In the
Latin-based orthographies of many European languages (including English), a distinction between
hard and soft occurs in which represents two distinct
phonemes. The sound of a hard (which often precedes the
non-front vowels ) is usually (as in
go) while the sound of a soft (typically before ), depending on language, may be a
fricative or
affricate. In English, the sound of soft is (as in
George,
giraffe).