Origin of LATIN LETTER GHA

From: Benjamin M Scarborough (benjamin.scarborough@student.utdallas.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 23 2008 - 15:19:19 CDT

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    This has been bothering me for a long time, but what is the origin of
    Ƣ? It seems to have been introduced in a number of Latin-script
    orthographies in the U.S.S.R. during the 1920s, but I can't find any
    information on how the letter was created.

    Ƣ must have been rather cloudy in origin and use for U+01A2 and U+01A3
    to have been named LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OI and LATIN SMALL LETTER OI.

    I've read somewhere that it was based on Q, but that doesn't explain
    its use for [ɣ] or its position in sorting between G and H.

    The closest thing I've seen to Ƣ is the Sütterlinschrift forms of the
    letters G and Q, but somehow that connection seems a little spurious.

    Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

    --Ben Scarborough



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