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First letter of the Latin alphabet

A
A a
(See below)

Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Blazon	Alphabet
Linguistic communication of origin	Latin linguistic communication
Phonetic usage	[a] [ɑ] [ɒ] [æ] [ə] [ɛ] [oː] [ɔ] [due east] [ʕ] []
Unicode codepoint	`U+0041, U+0061`
Alphabetical position	1 Numerical value: i
History
Evolution	Α α 𐌀 A a
Time period	~-700 to nowadays
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	(See beneath)
Other
Other letters commonly used with	a(x), ae, eau
Associated numbers	1
This commodity contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Assist:IPA. For the distinction betwixt [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

A, or a, is the get-go alphabetic character and the first vowel of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet.^[1] ^[ii] Its proper name in English is a (pronounced ), plural aes.^{[nb 1]} It is like in shape to the Aboriginal Greek letter alpha, from which information technology derives.^[3] The capital 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 based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also establish in italic type.

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

History

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

The earliest certain antecedent of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet,^[four] 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^[5] influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled every bit a triangular head with two horns extended.

When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no employ for a letter to represent the glottal stop—the consonant audio that the letter of the alphabet denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, and that was the first phoneme of the Phoenician pronunciation of the letter of the alphabet—so they used their version of the sign to represent the vowel /a/, and called it past the like name of alpha. In the earliest Greek inscriptions after the Greek Nighttime Ages, dating to the 8th century BC, the letter rests upon its side, but in the Greek alphabet of afterwards times it generally resembles the modern majuscule, although many local varieties can be distinguished past the shortening of ane leg, or past the bending at which the cross line is gear up.

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 linguistic communication, and the resulting letter was preserved in the Latin alphabet that would come to be used to write many languages, including English.

Typographic variants

Dissimilar glyphs of the lowercase letter A.

During Roman times, at that place were many variant forms of the alphabetic character "A". Showtime was the awe-inspiring or lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other "permanent" media. At that place was also a cursive style used for everyday or utilitarian writing, which was done on more than perishable surfaces. Due to the "perishable" nature of these surfaces, there are not every bit many examples of this mode as there are of the awe-inspiring, simply there are nevertheless many surviving examples of unlike types of cursive, such every bit uppercase cursive, minuscule cursive, and semicursive minuscule. Variants also existed that were intermediate between the awe-inspiring and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-uncial, the uncial, and the later semi-uncial.^{[half dozen]}

At the stop of the Roman Empire (fifth century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed through Western Europe. Amidst these were the semicursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script in France, the Visigothic script in Espana, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon capital of United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. By the ninth century, the Caroline script, which was very like to the present-twenty-four hour period form, was the chief form used in book-making, before the advent of the printing press. This grade was derived through a combining of prior forms.^[vi]

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

15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two primary variants that are known today. These variants, the Italic and Roman forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic course, also called script a, is used in most current handwriting; it consists of a circle and vertical stroke on the right ("ɑ"). This slowly developed from the fifth-century class resembling the Greek letter tau in the hands of medieval Irish and English writers.^[four] The Roman form is used in nigh printed textile; it consists of a pocket-sized loop with an arc over it ("a").^[6] Both derive from the uppercase (uppercase) form. In Greek handwriting, it was mutual to bring together the left leg and horizontal stroke into a single loop, equally 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 adult into an arc, resulting in the printed form, while in others it was dropped, resulting in the modern handwritten form. Graphic designers refer to the Italic and Roman forms as "single decker a" and "double decker a" respectively.

Italic blazon is ordinarily used to marker emphasis or more generally to distinguish ane office of a text from the balance (set in Roman blazon). There are some other cases aside from italic blazon where script a ("ɑ"), also called Latin alpha, is used in dissimilarity with Latin "a" (such every bit in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

Use in writing systems

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

English

In modern English orthography, the letter ⟨a⟩ represents at least seven unlike 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 audio;^[5]
the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major (normally when ⟨a⟩ is followed by i, or occasionally 2, consonants and so another vowel letter of the alphabet) – this results from Heart English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel Shift;
the modified form of the higher up audio that occurs earlier ⟨r⟩, equally in square and Mary;
the rounded vowel of h2o;
the shorter rounded vowel (not present in General American) in was and what;^[4]
a schwa, in many unstressed syllables, every bit in almost, comma, solar.

The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does not occur in native English words, only is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as Aaron and aardvark.^[7] However, ⟨a⟩ occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, specially ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨oa⟩.

⟨a⟩ is the 3rd-most-usually used letter in English (after ⟨due east⟩ and ⟨t⟩) and French, the 2nd most common in Spanish, and the most 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] xi.525% in Spanish,^[10] and 14.634% for Portuguese.^[11]

Other languages

In about 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 front unrounded vowel /e/.

Other systems

In phonetic and phonemic note:

in the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open forepart unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open cardinal 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 up back unrounded vowel.

Other uses

In algebra, the letter a along with various other letters of the alphabet is ofttimes used to denote a variable, with diverse 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 past a, b, and c",^[12] and this convention is still often 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 every bit ane of the messages to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side opposite angle A.^[5]

"A" is oft used to denote something or someone of a improve or more prestigious quality or status: A-, A or A+, the best grade that can exist assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for clean restaurants; A-listing celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, every bit exposure to the letter A has been constitute to better functioning, when compared with other letters.^[13]

"A" is used every bit a prefix on some words, such equally asymmetry, to mean "not" or "without" (from Greek).

In English grammer, "a", and its variant "an", is an indefinite article, used to introduce substantive phrases.

Finally, the letter A is used to announce size, as in a narrow size shoe,^[5] or a small loving 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 only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems):
- Ɑ ɑ : Latin letter alpha / script A, which represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA
- ᶐ : Latin small letter of the alphabet alpha with retroflex hook^[15]
- Ɐ ɐ : Turned A, which represents a near-open up central vowel in the IPA
- Λ ʌ : Turned Five (too called a wedge, a caret, or a hat), which represents an open-mid dorsum unrounded vowel in the IPA
- Ɒ ɒ : Turned alpha / script A, which represents an open dorsum rounded vowel in the IPA
- ᶛ : Modifier alphabetic character small turned alpha^[15]
- ᴀ : Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent diverse sounds (mainly open up vowels)
- ^{A a} ᵄ : Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA)^[sixteen] (sometimes encoded with Unicode subscripts and superscripts)
- _a : Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies^[17]
- ꬱ : Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription organization^[eighteen]
- Ꞻ ꞻ : Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic^[xix]

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

ª : an ordinal indicator
Å : Ångström sign
∀ : a turned upper-case letter letter of the alphabet A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all")
@ : At sign
₳ : Argentine austral

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

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

Code points

These are the code points for the forms of the letter in various systems

Character information
Preview	A		a
Unicode proper noun	LATIN CAPITAL Letter of the alphabet A		LATIN SMALL Letter of the alphabet A
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	65	U+0041	97	U+0061
UTF-8	65	41	97	61
Numeric character reference	A	A	a	a
EBCDIC family	193	C1	129	81
ASCII ¹	65	41	97	61

¹ Also 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 16) numbering arrangement, A is a number that corresponds to the number 10 in decimal (base 10) counting.

Notes

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

Footnotes

^ "Latin alphabet | Definition, Clarification, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on ix March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. ane
^ McCarter 1974, p. 54
^ ^a ^b ^c Hoiberg 2010, p. i
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hall-Quest 1997, p. 1
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Diringer 2000, p. one
^ Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45
^ "Letter frequency (English)". en.algoritmy.net. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
^ "Corpus de Thomas Tempé". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
^ Pratt, Fletcher (1942). Undercover and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Garden City, NY: Blue Ribbon Books. pp. 254–five. OCLC 795065.
^ "Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português". Archived from the original on iii August 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
^ Tom Sorell, Descartes: A Very Short Introduction, (2000). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19.
^ Ciani & Sheldon 2010, pp. 99–100
^ Luciani, Jené (2009). The Bra Book: The Fashion Formula to Finding the Perfect Bra. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books. p. xiii. ISBN9781933771946. OCLC 317453115.
^ ^a ^b ^c Constable, Peter (19 April 2004), L2/04-132 Proposal to Add Additional Phonetic Characters to the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 Oct 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via world wide web.unicode.org
^ 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
^ Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (7 June 2004), L2/04-191: Proposal to Encode Half dozen Indo-Europeanist Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org
^ 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 www.unicode.org
^ 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 8 March 2019 – via world wide web.unicode.org
^ Jensen, Hans (1969). Sign, Symbol, and Script. New York: G.P. Putman'due south Sons.
^ "Hebrew Lesson of the Week: The Letter Aleph". 17 Feb 2013. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via The Times of State of israel.
^ "Cyrillic Alphabet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
^ Silvestre, M. J. B. (1850). Universal Palaeography. Translated by Madden, Frederic. London: Henry G. Bohn. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
^ 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 October 2020.
^ Steele, Philippa M., ed. (2017). Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN9781785706479. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 27 Oct 2020.
^ Fortson, Benjamin West. (2010). Indo-European Linguistic communication and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN9781444359688. Archived from the original on fourteen August 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
^ "𐌰". Wiktionary. Archived from the original on 17 Dec 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.

References

"English language Letter of the alphabet Frequency". Math Explorer's Social club. Cornell University. 2004. Archived from the original on 22 Apr 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
"Percentages of Letter Frequencies per Thousand Words". Trinity College. 2006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved eleven May 2015.
Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon G. (2010). "A Versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Operation". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 80 (i): 99–119. doi:ten.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200.
Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. I: A-Anjou (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN978-0-7172-0133-4.
Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K. Anne (ed.). Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. I: A–Ang (Kickoff 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. ISBN978-1-59339-837-8.
McCarter, P. Kyle (1974). "The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet". The Biblical Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–68. doi:ten.2307/3210965. JSTOR 3210965. S2CID 126182369.
Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E.S.C., eds. (1989). "A". The Oxford English language Dictionary. Vol. I: A–Bazouki (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-861213-ane.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A.

Expect up A or a in Wiktionary, the costless lexicon.

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