Yogh

The letter Ȝ ( majuscule, Unicode U 021 C) and ȝ ( minuscule, Unicode U 021 D ), called yogh or Ȝ ȝ o was in Middle English a separate letter of the alphabet. In the Scottish he stayed until the 17th century. He was for several allophones of / g / used by different authors, copyists and printers is very uneven.

Pronunciation

The yogh evolved from the halbunzialen variant of the letter G, which was developed in the early Middle Ages in Ireland. With the Christianization of England, among others, by Irish missionaries and the consequent introduction of the Latin alphabet grapheme this was used in the sequence in Old English manuscripts for the [g ] and its various allophones, ie:

• [g ] ( "hard G") in the position before the dark vowels a, o, and u; Example: God "God"
• [ ɣ ] (" soft G") zwischenvokalisch before obscure vowels; Example: maga " stomach "
• [j ] before and after the clear vowels / letter i, æ, e, and y; Example: gebróðru " Brothers "
• [ ʤ ] after n in the digraph and cg; Example: angel 'angel'

After the Norman invasion and the beginning of the Middle English period, the half-uncial / g / to yogh was further developed for the hard G [ g] and usually also for the [ ʤ ] especially in French loanwords, however, the Carolingian G was acquired from the European mainland. The yogh was preferred for the assumed from Old English [ j]. It emerged at sites were used for the other letters in Old English:

• The soft G of Old English ( [ ɣ ] ) was umlauted to [ w]. This bilabial was implemented very differently by different authors. In addition to the digraph and the Wynn Rune Ƿ was also used the yogh to his presentation. Thus, the Middle English fela was from Old English fēolaga [fe ː əlɑɣɑ ] (" companion " ) ȝ ( e) [fe ː law ( ə ) ]. Over time, the yogh at this point, however, was displaced by the digraph, which evolved into the letter W; as the modern English word writes fellow.
• The yogh also stood in Middle English for "Oh - According to" [ x] and its allophone [ ç ], the "I - sound", which was / still realized in Old English by the letter / h. Thus, from Old English niht [' Nixt ] (" night " ) with unchanged phonetics the Middle English ni ȝ t.

In the late Middle English, ie in the 14th and 15th centuries, and especially after the introduction of printing in the British Isles the yogh was increasingly replaced by other letters. In cases where it stood for the [ x], it was usually replaced by the digraph . Thus, from the Old English þurh [ θurx ] "by" by metathesis first the Middle English ȝ Thru [ θru ː x], and finally the New England through [ θɹu ː ]. The [x ] According trailed in Frühneuenglischen or was umlauted in some cases, [ f], it was about Middle English co ȝ [ kɔx ] Modern English to cough [ kɒf ] " cough " (cf. German " wheeze ").

• Latin letter
• English Language