G, the German Kurrent letter g

History

The letter G occupies the 7th position in the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/, which devoices to /k/ word-finally, and is pronounced as a voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ in northern German '-ig' adjectival endings.

Lowercase g begins with a round bowl in the middle zone (identical in formation to the body of a), followed by a descender stem that plunges below the baseline and forms a wide, sweeping loop to the left before rising to cross the stem at the baseline. Capital G is an elaborate letter starting like a tall cursive C that sweeps into an expansive descender loop.

The letter g is central to genealogical transcription because it initiates key past-participle prefixes in vital entries: 'geboren' (born), 'getauft' (baptized), 'gestorben' (deceased), and 'getraut' (married). Identifying g accurately unlocks the narrative structure of church book entries.

G is the thirteenth most frequent letter in German text, at about 3% of all letters.^[1] Its descender is old: the half-uncial g of the early Middle Ages already reached below the line in a shape like a 3, or like the z of Kurrent.^[2]