Yogh

Yogh (Ȝ ȝ) is a letter of Middle English literature. Note that sometimes it is written with a three (3) when the font is not available.

The sound Ȝ was derived from Old English g. It was a sound that doesn't exist any more in English language since it is now assimilated with y or isn't pronounced at all.

Ȝ in Elvish

Primitive Quendian

Tolkien used Ȝ in The Etymologies to describe the sound gh. Ȝ is seen most often in Primitive Quendian roots such as MAȜ, KUȜ, TEȜ. This sound however was assimilated to other sounds.

Before unvoiced consonants it would evolve into ch: maȝtâ (MAȜ) evolved to machtâ.

Final, after u, it would evolve into w: kuȝ (KUȜ) > kuw

Later Ȝ

The sound gh would return once more in Elvish. Like in the case of English, Primitive Quendian g was simplified to gh in Quenya (and Sindarin, in most cases). For example the word galadâ "tree" evolved into *ghaldâ/ȝaldâ in the Quenyan branch.

Once more, the gh sound existed in Elvish, and it survived long enough to be written in Sarati before disappearing again. The word alda was still spelt ȝalda with the letter ' representing gh. It was known by tradition among the loremasters

The Sarat ' was eventually used for a carrier. It was inherited as a carrier in the Tengwar and later was replaced by the letter Anna, to indicate an assuming “vanished” gh wherever words begun with a vowel.

This usage tried to explain the relation of words between Noldorin words starting with a vowel where Telerin had g- (cf. Quenya alda vs. Telerin galla), but did not explain all the cases of words without an initial consonant (alca, according to this, should be spelled *hDjaE that time, although it had never been **galka before).

Other languages

Note that in other languages, like Orkish, Tolkien wrote this sound as gh.

In Tengwar, ȝ/gh is written with the letter Anca or Unquë.

See also

• gasdil

External links

• Yogh in Wikipedia
• The Evolution of Quenya by Helge Fauskanger and Vincente Velasco. Discusses, among others, how Ȝ evolved and disappeared in Quenya.