The Letter

As letters go, the G is a com¬
paratively modern invention. It
wasn’t until about the third
century A.D. that it experienced
widespread use. Until that time
the letter С did double duty,
performing in its own phonetic
roles as well as those of the G.

The Phoenicians and the
other Semitic peoples of Syria
used a simple graphic form
that looked roughly like an
upside-down V to represent the
hard g sound. They called it
gimel, which was Phoenician
for “camel,” possibly because
the upside-down V looked like
the hump of a camel. Maybe.

could have looked like a one¬
sided arrow pointing up, an
upside-down L, or a crescent
moon. Throughout this period,
however, the gamma remained
constant in that the Greeks used
it to represent the same hard g
sound for which the Phoeni¬
cians had devised the gimel.
The gamma was adopted first
by the Etruscans, and then by
the Romans, for whom it rep¬
resented both the hard с and g
sounds (as in “cat” and “gate”).
The Romans also defined the
full-bodied, round shape of the
letter, which at that point
looked like our C.

АІГС

Ultimately the Romans dif¬
ferentiated the two sounds
graphically. The basic shape,
which looked like our C, was
used to represent the palatized
sounds of s and с (as in “sit” or
“city”), and a little bar was
added to its spur to create the
letter G, which denoted the
guttural stop g (as in “got”).

Medium

For the most part, the evo¬
lution of each letter of our
alphabet cannot be broken
down into discrete develop¬
mental stages to produce clear
“snapshots” of design and
shape, nor can specific dates of
introduction or modification
be determined. Characters
developed gradually, and over
long periods of time. The G is
an exception—it actually has
an official date of introduction.
The history of our G begins
with the reformed Latin alpha¬
bet, into which it was formally
introduced by Appius Claudius
Censor in 312 B.C. The G was
created for two purposes: to
eliminate the confusion caused
by using one letter to represent
two sounds, and to replace the
letter Z, which until that time
had been the seventh letter of
the alphabet. The Z, which was
considered superfluous to the
Latin language, was moved to
the end of the line, and the new
letter, G, was put in its place.

30

Bodoni Poseer
Compressed

Baskerville

Modula

Bellevue

AG Old Face Shaded

The Greeks borrowed the
basic Phoenician form and
changed its name to gamma.
They also made some pretty
dramatic changes to the way
the letter looked. They twisted
it, turned it, reversed it, and
generally had a field day with
the basic character shape. At
time in ancient
the gamma

Bank Gothic

The G, like the C, is approx¬
imately as wide as it is high.
And like the C, the top of the
letter is flattened slightly and
the top terminal may be either
sheared or given a beaked serif.
Also like the C, the thickest
part of the G’s bowl usually
falls below the true center of
the letter. But the G is not sim¬
ply a С with a vertical stroke
and a crossbar.

Г

Century Old Style J

Because the G is generally a
heavier-looking character, its
top serif can be slightly smaller
than the C’s. In addition, just
before the curve at the base of
the letter connects with what is
usually a rather heavy vertical
stroke, it straightens somewhat
and subtly increases in width
in order to provide adequate
optical support. Sometimes, in
an added attempt to counteract
the visual stress of the joining
of these two strokes, a small
protuberance, or spur, extends
from the right side of the verti¬
cal at the point nearest the base¬
line. Trump Mediaeval has such
a spur.

Regardless of its weight, the
vertical stroke can appear in a
variety of lengths. In Goudy
Old Style, for example, it is
quite long—almost making the
character look like an 0—while
in most Bodoni designs it is
very short. These two typefaces
tend to mark the extremes of
this element’s length, as any¬
thing much longer or shorter
can detract from the legibility
of the character and can poten¬
tially cause the reader to con¬
fuse it with the С or the О from
the same typeface.

Bauer Bodoni ^ }

In serif designs the vertical
stroke usually has a top serif, a
treatment that generally reflects
its appearance on the bottom
serifs of the design’s other char¬
acters. In sans serif designs the
vertical might stand on its own,
as can be seen in Optima, or
has a short horizontal connect¬
ing stroke that extends into the
counter, as it does in Univers.

Gf »

Univers 45 Light

In the second model, another
stroke, perpendicular to the
first, might continue down
toward the baseline to create a
spur of sorts, as in Helvetica.

G Helvetica Light

Futura Воок^^^^Д

In geometric sans serif designs
like Futura and ITC Avant
Garde Gothic, the curve of the
letter continues its path very
much like the C, and attaches
to a horizontal, rather than a
vertical, stroke.

Clarendon

Letraset Pleasure
Bold Shaded