għ

See also: gh, GH, Għ, and .gh

Maltese

Etymology

Continues Arabic ع (ʕ) and غ (ḡ). The two phonemes were merged into /ʕ/ around Valetta since at least the 18th century, but continued to be distinguished as /ʕ/ and /ɣ~ʁ/ elsewhere (in some rural dialects until the later 20th century). Both in merging and non-merging dialects, /ʕ/ was weakly articulated and eventually vowelised, though word-finally after stressed vowels it underwent devoicing to [ħ] instead.

The symbol <għ> was apparently first used in 1859 by the newspaper Il Habib tal Maltin (as an adaptation of earlier <gh>), though it was not popularised until the first half of the 20th century.^[1]

Pronunciation

(letter name):
- IPA^(key): /aːjn/, /ajn/
- IPA^(key): /aˤːjn/ (archaic)
- IPA^(key): /ɣajn/ (archaic, rural, for rgħajn)
(phoneme):
- IPA^(key): /-/, /ː/, /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /j/, /w/, /ħ/

Letter

għ (upper case Għ)

The ninth letter of the Maltese alphabet, called ajn and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

In contemporary Maltese, għ remains a true consonant [ħ] in word-final position (maqtugħ [maʔˈtuːħ]) and in the cluster -għh-, which becomes [ħħ]. Otherwise it is silent or leaves at most a vocalic trace:
- Following and preceding a, e, o are lengthened if stressed: għodwa [ˈɔːdwa], nagħġa [ˈnaːdʒa].
- Following i, u become diphthongs: għira [ˈɛjra], jistgħu [ˈjɪstɔw]. A partial exception to this is the sequence -egħi-, which has a number of possible realisations (cf. tqegħid).
- In intervocalic position it is a glide, [j] after i, ie, and [w] after u: qiegħed [ˈʔɪːjɛt], maqtugħa [maʔˈtuːwa].
- The (always stressed) sequence -iegħ- becomes [ɛː] when followed by a consonant: qiegħda [ˈʔɛːda].
After unstressed a, word-final għ is most often lost and then represented by an apostrophe: jisma’ [ˈjɪsma]. It resurfaces when an ending is added to the word: jisimgħu [jɪˈsɪmɔw]. Exceptions are the verb ending negative suffix -x, before which silent għ is simply dropped in the spelling:jismax [jɪsˈmaːʃ], and when adding suffixes -t, -tu, -na where it changes to a more phonetically accurate j: smajtx [jɪsˈmaːʃ].
Phonotactically, word-initial għ now generally behaves like a vowel, allowing contractions such as m’għandix [manˈdiːʃ]. However, word-internal għ still behaves like a (virtual) consonant. Compare the aforementioned jisimgħu, where the vowel i has been added before the m, as though the latter were followed by a consonant.

References

^ Arnold Cassola (2013) “A note on the dating of ħ, għ and x in Maltese”, in Albert Borg, Sandro Caruana, Alexandra Vella, editors, Perspectives on Maltese Linguistics, Akademie Verlag, →DOI, page 17,