FYTT (John), a celebrated painter of animals and flowers, &c. was born at Antwerp about the year 1625, and proved one of the best artists of his time. He frequently painted in conjunction with Rubens, and Jordans; and whatever subject he chose to represent in the style which he adopted, was always designed and finished in a masterly manner. His general subjects were live and dead game, wild boars, hares, dogs, fruits, flowers, and birds, particularly partridges; which he described with surprising truth, nature, and strength. He likewise imitated successfully the bas-reliefs on vases of marble or porphyry; and gave uncommon freshness to his fruits and flowers; and in objects of the animal kind, he described even the hairs of the animals and the plumage of his fowl with wonderful spirit, exactness, and freedom of pencil.
G THE seventh letter and fifth consonant of our alphabet; though in the alphabets of all the oriental languages, the Hebrew, Phœnician, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, and even Greek, G is the third letter. The Hebrews call it ghimel or gimel, g. d. "camel;" by reason it resembles the neck of that animal; and the same appellation it bears in the Samaritan, Phœnician, and Chaldee: in the Syriac it is called gamel, in Arabic giim, and in Greek gamma.
The gamma (γ) of the Greeks is manifestly the ghimel (ג) of the Hebrews or Samaritans. All the difference between the gamma and ghimel consists in this, that the one is turned to the right and the other to the left, according to the different manners of writing and reading which obtained among those different nations; so that all the pains Salmasius has taken on Solinus, to prove that the G was derived from the Greek kappa, is lost.
From the Greeks the Latins borrowed their form of this letter; the Latin G being certainly a corruption of the Greek gamma γ, as might easily be shown, had our printers all the characters and forms of this letter which we meet with in the Greek and Latin MSS. through which the letter passed from γ to G.
Diomed, lib. ii. cap. De Litera, calls G a new letter. His reason is, that the Romans had not introduced it before the first Punic war; as appears from the rostral column erected by C. Duilius, on which we every where find a C in lieu of G. It was Sp. Carvilius who first distinguished between those two letters, and invented the figure of the G; as we are assured by Terentius Scævus. The C served very well for G; it being the third letter of the Latin alphabet, as the γ or γ was of the Greek.
The G is found instead of C on several medals: Vaillant, Num. Imperat. tom. i. p. 39.
M. Beger produces a medal of the Familia Ogulnia, where CAR is read instead of CAR, which is on those of M. Patin. But the C is more frequently seen on medals in lieu of G; as, AUGUSTALIS CALLANCIA CARTACINENSIS, &c. for AUGUSTALIS, &c. Not that the pronunciation of those words was altered, but only that the G was unartfully or negligently cut by the workmen: as is the case in divers inscriptions of the eastern empire; where AUC, AUCC, AUCCC, are frequently found for AUG, &c.
The northern people frequently change the G into V or W; as in Gallus, Wallus; Gallia, Wallia, Vallia, &c. For in this instance it must not be said that the French have changed the W into G; because they wrote Gallus long before Wallus or Wallia was known, as appears from all the ancient Roman and Greek writers. And yet it is equally true, that the French change the W of the northern nations, and V consonant, into G; as, Willhelmus, "William," into Guilhaume; Wulphilas into Gulphilas; Vasco into Gaston, &c.
The letter G is of the mute kind, and cannot be any way sounded without the help of a vowel. It is formed by the reflexion of the air against the palate, made by the tongue as the air passes out of the throat; which Martinus Capella expresses thus, G spiritus cum palato; so that G is a palatal letter.
The modern G takes its form from that of the Latin. In English it has two sound, one from the Greek γ, and the Latin, which is called that of the hard G, because it is formed by a pressure somewhat hard on the fore-part of the tongue against the upper gum; which
which found it retains before a, o, u, l, r; as gate, go, gall. At the end of a word it is always hard, as ring, sing, &c. The other found, called that of the fast G, resembles that of j; and is commonly, though not always, found before e and i, as in gesture, giant, &c. To this rule, however, there are many exceptions; G is often hard before i, as give, &c. and sometimes before e, as get, &c. It is also hard in derivatives from words ending in g, as singing, singer, &c. and generally before er, at the end of words, as finger. G is mr before u, as gnash, sign. Gb has the sound of the hard G in the beginning of a word, as roughly; in the middle, and sometimes at the end, it is quite silent, as right, though. At the end of a word Gb has often the sound of f, as laugh, rough, tough.
As a numeral, G was anciently used to denote 400; and with a dash over it thus , 40,000.
As an abbreviation, G stands for Gaius, Gellius, gens, genius, &c. G. G. for gemina, gessit, gesserunt, &c. G. C. for genio civitatis or Casari. G. L. for Gaius libertus, or genio loci. G. V. S. for genio urbis sacrum. G. B. for genio bono. And G. T. for genio tutelari.
In music, G is the character or mark of the treble clef; and from its being placed at the head, or marking the first sound in Guido's scale, the whole scale took the name gamut.