishing pro ...

that “there was intended a character for Ng,

viz. The abbreviation ''viz.'' (or ''viz'' without a full stop) is short for the Latin , which itself is a contraction of the Latin phrase ''videre licet'', meaning "it is permitted to see". It is used as a synonym for "namely", "that is to say", "to ...

, n with a tail like that of g, which must be understood where the Printer has imitated it by n or y”.Robert W. Albright (1958)
''The International Phonetic Alphabet''
Its Backgrounds and Development, Indiana University. p. 11 It was later used in

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

's phonetic alphabet, with its current phonetic value.

Appearance

Lowercase eng is derived from n, with the addition of a hook to the right leg, somewhat like that of j. Nowadays, the uppercase has two main variants: it can be based on the usual uppercase N, with a hook added (or "N-form"); or it can be an enlarged version of the lowercase (or "n-form"). The former is preferred in Sami languages that use it, the latter in

African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...

, such as in

Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people * Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today Shona may also refer to: * ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing * Shona (given name) * S ...

from 1931 to 1955, and several in west and central Africa currently. In

Isaac Pitman Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was a teacher of the :English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in ''Stenographic Soundhand'' in 183 ...

’s Phonotypic Alphabet, the uppercase had a reversed-N form. Early printers, lacking a specific glyph for eng, sometimes approximated it by rotating a capital G, or by substituting a

Greek letter The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...

η (''eta'') before modified to present form for it (encoded in Unicode as the Latin letter n with long leg: Ƞ ƞ). File:Ngummi.png, An 1856 text in

Gamilaraay The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Au ...

, using a rotated capital G as a substitute for ŋ. File:Kiŋston Bildiŋz, near Bath Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 717317.jpg, Uppercase eng with the reversed-N-form on the Kingston Buildings in Bath, UK. File:Ŋ in William Ridley (1875), Kámilarói, and other Australian languages - p.4.png, Lowercase and uppercase eng with the reversed-N-form of the uppercase used in a 1875 Gamilaraay text. File:Ŋ in William Ridley (1875), Kámilarói, and other Australian languages - p.40.png, Eng used in a 1875 Gamilaraay text. File:Italic eng (with tail like double storey g).svg, Italic ŋ based on double-storey g as used in

Horatio Hale Horatio Emmons Hale (May 3, 1817 – December 28, 1896) was an American-Canadian ethnologist, philologist and businessman. He is known for his study of languages as a key for classifying ancient peoples and being able to trace their migrations. ...

's ''Ethnography and Philology'' (1846). Nhooks.svg, ᶇ ŋ  ɲ  ɳ: four "n"-based IPA symbols for nasal sounds. File:Latin letter Eng (first variant of capital form).svg File:Latin letter Eng (second variant of capital form).svg File:Latin letter Eng (third variant of capital form).svg File:Latin letter Eng (fourth variant of capital form).svg File:Latin letter Eng (fifth variant of capital form).svg File:Latin letter Eng (sixth variant of capital form).svg

Pronunciation of words containing eng sound

In most languages eng is absent in the Latin alphabet but its sound can be present in the letter n in words. In English, it is heard in the potential digraphs nc (hard c), ng (hard g), nk, nq and nx, often at the end of words. For the pronunciation of ng with eng, it can be in words such as ''singer'' and ''hanged'' and when it is in final position or in words such as ''finger'' and ''angle''. In British English, n is pronounced eng in the prefixes en- and in- when they are followed by c, g and q, as in ''encroachment'', ''engagement'', ''enquiry'', ''incursion'', ''ingredient'', ''inquiry'' and others. In other English dialects, the n is pronounced instead. In many British dialects, the ng in ''strength'' and ''length'' is simply pronounced , with g a silent letter, and the ng is otherwise pronounced in those words.

Usage

Technical transcription

, where it may also represent a

uvular nasal The voiced uvular nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small capital version of the Latin letter n; the equivalent X-SAMPA symbo ...

. *Sometimes for the

transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the detail ...

Uralic Phonetic Alphabet The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) or Finno-Ugric transcription system is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nes ...

including * Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses *

Rheinische Dokumenta The Rheinische Dokumenta () is a phonetic writing system developed in the early 1980s by a working group of academics, linguists, local language experts, and local language speakers of the Rhineland. It was presented to the public in 1986 by the L ...

, a phonetic alphabet for many

West Central German West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central, High German dialect family of German. Its dialects are Franconian and comprise the parts of the Rhinelandic continuum located south of the Benrath line isogloss, including ...

dialects, Low Rhenish, and few related languages.

Vernacular orthographies

Languages marked † no longer use eng, but formerly did. *

** Bari ** Bemba ** Dagbani **

Dinka The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out ...

** Efik ** Ewe ** Frafra **

Fula Fula may refer to: *Fula people (or Fulani, Fulɓe) *Fula language (or Pulaar, Fulfulde, Fulani) **The Fula variety known as the Pulaar language **The Fula variety known as the Pular language **The Fula variety known as Maasina Fulfulde *Al-Fula ...

** Ganda **

Manding languages The Manding languages (sometimes spelt Manden) are a dialect continuum within the Mande language family spoken in West Africa. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exp ...

Nuer Nuer may refer to: * Nuer people * Nuer language The Nuer language (Thok Naath) ("people's language") is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gamb ...

** Shona language† **

Songhay languages The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, ...

Wolof Wolof or Wollof may refer to: * Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...

** Zarma * American languages ** Inupiat **

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

O'odham The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora, united by a common herita ...

Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

* Australian Aboriginal languages ** Bandjalang ** Yolngu * Languages of China ** Zhuang† (replaced by the digraph ''ng'' in 1986) ** Hanyu Pinyin † used ŋ as a short hand form of ng. * Sami languages **

Inari Sami Inari may refer to: Shinto * Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit ** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari ** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari * Inari-zushi, a type of sushi Places * Inari, ...

Lule Sami Lule may refer to: * Lule people, an indigenous people of northern Argentina * Lule language, a possibly extinct language of Argentina * Lule Sami language, a language spoken in Sweden and Norway * Luleå, also known as Lule, a town in Sweden * ...

Northern Sami Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

Ume Sami ''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, lon ...

** Skolt Sami **

Kildin Sami Kildin may refer to: * Kildin Island * Kildin class destroyer * Kildin Sami * Ostrov (air base) Ostrov (Russian: ''Веретье'' ("Veret"); also Ostrov-5, Gorokhovka) is a Russian Air Force air base

(during Latinisation in the 1930s) *

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...

during Latinisation in the 1930s used Ꞑ ꞑ, sometimes considered a variant of eng. ** Kazakh language† (2019 revision of the Latin alphabet; replaced with Ñ in the April 2021 proposal) *

Mapuche language Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

(Wirizüŋun script) *

Kalam languages The Kalam languages are a small family of languages in the Madang stock of New Guinea. The languages are: :Kalam– Tai, Kobon. They are famous for having perhaps the smallest numbers of lexical verbs of any languages in the world, with some ...

Kalam language Kalam is a Kalam language of Papua New Guinea. It is closely related to Kobon, and shares many of the features of that language. Kalam is spoken in Middle Ramu District of Madang Province and in Mount Hagen District of Western Highlands Provin ...

Computer encoding

Eng is encoded in Unicode as U+014A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ENG and U+014B LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG, part of the

Latin Extended-A Latin Extended-A is a Unicode block and is the third block of the Unicode standard. It encodes Latin letters from the Latin ISO character sets other than Latin-1 (which is already encoded in the Latin-1 Supplement block) and also legacy characte ...

range. In

ISO 8859-4 ISO/IEC 8859-4:1998, ''Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 4: Latin alphabet No. 4'', is part of the ISO/IEC 8859 series of ASCII-based standard character encodings, first edition published in 1988. I ...

(Latin-4) it's located at BD (uppercase) and BF (lowercase). In African languages such as Bemba, ''ng (with an apostrophe) is widely used as a substitute in media where eng is hard to reproduce.

References

External links

Practical Orthography of African Languages
*FileFormat.info – Fonts that suppor

an

{{Latin script, N , show diacritic = hook , show pairs = no Latin letters with diacritics Phonetic transcription symbols Latin-script letters