View source for Hwair

{{Short description|Gothic letter of the alphabet}}
[[File:Hwair.svg|thumb|100px|Form of the Gothic letter]]
[[Image:Hwair.jpg|thumb|right|Some words with Hwair, in [[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Joseph Wright]]'s ''[[Grammar of the Gothic Language]]'' (1910)]]
'''Hwair''' (also {{Lang|got-Latn|ƕair}}, {{Lang|got-Latn|huuair}}, {{Lang|got-Latn|hvair}}) is the name of {{Script|Goth|𐍈}}, the [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic letter]] expressing the {{IPAblink|hʷ}} or {{IPAblink|ʍ}} sound (reflected in [[English language|English]] by the inverted ''[[Wh (digraph)|wh]]''-spelling for {{IPAblink|ʍ}}). Hwair is also the name of the Latin ligature {{lang|got|ƕ}} (capital {{lang|got|Ƕ}}) used to transcribe Gothic.

==Name==
The name of the Gothic letter is recorded by [[Alcuin]] in [[Codex Vindobonensis 795]] as ''uuaer''. The meaning of the name {{lang|got|ƕair}} was probably "cauldron, pot"<ref>Cognate with [[Sanskrit]] ''{{IAST|caru}}'' "pot"); see e.g. Karl Ljungstedt, ''Anmärkningar till det starka preteritum i germanska språk'' (1887), p. 165, Hans Jensen, ''Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' (1935), p. 38, ''Kratylos'' vol. 1-2, 1956, p. 175.</ref>
(cf. ''{{lang|got|ƕairnei}}'' "skull");<ref>[[Gospel of Mark|Mark]] 15:22 ''{{lang|got|ƕairneins staþs}}'' = {{lang|grc|κρανιου τοπος}} "[[Golgatha]]".</ref> comparative reconstruction shows {{lang|ine-x-proto|kʷer-}} ("a kind of dish or pot") in [[Proto-Indo-European]].

There was no [[Elder Futhark]] rune for the phoneme, so that unlike those of most Gothic letters, the name does not continue the name of a rune (but see [[Qairþra]]).

==Sound==
Gothic ''{{lang|got|ƕ}}'' is the reflex of [[Common Germanic]] {{lang|gem-x-proto|xʷ}}, which in turn continues the Indo-European [[Labialized velar consonant|labiovelar]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|kʷ}} after it underwent [[Grimm's law]]. The same phoneme in [[Old English]] and [[Old High German]] is spelled ''hw''.

==Transliteration==
The Gothic letter is transliterated with the Latin ligature of the same name, {{not a typo|<big>ƕ</big>}}, which was introduced by [[Wilhelm Braune]] in the 1882 edition of ''{{lang|de|Gotische Grammatik}}'',<ref>{{cite work|lang=de|first=Wilhelm|last=Braune|title=Gotische Grammatik, mit einigen Lesestückchen und Worterverzeichnis|year=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/gotischegrammat03braugoog|pages=vi-vii}}</ref> as suggested in a review of the 1880 edition by [[Hermann Collitz]],<ref>{{cite journal|lang=de|first=Hermann|last=Collitz|title=W. Braune, Gotische Grammatik. Mit einigen Lesestückeu und Wortverzeichnis. (Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte, I.) Halle, Niemeyer, 1880. VII und 118 s. 8. M. 2|journal=Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie|volume=12|year=1881|pages=480-482|url=https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftfrdph12berluoft/page/480/mode/2up}}</ref> to replace the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] ''hv'' which was formerly used to express the phoneme, e.g. by [[Patrologia Latina|Migne]] (vol. 18) in the 1860s. It is used, for example, in [[Dania transcription]]. It was also used to represent the [[voiceless labial–velar fricative]] {{IPAblink|ʍ}} in a 1921 edition of the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*{{IPA|ʘ}} : [[ʘ|IPA letter bilabial click]]
*Ԋ ԋ : [[Komi Nje]], a letter in the [[Molodtsov alphabet]]
*Ꙩ ꙩ : [[Monocular O|Cyrillic letter monocular O]]
*ん : [[N (kana)]]
*Խ խ : [[Xe (Armenian letter)|Armenian Khe]]

==Character encodings==
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:right
|- align=center
| align=right | '''character''' || colspan=2 | {{Script|Goth|𐍈}} || colspan=2 | {{not a typo|Ƕ}} || colspan=2 | {{not a typo|ƕ}}
|- align=center
| align=right | '''Unicode name''' || colspan=2 | GOTHIC LETTER HWAIR || colspan=2 | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER HWAIR || colspan=2 | LATIN SMALL LETTER HV
|-
| align=left | '''character encoding''' || decimal || hexadecimal || decimal || hexadecimal || decimal || hexadecimal
|-
| align=left | [[Unicode]] || 66376 || 10348 || 502 || 01F6 || 405 || 0195
|-
| align=left | [[UTF-8]] || 240 144 141 136 || F0 90 8D 88 || 199 182 || C7 B6 || 198 149 || C6 95
|-
| align=left | [[Numeric character reference]] || &amp;#66376; || &amp;#x10348; || &amp;#502; || &amp;#x01F6; || &amp;#405; || &amp;#x0195;
|}
Note that the Unicode names of the Latin letters are different: "Hwair" and "Hv".<ref name=Unicode>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0180.pdf |title=Latin Extended-B: Range: 0180–024F |work=The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0 |year=2010 |publisher=Unicode Inc |access-date=2011-10-15 |pages=21, 18}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Phonological history of wh]]
* [[Wh (digraph)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Latin script}}

[[Category:Latin-script letters]]
[[Category:Palaeography]]
[[Category:Gothic writing]]