2693: Gee Whiz: The Two Forms of Lower-Case G May 5, 2024

There are two forms of the lower case letter ɡ /ℊ, which is not simply a matter of font or stylization. The open loop ɡ is sometimes referred to as the single-story G, and likewise the other is a double-story or looptail G. Both of these come as variants of the capital G, though the looptailℊis strange insofar as it counterintuitively loops back over to the left, unlike a cursive 𝓰, making it less efficient to write. In fact, almost nobody does write them, and studies have found just over 2% of participants could even reliably write this form when asked. The benefit of the looptailℊis that it doesn't descend as far down so that more lines can fit on a page, which is why it exists exclusively for typefaces, and increasingly only for serifed typefaces. Other letters, like j/y/q/p drop down as well, but they do not tend to curve much or necessarily as far as the curly tail of a ɡ. Like other print-based variants like this, most people do not even register which version of G is being used, and nearly ½ of those polled reported even knowing two forms existed¹. 

1) Wong, K., Wadee, F., Ellenblum, G., & McCloskey, M. (2018). The devil’s in the g-tails: Deficient letter-shape knowledge and awareness despite massive visual experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44(9), 1324–1335. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000532