Hard And Soft G
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages (including English), a distinction between hard and soft ⟨g⟩ occurs in which ⟨g⟩ represents two distinct phonemes. The sound of a hard ⟨g⟩ (which often precedes the non-front vowels ⟨a o u⟩) is usually (as in go) while the sound of a soft ⟨g⟩ (typically before ⟨i e y⟩), depending on language, may be a fricative or affricate. In English, the sound of soft ⟨g⟩ is /dʒ/ (as in George).
Famous quotes containing the words hard and, hard and/or soft:
“The scholar requires hard and serious labor to give an impetus to his thought. He will learn to grasp the pen firmly so, and wield it gracefully and effectively, as an axe or a sword.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Monday’s child is fair in face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for its living;
And a child that is born on a Christmas day,
Is fair and wise, good and gay.”
—Anonymous. Quoted in Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire, vol. 2, ed. Anna E.K.S. Bray (1838)
“There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers’ battle with the heavens that cover them. Snow, rain, and mist highlight, drench, or conceal the vast towers, but those towers, hostile to mystery and blind to any sort of play, shear off the rain’s tresses and shine their three thousand swords through the soft swan of the fog.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)