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Ğ ğ
Ğ ğ

Ğ, or ğ, is a letter, known as g-breve in English, used in Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Laz.

Turkish use[edit]

In Turkish, the ğ /ɰ/ is known as yumuşak ge [jumuʃak ɟe] (soft g) and is the ninth letter of the Turkish alphabet. It is very similar to the blødt g 'soft g' in Danish and comparable to the '-gh' sound in the Arabic letter ghayn. It lengthens the preceding vowel, which is normally short in Turkish without the ğ. For example, dağ (mountain) is pronounced like [daː], and yağ (oil) is pronounced like [jaː]. The ğ must follow a vowel, and thus cannot be the initial letter of a word. Its exact function varies throughout Turkey and with regard to the particular vowel with which it is used: it adds a rising of the back of the tongue (as for /g/ or /k/) to /a/ and /ı/, a /j/ glide to /e/ or /i/, and a /β/ glide to the rounded vowels /o/, /u/, /ö/ and /ü/.

The letter provides a smooth transition between vowels since they do not occur consecutively in native Turkish words (in loanwords they are separated by a glottal stop). Sometimes g is used incorrectly instead of ğ. In the case of Turkish words borrowed into other languages, the letter may become a [ɡ], as in yogurt (also spelled yoghurt; Turkish yoğurt). In rare cases, the phonetic /ɣ/ (gamma) or the Greek letter γ is used. Some webpages may also use Ð and ð because of improper encoding; see Turkish characters for the reasons of this.

Azeri use[edit]

In Azeri, the ğ represents /ɣ/, the voiced velar fricative.

Laz use[edit]

Laz is written using two alphabets: the Georgian alphabet and an extended Turkish Latin alphabet. In the Latin alphabet, ğ represents /ɣ/, the voiced velar fricative. It corresponds to the Georgian letter ღ.

Character encoding[edit]

Character Ğ ğ
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 286 U+011E 287 U+011F
UTF-8 196 158 C4 9E 196 159 C4 9F
Numeric character reference &#286; &#x11E; &#287; &#x11F;
ISO 8859-3 171 AB 187 BB
ISO 8859-9 208 D0 240 F0

See also[edit]