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Eng (letter)

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:About Template:For multi Template:Infobox graphemeEng, agma, or engma (capital: Ŋ, lowercase: ŋ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, used to represent a voiced velar nasal (as in English siTemplate:StrongiTemplate:Strong) in the written form of some languages and in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

In Washo, lower-case Template:Angbr represents a typical {{#invoke:IPA|main}} sound, while upper-case Template:Angbr represents a voiceless {{#invoke:IPA|main}} sound. This convention comes from Americanist phonetic notation.

HistoryEdit

The First Grammatical Treatise, a 12th-century work on the phonology of the Old Icelandic language, uses a single grapheme for the eng sound, shaped like a g with a stroke Template:Angle brackets. Alexander Gill the Elder uses an uppercase G with a hooked tail and a lowercase n with the hooked tail of a script g Template:Angle brackets for the same sound in Logonomia Anglica in 1619.<ref>David Crystal (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language</ref> William Holder uses the letter in Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters, published in 1669, but it was not printed as intended; he indicates in his errata that “there was intended a character for Ng, viz., n with a tail like that of g, which must be understood where the Printer has imitated it by n or y”.<ref name="Albright1958">Robert W. Albright (1958). The International Phonetic Alphabet: Its Backgrounds and Development, Indiana University. p. 11</ref> It was later used in Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet, with its current phonetic value. It was supposed to be in English but failed.

AppearanceEdit

Lowercase eng is derived from n, with the addition of a hook to the right leg, somewhat like that of j. Nowadays, the uppercase has two main variants: it can be based on the usual uppercase N, with a hook added (or "N-form"); or it can be an enlarged version of the lowercase (or "n-form"). The former is preferred in Sami languages that use it, the latter in African languages,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> such as in Shona from 1931 to 1955, and several in west and central Africa currently. In Isaac Pitman’s Phonotypic Alphabet, the uppercase had a reversed-N form.

Early printers, lacking a specific glyph for eng, sometimes approximated it by rotating a capital G, or by substituting a Greek letter η (eta) before modified to present form Template:Angle brackets for it (encoded in Unicode as the Latin letter n with long leg: Ƞ ƞ).

Pronunciation of words containing eng soundEdit

In most languages eng is absent in the Latin alphabet but its sound can be present in the letter n in words. In English, it is heard in the potential digraphs nc (hard c), ng (hard g), nk, nq and nx, often at the end of words. For the pronunciation of ng with eng, it can be {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in words such as singer and hanged and when it is in final position or {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in words such as finger and angle.

In British English, n is pronounced eng in the prefixes en- and in- when they are followed by c, g and q, as in encroachment, engagement, enquiry, incursion, ingredient, inquiry and others. In other English dialects, the n is pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}} instead. In many British dialects, the ng in strength and length is simply pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, with g a silent letter, and the ng is otherwise pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in those words.

UsageEdit

Technical transcriptionEdit

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Vernacular orthographiesEdit

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Languages marked † no longer use eng, but formerly did.

Computer encodingEdit

Template:Uncited section Eng is encoded in Unicode as U+014A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ENG and U+014B LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG, part of the Latin Extended-A range. In ISO 8859-4 (Latin-4) it's located at BD (uppercase) and BF (lowercase).

In African languages such as Bemba, ng' (with an apostrophe) is widely used as a substitute in media where eng is hard to reproduce.

GalleryEdit

  • Ngummi.png

    An 1856 text in Gamilaraay, using a rotated capital G as a substitute for ŋ.

  • Kiŋston Bildiŋz, near Bath Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 717317.jpg

    Uppercase eng with the reversed-N-form on the Kingston Buildings in Bath, UK.

  • Ŋ in William Ridley (1875), Kámilarói, and other Australian languages - p.4.png

    Lowercase and uppercase eng with the reversed-N-form of the uppercase used in a 1875 Gamilaraay text.

  • Ŋ in William Ridley (1875), Kámilarói, and other Australian languages - p.40.png

    Eng used in a 1875 Gamilaraay text.

  • Italic eng (with tail like double storey g).svg

    Italic ŋ based on double-storey g as used in Horatio Hale's Ethnography and Philology (1846).

  • Nhooks.svg

    ᶇ ŋ ɲ ɳ: four "n"-based IPA symbols for nasal sounds.

  • Latin letter Eng (first variant of capital form).svg
  • Latin letter Eng (second variant of capital form).svg
  • Latin letter Eng (third variant of capital form).svg
  • Latin letter Eng (fourth variant of capital form).svg
  • Latin letter Eng (fifth variant of capital form).svg
  • Latin letter Eng (sixth variant of capital form).svg

    Sixth variant of capital form completely resembles Cyrillic "и"

See alsoEdit

Template:Sister project

Similar Latin letters:

Similar Cyrillic letters:

Similar Greek letters:

ReferencesEdit

<references/>

External linksEdit

Template:Latin script

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