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First letter of the Latin alphabet

This commodity is about the Roman alphabetic character. For other uses, run across A (disambiguation).

A
A a ɑ
(Run into below)
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Type	Alphabet
Linguistic communication of origin	Latin language
Phonetic usage	[a] [ɑ] [ɒ] [æ] [ə] [ɛ] [oː] [ɔ] [eastward] [ʕ] []
Unicode codepoint	U+0041, U+0061
Alphabetical position	1 Numerical value: 1
History
Evolution	Α α 𐌀 A a ɑ
Time flow	~-700 to present
Descendants	Æ Ä Â Ɑ Ʌ Ɐ ª Å ₳ @ Ⓐ ⓐ ⒜ 🅰
Sisters	𐌰 А Я Ә Ӑ א ا ܐ ࠀ 𐎀 ℵ አ ء Ա ա અ अ অ
Variations	(Encounter beneath)
Other
Other letters commonly used with	a(x), ae, eau
Associated numbers	ane
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, encounter Assistance:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, encounter IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the modernistic English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet.^{[one] [ii]} Its proper noun in English language is a (pronounced ), plural aes.^{[nb one]} It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives.^[3] The capital version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the centre past a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can exist written in 2 forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is normally used in handwriting and fonts based on it, specially fonts intended to be read past children, and is besides plant in italic type.

In the English language grammar, "a", and its variant "an", are indefinite articles.

History

Egyptian	Proto-Sinaitic ʾalp	Proto-Canaanite	Phoenician aleph	Greek Alpha	Etruscan A	Latin/ Cyrillic A	Greek Uncial	Latin 300 AD Uncial

The earliest sure ancestor of "A" is aleph (too written 'aleph), the offset letter of the alphabet of the Phoenician alphabet,^[4] which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, information technology is also called an abjad to distinguish information technology from a truthful alphabet). In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox caput in proto-Sinaitic script^[5] influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular caput with two horns extended.

When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no utilize for a letter to represent the glottal stop—the consonant audio that the letter denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, and that was the first phoneme of the Phoenician pronunciation of the alphabetic character—then they used their version of the sign to stand for the vowel /a/, and called it past the similar name of alpha. In the earliest Greek inscriptions subsequently the Greek Night Ages, dating to the 8th century BC, the letter rests upon its side, but in the Greek alphabet of later on times it generally resembles the mod uppercase letter, although many local varieties can be distinguished past the shortening of i leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set.

The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to their civilization in the Italian Peninsula and left the letter unchanged. The Romans later adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write the Latin language, and the resulting letter was preserved in the Latin alphabet that would come to be used to write many languages, including English.

Typographic variants

Unlike glyphs of the lowercase alphabetic character A.

During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the alphabetic character "A". Commencement was the monumental or lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other "permanent" media. There was likewise a cursive style used for everyday or utilitarian writing, which was done on more perishable surfaces. Due to the "perishable" nature of these surfaces, there are not as many examples of this manner as there are of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of dissimilar types of cursive, such as majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semicursive minuscule. Variants too existed that were intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-uncial, the uncial, and the afterwards semi-uncial.^[half-dozen]

At the cease of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed through Western Europe. Amid these were the semicursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon upper-case letter of Cracking Britain. Past the ninth century, the Caroline script, which was very similar to the present-day form, was the principal form used in book-making, before the advent of the printing printing. This form was derived through a combining of prior forms.^{[half dozen]}

Road sign in Ireland, showing the Irish "Latin alpha" form of "a" in lower and upper case forms.

15th-century Italia saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the Italic and Roman forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form, also chosen script a, is used in most electric current handwriting; it consists of a circle and vertical stroke on the right ("ɑ"). This slowly developed from the fifth-century form resembling the Greek letter tau in the hands of medieval Irish and English writers.^[4] The Roman form is used in nigh printed material; it consists of a pocket-size loop with an arc over it ("a").^[6] Both derive from the upper-case letter (upper-case letter) course. In Greek handwriting, it was mutual to join the left leg and horizontal stroke into a single loop, as demonstrated by the uncial version shown. Many fonts then made the right leg vertical. In some of these, the serif that began the right leg stroke developed into an arc, resulting in the printed course, while in others it was dropped, resulting in the mod handwritten form. Graphic designers refer to the Italic and Roman forms every bit "unmarried decker a" and "double decker a" respectively.

Italic blazon is commonly used to mark accent or more more often than not to distinguish one role of a text from the rest (fix in Roman blazon). There are some other cases aside from italic blazon where script a ("ɑ"), likewise called Latin alpha, is used in dissimilarity with Latin "a" (such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨a⟩ in European languages, notation that /a/ and /aː/ can differ phonetically between [a], [ä], [æ] and [ɑ] depending on the language.

English language

In modern English orthography, the letter of the alphabet ⟨a⟩ represents at least vii different vowel sounds:

• the near-open up front end unrounded vowel /æ/ every bit in pad;
• the open dorsum unrounded vowel /ɑː/ as in father, which is closer to its original Latin and Greek audio;^[five]
• the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major (commonly when ⟨a⟩ is followed by one, or occasionally two, consonants and so some other vowel letter) – this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel Shift;
• the modified course of the above sound that occurs before ⟨r⟩, every bit in square and Mary;
• the rounded vowel of water;
• the shorter rounded vowel (not present in Full general American) in was and what;^[4]
• a schwa, in many unstressed syllables, equally in almost, comma, solar.

The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does non occur in native English language words, but is establish in some words derived from foreign languages such equally Aaron and aardvark.^[seven] Still, ⟨a⟩ occurs in many mutual digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨oa⟩.

⟨a⟩ is the third-well-nigh-commonly used alphabetic character in English language (afterward ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩) and French, the second nigh common in Castilian, and the well-nigh common in Portuguese. Well-nigh 8.167% of messages used in English texts tend to exist ⟨a⟩;^[8] the number is around 7.636% in French,^[9] 11.525% in Spanish,^[10] and xiv.634% for Portuguese.^[xi]

Other languages

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, ⟨a⟩ denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as /a/, /ä/, or /ɑ/. An exception is Saanich, in which ⟨a⟩ (and the glyph Á) stands for a close-mid forepart unrounded vowel /e/.

Other systems

In phonetic and phonemic notation:

• in the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open up front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is used for the open dorsum unrounded vowel.
• in X-SAMPA, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open up front unrounded vowel and ⟨A⟩ is used for the open up back unrounded vowel.

Other uses

In algebra, the letter a along with various other letters of the alphabet is often used to announce a variable, with various conventional meanings in different areas of mathematics. Moreover, in 1637, René Descartes "invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by 10, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c",^[12] and this convention is still oftentimes followed, especially in elementary algebra.

In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to denote segments, lines, rays, etc.^[half-dozen] A capital A is also typically used equally one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side contrary angle A.^[5]

"A" is ofttimes used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or condition: A−, A or A+, the all-time course that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A course" for clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, equally exposure to the letter A has been plant to improve performance, when compared with other messages.^[13]

"A" is used as a prefix on some words, such every bit asymmetry, to mean "non" or "without" (from Greek).

In English grammar, "a", and its variant "an", is an indefinite commodity, used to innovate substantive phrases.

Finally, the letter A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe,^[5] or a small-scale cup size in a brassiere.^[14]

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

• Æ æ : Latin AE ligature
• A with diacritics: Å å Ǻ ǻ Ḁ ḁ ẚ Ă ă Ặ ặ Ắ ắ Ằ ằ Ẳ ẳ Ẵ ẵ Ȃ ȃ Â â Ậ ậ Ấ ấ Ầ ầ Ẫ ẫ Ẩ ẩ Ả ả Ǎ ǎ Ⱥ ⱥ Ȧ ȧ Ǡ ǡ Ạ ạ Ä ä Ǟ ǟ À à Ȁ ȁ Á á Ā ā Ā̀ ā̀ Ã ã Ą ą Ą́ ą́ Ą̃ ą̃ A̲ a̲ ᶏ^[15]
• Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A (the International Phonetic Alphabet merely uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems):
  • Ɑ ɑ : Latin letter blastoff / script A, which represents an open dorsum unrounded vowel in the IPA
  • ᶐ : Latin minor letter of the alphabet alpha with retroflex hook^[15]
  • Ɐ ɐ : Turned A, which represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA
  • Λ ʌ : Turned V (too called a wedge, a caret, or a hat), which represents an open up-mid dorsum unrounded vowel in the IPA
  • Ɒ ɒ : Turned alpha / script A, which represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA
  • ᶛ : Modifier letter small-scale turned alpha^[fifteen]
  • ᴀ : Small-scale capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent diverse sounds (mainly open vowels)
  • ^{A a} ᵄ : Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA)^[16] (sometimes encoded with Unicode subscripts and superscripts)
  • _a : Subscript pocket-sized a is used in Indo-European studies^[17]
  • ꬱ : Small-scale letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system^[18]
  • Ꞻ ꞻ : Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic^[19]

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

• ª : an ordinal indicator
• Å : Ångström sign
• ∀ : a turned uppercase letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all")
• @ : At sign
• ₳ : Argentine austral

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

• 𐤀 : Semitic alphabetic character Aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive^[20]
  • Α α : Greek alphabetic character Alpha, from which the following letters derive^[21]
    • А а : Cyrillic letter of the alphabet A^[22]
    • Ⲁ ⲁ : Coptic letter Alpha^[23]
    • 𐌀 : One-time Italic A, which is the ancestor of modernistic Latin A^{[24] [25]}
      • ᚨ : Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A^[26]
    • 𐌰 : Gothic letter aza/asks^[27]
• Ա ա : Armenian letter Ayb

Lawmaking points

These are the code points for the forms of the alphabetic character in diverse systems

Character information

Preview	A		a
Unicode proper noun	LATIN Capital A		LATIN SMALL LETTER A
Encodings	decimal	hex	december	hex
Unicode	65	U+0041	97	U+0061
UTF-8	65	41	97	61
Numeric graphic symbol reference	A	A	a	a
EBCDIC family	193	C1	129	81
ASCII ane	65	41	97	61

¹ Likewise for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations

Use as a number

In the hexadecimal (base sixteen) numbering organization, A is a number that corresponds to the number ten in decimal (base 10) counting.

Notes

1. ^ Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the alphabetic character itself is rendered As, A's, adue south, or a's.^[ii]

Footnotes

1. ^ "Latin alphabet | Definition, Description, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
2. ^ ^{a b} Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. one
3. ^ McCarter 1974, p. 54
4. ^ ^{a b c} Hoiberg 2010, p. 1
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Hall-Quest 1997, p. i
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Diringer 2000, p. 1
7. ^ Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45
8. ^ "Letter of the alphabet frequency (English)". en.algoritmy.net. Archived from the original on four March 2021. Retrieved iii January 2022.
9. ^ "Corpus de Thomas Tempé". Archived from the original on xxx September 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
10. ^ Pratt, Fletcher (1942). Undercover and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Garden Metropolis, NY: Blueish Ribbon Books. pp. 254–5. OCLC 795065.
11. ^ "Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português". Archived from the original on three August 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
12. ^ Tom Sorell, Descartes: A Very Short Introduction, (2000). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19.
13. ^ Ciani & Sheldon 2010, pp. 99–100
14. ^ Luciani, Jené (2009). The Bra Book: The Style Formula to Finding the Perfect Bra. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books. p. 13. ISBN9781933771946. OCLC 317453115.
15. ^ ^{a b c} Lawman, Peter (19 April 2004), L2/04-132 Proposal to Add Additional Phonetic Characters to the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
16. ^ Everson, Michael; et al. (20 March 2002), L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet Characters for the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2018, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
17. ^ Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (7 June 2004), L2/04-191: Proposal to Encode Six Indo-Europeanist Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on eleven October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
18. ^ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2 June 2011), L2/11-202: Revised Proposal to Encode "Teuthonista" Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via world wide web.unicode.org
19. ^ Suignard, Michel (9 May 2017), L2/17-076R2: Revised Proposal for the Encoding of an Egyptological YOD and Ugaritic Characters (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2019, retrieved eight March 2019 – via www.unicode.org
20. ^ Jensen, Hans (1969). Sign, Symbol, and Script. New York: Grand.P. Putman's Sons.
21. ^ "Hebrew Lesson of the Calendar week: The Letter Aleph". 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via The Times of Israel.
22. ^ "Cyrillic Alphabet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
23. ^ Silvestre, M. J. B. (1850). Universal Palaeography. Translated by Madden, Frederic. London: Henry M. Bohn. Archived from the original on vii May 2021. Retrieved 27 Oct 2020.
24. ^ Frothingham, A. Fifty., Jr. (1891). "Italic Studies". Archaeological News. American Journal of Archaeology. 7 (4): 534. JSTOR496497. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 27 Oct 2020.
25. ^ Steele, Philippa Grand., ed. (2017). Agreement Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN9781785706479. Archived from the original on half-dozen May 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
26. ^ Fortson, Benjamin Westward. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (second ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN9781444359688. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 27 Oct 2020.
27. ^ "𐌰". Wiktionary. Archived from the original on 17 December 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.

References

• "English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Social club. Cornell Academy. 2004. Archived from the original on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
• "Percentages of Letter Frequencies per Thousand Words". Trinity College. 2006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
• Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon One thousand. (2010). "A Versus F: The Furnishings of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance". British Journal of Educational Psychology. fourscore (1): 99–119. doi:10.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200.
• Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. I: A-Anjou (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN978-0-7172-0133-four.
• Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. Chiliad. (1998). "A". In Ranson, Grand. Anne (ed.). Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. I: A–Ang (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN978-0-7172-2068-7.
• Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. I: A to Ameland (First ed.). New York, NY: P.F. Collier.
• Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1: A-ak–Bayes. Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ISBN978-one-59339-837-8.
• McCarter, P. Kyle (1974). "The Early Improvidence of the Alphabet". The Biblical Archeologist. 37 (3): 54–68. doi:10.2307/3210965. JSTOR 3210965. S2CID 126182369.
• Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, East.Due south.C., eds. (1989). "A". The Oxford English language Dictionary. Vol. I: A–Bazouki (2nd ed.). Oxford, Uk: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-861213-one.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A.

Look up A  or a in Wiktionary, the complimentary dictionary.

• History of the Alphabet
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
  • "A". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
  • "A". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  • "A". The New Student's Reference Piece of work. 1914.
  • "A". Collier'due south New Encyclopedia. 1921.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A