View source for History:Yogh

[[Image:Yogh.svg|thumb|125px|Capital yogh (left), lowercase yogh (right)]]
The letter '''yogh''' (ȝogh) ({{lang|ang|Ȝ}} {{lang|ang|ȝ}}; Scots: yoch [[Social:Middle English|Middle English]]: {{lang|ang|ȝogh}}) was used in [[Social:Middle English|Middle English]] and Older Scots, representing ''y'' ({{IPA |/j/}}) and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Old English form of the letter ''g''.

In Middle English writing, tailed z came to be indistinguishable from yogh.

In [[Social:Middle Scots|Middle Scots]], the character yogh became confused with a cursive z and the early Scots printers often used z when yogh was not available in their fonts.<ref name="DSL">{{Citation|url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/z |work=DSL: Dictionary of the Scots Language / Dictionar o the Scots Leid |title=Z |publisher=DSL |place=UK}}.</ref> Consequently, some [[Social:Scots language|Lowland Scots]] words have a ''z'' in place of a yogh.

Yogh is shaped similarly to the [[Arabic numerals|Arabic numeral]] three (3), which is sometimes substituted for the character in online reference works. There is some confusion about the letter in the literature, as the English language was far from standardised at the time. The upper and lower case letters ({{lang|ang|Ȝ}}, {{lang|ang|ȝ}}) are represented in [[Unicode]] by code points {{unichar|021C|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER YOGH|html=}} and {{unichar|021D|LATIN SMALL LETTER YOGH|html=}} respectively.

== Pronunciation ==
In Modern English, ''Yogh'' is pronounced either {{IPAc-en|UK|j|ɒ|ɡ}}, {{IPAc-en|j|ɒ|x}}, with a short ''o'',<ref name = "OED">{{OED|yogh}}</ref> or {{IPAc-en|US|j|oʊ|ɡ}}, {{IPAc-en|j|oʊ|k}}, {{IPAc-en|j|oʊ|x}}, with a long ''o''.<ref>{{Citation | title = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary | edition = 10th}}.</ref> It stood for {{IPAc-en|ɡ}} and its various allophones—including {{IPA |[ɡ]}} and the voiced velar fricative {{IPA|[ɣ]}}—as well as the phoneme {{IPAc-en|j}} ({{angle bracket|y}} in modern English orthography).

In [[Social:Middle English|Middle English]], it also stood for the phoneme {{IPA|/x/}} and its allophone [ç] as in {{angle bracket|{{lang|ang|niȝt}}}} ("night", then pronounced as spelled: {{IPA |[niçt]}}). Sometimes, yogh stood for {{IPA|/j/}} or {{IPA|/w/}}, as in the word {{angle bracket|{{lang|ang|ȝoȝelinge}}}} {{IPA |[ˈjowəlɪŋɡə]}}, "yowling".

In [[Social:Middle Scots|Middle Scots]], it represented the sound {{IPA|/j/}} in the clusters {{IPA|/lj/}}, {{IPA|/ŋj/}} and {{IPA|/nj/}} written ''l{{lang |ang|ȝ}}'' and ''n{{lang|ang|ȝ}}''.<ref name = "DOST">{{Citation | publisher = DSL | place = UK | url = http://www.dsl.ac.uk/SCOTSHIST/output4.php?file=NEW-Final6phonology.htm |dead-url=yes | title = DOST: A History of Scots to 1700}}.</ref> Yogh was also used for {{IPA|/j/}} rather than ''y''.

In medieval [[Social:Cornish language|Cornish]] manuscripts, yogh was used to represent the voiced dental fricative {{IPA |[ð]}}, as in {{angle bracket|{{lang|ang|ȝoȝo}}}}, now written {{angle bracket|dhodho}}, pronounced {{IPA|[ðoðo]}}.

== History ==
[[Image:Ploughmen Fac simile of a Miniature in a very ancient Anglo Saxon Manuscript published by Shaw with legend God Spede ye Plough and send us Korne enow.png|left|thumb|250px|Yogh used for {{IPA|/x/}}: {{lang|ang|God spede þe plouȝ: & sende us kǫrne inolk.}}]]

===Old English===
{{Further|History:Insular G}}
The original Germanic ''g'' sound was expressed by the gyfu rune in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc (which is itself rendered as {{lang|ang|ȝ}} in modern [[Social:Runic transliteration and transcription|transliteration]]). Following palatalization, both ''gyfu'' and Latin ''g'' in Old English expressed the /j/ sound before front vowels. For example, "year" was written as either ''ȝear'' or ''gear'', even though the word had never had a ''g'' sound (deriving from [[Social:Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] ''*jērą'').

With the re-introduced possibility of a /g/ sound before front vowels, notably in the form of loanwords from the [[Social:Old Norse|Old Norse]] (such as ''gere'' from Norse ''gervi'', Modern English ''gear''), this orthographical state of affairs became a source for confusion, and a distinction of "real ''g''" (/g/) from "palatalized ''g''" (/j/) became desirable.

In the Old English period, the {{lang|ang|ȝ}} glyph was simply the way Latin ''g'' was written in the [[Social:Uncial script|Uncial script]] introduced at the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England by the Hiberno-Scottish mission. It only came to be used as a letter ''distinct'' from ''g'' in the Middle English period.

===Middle English===
Norman scribes despised non-Latin characters and certain spellings in English and therefore replaced the yogh with the digraph ''gh''; still, the variety of pronunciations persisted, as evidenced by ''cough'', ''taught'', and ''though''. The process of replacing the yogh with ''gh'' was slow, and was not completed until the end of the fifteenth century. Not every English word that contains a ''gh'' was originally spelled with a yogh: for example, ''spaghetti'' is [[Social:Italian language|Italian]], where the ''h'' makes the ''g'' hard (i.e., {{IPA|[ɡ]}} instead of {{IPA|[dʒ]}}); ''ghoul'' is [[Social:Arabic|Arabic]], in which the ''gh'' was {{IPA|/ɣ/}}.

The medieval author [[Religion:Ormulum|Orm]] used this letter in three ways when writing Early Middle English. By itself, it represented {{IPA |/j/}}, so he used this letter for the ''y'' in "yet". Doubled, it represented {{IPA |/i/}}, so he ended his spelling of "may" with two yoghs. Finally, the digraph of yogh followed by an ''h'' represented {{IPA |/ɣ/}}.<ref>{{cite book | last = Crystal | first = David |  title= The Stories of English | date= 2004-09-09 | publisher= Overlook Press | location = New York | isbn = 1-58567-601-2 |page =197}}</ref>

In ''The Tale of Melibee'', Geoffrey Chaucer wrote, "Ȝe haue cast alle here wordes in an hochepoche."

In the late Middle English period, yogh was no longer used: {{lang|ang|niȝt}} came to be spelled ''night''. Middle English re-imported [[History:Carolingian G|G in its French form]] for {{IPA|/ɡ/}}.

===Scots===
In words of [[Social:French language|French]] and [[Social:Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] origin, the [[Social:Early Scots|Early Scots]] palatal consonant {{IPA |/ɲ/}} had become {{IPA|/nj/}} or in some cases {{IPA|/ŋj/}}, and the palatal consonant {{IPA |/ʎ/}} had become {{IPA|/lj/}} by the Middle Scots period.<ref name = "DOST" /> Those were variously written {{lang|ang|nȝ(h)e}}, {{lang|ang|ngȝe}}, {{lang |ang|ny(h)e}} or {{lang |ang|ny(i)e}}, and {{lang |ang|lȝ(h)e}}, {{lang|ang|ly(i)e}} or {{lang|ang|lyhe}}. By the Modern Scots period the yogh had been replaced by the character ''z'', in particular for {{IPA |/ŋj/}}, {{IPA |/nj/}} (''n{{lang |ang|ȝ}}'') and {{IPA |/lj/}} (''l{{lang |ang|ȝ}}''), written ''nz'' and ''lz''. The original {{IPA|/hj/}} and {{IPA|/çj/}} developed into {{IPA|/ʃ(j)/}} in some words such as {{lang|ang|Ȝetland}} or ''Zetland'' for ''Shetland''.<ref name = "DSL" /> Yogh was also used to represent {{IPA |/j/}} in words such as {{lang |ang|ȝe}}, {{lang|ang|ȝhistirday}}'' (yesterday) and {{lang |ang|ȝoung}}'' but by the Modern Scots period ''y'' had replaced yogh.<ref>{{Citation | last = Kniezsa | first = V | editor-last = Jones | editor-first = C | year = 1997 | title = The Edinburgh history of the Scots language | publisher = Edinburgh University Press | page = 38}}.</ref> The pronunciation of MacKenzie (and its variant spellings) (from Scottish Gaelic {{lang|gd|MacCoinnich}} {{IPA-gd|maxˈkʰɤɲɪç|}}), originally pronounced {{IPA-sco|məˈkɛŋjiː|}} in Scots,<ref name = "DSL" /> shows where yogh became zed. Menzies Campbell is another example.

===After the development of printing===
In Middle Scots orthography, the use of yogh became confused with a cursive ''z'' and the early Scots printers often used ''z'' when yogh was not available in their fonts.

The yogh glyph can be found in surnames that start with a ''Y'' in Scotland and Ireland; for example the surname Yeoman, which would have been spelled {{lang|ang|Ȝeman}}. Sometimes, the yogh would be replaced by the letter ''z'', because the shape of the yogh was identical to some forms of handwritten ''z''.

In [[Unicode]] 1.0, the character yogh was mistakenly unified with the quite different character ezh (Ʒ ʒ), and yogh itself was not added to Unicode until version 3.0.

== List of Middle English words containing a yogh ==
These are examples of Middle English words that contain the letter '''yogh''' in their spellings.<ref>{{Citation | title = OED online}}.</ref>
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
<!-- * {{lang|ang|enculȝe}} -->
* {{lang|ang|niȝt}} ("night")
* {{lang|ang|yȝe}} ("[[Biology:Eye|eye]]")
* {{lang|ang|ȝha}} ("yea")
* {{lang|ang|yhalȝed}} ("hallowed")
* {{lang|ang|ȝhat}} ("gate")
* {{lang|ang|ȝhe(i)d(e)}} (past tense of "go", which in ME is often "yede")
* {{lang|ang|yȝ(e/i)ld(e)}}, {{lang|ang|yȝened}} (past participles of "yield" and "yean")
* {{lang|ang|yherber(e)ȝed}} ("harboured")
* {{lang|ang|ȝhere}} ("[[Medicine:Ear|ear]]")
{{col-2}}
* {{lang|ang|yhyȝed}} ("hied, hastened")
* {{lang|ang|ȝiefte}} ("[[Social:Gift|gift]]")
* {{lang |ang|ȝif}} ("if")<ref>{{Citation | url = http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/EGilds/1:6.2.3?rgn=div3;view=fulltext | publisher = University of Michigan | contribution = English gilds: the original ordinances of more than one hundred early English gilds | title = Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse | accessdate = 2011-06-23}}</ref>
* {{lang|ang|ȝise}} ("yes")
* {{lang|ang|ȝista(i/y)}} ("yesterday")
* {{lang|ang|ȝister-}} ("yester-")
* {{lang|ang|ȝit(e)}} ("yet")
* {{lang|ang|ȝive}} ("give" or "if")
* {{lang|ang|wrouȝte}} ("wrought")<ref>{{Citation | url = http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Piers_Plowman | title = Piers Plowman | publisher = Wikisource}}.</ref>
{{col-end}}

==Scots words with {{angle bracket|z}} for {{angbr|{{lang|ang|ȝ}}}}==

===Placenames===
* Ben Chonzie – a mountain in Perthshire
* The Branziet – pronounced ''bringit'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|b|r|ɪ|ŋ|ɪ|t}}), a farm and settlement near Bardowie, East Dunbartonshire 
* Bunzion – pronounced ''bunion'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|b|ʌ|n|j|ə|n}}), Lower and Upper Bunzion are farms in the Parish of Cults, Fife
* Cadzow – the former name of the town of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire; the word Cadzow continues in modern use in many street names and other names, e.g. Cadzow Castle, Kilncadzow
* Calzeat - Lanarkshire
* Calziebohalzie - a former farmstead in Stirlingshire with a rare instance of a word containing two yoghs, from Gaelic ''Coille Buachaille'' ({{IPA-gd|kʰɤʎəˈpuəxɪʎə}})
* Cockenzie – a town in East Lothian
* Colzium Estate – a historic estate and mansion house near Kilsyth
* Corriemulzie – a river in Sutherland that lends its name to the Corriemulzie Estate<ref>[http://corriemulzieestate.com/ Corriemulzie Estate]</ref>
* Culzean – pronounced ''culain'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|k|ʌ|ˈ|l|eɪ|n|}}), a historic castle in Ayrshire run by the National trust for Scotland;
* Dalmunzie – now pronounced as written, a historic castle in Perthshire now repurposed as a hotel;<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dalmunzie.com/ |title=Dalmunzie Castle Hotel |access-date=14 September 2017}}</ref>
* Drumelzier – pronounced ''drumellier'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|d|r|ʌ|ˈ|m|ɛ|l|j|ɛ|r}}), a village in the Tweed Valley;
* Edzell – now pronounced as written, a village in Angus
* Finzean – pronounced ''fingen'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɪ|ŋ|ə|n}}), an area in rural Aberdeenshire
* Funzie Girt – pronounced ''funyie girt'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɪ|n|j|i|_|ˈ|ɡ|ɜːr|t}}), a historic dividing wall on Fetlar
* Glenzier – pronounced ''glinger'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|l|ɪ|ŋ|ər}}), a village in Dumfries & Galloway which lends its name to Glenzierfoot and the Glenzier Beck;
* Kailzie Gardens – a historic walled garden near Kirkburn, Scottish Borders
* Kilchenzie – a small settlement on the Kintyre peninsula, from ''Choinnich'' ({{IPA-gd|ˈxɤɲɪç}}), the genitive of ''Coinneach'' ({{IPA-gd|ˈkʰɤɲəx}}) "Kenneth"
* Kilhenzie - a small settlement in South Ayrshire, also from ''Choinnich'' ({{IPA-gd|ˈxɤɲɪç}}), the genitive of ''Coinneach'' ({{IPA-gd|ˈkʰɤɲəx}}) "Kenneth"
* Kirkgunzeon – pronounced ''kirkgunion'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|k|ɜːr|k|g|ʌ|n|j|ə|n}}), a village in Dumfries & Galloway
* Lenzie – now pronounced as written (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɛ|n|z|ɪ}}), but previously ''lenyie'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɛ|n|j|ɪ}}), a village near Glasgow
* Menzion – a village in the Borders
* Menzieshill – an area of Dundee
* Monzie – pronounced ''money'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ʌ|n|i}}), from the Gaelic ''Moighidh'', "a level tract", a parish in Perthshire near Crieff which lends its name to Loch Monzievaird and the Falls of Monzie;
* Queenzieburn – pronounced ''queenieburn'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|k|w|iː|n|i|b|ɜːr|n}}), a location in North Lanarkshire;
* Ruchazie – now pronounced as written (IPA {{IPAc-en|r|ʌ|x|ˈ|h|eɪ|z|ɪ}}), a district of Glasgow;
* Zell – archaic spelling of the Isle of Yell;
* Zetland – the name for Shetland until the 1970s – Shetland postcodes begin with the letters ZE.

===Surnames===
*Cadzow - see placename.
*Dalziel – pronounced ''deeyel'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|d|iː|ˈ|ɛ|l}}) or ''dehyell'', from Gaelic ''Dail Gheal'' ({{IPA-gd|t̪alˈʝal̪ˠ|}}); also spelled Dalyell and Dalzell;
*Gilzean – pronounced ''gilain'', a variant of Maclean, from Gaelic ''MacGilleEathain'' ({{IPA-gd|maxkʲɪˈʎe.ɛɲ|}}). However, many now pronounce the 'z', including footballer Alan Gilzean.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=rtu5BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=%22alan+gilzean%22+pronounce&source=bl&ots=BDizKaVnau&sig=R7cwo8LRkZXNOiwbve3Lj_zAa4Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip1bu205XcAhWCW8AKHcRbAzkQ6AEIOzAF#v=onepage&q=%22alan+gilzean%22+pronounce&f=false|title=In Search of Alan Gilzean|first=James|last=Morgan|date=17 October 2011|publisher=BackPage Press|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*Layamon – now pronounced as written although frequently rendered as Laȝamon up to the early 1900s in literary referents<ref>{{citation | last = Eaton | first = Lucy Allen | year = 1960 | title = Studies in the fairy mythology of Arthurian romance | publisher = Burt Franklin | page = vii}}.</ref>;
*MacKenzie – now pronounced as written, though as late as 1946 George Black recorded the original form pronounced ''makenyie'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|k|ɛ|ŋ|j|i}}), from the Gaelic ''MacCoinnich'' ({{IPA-gd|maxˈkʰɤɲɪç|}}) as standard;<ref>{{Citation | first = George | last = Black | title = The Surnames of Scotland | year = 1946 | page = 525}}.</ref>
*Menzies – most correctly pronounced ''mingis'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|ŋ|ɪ|s}}), a variant of ''Manners'',<ref>{{citation | last = Hanks | first = P | year = 2003 | title = Dictionary of American Family Names | publisher = Oxford University Press}}.</ref> now controversially also pronounced with {{IPAc-en|z}};
*Winzet – pronounced ''winyet'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɪ|n|j|ə|t}});

===Miscellaneous nouns===
*Assoilzie – pronounced with a silent ''z'' – a Scots law term meaning to decide a case in favour of the party defending a civil matter;
*Capercailzie – the Scots spelling of capercaillie (IPA {{IPAc-en|ˌ|k|æ|p|ɚ|ˈ|k|eɪ|l|i}}) from the [[Social:Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] ''capall-coille'' ({{IPA-gd|kʰaʰpəl̪ˠˈkʰɤʎə|}}) meaning "forest horse";
*Gaberlunzie – most correctly pronounced ''gaberlunyie'' (IPA {{IPAc-en|ɡ|æ|b|ər|ˈ|l|ʌ|n|j|i}}) but now often pronounced as written, a licensed beggar;
*Tailzie – a legal term.
*Tuilzie – a struggle or fight;

==In Egyptology==
A Unicode-based transliteration system adopted by the [[Organization:Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale|Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale]]<ref name=IFAO>{{cite web|title=Polices de caractères|url=http://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/outils/polices/|website=Institut français d'archéologie orientale – Le Caire|accessdate=13 September 2014|language=French}}</ref> suggested the use of the yogh ȝ character as the transliteration of the [[Social:Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]] "aleph" glyph: <hiero>A</hiero>

The symbol actually used in Egyptology is [[Image:Egyptian 3 symbol.png|10px|]], two half-rings opening to the left. Since Unicode 5.1, it has been assigned its own codepoints (uppercase U+A722 Ꜣ <small>LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF</small>, lowercase U+A723 ꜣ <small>LATIN SMALL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF</small>); a fallback is the numeral ''3''.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==

* {{Citation |  first = Michael | last = Everson | format = essay | url = http://www.evertype.com/standards/wynnyogh/ezhyogh.html | title = On the derivation of Yogh and Ezh | publisher = Evertype | work = Standards}}
* {{Citation | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4595228.stm | publisher = The BBC | work = BBC News | title= Why is Menzies pronounced Mingis?  | place = UK | date=2006-01-10 |access-date= 2018-09-12}}.

[[Category:Early Middle Ages]]

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