The feventh letter of our alphabet, and the fifth co 
fonant ; though in the alphabets of all the ae 
ae 
5 
.o 
Q 
ila 
med 
ebre 
ritan, Arabic, and even 
The Hebrew ys callit ghimel, or gimel, q. d. ca 
it refembles in its form ae neck of that aaa 
fame appellation it bears in the Samaritan, Phoenician, and 
Chaldee : in Lied iia ac it is alle gomel, in Arabic gim, and 
in Greek gan 
- The letter "Ci is of the mute kind, and cannot be any way 
founded without the help of a vowel. It is formed by the 
spc of the - i Sc the palate, made by 
mel 3 'pecaale 
and the 
as the cd Sar ou the throat; which Martianus Capella 
ex iene a < fir’ itus cum palato; fo that the G is a 
palatal let 
G in Engl lith has two founds, one from the Greek T, and 
the ee which is called that of the hard G, becaufe it is 
formed by a pre at ae at hard, of the fore iol of the 
anne againit the xr gum 3 which found it retains be- 
fore a, 0, u, 1, rs as ae £25 gull At the end of a word 
* it is always hard, as ring, Ang; kc. The other found, called 
that of the foft G, refembles that of j jo and is commonly, 
sha not — found sana e asia #, asin gem 2 ag pigs 
rule, there any exceptions; G is 
often hard ‘efor € i, as ae one an a fometimes isch ea 
get, &c. It is alfo hard in derivatives from words ending i in 
Fas fi inging, Jironger, os and generally before er, at “the 
en e before 
end of a word Gh 
has often the found of f, as Jaugh. s nfon 
e Latins took a liberty to drop the letter G at the 
beginning of words, n3 as in gnatus, gnofco, ee 
narrat, &c. which tic ordinarily wrote naius, nofco, n 
ie, “They alfo frequently changed it into ¢ 5 as game a inte 
cme guingentum, quincentum, 
Sometimes it was put inflead of nz, before a c, and for an- 
other ¢ 5 3 as Agchifes, AEgoras ¢ agguilla, &c. for Anchifes, ancora, 
anguilla, &c. And in of p ; as magalia, for se hay &e. 
Gis is alfo ufed inftead oe ee inftead of G, as 
ef 
angina, Saar oe ale 
3° 
ww 
Lath, fparfim $ or ‘lr it is retrenched from thote laf 
vords t the cacophony of /parg fi, or fparc/i. G is 
alfo ut “for c3 as in Creius, for neius 3 ‘aius, for Gaius 
Ga.ta, for Caicta ; and for v3 as in fgere, for fivere. See 
> KC. 
The northern people frequently change the G into 9, or 
wy; asin Gallus, Wallus; Gallia, Walh 2 A alia, &e. For 
in Man inftance : fare not be faid tha e French have 
ged the w into G; becaufe they — Gallus long 
the tongue, | 
before Wallus, or Wal Tia were dees ; as appears from alf€ 
the ancient Roman and Greek 2 
nd yet iti a true, that ee French change the 
of the northern nat and v confonant, into G ; as /V; lie 
us, William, a Guillaume» Wulphilas, into Gulphilas ; 
Fafeo, into Ga con, &e. 
Diomed, lib. ii, cap. de Litera, calls G a new letter 5. 
reafon is, that the Romans had not introduced it before 
unic war; as appears from the roftral column, 
eee by C. Dail, on w ae ye every ee find ae¢ in 
lieu of G. It was Sp. Carvilius who firit diftinguifhed be- 
tween thofe two lett ers, and invented the figure ‘of the - : 
as we are aflured by Terentius Scaurus. 
well for G; it being the third letter of the Latin ee 
as the G or y was of the Greek. 
The G is found inftead of ¢ on feveral medals: V aillant, 
m. Imperat. tom. 1. p. 39. M. Beg a ate a medal 
of the Familia Ogulnia, where Gar is ae inftea 
which is on thofe of M. Patin. But the cis more frequently 
feen 0 als in lieu of G 3 UCUSTALIS, CALLAECIA 
CARTACINESSIS, &e. for Dae ALIS, oc ” Not ce ihe 
pronunciation of thofe words was altered, but only that as 
G was unartfully or negligently cut by the workmen ; as is 
the cafe in divers infcriptions of the Ealtern ea ¢ Wie 
AUC, AUCC, AUCCC, are frequently found for auG 
efor a6 r Gis taken from that of the eee who 
enone it ao Ge Greeks ; 3 the Latin G being certainly 
corruption of the Greek gamma, I as might eafily be 
fhewn, had our printers “a ~ charaéter and forms of this 
letter es we meet wit e Greek and Latin MSS. 
th ae ich the ay wa od fe mf to 
As e gamma of i Greeks, it is eanitellly the § of 
the Hebrews or Samar itans. All the difference between 
the gamma and ghimel ou sin this, that the one is turned 
to the right, and the other e left, aera to the dit. 
erent manners of writing see ae which ee mong 
thofe different sere 3; fo that all the oa Salmatius has 
taken on Solinus, to prove that the G was derived from the 
Greek eee is ee ft. 
7, as a Roman abbreviature, has various eT eacayonts 
It de notes gratis, gens, gau - lig ignifies, gnie 
urbis, and G. P. R. gloria populi Rom 
G has alfo bees ufed as a mune ete: fignifying 4005 
sess to the verfe, 
““ G quadringentos demonitrativa tenebit.”’ 
When a dath was added at the top,.G, it fignified forty 
thoufan 
G, in Chronology, i is the feventh dominical let: cre 
. on the French Cois, denotes the city of Poitiers. 
in Mufic, i is the loweft found of the icale of Gries in 
which fee. The oétave above 
Reis it is called Cae 
4 
5 mame, 
