Ġayn
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| Phonemic representation | ɣ, ʁ | |||||||||
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| Position in alphabet | 28 | |||||||||
| Numerical value | 1000 | |||||||||
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The Arabic letter غ (Arabic: غين ghayn or ġayn) 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 thāʼ, khāʼ, dhāl, ḍād, ẓāʼ). It is the twenty-second letter in the new Persian alphabet. It represents the sound /ɣ/ or /ʁ/. In Persian language it represents [ɣ]~[ɢ]. In name and shape, it is a variant of ʻayn (ع). Its numerical value is 1000 (see Abjad numerals).
A voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ or a voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ (usually reconstructed for Proto-Semitic) merged with ʻayin in most languages except for Arabic, Ugaritic, and older varieties of the Canaanite languages. Canaanite languages and Hebrew later also merged it with ʻayin, and this merger was complete in Tiberian Hebrew. The South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol for ġ, 
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