Ng (Arabic letter)
Ng or Ngaf (ݣ or ڭ) is an additional letter of the Arabic script, derived from kāf (ك ک) with the addition of three dots above the letter. The letter was used in Ottoman Turkish to represent a velar /ŋ/ and is still used for /ŋ/ when writing Turkic languages.
01Usage
In Ottoman Turkish, it represented the velar /ŋ/. An example is the word däŋiz (دڭز, 'sea'). The letter is used or has been used to write /ŋ/ in:
It is also used in Moroccan Arabic for /ɡ/.
The Xiao'erjing script variant ݣ is used to spell /ŋ/ in Sinitic languages such as Mandarin (especially the Lanyin, Zhongyuan and Northeastern dialects) and the Dungan language.
02Other characters used to represent /ŋ/
Southeast Asian nga
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڠ | ـڠ | ـڠـ | ڠـ |
This letter, derived from ghayn (غ), is used to represent /ŋ/ in:
- the Jawi script, for
- the Pegon script, for
- Arabic Afrikaans, for Afrikaans historically, called ngīn ([ŋiːn])
Wolof ngōn
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݝ | ـݝ | ـݝـ | ݝـ |
This letter is also derived from ghayn. Called ngōn (Wolof pronunciation: [ŋɔːn]), it is used in the Wolofal alphabet to represent /ŋ/ in the Wolof language. Two variants of kāf were also used: ڭ as in Turkic, and ݤ below.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݤ | ـݤ | ـݤـ | ݤـ |
Sindhi ngāf
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڱ | ـڱ | ـڱـ | ڱـ |
Derived from the Perso-Arabic gāf (گ) and called ngāf [ŋäːf], is used in Sindhi for /ŋ/ when written in the Arabic script.
Tamil nga
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ࢳ | ـࢳ | ـࢳـ | ࢳـ |
This letter is also derived from ghayn, with three dots inside the descender, to represent /ŋ/ in the Arwi script used for Tamil.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ng (Arabic letter)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- 11 kaf.svg by Cronholm144, CC BY-SA 3.0
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