TheDalam common Slavichuruf Slavia,[[voicedKonsonan velarletup plosivelangit-langit belakang bersuara]] {{IPA|[ɡ]}} is representedindilambangkan mostdalam Cyrillicortografi orthographiesSirilik bysebagai ⟨[[Ge (Cyrillic)|Г]]⟩, called ге ''ghe'' in most languages. In Ukrainian, however, around the early 13th century, the sound [[lenition|lenited]] to the [[voiced velar fricative]] {{IPA|[ɣ]}} (except in the cluster *zg),<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Shevelov|1977|p=145}}</ref> and around the 16th century, [[debuccalization|debuccalized]] to the [[voiced glottal fricative]] {{IPA|[ɦ]}}<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Shevelov|1977|p=148}}</ref> (like the pronunciation of ⟨h⟩ in ''be'''h'''ind''). The [[phoneme]] continued to be represented by ⟨Г⟩, called ге ''he'' in Ukrainian.
Within a century after this sound change began, {{IPA|[ɡ]}} was re-introduced from Western European loanwords. Since then, it has been represented by several different notations in writing.
In early Belarusian and Ukrainian orthographies, Latin ⟨g⟩ or the Cyrillic [[DigraphDigraf (orthographyOrtografi)|digraphDigraph]] ⟨кг⟩ (''kh'') were sometimes used for the sound of Latin ⟨g⟩ in assimilated words. The first text to consequently employ the letter ⟨ґ⟩ was the 16th-century [[Peresopnytsia Gospel]]. The use of the letter was not confined to the Old- and Middle-Ukrainian-speaking territory, and there was a fully-fledged use in the 16th-century printer [[Pyotr Mstislavets]]'s edition of ''The Four Gospels''. Later, distinguishing of the sound and using the digraph gradually disappeared from Belarusian orthography.
As far as linguistic studies are concerned, the letter ⟨ґ⟩ was first introduced into the Slavic alphabet in 1619 by [[Meletius Smotrytsky]] in his "Slavic Grammar" ''(Грамматіки славєнскиѧ правилноє Сѵнтаґма)''.<ref>[http://izbornyk.org.ua/smotrgram/sm07.htm Мелетій Смотрицький. Граматика слов'янська (1619). Підготовка факсимільного видання В. В. Німчука. Київ. «Наукова думка» (Пам'ятки української мови) 1979]</ref> Later, for an identical purpose, it was saved in the new orthography of Ukrainian.