En-ge (Ҥ ҥ; italics: ''Ҥ ҥ'') is a letter of the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

used only in non-

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...

. The shape of the letter originated as a ligature of the Cyrillic letters en (Н н) and ge (Г г), but en-ge is used as a separate letter in alphabets. En-ge is used in the alphabets of the

Altai languages Altai or Altay () is a set of Turkic languages spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The standard vocabulary is based on the Southern Altai language, though it is also taught to and used by speakers of the Northern Altai language as w ...

, Meadow Mari, Tundra Yukaghir (except in some Saint Petersburg publications, where it is substituted with En with hook) and Yakut. In all of these languages, it represents the voiced velar nasal , like the pronunciation of 〈ng〉 in "sing". En-ge was also used in two 19th-century alphabets for

Aleut Aleuts ( ; (west) or (east) ) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska ...

. In certain Old Slavonic manuscripts, a character of the same or similar shape could be used to represent palatalized , a role similar to modern Serbian/Macedonian letter nje (Њ њ). These manuscripts also may contain similarly built characters for palatalized Д, З, Л and Р (''d, z, l,'' and ''r''). Ҥ is romanized using Ṅ, Ng, or even Ŋ.

Computing codes

Related letters and other similar characters

* Ң ң : Cyrillic letter en with descender * Ӈ ӈ : Cyrillic letter en with hook * Ŋ ŋ : Latin letter eng * Ꞑ ꞑ : Latin letter n with descender *𝆦:

Hauptstimme In music, (German for ''primary voice'') or is the main melody, voice, chief part (music), part; i.e., the counterpoint, contrapuntal or melodic line of primary importance, in opposition to . (German for ''secondary voice'') or is the seco ...

References

Cyrillic ligatures {{Cyrillic-alphabet-stub