Arabic Letter Ghain

Keep air flowing at the back while your throat buzzes.

Ghayn, also spelled ghain, is commonly written gh when Arabic is represented in Latin letters. That stands for one consonant, not a separate g followed by h. The technical term “voiced uvular fricative” means your vocal cords vibrate while air passes through a narrow opening near the back of your mouth.

Why does غ have a dot?

The dot distinguishes ghayn from ayn, a different Arabic consonant.

Arabic writing developed gradually from Nabataean Aramaic. Early Arabic traces are placed near the beginning of the Common Era; En Avdat inscriptions with Arabic elements are dated 88/9 and 125/6 CE. The An-Namara stone inscription from 328 CE is a milestone in that development, and inscriptions with a full Arabic letter repertoire appear in the late fifth century CE.

As Arabic writing served trade, contracts, correspondence, and Qur’anic transmission, systematic dots helped readers distinguish letters with the same basic outline. غ also appears in Persian and Urdu writing and was used in Ottoman Turkish. Recognizing the letter alone does not identify the language or guarantee identical pronunciation.