From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Latin letter. For the similar Greek letter, see Alpha. For the similar Cyrillic letter,
see A (Cyrillic). For the indefinite article, see a and an. For other uses, see A (disambiguation).

For technical reasons, "A#" redirects here. For A-sharp, see A-sharp.

Aa

Usage

Writing system Latin script

Type Alphabetic

Language of origin Latin language

Sound values

[a]

[ɑ]

[ɒ]

[æ]

[ə]

[ɛ]

[oː]

[ɔ]

[e]

[ʕ]

[ʌ] [ɐ]

/eɪ/

In Unicode U+0041, U+0061

Alphabetical position 1
History

Development

F1

Proto-Sinaitic 'alp

Proto-Caananite aleph

Phoenician aleph

Αα

𐌀Greek classical uncial

Early Latin ALatin 300 AD uncial, version 1

Aa

Time period c. 700 BCE – present

Descendants

🅰
Sisters

‫א اܐ‬

‫ء‬

Աա

Other

Associated graphs a(x), ae, eau, au

Writing direction Left-to-right

introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA §
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an

Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic

Latin alphabet

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

vte
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet,[1][2] used in the modern English
alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced /ˈeɪ/ ⓘ AY), plural aes.[nb 1][2]

It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives.[3] The uppercase version
consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase
version is often written in one of 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 found in italic type.

Name

In English, the name of the letter is the long A sound, pronounced /ˈeɪ/. Its name in most other
languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables.

History

The earliest known ancestor of A is aleph—the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet[4]—where it
represented a glottal stop [ʔ], as Phoenician only used consonantal letters. 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 as a triangular head with two horns extended.

When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter representing a glottal stop—
so they adapted the sign to represent the vowel /a/, calling the letter by the similar name alpha. In the
earliest Greek inscriptions dating to the 8th century BC following the Greek Dark Ages, the letter rests
upon its side. However, in the later Greek alphabet it generally resembles the modern capital form—
though many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which
the cross line is set.[6]

The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to the Italian Peninsula, and left the form of alpha unchanged.
When the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write Latin, the resulting form used in the Latin
script would come to be used to write many other languages, including English.

Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Proto-Canaanite Phoenician Western Greek Etruscan

Latin
Egyptian hieroglyphic ox head Boeotian Semitic A, version 1 Phoenician aleph Greek
alpha, version 1 Etruscan A, version 1 Latin A

Typographic variants

Different glyphs of the lowercase letter ⟨a⟩

Allographs include a double-storey ⟨a⟩ and single-storey ⟨ɑ⟩.

During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the letter A. First was the monumental or
lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other more permanent media. There was
also 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 style as there are
of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of different types of cursive, such as
majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semi-cursive minuscule. Variants also existed that were
intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-
uncial (c. 3rd century), the uncial (c. 4th–8th centuries), and the late semi-uncial (c. 6th–8th centuries).
[7]

BlackletterBlackletter Uncial A Uncial

Modern Roman A Roman Modern Italic A Italic Modern Script A Script

At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed
through Western Europe. Among these were the semi-cursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script
in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon
majuscule of Great Britain. By 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 press.
This form was derived through a combining of prior forms.[7]

Road sign in Ireland showing the "Latin alpha" form of ⟨a⟩ in lower and upper case forms

Italic and Roman forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form ⟨ɑ⟩, also called
15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the

script a, is often used in handwriting; it consists of a circle with a vertical stroke on its right. In the hands
of medieval Irish and English writers, this form gradually developed from a 5th-century form resembling
the Greek letter tau ⟨τ⟩.[4] The Roman form ⟨a⟩ is found in most printed material, and consists of a small
loop with an arc over it.[7] Both derive from the majuscule form ⟨A⟩. In Greek handwriting, it was
common 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 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.

the rest set in Roman type. There are some other cases aside from italic type where script a ⟨ɑ⟩, also
Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text from

called Latin alpha, is used in contrast with Latin ⟨a⟩, such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Use in writing systems

In English, ⟨a⟩ is the indefinite article (with the alternative form an when followed by a vowel).

Pronunciation

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

Pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ by language

Orthography Phonemes

Standard Chinese (pinyin) /a/

English /æ/, /ɑː/, /ɒ/, /ɔː/, /ɛː/, /eɪ/, /ə/

French /a/, /ɑ/

German /a/, /aː/

Portuguese /a/, /ɐ/

Saanich /e/

Spanish /a/

Turkish /a/
Cross-linguistic variation of ⟨a⟩ pronunciation

Phone Orthography

[a] Chuvash, Croatian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish,
Stavangersk Norwegian, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Utrecht Dutch

[aː] Dutch (doubled), German

[a̠] Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Spanish

[a̠ː] New Zealand English, Lithuanian, Limburgish (doubled), Luxembourgish

[ä] Catalan, Czech, French, Northern England English, Terengganu Malay, Polish

[äː] West Frisian (doubled)

[ɑ] Bashkir, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Kaingang, Limburgish, Norwegian, Russian, West Frisian

[ɑː] Afrikaans (doubled), Danish, German, Southern England English, Kurdish, Norwegian

[ɑ̝] Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Luxembourgish

[ɒ] Southern England English, Hungarian, Kedah Malay

[ɒː] Hungarian

[ɒ̜ː] Swedish

[ɒ̝ː] Maastrichtian Limburgish, Ulster Irish

[æ] Danish, English, Russian, Zeta–Raška Serbian

[ɐ] Australian English, Bulgarian, Central Catalan, Emilian, Galician, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Tagalog,
Ukrainian

[ɐ̝] Mapudungun

[ɛ] New Zealand English, Perak Malay

[ɜ] Chemnitz German, Transylvanian Romanian

[ʌ] Chemnitz German

[ɔː] Southern England English

[ə] English, Eastern Catalan

[e] Saanich
[eɪ] English

English

Further information: Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩

In English language education, the word apple is consistently associated with the letter A.[8]

In modern English orthography, the letter ⟨a⟩ represents at least seven different vowel sounds, here
represented using the vowels of Received Pronunciation, with effects of ⟨r⟩ ignored and mergers in
General American mentioned where relevant:

the near-open front unrounded vowel /æ/ as in pad

the open back unrounded vowel /ɑː/ as in father—merged with /ɒ/ as /ɑ/ in General American—which is
closer to its original Latin and Greek sound[5]

the open back rounded vowel /ɒ/ (merged with /ɑː/ as /ɑ/ in General American) in was and what[4]

the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔː/ in water

the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major, usually when ⟨a⟩ is followed by one, or occasionally two,
consonants and then another vowel letter—this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the
Great Vowel Shift

a schwa /ə/ in many unstressed syllables, as in about, comma, solar

The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived
from foreign languages such as Aaron and aardvark.[9] However, ⟨a⟩ occurs in many common digraphs,
all with their own sound or sounds, particularly ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨oa⟩.

⟨a⟩ is the third-most-commonly used letter in English after ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩, as well as in French; it is the
second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. ⟨a⟩ represents approximately
8.2% of letters as used in English texts;[10] the figure is around 7.6% in French[11] 11.5% in Spanish,[12]
and 14.6% in Portuguese.[13]

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 front
unrounded vowel /e/.

Other systems

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.

Other uses

Main article: A (disambiguation)

When using base-16 notation, A or a is the conventional numeral corresponding to the number 10.

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. In 1637, René Descartes
"invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and
c",[14] and this convention is still often followed, especially in elementary algebra.

In geometry, capital Latin letters are used to denote objects including line segments, lines, and rays[7] A
capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a
representing the side opposite angle A.[5]

A is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A−, A
or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for clean
restaurants; A-list celebrities, A1 at Lloyd's for shipping, etc. Such associations can have a motivating
effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other
letters.[15]

A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe,[5] or a small cup size in a brassiere.[16]

Related characters

Latin alphabet

⟨Æ æ⟩: a ligature of ⟨AE⟩ originally used in Latin

⟨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[17]

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 alpha, represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA

⟨ᶐ⟩: Latin small alpha with a retroflex hook[17]

⟨Ɐ ɐ⟩: Turned A, represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA

⟨Λ ʌ⟩: Turned V, represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in IPA

⟨Ɒ ɒ⟩: Turned alpha or script A, represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA

⟨ᶛ⟩: Modifier letter small turned alpha[17]

⟨ᴀ⟩: Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to
represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)

⟨A a ᵄ⟩: Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA),[18] sometimes encoded with
Unicode subscripts and superscripts

⟨a⟩: Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies[19]

⟨ꬱ⟩: Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system[20]

⟨Ꞻ ꞻ⟩: Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic[21]

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

⟨ª⟩: ordinal indicator

⟨Å⟩: Ångström sign

⟨∀⟩: turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all")

⟨@⟩: At sign

⟨₳⟩: Argentine austral

⟨Ⓐ⟩: anarchy symbol

Ancestor and sibling letters

⟨𐤀⟩: Phoenician aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive:[22]

⟨Α α⟩: Greek letter alpha, from which the following letters derive:[23]

⟨А а⟩: Cyrillic letter A[24]

⟨Ⲁ ⲁ⟩: Coptic letter alpha[25]

⟨𐌀⟩: Old Italic A, the ancestor of modern Latin A[26][27]

⟨ᚨ⟩: Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A[28]

⟨𐌰⟩: Gothic letter aza

⟨Ա ա⟩: Armenian letter ayb

Other representations

Computing

The Latin letters ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ have Unicode encodings U+0041 A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0061 a

also precomposed character encodings for ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the
LATIN SMALL LETTER A. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are

remainder are produced using combining diacritics.

Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in

compatibility. The Cyrillic and Greek homoglyphs of the Latin ⟨A⟩ have separate encodings U+0410 А
mathematics and science, Latin alpha in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font

CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0391 Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA.

Other

NATO phonetic Morse code

Alpha

▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ

Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet
(BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-1

Unified English Braille

Notes

Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered As, A's, as, or a's.
References

"Latin alphabet". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 3
March 2021.

Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1.

McCarter 1974, p. 54.

Hoiberg 2010, p. 1.

Hall-Quest 1997, p. 1.

Rabinowitz, Harold; Vogel, Suzanne (2009). The manual of scientific style: a guide for authors, editors,
and researchers (1st ed.). Amsterdam Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Academic Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-12-
373980-3.

Diringer 2000, p. 1.

Mankin, Jennifer; Simner, Julia (30 May 2017). "A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter-Word Associations in
the Development of Grapheme-Colour Synaesthesia" (PDF). Multisensory Research. 30 (3–5): 409–446.
doi:10.1163/22134808-00002554. ISSN 2213-4794. PMID 31287075. Retrieved 16 December 2023.

Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45

"Letter frequency (English)". Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2022.

"Corpus de Thomas Tempé" (in French). Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15
June 2007.

Pratt, Fletcher (1942). Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Garden City, NY: Blue Ribbon.
pp. 254–255. OCLC 795065.

"Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3
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: Benbella. p.
13. ISBN 978-1-933771-94-6.

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 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via
[Link]

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
[Link]

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 11 October 2017,
retrieved 24 March 2018 – via [Link]

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 [Link]

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 [Link]

Jensen, Hans (1969). Sign, Symbol, and Script. New York: G. P. Putman's Sons.

"Hebrew Lesson of the Week: The Letter Aleph". 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26
May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via The Times of Israel.

"Cyrillic Alphabet". Encyclopædia 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. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Frothingham, A. L. Jr. (1891). "Italic Studies". Archaeological News. American Journal of Archaeology. 7
(4): 534. JSTOR 496497. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Steele, Philippa M., ed. (2017). Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems.
Oxford: Oxbow. ISBN 978-1-78570-647-9. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Wiley.
ISBN 978-1-4443-5968-8. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Bibliography

"English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Club. Cornell University. 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 M. (2010). "A Versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on
Cognitive Performance". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 80 (1): 99–119.
doi:10.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200.
Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. I. Danbury, CT: Grolier.
ISBN 978-0-717-20133-4.

Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K. Anne (ed.). Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. I.
Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN 978-0-7172-2068-7.

Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. I. New
York: P. F. Collier.

Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1. Chicago. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

McCarter, P. Kyle (1974). "The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet". The Biblical Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–68.
JSTOR 3210965. S2CID 126182369.

Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989). "A". Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861213-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A.

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

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Texts on Wikisource:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Latin letter. For the similar Greek letter, see Alpha. For the similar Cyrillic letter,
see A (Cyrillic). For the indefinite article, see a and an. For other uses, see A (disambiguation).

For technical reasons, "A#" redirects here. For A-sharp, see A-sharp.

A
Aa

Usage

Writing system Latin script

Type Alphabetic

Language of origin Latin language

Sound values

[a]

[ɑ]

[ɒ]

[æ]

[ə]

[ɛ]

[oː]

[ɔ]

[e]

[ʕ]

[ʌ] [ɐ]

/eɪ/

In Unicode U+0041, U+0061

Alphabetical position 1

History

Development

F1

Proto-Sinaitic 'alp
Proto-Caananite aleph

Phoenician aleph

Αα

𐌀Greek classical uncial

Early Latin ALatin 300 AD uncial, version 1

Aa

Time period c. 700 BCE – present

Descendants

Sisters

Ә
Ӑ

‫אاܐ‬

‫ء‬

Աա

Other

Associated graphs a(x), ae, eau, au

Writing direction Left-to-right

introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA §
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an

Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic

Latin alphabet

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

vte

A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet,[1][2] used in the modern English
alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced /ˈeɪ/ ⓘ AY), plural aes.[nb 1][2]

It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives.[3] The uppercase version
consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase
version is often written in one of 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 found in italic type.

Name

In English, the name of the letter is the long A sound, pronounced /ˈeɪ/. Its name in most other
languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables.

History

The earliest known ancestor of A is aleph—the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet[4]—where it
represented a glottal stop [ʔ], as Phoenician only used consonantal letters. 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 as a triangular head with two horns extended.

When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter representing a glottal stop—
so they adapted the sign to represent the vowel /a/, calling the letter by the similar name alpha. In the
earliest Greek inscriptions dating to the 8th century BC following the Greek Dark Ages, the letter rests
upon its side. However, in the later Greek alphabet it generally resembles the modern capital form—
though many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which
the cross line is set.[6]

The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to the Italian Peninsula, and left the form of alpha unchanged.
When the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write Latin, the resulting form used in the Latin
script would come to be used to write many other languages, including English.

Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Proto-Canaanite Phoenician Western Greek Etruscan

Latin

Egyptian hieroglyphic ox head Boeotian Semitic A, version 1 Phoenician aleph Greek

alpha, version 1 Etruscan A, version 1 Latin A

Typographic variants
Different glyphs of the lowercase letter ⟨a⟩

Allographs include a double-storey ⟨a⟩ and single-storey ⟨ɑ⟩.

During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the letter A. First was the monumental or
lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other more permanent media. There was
also 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 style as there are
of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of different types of cursive, such as
majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semi-cursive minuscule. Variants also existed that were
intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-
uncial (c. 3rd century), the uncial (c. 4th–8th centuries), and the late semi-uncial (c. 6th–8th centuries).
[7]

BlackletterBlackletter Uncial A Uncial

Modern Roman A Roman Modern Italic A Italic Modern Script A Script

At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed
through Western Europe. Among these were the semi-cursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script
in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon
majuscule of Great Britain. By 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 press.
This form was derived through a combining of prior forms.[7]

Road sign in Ireland showing the "Latin alpha" form of ⟨a⟩ in lower and upper case forms

Italic and Roman forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form ⟨ɑ⟩, also called
15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the

script a, is often used in handwriting; it consists of a circle with a vertical stroke on its right. In the hands

the Greek letter tau ⟨τ⟩.[4] The Roman form ⟨a⟩ is found in most printed material, and consists of a small
of medieval Irish and English writers, this form gradually developed from a 5th-century form resembling

loop with an arc over it.[7] Both derive from the majuscule form ⟨A⟩. In Greek handwriting, it was
common 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 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.

the rest set in Roman type. There are some other cases aside from italic type where script a ⟨ɑ⟩, also
Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text from

called Latin alpha, is used in contrast with Latin ⟨a⟩, such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Use in writing systems

In English, ⟨a⟩ is the indefinite article (with the alternative form an when followed by a vowel).

Pronunciation

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

Pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ by language

Orthography Phonemes

Standard Chinese (pinyin) /a/

English /æ/, /ɑː/, /ɒ/, /ɔː/, /ɛː/, /eɪ/, /ə/

French /a/, /ɑ/

German /a/, /aː/

Portuguese /a/, /ɐ/

Saanich /e/

Spanish /a/

Turkish /a/

Cross-linguistic variation of ⟨a⟩ pronunciation

Phone Orthography

[a] Chuvash, Croatian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish,
Stavangersk Norwegian, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Utrecht Dutch
[aː] Dutch (doubled), German

[a̠] Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Spanish

[a̠ː] New Zealand English, Lithuanian, Limburgish (doubled), Luxembourgish

[ä] Catalan, Czech, French, Northern England English, Terengganu Malay, Polish

[äː] West Frisian (doubled)

[ɑ] Bashkir, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Kaingang, Limburgish, Norwegian, Russian, West Frisian

[ɑː] Afrikaans (doubled), Danish, German, Southern England English, Kurdish, Norwegian

[ɑ̝] Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Luxembourgish

[ɒ] Southern England English, Hungarian, Kedah Malay

[ɒː] Hungarian

[ɒ̜ː] Swedish

[ɒ̝ː] Maastrichtian Limburgish, Ulster Irish

[æ] Danish, English, Russian, Zeta–Raška Serbian

[ɐ] Australian English, Bulgarian, Central Catalan, Emilian, Galician, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Tagalog,
Ukrainian

[ɐ̝] Mapudungun

[ɛ] New Zealand English, Perak Malay

[ɜ] Chemnitz German, Transylvanian Romanian

[ʌ] Chemnitz German

[ɔː] Southern England English

[ə] English, Eastern Catalan

[e] Saanich

[eɪ] English

English

Further information: Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩

In English language education, the word apple is consistently associated with the letter A.[8]

In modern English orthography, the letter ⟨a⟩ represents at least seven different vowel sounds, here
represented using the vowels of Received Pronunciation, with effects of ⟨r⟩ ignored and mergers in
General American mentioned where relevant:

the near-open front unrounded vowel /æ/ as in pad

the open back unrounded vowel /ɑː/ as in father—merged with /ɒ/ as /ɑ/ in General American—which is
closer to its original Latin and Greek sound[5]

the open back rounded vowel /ɒ/ (merged with /ɑː/ as /ɑ/ in General American) in was and what[4]

the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔː/ in water

the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major, usually when ⟨a⟩ is followed by one, or occasionally two,
consonants and then another vowel letter—this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the
Great Vowel Shift

a schwa /ə/ in many unstressed syllables, as in about, comma, solar

The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived
from foreign languages such as Aaron and aardvark.[9] However, ⟨a⟩ occurs in many common digraphs,
all with their own sound or sounds, particularly ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨oa⟩.

⟨a⟩ is the third-most-commonly used letter in English after ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩, as well as in French; it is the
second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. ⟨a⟩ represents approximately
8.2% of letters as used in English texts;[10] the figure is around 7.6% in French[11] 11.5% in Spanish,[12]
and 14.6% in Portuguese.[13]

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 front
unrounded vowel /e/.

Other systems

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.

Other uses

Main article: A (disambiguation)

When using base-16 notation, A or a is the conventional numeral corresponding to the number 10.

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. In 1637, René Descartes
"invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and
c",[14] and this convention is still often followed, especially in elementary algebra.

In geometry, capital Latin letters are used to denote objects including line segments, lines, and rays[7] A
capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a
representing the side opposite angle A.[5]

A is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A−, A
or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for clean
restaurants; A-list celebrities, A1 at Lloyd's for shipping, etc. Such associations can have a motivating
effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other
letters.[15]

A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe,[5] or a small cup size in a brassiere.[16]

Related characters

Latin alphabet

⟨Æ æ⟩: a ligature of ⟨AE⟩ originally used in Latin

⟨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[17]

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 alpha, represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA

⟨ᶐ⟩: Latin small alpha with a retroflex hook[17]

⟨Ɐ ɐ⟩: Turned A, represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA

⟨Λ ʌ⟩: Turned V, represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in IPA

⟨Ɒ ɒ⟩: Turned alpha or script A, represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA

⟨ᶛ⟩: Modifier letter small turned alpha[17]

⟨ᴀ⟩: Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to
represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)

⟨A a ᵄ⟩: Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA),[18] sometimes encoded with
Unicode subscripts and superscripts

⟨a⟩: Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies[19]

⟨ꬱ⟩: Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system[20]

⟨Ꞻ ꞻ⟩: Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic[21]

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

⟨ª⟩: ordinal indicator

⟨Å⟩: Ångström sign

⟨∀⟩: turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all")

⟨@⟩: At sign

⟨₳⟩: Argentine austral

⟨Ⓐ⟩: anarchy symbol

Ancestor and sibling letters

⟨𐤀⟩: Phoenician aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive:[22]

⟨Α α⟩: Greek letter alpha, from which the following letters derive:[23]

⟨А а⟩: Cyrillic letter A[24]

⟨Ⲁ ⲁ⟩: Coptic letter alpha[25]

⟨𐌀⟩: Old Italic A, the ancestor of modern Latin A[26][27]

⟨ᚨ⟩: Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A[28]

⟨𐌰⟩: Gothic letter aza

⟨Ա ա⟩: Armenian letter ayb

Other representations
Computing

The Latin letters ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ have Unicode encodings U+0041 A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0061 a

also precomposed character encodings for ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the
LATIN SMALL LETTER A. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are

remainder are produced using combining diacritics.

Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in

compatibility. The Cyrillic and Greek homoglyphs of the Latin ⟨A⟩ have separate encodings U+0410 А
mathematics and science, Latin alpha in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font

CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0391 Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA.

Other

NATO phonetic Morse code

Alpha

▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ

Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet
(BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-1

Unified English Braille

Notes

Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered As, A's, as, or a's.

References

"Latin alphabet". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 3
March 2021.

Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1.

McCarter 1974, p. 54.

Hoiberg 2010, p. 1.

Hall-Quest 1997, p. 1.

Rabinowitz, Harold; Vogel, Suzanne (2009). The manual of scientific style: a guide for authors, editors,
and researchers (1st ed.). Amsterdam Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Academic Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-12-
373980-3.

Diringer 2000, p. 1.

Mankin, Jennifer; Simner, Julia (30 May 2017). "A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter-Word Associations in
the Development of Grapheme-Colour Synaesthesia" (PDF). Multisensory Research. 30 (3–5): 409–446.
doi:10.1163/22134808-00002554. ISSN 2213-4794. PMID 31287075. Retrieved 16 December 2023.

Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45

"Letter frequency (English)". Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2022.

"Corpus de Thomas Tempé" (in French). Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15
June 2007.

Pratt, Fletcher (1942). Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Garden City, NY: Blue Ribbon.
pp. 254–255. OCLC 795065.

"Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3
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: Benbella. p.
13. ISBN 978-1-933771-94-6.

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 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via
[Link]

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
[Link]

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 11 October 2017,
retrieved 24 March 2018 – via [Link]

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 [Link]

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 [Link]

Jensen, Hans (1969). Sign, Symbol, and Script. New York: G. P. Putman's Sons.

"Hebrew Lesson of the Week: The Letter Aleph". 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26
May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via The Times of Israel.

"Cyrillic Alphabet". Encyclopædia 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. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Frothingham, A. L. Jr. (1891). "Italic Studies". Archaeological News. American Journal of Archaeology. 7
(4): 534. JSTOR 496497. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Steele, Philippa M., ed. (2017). Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems.
Oxford: Oxbow. ISBN 978-1-78570-647-9. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Wiley.
ISBN 978-1-4443-5968-8. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

Bibliography

"English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Club. Cornell University. 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 M. (2010). "A Versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on
Cognitive Performance". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 80 (1): 99–119.
doi:10.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200.

Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. I. Danbury, CT: Grolier.
ISBN 978-0-717-20133-4.

Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K. Anne (ed.). Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. I.
Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN 978-0-7172-2068-7.

Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. I. New
York: P. F. Collier.
Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1. Chicago. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

McCarter, P. Kyle (1974). "The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet". The Biblical Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–68.
JSTOR 3210965. S2CID 126182369.

Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989). "A". Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861213-1.

External links

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Texts on Wikisource:

"A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson

"A" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (9th ed.). 1878. p. 1.

"A". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.

"A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (11th ed.). 1911. p. 1.

"A". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.

"A". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

vte

Latin script

Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata

Categories: ISO basic Latin lettersVowel letters

This page was last edited on 29 August 2025, at 01:38 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

"A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson

"A" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (9th ed.). 1878. p. 1.

"A". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.

"A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (11th ed.). 1911. p. 1.

"A". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.

"A". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

vte

Latin script

Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata

Categories: ISO basic Latin lettersVowel letters

This page was last edited on 29 August 2025, at 01:38 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.