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'Ghain', 'ghayn', or '' () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents the voiced velar fricative ().
In name and shape, it is a variant of .
A voiced uvular fricative (usually reconstructed for Proto-Semitic) merged with Ayin in most languages except for Arabic, Ugaritic and older varieties of the Canaanite languages. All Canaanite languages later also merged it with Ayin, and this merger was complete in Tiberian Hebrew. The South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for , .
The letter '' () is sometimes used to represent the voiced velar plosive /g/ in loan words in Arabic, such as the word for "English", ''Ingliizi'' (إنغليزي).
''Ghain'' is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

Proto-Semitic	Akkadian	Arabic		Canaanite		Hebrew		Aramaic		South Arabian		Ge'ez
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Contents

Origins of Ghain

See also

External links

Origins of Ghain

Ghain is believed to have come from following hieroglyph
V28
that depicts two twisted fibers.

See also

★ Arabic phonology

★ Ghayn, the corresponding letter in the Cyrillic orthographies for several Central Asian languages

External links

★ Ancient Hebrew Alphabet - Chart