Gamma (/ˈɡæmə/;[1] uppercase Γ, lowercase γ; Greek: γάμμα gámma) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop IPA: [ɡ]. In Modern Greek, this letter normally represents a voiced velar fricative IPA: [ɣ], except before either of the two front vowels (/e/, /i/), where it represents a voiced palatal fricative IPA: [ʝ]; while /g/ in foreign words is instead commonly transcribed as γκ).

In the International Phonetic Alphabet and other modern Latin-alphabet based phonetic notations, it represents the voiced velar fricative.

History

The Greek letter Gamma Γ is a grapheme derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤂‎ (gīml) which was rotated from the right-to-left script of Canaanite to accommodate the Greek language's writing system of left-to-right. The Canaanite grapheme represented the /g/ phoneme in the Canaanite language, and as such is cognate with gimel ג of the Hebrew alphabet.

Based on its name, the letter has been interpreted as an abstract representation of a camel's neck,[2] but this has been criticized as contrived,[3] and it is more likely that the letter is derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph representing a club or throwing stick.[4]

The alphabet on black-figure pottery with a lambda-shaped gamma

In Archaic Greece, the shape of gamma was closer to a classical lambda (Λ), while lambda retained the Phoenician L-shape (𐌋‎).

Letters that arose from the Greek gamma include Etruscan (Old Italic) 𐌂, Roman C and G, Runic kaunan ᚲ, Gothic geuua 𐌲, the Coptic Ⲅ, and the Cyrillic letters Г and Ґ.[5]

Greek phoneme

The Ancient Greek /g/ phoneme was the voiced velar stop, continuing the reconstructed proto-Indo-European *g, *ǵ.

The modern Greek phoneme represented by gamma is realized either as a voiced palatal fricative (/ʝ/) before a front vowel (/e/, /i/), or as a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ in all other environments. Both in Ancient and in Modern Greek, before other velar consonants (κ, χ, ξ – that is, k, kh, ks), gamma represents a velar nasal /ŋ/. A double gamma γγ (e.g., άγγελος, "angel") represents the sequence /ŋɡ/ (phonetically varying [ŋɡ~ɡ]) or /ŋɣ/.

Phonetic transcription

Lowercase Greek gamma is used in the Americanist phonetic notation and Uralic Phonetic Alphabet to indicate voiced consonants.

The gamma was also added to the Latin alphabet, as Latin gamma, in the following forms: majuscule Ɣ, minuscule ɣ, and superscript modifier letter ˠ.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet the minuscule letter is used to represent a voiced velar fricative and the superscript modifier letter is used to represent velarization. It is not to be confused with the character ɤ, which looks like a lowercase Latin gamma that lies above the baseline rather than crossing, and which represents the close-mid back unrounded vowel. In certain nonstandard variations of the IPA, the uppercase form is used.

It is as a full-fledged majuscule and minuscule letter in the alphabets of some of languages of Africa such as Dagbani, Dinka, Kabye, and Ewe,[6] and Berber languages using the Berber Latin alphabet.

It is sometimes also used in the romanization of Pashto.

Mathematics and science

Lowercase

The lowercase letter is used as a symbol for:

The lowercase Latin gamma ɣ can also be used in contexts (such as chemical or molecule nomenclature) where gamma must not be confused with the letter y, which can occur in some computer typefaces.

Uppercase

The uppercase letter is used as a symbol for:

Meteorology

Tropical cyclones

The name Gamma has been used twice for tropical cyclones:

Tropical Storm Gamma (2005) - deadly tropical storm that impacted Honduras

Hurricane Gamma (2020) - hurricane that affected the Yucatán Peninsula

Encoding

HTML

The HTML entities for uppercase and lowercase gamma are Γ and γ.

Unicode

  • Greek Gamma
Character information
PreviewΓγᴦᵞᵧ
Unicode name GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA GREEK LETTER SMALL CAPITAL GAMMA MODIFIER LETTER SMALL GREEK GAMMA GREEK SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER GAMMA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode915U+0393947U+03B37462U+1D267518U+1D5E7527U+1D67
UTF-8206 147CE 93206 179CE B3225 180 166E1 B4 A6225 181 158E1 B5 9E225 181 167E1 B5 A7
Numeric character referenceΓΓγγᴦᴦᵞᵞᵧᵧ
Named character referenceΓγ
  • Coptic Gamma
Character information
PreviewⲄⲅ
Unicode name COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA COPTIC SMALL LETTER GAMMA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode11396U+2C8411397U+2C85
UTF-8226 178 132E2 B2 84226 178 133E2 B2 85
Numeric character referenceⲄⲄⲅⲅ
Character information
PreviewƔɣˠɤ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA LATIN SMALL LETTER GAMMA MODIFIER LETTER SMALL GAMMA LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode404U+0194611U+0263736U+02E0612U+0264
UTF-8198 148C6 94201 163C9 A3203 160CB A0201 164C9 A4
Numeric character referenceƔƔɣɣˠˠɤɤ
  • CJK Square Gamma
Character information
Preview㌏
Unicode name SQUARE GAMMA
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode13071U+330F
UTF-8227 140 143E3 8C 8F
Numeric character reference㌏㌏
  • Technical / Mathematical Gamma
Character information
Previewℾℽ𝚪𝛄𝛤𝛾
Unicode name DOUBLE-STRUCK
CAPITAL GAMMA		 DOUBLE-STRUCK
SMALL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL BOLD
CAPITAL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL BOLD
SMALL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
CAPITAL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
SMALL GAMMA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode8510U+213E8509U+213D120490U+1D6AA120516U+1D6C4120548U+1D6E4120574U+1D6FE
UTF-8226 132 190E2 84 BE226 132 189E2 84 BD240 157 154 170F0 9D 9A AA240 157 155 132F0 9D 9B 84240 157 155 164F0 9D 9B A4240 157 155 190F0 9D 9B BE
UTF-168510213E8509213D55349 57002D835 DEAA55349 57028D835 DEC455349 57060D835 DEE455349 57086D835 DEFE
Numeric character referenceℾℾℽℽ𝚪𝚪𝛄𝛄𝛤𝛤𝛾𝛾
Character information
Preview𝜞𝜸𝝘𝝲𝞒𝞬
Unicode name MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
CAPITAL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
SMALL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD CAPITAL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD SMALL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL GAMMA		 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC SMALL GAMMA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode120606U+1D71E120632U+1D738120664U+1D758120690U+1D772120722U+1D792120748U+1D7AC
UTF-8240 157 156 158F0 9D 9C 9E240 157 156 184F0 9D 9C B8240 157 157 152F0 9D 9D 98240 157 157 178F0 9D 9D B2240 157 158 146F0 9D 9E 92240 157 158 172F0 9D 9E AC
UTF-1655349 57118D835 DF1E55349 57144D835 DF3855349 57176D835 DF5855349 57202D835 DF7255349 57234D835 DF9255349 57260D835 DFAC
Numeric character reference𝜞𝜞𝜸𝜸𝝘𝝘𝝲𝝲𝞒𝞒𝞬𝞬

These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.

See also

Look up Γ or γ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up Ɣ or ɣ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ↑ "gamma". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ↑ Russell, Bertrand (1972). A history of western philosophy (60th print. ed.). New York: Touchstone book. ISBN 9780671314002.
  3. ↑ Powell, Barry B. (2012). Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization. John Wiley & Sons. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-118-29349-2.
  4. ↑ Hamilton, Gordon James (2006). The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts. Catholic Biblical Association of America. pp. 53–6. ISBN 978-0-915170-40-1.
  5. ↑ "Greek Alphabet Symbols". Rapid Tables. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Practical Orthography of African Languages
  7. ↑ François Cardarelli (2003). Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures. London: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-1-4471-1122-1.
  8. ↑ Betty Grover Eisner, Ph.D. (August 7, 2002). Remembrances of LSD therapy past (PDF). p. 14. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-12-05. that fateful 100 gamma, the same dosage I had had at my first LSD session
  9. ↑ Weisstein, Eric W. (30 April 2023). "Gamma -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Physics". scienceworld.wolfram.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.