The letter yogh is a original letter of the Latin alphabet which one used in the manuscripts in Middle English (medieval period extending from 11th to the 15th century).
Here two examples of English texts old then as Middle English. Extract 1 is drawn from the Beowulf (date of drafting of the single manuscript: 10th century), extract 2 of a poem written at the 13th century, The Owl and the Nightingale . The first line shows the C-W communication of the manuscripts (the G uncial islander and the yogh are in red), the second line a version using only the usual Latin alphabet. To note the G uncial capital and the presence of other old letters like thorn or Wynn in the English text old:
Here, drawn from a photograph of the Handwritten of the Beowulf (even extracted), the Irish letter G uncial in its two Breakage S: ( GUARD '') and ( dagum ).
During the period of the Middle English (12th-15th century) yogh , like the others Germanic letters, disappears gradually, replaced by G , there or gh at the end of the word, partly because this letter was unknown written usages brought by the Anglo-Norman scribes. The ignorance of its specificity sometimes led the scribes to confuse yogh and Z and to use this last in the place of the particular letter (just as could there replace þ ). The advent of the Printing works mark the final disappearance of the old letters already dying.
Former English does not know the yogh but a G come from the Irish C-W communication being used to note old a *g Proto-Germanic. However, this Phonème knows as old English of many Allophone S. It can be carried out:
As Middle English, the uncial letter is still used but with taken a new form (fig. 2), a kind of cursive Z which one names yogh . When it is worth the sound (and also), the Anglo-Norman scribes prefer to him the letter Caroline G which they thus used on the continent. Yogh is useful then only for sounds which the Anglo-Norman uses do not provide:
In kind, the Middle English knows two alternatives of the letter G : the yogh (delivery, and) resulting from the G uncial old English and the G continental brought by the Norman scribes (and).
Between 13th and 15th centuries, there for and gh for replace gradually yogh in all its uses. The phoneme at the end of the word, moreover, amuït, except in some where it evolves/moves in. The orthography carries the trace from there: old English: þurh → average: þruȝ then through (to note the Métathèse consonants) → modern: through “through”. The current orthography testifies to the old presence of the yogh only by its digraph gh .
The letter yogh is only used in fact very little for the linguists: those will indeed prefer to use a less ambiguous symbol, like J or χ , etc On the other hand, it is in Philologie, in the Translittération of the manuscripts, which it finds all its direction.
The standard Unicode, in its beginnings, did not distinguish yogh ȝ from ezh ʒ , both being coded by ezh . They are however not the same characters. The error was corrected in the 3rd version of Unicode. Currently, one codes yogh by U+021C for the capital and U+021D for the tiny one, are:
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