| Ghayn | |
| Letter: | غ |
| Script: | Arabic script |
| Type: | Abjad |
| Language: | Arabic language |
| Phonemes: | pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/ |
| Alphanumber: | 19 |
| Number: | 1000 |
| Fam1: | |
| Fam7: | ع |
| Direction: | Right-to-left |
The Arabic letter (Arabic: غَيْنْ, or ) is the nineteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet, one of the six letters not in the twenty-two akin to the Phoenician alphabet (the others being,,,,). It represents the sound pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/. In name and shape, it is a variant of ʻayn . Its numerical value is 1000 (see Abjad numerals). In the Persian language, it represents pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ and is the twenty-second letter in the new Persian alphabet.
is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:
Proto-Semitic (usually reconstructed as voiced velar fricative pronounced as //ɣ// or voiced uvular fricative pronounced as //ʁ//) merged with ʻayn in most Semitic languages except for Arabic, Ugaritic, and older varieties of the Canaanite languages. The South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for, . Biblical Hebrew, as of the 3rd century BCE, apparently still distinguished the phonemes and pronounced as //χ//, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint, such as that of the name "Gomorrah" as Gomorras (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Γομορραν) for the Hebrew ‘Ămōrā (Hebrew: עֲמֹרָה). Canaanite languages, including Hebrew, later also merged with ʻayin, and the merger was complete in Tiberian Hebrew.
The letter (Arabic: غ) is preferred in the Levant (nowadays), and by Aljazeera TV channel, to represent pronounced as /link/, e.g., Arabic: [[w:ar:هونغ كونغ|هونغ كونغ]] (Hong Kong), Arabic: [[w:ar:البرتغال|البرتغال]] (Portugal), and Arabic: [[w:ar:غاندالف|غاندالف]] (Gandalf). Foreign publications and TV channels in Arabic, e.g. Deutsche Welle,[1] and Alhurra,[2] follow this practice. It is then often pronounced pronounced as //ɡ//, not pronounced as //ɣ//, though in many cases, Arabic: غ is pronounced in loanwords as expected (pronounced as /link/, not pronounced as /link/).
Other letters can be used to transcribe pronounced as /link/ in loanwords and names, depending on whether the local variety of Arabic in the country has the phoneme pronounced as /link/, and if it does, which letter represents it, and whether it is customary in the country to use that letter to transcribe pronounced as /link/. For instance, in Egypt, where Arabic: ج is pronounced as pronounced as /link/ in all situations, even in speaking Modern Standard Arabic[3] (except in certain contexts, such as reciting the Qur'an), Arabic: ج is used to transcribe foreign pronounced as /link/ in all contexts. The same applies to coastal Yemen, as well as southwestern and eastern Oman. In Algerian Arabic, Hejazi Arabic and Najdi Arabic it is . In Iraq, gaf is more used. In Morocco, gāf or kāf is used. In Tunisia and Algeria, or is used.
When representing the sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as Hebrew: ע׳. In English, the letter Arabic: غ in Arabic names is usually transliterated as,, or simply g: Arabic: بغداد 'Baghdad', Arabic: قرغيزستان 'Kyrgyzstan', or Arabic: غزة 'Gaza', the latter of which does not render the sound pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ accurately. The closest equivalent sound to be known to most English-speakers is the Parisian French "r" pronounced as /link/.
For the related characters, see ng (Arabic letter) and ayin.