In modern Turkish, the hard G found in the word beg has transmuted to a yumushak ge, which sounds pretty much like a Y, or in some cases a glottal stop; it depends on the word. Hence, bey. In parts of Anatolia, however, I've still heard it pronounced beg.
There is a distinction between the terms beg and pasa. Both are ranks. However, bey was (and is) also added to the end of a given name for virtually any adult male, more or less approximating the English Mr., French, monsieur, etc.
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