Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 15

A

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This article is about the letter of the alphabet. For the English indefinite article, see English articles
§ Indefinite article. For other uses, see A (disambiguation).
For technical reasons, "A#" redirects here. For A-sharp, see A-sharp (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations


for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable
sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (December
2014) (Learn how and when to remove this
template message)

ISO basic
Latin alphabet

Aa Bb Cc Dd
Ee Ff Gg Hh
Ii Jj Kk Ll
Mm Nn Oo Pp
Qq Rr Ss Tt
Uu Vv Ww Xx
Writing cursive forms of A
Yy Zz
A (named /eɪ/, plural As, A's, as, a's or aes[nb 1]) is the
first letter and the first vowel of the ISO basic Latin alphabet.[1] It is  v
similar to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it
 t
derives.[2] The upper-case version consists of the two slanting
sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The  e
lower-case 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 found in italic type.

Contents
[hide]

 1History
o 1.1Typographic variants
 2Use in writing systems
o 2.1English
o 2.2Other languages
o 2.3Other systems
 3Other uses
 4Related characters
o 4.1Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
o 4.2Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
o 4.3Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
 5Computing codes
 6Other representations
 7Notes
 8Footnotes
 9References
 10External links

History

Latin
Boeotia Gree
Phoenicia Etrusca Roman/Cyrilli 300
Egyptian Creta Semiti Greek n k
n n c AD
n c Alpha 800–700 Uncia
aleph A A Uncia
BC l
l

The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician
alphabet,[3] 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[4] influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with
two horns extended.
By 1600 BC, the Phoenician alphabet letter had a linear form that served as the base for some later
forms. Its name is thought to have corresponded closely to the Hebrew or Arabic aleph.

Uncial A Another Blackletter A


Blackletter A

Modern Roman A Modern Italic A Modern script A


When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter to represent the glottal
stop—the consonant sound that the letter denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, and
that was the first phonemeof the Phoenician pronunciation of the letter—so they used their version of
the sign to represent the vowel /a/, and called it by the similar name of alpha. In the earliest Greek
inscriptions after the Greek Dark Ages, dating to the 8th century BC, the letter rests upon its side,
but in the Greek alphabet of later times it generally resembles the modern capital letter, although
many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one 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

Different glyphs of the lowercase letter A.

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 "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 semicursive minuscule. Variants also existed that
were intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the
early semi-uncial, the uncial, and the later semi-uncial.[5]

Typographic variants include a double-storey a and single-storey ɑ.

At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule
developed through Western Europe. Among 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 majuscule of Great Britain. By the 9th 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.[5]
15th-century Italy 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
called script a, is used in most current handwriting and consists of a circle and vertical stroke. This
slowly developed from the fifth-century form resembling the Greek letter tau in the hands of medieval
Irish and English writers.[3] The Roman form is used in most printed material; it consists of a small
loop with an arc over it ("a").[5] Both derive from the majuscule (capital) form. 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.
Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text
from the rest (set in Roman type). There are some other cases aside from italic type where script
a ("ɑ"), also called Latin alpha, is used in contrast 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, note that /a/ and /aː/ can differ phonetically
between [a], [ä], [æ] and [ɑ] depending on the language.

English
Further information: Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩
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;[4]
 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;
 the modified form of the above sound that occurs before ⟨r⟩, as
in square and Mary;
 the rounded vowel of water;
 the shorter rounded vowel (not present in General American)
in was and what;[3]
 a schwa, 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.[6] 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⟩),[7] and the second most
common in Spanish and French. In one study, on average, about 3.68% of letters used in English
texts tend to be ⟨a⟩, while the number is 6.22% in Spanish and 3.95% in French.[8]
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 phonetic and phonemic notation:

 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)
In algebra, the letter a along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent
known quantities, whereas the letters at the end of the alphabet (x, y, z) are used to denote unknown
quantities.
In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to denote segments, lines, rays, etc.[5] 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.[4]
"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, 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.[9]
Finally, the letter A is used to denote size,[where?] as in a narrow size shoe,[4] or a small cup size in
a brassiere.[citation needed]

Related characters
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 ᶏ[10]

 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 alpha with retroflex hook[10]
 Ɐ ɐ : Turned A, which represents a near-open central vowel in
the IPA
 Λ ʌ : turned V (also called a wedge, a caret, or a hat), which
represents an open-mid back 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 turned alpha[10]
 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).[11]
 ₐ : Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies[12]
 ꬱ : Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in
the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system[13]
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

 ª : an ordinal indicator
 Å : Ångström sign
 ∀ : a turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to
specify universal quantification ("for all")
 @ : At sign
 ₳ : Argentine austral
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this
section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this
template message)

 𐤀 : Semitic letter Aleph, from which the following symbols originally


derive
 Α α : Greek letter Alpha, from which the following letters derive
 А а : Cyrillic letter A
 Ⲁ ⲁ : Coptic letter Alpha
 𐤀 : Old Italic A, which is the ancestor of modern Latin A
 ᚨ : Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old
Italic A
 𐌰 : Gothic letter aza/asks

Computing codes

Character A a

Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A LATIN SMALL LETTER A

Encodings decimal hex decimal 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
NATO phonetic Morse code

Alpha ·–

American manual Braille


Signal flag Flag semaphore
alphabet (ASLfingerspelling) dots-1
Notes
1. Jump up^ 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.[1]

Footnotes
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1
2. Jump up^ McCarter 1974, p. 54
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hoiberg 2010, p. 1
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Hall-Quest 1997, p. 1
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Diringer 2000, p. 1
6. Jump up^ Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45
7. Jump up^ Anon 2004
8. Jump up^ Anon 2006
9. Jump up^ Ciani & Sheldon 2010, pp. 99–100
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c Constable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132
Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF).
11. Jump up^ Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141:
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF).
12. Jump up^ Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (2004-06-
07). "L2/04-191: Proposal to encode six Indo-Europeanist
phonetic characters in the UCS" (PDF).
13. Jump up^ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl;
Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2011-06-02). "L2/11-202: Revised proposal
to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS"(PDF).

References
 Anon (2004). "English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Club.
Cornell University. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014.
Retrieved 28 May 2014.
 Anon (2006). "Percentages of Letter frequencies per Thousand
words". Trinity College. 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.
 Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia. Encyclopedia
Americana. I: A-Anjou (First ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier
Incorporated. ISBN 0-7172-0133-3.
 Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K.
Anne. Academic American Encyclopedia. I: A–Ang (First ed.).
Danbury, CT: Grolier Incorporated. ISBN 0-7172-2068-0.
 Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston,
Bernard. Collier's Encyclopedia. I: A to Ameland (First ed.).
New York, NY: P.F. Collier.
 Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1:
A-ak–Bayes. Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica,
Inc. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
 McCarter, P. Kyle (September 1974). "The Early Diffusion of the
Alphabet". The Biblical Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–
68. doi:10.2307/3210965. JSTOR 3210965.
 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E.S.C., eds. (1989). "A". The Oxford
English Dictionary. I: A–Bazouki (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-861213-3.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to A.

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

 History of the Alphabet


 Texts on Wikisource:
 "A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel
Johnson
 "A". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
 "A". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
 "A". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

[hide]

Latin script

 History

 Spread

 Romanization

 Roman numerals

Classical Latin alphabet

SO basic Latin alphabet

phonetic alphabets

nternational Phonetic Alphabet

X-SAMPA

Spelling alphabet
Letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww
Letter A with diacritics
Áá Àà Ăă Ắắ Ằằ Ẵẵ Ẳẳ Ââ Ấấ Ầầ Ẫẫ Ẩẩ Ǎǎ Åå Ǻǻ Ää Ǟǟ Ãã Ȧȧ Ǡǡ Ąą Ą́ą́ Ą̃ ą
Ȁȁ Ȃȃ Ạạ Ặặ Ậậ Ḁḁ Ⱥⱥ ᶏ ẚ

 ch

 cz

 dž

 dz

 gh

 ij

Digraphs ll

 ly

 nh

 ny

 sh

 sz

 th

 dzs
Trigraphs
 eau

Tetragraphs ough

Pentagraphs tzsch

QWERTY

QWERTZ

AZERTY

SO/IEC 646

Unicode

Western Latin character sets

precomposed Latin characters in Unicode

etters used in mathematics

 Diacritics

 Palaeography
Categories:
 ISO basic Latin letters
Navigation menu
 Not logged in

 Talk

 Contributions

 Create account

 Log in
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 View source
 View history
Search
Go

 Main page
 Contents
 Featured content
 Current events
 Random article
 Donate to Wikipedia
 Wikipedia store
Interaction
 Help
 About Wikipedia
 Community portal
 Recent changes
 Contact page
Tools
 What links here
 Related changes
 Upload file
 Special pages
 Permanent link
 Page information
 Wikidata item
 Cite this page
Print/export
 Create a book
 Download as PDF
 Printable version
In other projects
 Wikimedia Commons
Languages
 Acèh
 Afrikaans
 Alemannisch
 አአአአ
 ‫العربية‬
 Aragonés
 አአአአአ
 Asturianu
 Avañe'ẽ
 Azərbaycanca
 ‫تۆرکجه‬
 বাাংলা
 Bân-lâm-gú
 Basa Banyumasan
 Башҡортса
 Беларуская
 Беларуская (тарашкевіца)
 Български
 Boarisch
 Bosanski
 Brezhoneg
 Català
 Чӑвашла
 Čeština
 ChiShona
 ChiTumbuka
 Corsu
 Cymraeg
 Dansk
 Davvisámegiella
 Deutsch
 ަ ‫ިދ ެވ ިހ‬
ް‫ބސ‬
 Eesti
 Ελληνικά
 Emiliàn e rumagnòl
 Español
 Esperanto
 Euskara
 ‫فارسی‬
 Føroyskt
 Français
 Frysk
 Furlan
 Gaeilge
 Gaelg
 Gàidhlig
 Galego
 贛語
 ગુજરાતી
 Хальмг
 한국어
 Հայերեն
 Hrvatski
 Ido
 Igbo
 Ilokano
 Bahasa Indonesia
 Interlingua
 ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ/inuktitut
 Íslenska
 Italiano
 ‫עברית‬
 Basa Jawa
 ქართული
 Kaszëbsczi
 Kernowek
 Kiswahili
 Коми
 Kreyòl ayisyen
 Kurdî
 Latina
 Latviešu
 Lëtzebuergesch
 Lietuvių
 Lumbaart
 Magyar
 Македонски
 Malagasy
 മലയാളം
 मराठी
 Bahasa Melayu
 Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄
 မြန်ြာဘာသာ

 Nāhuatl
 Na Vosa Vakaviti
 Nederlands
 日本語
 Napulitano
 Nordfriisk
 Norsk
 Norsk nynorsk
 Nouormand
 Occitan
 Олык марий
 Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча
 ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
 Pangasinan
 Polski
 Português
 Qırımtatarca
 Română
 Runa Simi
 Русский
 Sardu
 Scots
 Seeltersk
 Sicilianu
 Simple English
 ‫سنڌي‬
 Slovenčina
 Slovenščina
 Ślůnski
 ‫کوردی‬
 Sranantongo
 Српски / srpski
 Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
 Basa Sunda
 Suomi
 Svenska
 Tagalog
 தமிழ்
 Татарча/tatarça
 తెలుగు
 ไทย
 Тоҷикӣ
 Türkçe
 Türkmençe
 Українська
 ‫اردو‬
 Vèneto
 Vepsän kel’
 Tiếng Việt
 Volapük
 Walon
 Winaray
 ‫ייִדיש‬
 Yorùbá
 粵語
 Zazaki
 Žemaitėška
 中文
Edit links
 This page was last edited on 13 December 2017, at 09:15.
 Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 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.

 Privacy policy

 About Wikipedia

 Disclaimers

 Contact Wikipedia

 Developers

 Cookie statement

 Mobile view

 Enable previews

Вам также может понравиться