Mystery of Lowercase 'g': Why are There Two Forms of This Letter?

The letter 'G' is the seventh member of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, first introduced in the Old Latin times as a variant of 'C' in order to distinguish the voiced /g/ sound from the voiceless /k/ sound. What most people do not know is that the lowercase 'g' appears in two forms.

Typographic Forms of Lower Case 'g'

Unlike the other letters, 'g' has two print versions: the double-storey lowercase and the single-storey lowercase. The single-storey version is the opentail form that most people use when writing this letter by hand. It resembles a loop with a fishhook that hangs from it. This version is derived from the uppercase 'G' formed by raising the serif which distinguishes it from letter 'c.' As the loop is closed, the vertical downward stroke is extended to the left.

On the other hand, the double-storey form is the looptail version more commonly seen in fonts, such as Times New Roman and Calibri, in most printed and typewritten materials. It had developed similarly with the opentail version with the exception of some ornate forms which extends the tail back to the right and to the left again. This way, an upper closed bowl or loop is formed which absorbs the initial extension to the left. The small top stroke in the upper right part which often ends in an orb shape is called an "ear".

The looptail version gained popularity when the process of printing has transitioned to Roman type. Since the double-storey form of lowercase 'g' has shorter tail, it allows more lines to be added on a page.

How Do People Recognize the Lowercase 'g'?

Despite having seen the loop tail version of lowercase 'g' a million times, most people struggle to recognize its correct shape. Standard thinking in psychology describes that a person's reading skill is directly connected to their ability to recognize letters. Therefore, it can be concluded that every person has detailed knowledge of each single letter down to every stroke. However, that is not the case with the double-storey version of lowercase 'g'.

Not only do many people not realize that lowercase 'g' has two versions, but they also find it hard to remember the correct shape. Most people also cannot draw it even if they know how it should appear. These findings were revealed in a study conducted by a group of cognitive scientists from Johns Hopkins University.

In a series of three experiments, the research team tested people's awareness of contrasting letter shapes. The first study was conducted on 38 participants who were recruited from a population of university students. Nearly half of them failed to demonstrate any knowledge of the loop tail 'g' and only one participant was able to write this version correctly.

On the second experiment, 16 new participants were asked to write the lowercase 'g' as it appeared in the text they just read. Half of the subjects mistook the open tail for the loop tail version, and only one managed to recognize the letter correctly. In the third experiment, 44 participants were asked to choose the correct shape of the loop tail version of lowercase 'g'. Most of them chose the wrong shape of the double-storey form.

The result of this study reveals that humans do not really learn letters down to the specific details, but only enough to tell them apart. It demonstrates that our knowledge of letters is compromised when we do not write them. Furthermore, it suggests the important role played by writing in learning letters.