Insular G (font: Ᵹ ᵹ) is a form of the letter g somewhat resembling a

tailed z Z (or z) is the 26th and last letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual names in English are ''zed'' () and ''zee'' (), with an occasi ...

, used in the medieval

insular script Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they found ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. It was first used in the Roman Empire in

Roman cursive Roman cursive (or Latin cursive) is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive and new cursive. Old Roman cursive Old Roman cursi ...

, then it appeared in Irish half uncial (insular) script, and after it had passed into

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

, it developed into the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

letter

yogh The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots: ; Middle English: ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular form of the letter ''g''. In Middle English writing, tailed z ...

(Ȝ ȝ). Middle English, having reborrowed the familiar

Carolingian g The Carolingian G or French G (𝗴) is the evolved classical form of the letter '' G'' that was in use in most Middle English alphabets. The other form scholars and writers familiar with Celtic Britain generally knew and could use, and in the f ...

from the Continent, began to use the two forms of g as separate letters.

Letter

The lowercase insular g (ᵹ) was used in Irish

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

as a phonetic character for , and on this basis is encoded in the Phonetic Extensions block of

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, whic ...

4.1 (March 2005) as U+1D79. Its capital (Ᵹ) was introduced in Unicode 5.1 (April 2008) at U+A77D. The insular g is one of several insular letters encoded into Unicode. Few fonts will display all of the symbols, but some will display the lowercase insular g (ᵹ) and the tironian et ( ⁊). Two fonts that support the other characters are

Junicode Junicode ("Junius-Unicode") is a free (SIL Open Font License) old-style serif typeface developed by Peter S. Baker of the University of Virginia. The design is based on a 17th-century typeface used in Oxford, England. Junicode contains many spec ...

and Tehuti. The insular form of g is still used in traditional Gaelic script.

Turned insular g

A turned version of insular g (Ꝿ ꝿ) was used by

William Pryce William Pryce (baptised 1735–1790) was a British medical man, known as an antiquary, a promoter of the Cornish language and a writer on mining in Cornwall. Life He was the son of Dr. Samuel Pryce of Redruth in Cornwall, and Catherine Hill; W ...

to designate the

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 ...

ŋ.

References

External links

Drawing an insular G
(here mistaken for

) *

Michael Everson Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is an American and Irish linguist, script encoder, typesetter, type designer and publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which he has published over a hundred books since 2006. ...

's articl
On the derivation of YOGH and EZH
shows insular g in several typefaces. G insular Anglo-Saxon literature G insular {{phonetics-stub

Letter

Turned insular g

See also

References

External links