Why are there 2 versions of the letter a?
“The TL;DR is that it's basically a historical accident: There were loads of variations of the letter 'a' and one became standard in printing while a less fancy one became standard in handwriting, presumably because people are lazy when they have to do things by hand,” writes Reddit user F0sh.
What is letter a used for?
in the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel. in X-SAMPA, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel and ⟨A⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel.
What is the letter a in Latin?
Classical Latin alphabetLetterAOLatin name (majus)áóLatin nameāōLatin pronunciation (IPA)aːoː
WHAT IS a to Z called?
The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word alphabet is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The alphabet originated around the 7th century CE to write Old English from Latin script.
Who made the letter a?
Back to the Phoenicians The Phoenicians lived near what we now call the Middle East. They invented an alphabet with 22 consonants and no vowels (A, E, I, O or U). Vowels only became part of the alphabet much later.
How do you write the letter a?
0:222:14Alphabet Writing lesson for children | The Singing Walrus - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipGo to our website to download a free practice sheet first we'll write the capital a that's the big aMoreGo to our website to download a free practice sheet first we'll write the capital a that's the big a start at the top. And make a line down. Go back to the top.
What is a in Greek alphabet?
The uppercase and lowercase forms of the 24 letters are: Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ/ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, Ω ω.
What is the 26 letter alphabet called?
Latin alphabet, also called Roman alphabet, the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and the languages of most of Europe and those areas settled by Europeans.
When was the letter A invented?
The letter A is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph—a western Semitic word referring to the aforementioned beast of burden. Aleph can be traced back to the Middle Bronze Age and the Proto-Sinaitic script found in parts of Egypt and Canaan from around 1850 BCE (Before the Common Era).
How do you type ñ?
Like on an iPhone, you can type Ñ/ñ on an android phone the same way.Long press the N/n key.Slide to choose Ñ/ñ on the options that pops up.
What is the 27th letter in the alphabet?
Total number of letters in the alphabet Until 1835, the English Alphabet consisted of 27 letters: right after "Z" the 27th letter of the alphabet was ampersand (&). The English Alphabet (or Modern English Alphabet) today consists of 26 letters: 23 from Old English and 3 added later.
What is the 21st alphabet?
u. noun. the 21st letter of the English alphabet. U is a vowel.
When to use "a" and "an"?
1. 'a' and 'an'. You usually use a and an when it is not clear or important which specific thing or person you are referring to. You only use a and an with singular countable nouns. When you are talking about a specific person or thing, you usually use the.
What does "on" mean in English?
a reduced form of the Old English preposition on, meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,” preserved before a noun or adjective in a prepositional phrase, forming a predicate adjective or an adverbial element ( afar; afoot; aloud; ashore; away ).
What is the feminine ending of a word?
a feminine singular ending of nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek, also used in New Latin coinages to Latinize bases of any origin, and as a Latin substitute for the feminine ending - ē of Greek words: cinchona; pachysandra.
What does "to read a lot" mean?
3. used preceding a noun or determiner of quantity: a cupful; a dozen eggs; a great many; to read a lot. 4. used preceding a noun indicating a concrete or abstract thing capable of being divided : half a loaf; a quarter of a minute.
What is the vowel A?
A ( അ) is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter a. Like in other Indic scripts, "A" is the inherent vowel of Malayalam consonants, so there is no modifying vowel sign for A. As in most Indic scripts, independent Malayalam vowels do not decompose into A with a vowel sign attached, but rather are unique characters themselves. Independent vowel letters in Malayalam are used when a word begins with a vowel, rather than a consonant sound.
What is the vowel of the Devanagari abugida?
A ( अ) is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter અ, and the Modi letter 𑘀.
What is the meaning of "a" in Bengali?
A ( অ) is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, अ.
What is the A in Brahmi?
A as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . Like all Brahmic scripts, the Tocharian A is the inherent vowel for all consonant characters, apart from the alternate Fremdzeichen forms, which have the inherent vowel "Ä". In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A, with all other independent vowels built from vowel marks added to A.
Where does the Brahmi letter come from?
The Brahmi letter , A, is probably derived from the Aramaic Alef , and is thus related to the modern Latin A and Greek Alpha. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi A can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.
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Overview
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a , plural aes. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts base…
History
The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it from a true alphabet). In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two …
Use in writing systems
In modern English orthography, the letter ⟨a⟩ represents at least seven different vowel sounds:
• the near-open front unrounded vowel /æ/ as in pad;
• the open back unrounded vowel /ɑː/ as in father, which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound;
Other uses
In algebra, the letter a along with various other letters of the alphabet is often used to denote 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 x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c", and this convention is still often followed, especially in elementary algebra.
Related characters
• 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
• Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems):
Use as a number
In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, A is a number that corresponds to the number 10 in decimal (base 10) counting.
Footnotes
1. ^ "Latin alphabet | Definition, Description, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
2. ^ Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1
3. ^ McCarter 1974, p. 54
External links
• History of the Alphabet
• Texts on Wikisource:
Overview
A is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, A is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the "A" vowel inherently, and thus there is no modifier sign for "A" in Indic scripts.
Āryabhaṭa numeration
Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The letter अ was not used in the Aryabhata number system, and consonants with the inherent "a" vowel retained their base value.
Devanagari A
A (अ) is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter અ, and the Modi letter 𑘀.
The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, अ is pronounced as [ə]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari …
Bengali A
A (অ) is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, अ.
The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, অ is pronounced as [ɔ]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sou…
Gujarati A
A (અ) is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari A , and ultimately the Brahmi letter .
The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, અ is pronounced as [ə]. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound. However, since A is the inherent vowel in unma…
Telugu A
A (అ) is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಅ. Like in other Indic scripts, "A" in Telugu is inherent in all consonants, and there is no vowel sign for the "A" vowel.
Malayalam A
A (അ) is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter a. Like in other Indic scripts, "A" is the inherent vowel of Malayalam consonants, so there is no modifying vowel sign for A. As in most Indic scripts, independent Malayalam vowels do not decompose into A with a vowel sign attached, but rather are unique characters themselves. Independent vowel letters in Malayalam are used when a word begins with a vowel, rather than …
Odia A
A (ଅ) is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter a. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants inherently contain the "a" vowel, so there is no modifying sign for indicating that vowel.