Hard and soft G

In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages (including English), a distinction between hard and soft ⟨g⟩ occurs in which ⟨g⟩ represents two distinct phonemes. The sound of a hard ⟨g⟩ (which often precedes the non-front vowels ⟨a o u⟩) is usually [ɡ] (as in gangrene or golf) while the sound of a soft ⟨g⟩ (typically before ⟨i e y⟩), depending on language, may be a fricative or affricate. In English, the sound of soft ⟨g⟩ is /dʒ/ (as in Genesis, giraffe, and gymnasium).