Yogh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ȝ |
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|---|---|
| Ȝ ȝ | |
| (See below, Typographic) | |
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| Usage | |
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Type | Alphabetic |
| Language of origin | Middle English language Latin language |
| Phonetic usage | [[[Error using : IPA symbol "g" not found in list|g]]] [j] [ŋ] [ɣ] [x] [ç] [i] [ʃ] [ʎ] [ð] [dʒ] /joʊɡ/ |
| Unicode value | U+021C, U+021D |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Time period | ~1150 to ~1500 |
| Descendants | None |
| Sisters | C G Г ג ج ܓ ࠂ ג 𐡂 Ꝿ Գ գ |
| Transliteration equivalents | ch, g, gh, j, ng, y |
| Variations | (See below, Typographic) |
| Other | |
| Other letters commonly used with | ch, gh, g, j, ng y, z |
The letter yogh (ȝogh) (Ȝ ȝ; Scots: yoch; Middle English: ȝogh) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing y (/j/) and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular form of the letter g, Ᵹᵹ.
In Middle English writing, tailed z came to be indistinguishable from yogh.
In Middle Scots, the character yogh became confused with a cursive z and the early Scots printers often used z when yogh was not available in their fonts. Consequently, some Modern Scots words have a z in place of a yogh—the common surname Menzies was originally written Menȝies (pronounced mingis).
Yogh is shaped similarly to the Cyrillic letter З and the Arabic numeral 3, which are sometimes substituted for the character in online reference works. There is some confusion about the letter in the literature, as the English language was far from standardised at the time. Capital Ȝ is represented in Unicode by code point Error using : Input "021C" is not a hexadecimal value., and lower case ȝ by code point Error using : Input "021D" is not a hexadecimal value..
Contents
Pronunciation
In Modern English yogh is pronounced /jɒɡ/, /jɒx/ using short o or /joʊɡ/, /joʊk/, /joʊx/, using long o.
It stood for /ɡ/ and its various allophones—including [ɡ] and the voiced velar fricative [ɣ]—as well as the phoneme /j/ (⟨y⟩ in modern English orthography). In Middle English, it also stood for the phoneme /x/ and its allophone [ç] as in ⟨niȝt⟩ ("night", in an early Middle English way still often pronounced as spelled so: [niçt]), and also represented the phonemes /j/ and /dʒ/. Sometimes, yogh stood for /j/ or /w/, as in the word ⟨ȝoȝelinge⟩ [ˈjowəlɪŋɡə], "yowling".
In Middle Scots, it represented the sound /j/ in the clusters /lj/, /ŋj/ and /nj/ written lȝ and nȝ. Yogh was generally used for /j/ rather than y.
In medieval Cornish manuscripts, yogh was used to represent the voiced dental fricative [ð], as in its ⟨ȝoȝo⟩, now written ⟨dhodho⟩, pronounced [ðoðo].
History
Old English
The original Germanic g sound was expressed by the gyfu rune in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc (which is itself sometimes rendered as ȝ in modern transliteration). Following palatalization, both gyfu and Latin g in Old English expressed the /j/ sound before front vowels. For example, "year" was written as gear, even though the word had never had a g sound (deriving from Proto-Germanic *jērą).
With the re-introduced possibility of a /ɡ/ sound before front vowels, notably in the form of loanwords from the Old Norse (such as gere from Norse gervi, Modern English gear), this orthographical state of affairs became a source for confusion, and a distinction of "real g" (/ɡ/) from "palatalized g" (/j/) became desirable.
In the Old English period, ᵹ was simply the way Latin g was written in the Insular script introduced at the Christianisation of England by the Hiberno-Scottish mission. It only came to be used as a letter distinct from g in the Middle English period, where it evolved in appearance into ȝ, now considered a separate character.
Middle English
In the 14th century, the digraph gh arose as an alternative to yogh for /x/, and eventually overtook yogh in popularity; still, the variety of pronunciations persisted, as evidenced by cough, taught, and though. The process of replacing the yogh with gh was slow, and was not completed until the arrival of printing presses (which lacked yogh) in England around the end of the fifteenth century. Not every English word that contains a gh was originally spelled with a yogh: for example, spaghetti is Italian, where the h makes the g hard (i.e., [ɡ] instead of [dʒ]); ghoul is Arabic, in which the gh was /ɣ/.
The medieval author Orm used this letter in three ways when writing Early Middle English. By itself, it represented /j/, so he used this letter for the y in "yet". Doubled, it represented /i/, so he ended his spelling of "may" with two yoghs. Finally, the digraph of ȝh represented /ɣ/.
In the late Middle English period, yogh was no longer used: niȝt came to be spelled night. Middle English re-imported G in its French form for /ɡ/ (As a further side note, French also used ⟨y⟩ to represent /j/ in words like voyage and yeux).
Scots
In words of French and Gaelic origin, the Early Scots palatal consonant /ɲ/ had become /nj/ or in some cases /ŋj/, and the palatal consonant /ʎ/ had become /lj/ by the Middle Scots period. Those were variously written nȝ(h)e, ngȝe, ny(h)e or ny(i)e, and lȝ(h)e, ly(i)e or lyhe (cf. gn and gli in Italian). By the Modern Scots period the yogh had been replaced by the character z, in particular for /ŋj/, /nj/ (nȝ) and /lj/ (lȝ), written nz and lz. The original /hj/ and /çj/ developed into /ʃ(j)/ in some words such as Ȝetland or Zetland for Shetland. Yogh was also used to represent /j/ in words such as ȝe, ȝhistirday (yesterday) and ȝoung but by the Modern Scots period y had replaced yogh. The pronunciation of MacKenzie (and its variant spellings) (from Scottish Gaelic MacCoinnich [maxˈkʰɤɲɪç]), originally pronounced IPA: [məˈkɛŋjiː] in Scots, shows where yogh became z. Menzies Campbell is another example.
After the development of printing
In Middle Scots orthography, the use of yogh became confused with a cursive z and the early Scots printers often used z when yogh was not available in their fonts.
The yogh glyph can be found in surnames that start with a Y in Scotland and Ireland; for example the surname Yeoman, which would have been spelled Ȝeman. Sometimes, the yogh would be replaced by the letter z, because the shape of the yogh was identical to some forms of handwritten z.
In Unicode 1.0, the character yogh was mistakenly unified with the quite different character ezh (Ʒ ʒ), and yogh itself was not added to Unicode until version 3.0.
Examples of Middle English words containing a yogh
These are examples of Middle English words that contain the letter yogh in their spellings.
Scots words with ⟨z⟩ for ⟨ȝ⟩
Placenames
- Barncailzie Wood – a Wood in Galloway that lends its name to a former hunting lodge;
- Ben Chonzie – a mountain in Perthshire;
- Branziert – a suburb of Killearn in Stirlingshire;
- The Branziet – pronounced bringit (IPA /brɪŋɪt/), a farm and settlement near Bardowie, East Dunbartonshire that lends its name to the Branziet Burn and Branziet Bridge;
- Bunzion – pronounced bunion (IPA /bʌnjən/), Lower and Upper Bunzion are farms in the Parish of Cults, Fife;
- Cadzow – the former name of the town of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire; the word Cadzow continues in modern use in many street names and other names, e.g. Cadzow Castle, Kilncadzow;
- Calzeat – an obsolete place name from the Parish of Broughton, Glenholm and Kilbucho in Peebleshire which, since 1971, has leant its name to textile manufacturer Calzeat and Company Limited;
- Calziebohalzie – a former farmstead in Stirlingshire with a rare instance of a word containing two yoghs, from Gaelic Coille Buachaille (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kʰɤʎəˈpuəxɪʎə]);
- Cockenzie – pronounced cockennie (IPA IPA: [koˈkɪni]), from the Scottish Gaelic: Cùil Choinnich meaning "cove of Kenneth", a town in East Lothian;
- Colzium Estate – now pronounced as written, a historic estate and mansion house built on the banks of the Colzium Burn near Kilsyth;
- Corriemulzie – a river in Sutherland that lends its name to the Corriemulzie Estate;
- Crailzie Hill – a hill in the Scottish Borders;
- Culzean – pronounced culain (IPA /kʌˈleɪn/), a historic castle in Ayrshire run by the National trust for Scotland;
- Dalmunzie – now pronounced as written, a historic castle in Perthshire repurposed as a hotel;
- Dalzellowlie or Dallzellowlie – a colliery located between Maybole and Girvan in South Ayrshire;
- Drumelzier – pronounced drumellier (IPA /drʌˈmɛljɛr/), a village in the Tweed Valley that shares its name with Drumelzier Castle, Drumelzier Kirk, the Drumelzier Burn and Drumelzier Law;
- Drunzie and Drunzie Feus - two adjacent settlements near Glenfarg in Perth and Kinross;
- Easter Dalziel – pronounced deeyel (IPA /diːˈɛl/) from Gaelic Dail Gheal ([t̪alˈʝal̪ˠ]) meaning "white field";
- Edzell – now pronounced as written, a village in Angus and the nearby settlement Edzell Woods;
- Finzean – pronounced fingen (IPA /ˈfɪŋən/), an area in rural Aberdeenshire;
- Funzie Girt – pronounced funyie girt (IPA /ˈfɪnji ˈɡɜːrt/), a historic dividing wall on Fetlar;
- Gartwhinzean – a historic settlement near Crook of Devon in Perth and Kinross;
- Glazert Water – a tributary of the River Kelvin which lends its name to a Country House Hotel and two streets in Lennoxtown;
- Glazert Burn – a tributary of the River Irvine in North Ayrshire;
- Glenrazie – a small settlement near Newton Stewart, Dumfries & Galloway which lends its name to Glenrazie Woods to the north;
- Glenzier – pronounced glinger (IPA /ˈɡlɪŋər/), a village in Dumfries & Galloway which lends its name to Glenzierfoot and the Glenzier Burn;
- Kailzie Gardens – a historic walled garden near Kirkburn, Scottish Borders;
- Kilchenzie or Kilkenzie – a small settlement on the Kintyre peninsula, from Choinnich (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈxɤɲɪç]), the genitive of Coinneach (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈkʰɤɲəx]) "Kenneth";
- Kilhenzie Castle – a late medieval, baronial keep in Carrick, South Ayrshire, also from Choinnich and which lends its name to Kilhenzie Burn, Kilhenzie Wood and the Back Hill of Kilhenzie;
- Kirkgunzeon – pronounced kirkgunion (IPA /kɜːrkɡʌnjən/), a village in Dumfries and Galloway;
- Lenzie – now pronounced as written (IPA /ˈlɛnzɪ/), but previously lenyie (IPA /ˈlɛnjɪ/), a village near Glasgow;
- Lochranza – pronounced as written, but found as Loch Ranga as recently as the late 19th century, a village on the Isle of Arran;
- Malzie or Culmalzie, (sometimes Culmazie) – a site in The Machars in Dumfries & Galloway somewhat dubiously supposed to relate to Saint Mhaillidh which lends its name to the Water of Malzie – a tributary of the River Bladnoch and Corsemalzie – a nearby country house hotel;
- Menzion – a village in the Borders;
- Menzieshill – an area of Dundee;
- Monzie – pronounced money (IPA /ˈmʌni/), from the Gaelic Moighidh, "a level tract", a parish in Perthshire near Crieff which lends its name to Monzie Castle and the Falls of Monzie;
- Monzievaird – with competing etymologies but supposed to be from the Gaelic Maghbhard, "plain of the bards", a place in Perthshire — the site of the Massacre of Monzievaird and which lends its name to Loch Monzievaird;
- Moonzie – a parish in Fife generally supposed to be from Gaelic and meaning "hill of the deer";
- Munzie Well – a holy well dedicated to St Mungo in Whitelee Forest, East Renfrewshire, also Munzie Burn and Munzie Hill;
- Portencalzie – a small settlement near Kirkcolm on the Rhins of Galloway;
- Pitcalzean – an obscure archaeological enclosure near the village of Nigg, Highland that lends its name to nearby Pitcalzean House;
- Queenzieburn – pronounced queenieburn (IPA /kwiːnibɜːrn/), a village in Lanarkshire;
- Ruchazie – now pronounced as written (IPA /rʌxˈheɪzɪ/), a district of Glasgow;
- Terringzean Castle – pronounced tringan (IPA /ˈtrɪŋən/) but with a variety of recorded spellings, a castle in East Ayrshire;
- Ulzieside – an estate and farm near Sanquhar in Dumfries and Galloway;
- Zell – archaic spelling of the island of Yell;
- Zetland – the name for Shetland until the 1970s – Shetland postcodes begin with the letters ZE.
Surnames
- Cadzow – see placename;
- Dalziel – pronounced deeyel (IPA /diːˈɛl/) or dehyell, from Gaelic Dail Gheal ([t̪alˈʝal̪ˠ]); also spelled Dalyell and Dalzell;
- Gilzean – pronounced gilain, a variant of Maclean, from Gaelic MacGilleEathain ([maxkʲɪˈʎe.ɛɲ]). However, many now pronounce the 'z', including footballer Alan Gilzean;
- Malzie – a now defunct surname possibly related to the Dumfries & Galloway placename;
- McFadzean – pronounced macfadyen (IPA /məkˈfɑːdjɪn/), scotticised version of the Gaelic surname MacPhaidin also found, primarily in Ireland, anglicised as MacFadden;
- MacKenzie – now pronounced as written, though as late as 1946 George Black recorded the original form pronounced makenyie (IPA /məˈkɛŋji/), from the Gaelic MacCoinnich ([maxˈkʰɤɲɪç]) as standard;
- Menzies – most correctly (for example, by Sir Robert Menzies) pronounced mingis (IPA /ˈmɪŋɪs/), now also pronounced with /z/;
- Winzet – pronounced winyet (IPA /ˈwɪnjət/).
See also:
- Gilhaize – an invented surname used for the eponymous protagonist of John Galt's Ringan Gilhaize
- Layamon – now pronounced as written although frequently rendered with a yogh as Laȝamon up to the early 1900s in literary referents;
Miscellaneous nouns
- Assoilzie – pronounced with a silent z – in Scots law: acquittal or ruling in favour of the defender in a civil matter;
- Brulzie – with a variety of spellings including bruilzie and broolzie – a commotion or noisy quarrel – possibly related to Brulyie to broil;
- Capercailzie – the Scots spelling of capercaillie (IPA /ˌkæpərˈkeɪli/) from the Gaelic capall-coille ([kʰaʰpəl̪ˠˈkʰɤʎə]) meaning "forest horse";
- Gaberlunzie – most correctly pronounced gaberlunyie (IPA /ɡæbərˈlʌnji/) but now often pronounced as written, a licensed beggar;
- Spulzie — pronounced spooly with a variety of spellings including spuilzie and spulyie, both the taking of movable goods and the term for a process of restitution for such crimes;
- Tailzie – pronounced IPA: [ˈteɪli] in Scots law: a defunct since 2000 term for an entailed estate/interest in one;
- Tuilzie – now standardised to Tulyie a struggle or fight, from the Old French 'toeillier' meaning to strive, dispute or struggle.
In Egyptology
A Unicode-based transliteration system adopted by the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale suggested the use of the yogh ȝ character as the transliteration of the Ancient Egyptian "aleph" glyph:
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The symbol actually used in Egyptology is 
, two half-rings opening to the left. Since Unicode 5.1, it has been assigned its own codepoints (uppercase U+A722 Ꜣ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF, lowercase U+A723 ꜣ LATIN SMALL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF); a fallback is the numeral 3.
See also
