b the seventh letter in the 

 Roman alphabet, and in the 

 modern alphabets derived from 

 it. For the history of the char- 

 acter, and its ditt'erentiation out 

 of (', sec ALPHABET and letter 

 C. The earliest inscription in 

 which (J is found is the epitaph 

 on Scinio llarhatus. which 

 Kitsdil cmi-ideis was inscribed n ,,t ] a i, M - than '234 

 r..< . Tin* substitution of G in tlie Roman alphabet 

 for the disused letter Z, which occupied the seventh 

 j.lace in the old Italic alphabet, is believed to have 

 ii"en effected in the school of Spurius Carvilius, a 

 grammarian who lived at the close of the 3d cen- 

 tury u.c. In our minuscule g, which is derived 

 froin the Caroline script, the two loops do not 

 belong to the majuscule form G, of which the 

 little crook at the top of g is the sole survival, 

 lu Lit in the sound of g, as in gaudeo, genus, 

 I'l- . was always hard, as in the English got; our 

 -Hind, \\liich is heard before e and * in gist, 

 generous, and gentle, did not come into use in 

 Latin before the 6th century A.D. In English this 

 soft sound is confined to words of foreign origin, 

 such as gem and gender, and is due to French 

 influence. An initial g in words of English origin 

 is always hard, even before e, i, and y, as in gave, 

 ij> t, gire, and go. 



The Normans could not sound our w, and substi- 

 tuted for it gtt. Hence we have such doublets as 

 giiin-i/inti and imrden, guarantee and warranty. 

 Conversely a French g sometimes becomes w in 

 English. Thus the ola French ganjfre has given 

 us our word wafer. G is often softened to y, e, i, 

 or a. Thus Old English genoh is now enough, 

 gelic is alike, git is yet, geong is young, hand- 

 geiveorc is handiwork, scelig is silly. A final or 

 medial g often becomes w or ow ; thus the Old 

 English fugol is now fowl, maga is maw, sorg is 

 sorrow, lagn is law, elnboga is elbow. Sometimes 

 ;i disappears altogether, as in the Old English gif, 

 which is now if; ts-giccl, which is icicle; ormagister, 

 which is master and mister. Before n we occa- 

 sionally have an intrusive a, as in the words 

 fori'/i/n. fi'i'ji/, xin-n-riiin, and impregnable. An 

 Old English h sometimes becomes gh, and then 

 lapses to/, as in enough and draught. In the case 

 of many words, such as gate, get, and again, we 

 owe to Caxton, under Mercian influences, the 

 restoration of the Old English g, which for three 

 hundred years had in Wessex been gradually 

 lapsing into y. 



Gabbro (Ital.), a rock consisting essentially 

 of the two minerals plagioclase Felspar (q.v.') 

 and I Hal lag" (q.v.). It shows a thoroughly 

 crystalline granitoid texture, with no trace of any 

 base. The plagioclase is a basic variety labrador- 

 ite being commonest, but anorthite is also some- 

 times present in abundance. The diallage may 

 Dftnally be noted by the pearly or metalloidal lustre 

 on its cleavage-planes. It is usually either brown- 

 i-li or dirty green in colour. Olivine is also often 

 met with as a constituent of gabbro, and some 

 apatite is almost invariably present. In certain 

 kinds of gabbro other varieties of pyroxene appear ; 



and amongst other minerals which occasionally 

 occur in gabbro may be mentioned hornblende, 

 magnesia-mica, magnetite, ilmenite, quart/. The 

 rock is of igneous origin, and occurs in association 

 with the crystalline schists as large amorphous 

 masses or bosses. Sometimes also it appears in the 

 form of thick sheets and bosses associated with 

 volcanic eruptive rocks. 



(abeleutz, HANS Coxox vox DER, German 

 philologist, was born at Altenburg, 13th October 

 1807. Even whilst still a student at Leipzig and 

 Gottingen he spent a large part of his time in the 

 study of Chinese and Arabic. He then began to 

 study the Finno-Tartaric languages, and published 

 in 1833 liis Elements de la Grammaire Mund/tchoue. 

 He had, moreover, a share in the establishment 

 ( 1837 ) of Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgen- 

 landes, a journal devoted to oriental science, and 

 contributed to it some interesting papers on the 

 Mongolian and Mordvinian languages. Along with 

 J. Lobe he published a critical edition of the 

 Gothic translation of the Bible by Ulfilas, with a 

 Latin translation, and with a Gothic glossary and 

 grammar appended (1843-46). Besides a gram 

 mar of Syrjan (a Finnish dialect, 1841), he fur- 

 nished contributions to periodicals on the Swahili, 

 Hazara, Formosan, and Samoyede language-. 

 His most important work on the science of lan- 

 guage is Die Melatiesixc/ien Spracken (2 vols. 

 1860-73). Beitrdge zur Sprachenkinule (1852) con- 

 tains Dyak, Dakota, and Kiriri grammars, whilst 

 Ueber das Passivum (1860) is a treatise on uni- 

 versal grammar. In 1864 he published a Manchu 

 translation of the Chinese works, Sse-clm. Blin- 

 king, and Shi-king, along with a glossary in 

 German. Gabelentz knew upwards of eighty lan- 



Sages. He died 3d September 1874. His son, 

 ins Georg Conon, born in 1840, held the chair of 

 Eastern Asiatic Tongues in Leipzig University, and 

 wrote many books on Chinese, Melanesian, Basque, 

 Berber, &c. Died December 11, 1893. 



Gabelle (derived through Low Lat. gabulum 

 from the Old Ger. gifan or Gothic giban, ' to give' ), 

 in France a word sometimes used in a general 

 way to designate every kind of indirect tax, but 

 more especially the tax upon salt. This impost, 

 first levied in*1286, in the reign of Philippe IV.. 

 was meant to l>e only temporary, but was declared 

 perpetual by Charles V. It varied in the different 

 provinces. It was unpopular from the very fust. 

 and the attempt to collect it occasioned frequent dis- 

 turbances. It was finally suppressed in 1789. The 

 word also indicated the magazine in which salt was 

 stored. The name gabelon is still given by the 



co ion people in France to custom-house officers 



and tax-gatherers. 



Gabelsberger, FRAKZ XAVKK, the inventor 

 of the system of shorthand most extensively used 

 in German-speaking countries, was l>orn 9th 

 February 1789 at Munich, and entered the Bavarian 

 civil service, acting as ministerial secretary in the 

 statistical office of the finance department from 

 1826 to the date of his death, 4th January 1849. 

 The summoning of a parliament for Bavaria in 

 1819 led Gabelsberger to adapt the shorthand 



