A

In English, the name of the letter is the long A sound, pronounced {{IPAc-en|'|eɪ}}. Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables.

{{wide image|Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨a⟩ in European languages.png|460px|Pronunciation of the name of the letter {{angbr|a}} in European languages. {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} can differ phonetically between {{IPAblink|a}}, {{IPAblink|ä}}, {{IPAblink|æ}} and {{IPAblink|ɑ}} depending on the language.}}

The earliest known ancestor of A is aleph—the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet{{sfn|Hoiberg|2010|p=1}}—where it represented a glottal stop {{IPA|[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{{sfn|Hall-Quest|1997|p=1}} 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 sign to represent the vowel {{IPAslink|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.

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.

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File:A-small glyphs.svg of the lowercase letter {{angbr|a}}]]

File:LowercaseA.svgs include a double-storey {{angbr|a}} and single-storey {{angbr|ɑ}}.]]

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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, the uncial, and the later semi-uncial.{{sfn|Diringer|2000|p=1}}

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.{{sfn|Diringer|2000|p=1}}

File:Road sign on the R639 north of Urlingford, Ireland - 20090502.jpg

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 {{angbr|ɑ}}, also called 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 {{angbr|τ}}.{{sfn|Hoiberg|2010|p=1}} The Roman form {{angbr|a}} is found in most printed material, and consists of a small loop with an arc over it.{{sfn|Diringer|2000|p=1}} Both derive from the majuscule form {{angbr|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.

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 {{angbr|ɑ}}, also called Latin alpha, is used in contrast with Latin {{angbr|a}}, such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

{{Further|Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩}}

File:A for apple.jpg

In modern English orthography, the letter {{angbr|a}} represents at least seven different vowel sounds, here represented using the vowels of Received Pronunciation, with English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ ignored and mergers in General American mentioned where relevant:

• the near-open front unrounded vowel {{IPA|/æ/}} as in pad
• the open back unrounded vowel {{IPA|/ɑː/}} as in father—merged with {{IPAslink|ɒ}} as {{IPAslink|ɑ}} in General American—which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound{{sfn|Hall-Quest|1997|p=1}}
• the open back rounded vowel {{IPA|/ɒ/}} (merged with {{IPA|/ɑː/}} as {{IPAslink|ɑ}} in General American) in was and what{{sfn|Hoiberg|2010|p=1}}
• the open-mid back rounded vowel {{IPA|/ɔː/}} in water
• the diphthong {{IPA|/eɪ/}} as in ace and major, usually when {{vr|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 {{IPA|/ə/}} in many unstressed syllables, as in about, comma, solar

The double {{angbr|aa}} sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as Aaron and aardvark.{{harvnb|Gelb|Whiting|1998|p=45}} However, {{vr|a}} occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly {{vr|ai}}, {{vr|au}}, {{vr|aw}}, {{vr|ay}}, {{vr|ea}} and {{vr|oa}}.

{{angbr|a}} is the third-most-commonly used letter in English after {{angbr|e}} and {{angbr|t}}, as well as in French; it is the second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. {{angbr|a}} represents approximately 8.2% of letters as used in English texts;{{Cite web |title=Letter frequency (English) |url=http://en.algoritmy.net/article/40379/Letter-frequency-English |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304152631/http://en.algoritmy.net/article/40379/Letter-frequency-English |archive-date=2021-03-04 |access-date=2022-01-03}} the figure is around 7.6% in French{{Cite web |title=Corpus de Thomas Tempé |url=http://gpl.insa-lyon.fr/Dvorak-Fr/CorpusDeThomasTemp%C3%A9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930194046/http://gpl.insa-lyon.fr/Dvorak-Fr/CorpusDeThomasTemp%C3%A9 |archive-date=2007-09-30 |access-date=2007-06-15 |language=fr}} 11.5% in Spanish,{{Cite book |last=Pratt |first=Fletcher |title=Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers |publisher=Blue Ribbon |year=1942 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=254–5 |oclc=795065}} and 14.6% in Portuguese.{{Cite web |title=Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português |url=http://www.numaboa.com/criptografia/criptoanalise/310-Frequencia-no-Portugues |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803182254/http://www.numaboa.com/criptografia/criptoanalise/310-Frequencia-no-Portugues |archive-date=2009-08-03 |access-date=2009-06-16 |language=pt}}

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, {{angbr|a}} denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as {{IPAslink|a}}, {{IPAslink|ä}}, or {{IPAslink|ɑ}}. An exception is Saanich, in which {{angbr|a}}—and the glyph {{angbr|Á}}—stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel {{IPA|/e/}}.

• In the International Phonetic Alphabet, {{angbr IPA|a}} is used for the open front unrounded vowel, {{angbr IPA|ä}} is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and {{angbr IPA|ɑ}} is used for the open back unrounded vowel.
• In X-SAMPA, {{angbr|a}} is used for the open front unrounded vowel and {{angbr|A}} is used for the open back unrounded vowel.

{{Main|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",Tom Sorell, Descartes: A Very Short Introduction, (2000). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19. 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{{sfn|Diringer|2000|p=1}} 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.{{sfn|Hall-Quest|1997|p=1}}
• 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.{{sfn|Ciani|Sheldon|2010|pp=99–100}}
• A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe,{{sfn|Hall-Quest|1997|p=1}} or a small cup size in a brassiere.{{Cite book |last=Luciani |first=Jené |title=The Bra Book: The Fashion Formula to Finding the Perfect Bra |year=2009 |publisher=Benbella |isbn=978-1-933771-94-6 |location=Dallas |pages=13}}

• Æ: a ligature of {{angbr|AE}} originally used in Latin
• {{angbr|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{{Citation |last=Constable |first=Peter |title=L2/04-132 Proposal to Add Additional Phonetic Characters to the UCS |date=19 April 2004 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014355/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf |access-date=2018-03-24 |archive-date=2017-10-11 |url-status=live |via=www.unicode.org}}
• Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A—the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems:
• {{angbr|Ɑ ɑ}}: Latin alpha, represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA
• {{angbr|ᶐ}}: Latin small alpha with a retroflex hook
• {{angbr|Ɐ ɐ}}: Turned A, represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA
• {{angbr|Λ ʌ}}: Turned V, represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in IPA
• {{angbr|Ɒ ɒ}}: Turned alpha or script A, represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA
• {{angbr|ᶛ}}: Modifier letter small turned alpha
• {{angbr|ᴀ}}: Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)
• {{angbr|^{A a} ᵄ}}: Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA),{{Citation |last=Everson |first=Michael |title=L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet Characters for the UCS |date=20 March 2002 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219081033/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf |access-date=2018-03-24 |display-authors=etal |archive-date=2018-02-19 |author-link=Michael Everson |url-status=live |via=www.unicode.org}} sometimes encoded with Unicode subscripts and superscripts
• {{angbr|_a}}: Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies{{Citation |last1=Anderson |first1=Deborah |title=L2/04-191: Proposal to Encode Six Indo-Europeanist Phonetic Characters in the UCS |date=7 June 2004 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04191-n2788-laryngeals.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014402/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04191-n2788-laryngeals.pdf |access-date=2018-03-24 |archive-date=2017-10-11 |last2=Everson |first2=Michael |url-status=live |via=www.unicode.org}}
• {{angbr|ꬱ}}: Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system{{Citation |last1=Everson |first1=Michael |title=L2/11-202: Revised Proposal to Encode "Teuthonista" Phonetic Characters in the UCS |date=2 June 2011 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11202-n4081-teuthonista.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011012426/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11202-n4081-teuthonista.pdf |access-date=2018-03-24 |archive-date=2017-10-11 |last2=Dicklberger |first2=Alois |last3=Pentzlin |first3=Karl |last4=Wandl-Vogt |first4=Eveline |url-status=live |via=www.unicode.org}}
• {{angbr|Ꞻ ꞻ}}: Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic{{Citation |last=Suignard |first=Michel |title=L2/17-076R2: Revised Proposal for the Encoding of an Egyptological YOD and Ugaritic Characters |date=9 May 2017 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17076r2-n4792r2-egyptological-yod.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330043926/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17076r2-n4792r2-egyptological-yod.pdf |access-date=8 March 2019 |archive-date=2019-03-30 |url-status=live |via=www.unicode.org}}

• {{angbr|ª}}: ordinal indicator
• {{angbr|Å}}: Ångström sign
• {{angbr|∀}}: turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all")
• {{angbr|@}}: At sign
• {{angbr|₳}}: Argentine austral
• {{angbr|Ⓐ}}: anarchy symbol

• {{angbr|{{lang|phn|𐤀}}}}: Phoenician aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive:{{Cite book |last=Jensen |first=Hans |title=Sign, Symbol, and Script |publisher=G. P. Putman's Sons |year=1969 |location=New York}}
• {{angbr|{{lang|el|Α α}}}}: Greek letter alpha, from which the following letters derive:{{Cite news |date=2013-02-17 |title=Hebrew Lesson of the Week: The Letter Aleph |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/hebrew-lesson-of-the-week-letter-aleph/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526113655/https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/hebrew-lesson-of-the-week-letter-aleph/ |archive-date=2018-05-26 |access-date=2018-05-25 |via=The Times of Israel}}
• {{angbr|{{lang|und|А а}}}}: Cyrillic letter A{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Cyrillic Alphabet |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cyrillic-alphabet |access-date=2018-05-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526114423/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cyrillic-alphabet |archive-date=2018-05-26 |url-status=live}}
• {{angbr|{{Script|Copt|Ⲁ ⲁ}}}}: Coptic letter alpha{{Cite book |last=Silvestre |first=M. J. B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2QWAAAAYAAJ&q=coptic+alphabet&pg=PA123 |title=Universal Palaeography |year=1850 |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |location=London |translator-last=Madden |translator-first=Frederic |access-date=27 October 2020}}
• {{angbr|𐌀}}: Old Italic A, the ancestor of modern Latin A{{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fwAoAQAAIAAJ&q=old+italic+greek+alphabet&pg=PA534 |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |year=1891 |page=534 |volume=7 |title=Italic Studies |department=Archaeological News |last=Frothingham |first=A. L. Jr. |issue=4 |jstor=496497 |jstor-access=free |access-date=27 October 2020}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lv4sDwAAQBAJ&q=old+italic+script+greek&pg=PA96 |title=Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems |year=2017 |publisher=Oxbow |isbn=978-1-78570-647-9 |editor-last=Steele |editor-first=Philippa M. |location=Oxford |access-date=27 October 2020}}
• {{angbr|{{Script|Runr|ᚨ}}}}: Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A{{Cite book |last=Fortson |first=Benjamin W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bSxHgej4tKMC&q=Runic+developed+from+old+italic&pg=PA349 |title=Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction |year=2010 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4443-5968-8 |edition=2nd |access-date=27 October 2020}}
• {{angbr|{{Script|Goth|𐌰}}}}: Gothic letter aza
• {{angbr|{{lang|am|Ա ա}}}}: Armenian letter ayb

The Latin letters {{angbr|A}} and {{angbr|a}} have Unicode encodings {{unichar|0041|Latin capital letter A}} and {{unichar|0061|Latin small letter a}}. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are also precomposed character encodings for {{angbr|A}} and {{angbr|a}} with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the remainder are produced using combining diacritics.

Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in mathematics and science, Latin alpha in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font compatibility. The Cyrillic and Greek homoglyphs of the Latin {{angbr|A}} have separate encodings {{unichar|0410|Cyrillic capital letter A|nlink=A (Cyrillic)}} and {{unichar|0391|Greek capital letter alpha|nlink=Alpha}}.

{{Letter other reps

|NATO=Alpha

|Morse=·–

|Character=A1

|Braille=⠁

|fingerspelling=A

}}

{{clear}}

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{Cite web |year=2004 |title=English Letter Frequency |url=https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140422040328/https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html |archive-date=2014-04-22 |access-date=2014-05-28 |website=Math Explorer's Club |publisher=Cornell University}}
• {{Cite web |year=2006 |title=Percentages of Letter Frequencies per Thousand Words |url=http://starbase.trincoll.edu/~crypto/resources/LetFreq.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070125220315/http://starbase.trincoll.edu/~crypto/resources/LetFreq.html |archive-date=2007-01-25 |access-date=2015-05-11 |website=Trinity College |ref={{sfnref|Trinity College|2006}}}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Ciani |first1=Keith D. |last2=Sheldon |first2=Kennon M. |year=2010 |title=A Versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance |journal=British Journal of Educational Psychology |volume=80 |issue=1 |pages=99–119 |doi=10.1348/000709909X466479 |pmid=19622200}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia |title=A |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Americana |publisher=Grolier |location=Danbury, CT |last=Diringer |first=David |year=2000 |editor-last=Bayer |editor-first=Patricia |volume=I |isbn=978-0-717-20133-4}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia |title=A |encyclopedia=Academic American Encyclopedia |publisher=Grolier |location=Danbury, CT |year=1998 |editor-last=Ranson |editor-first=K. Anne |volume=I |isbn=978-0-7172-2068-7 |last2=Whiting |first2=R. M. |last1=Gelb |first1=I. J.}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia |title=A |encyclopedia=Collier's Encyclopedia |publisher=P. F. Collier |location=New York |last=Hall-Quest |first=Olga Wilbourne |year=1997 |editor-last=Johnston |editor-first=Bernard |volume=I}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2010 |title=A |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |location=Chicago |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency |editor-last=Hoiberg |editor-first=Dale H. |volume=1 |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite journal |last=McCarter |first=P. Kyle |year=1974 |title=The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=54–68 |jstor=3210965 |s2cid=126182369}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia |year=1989 |title=A |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic01oxfo |editor-last=Simpson |editor-first=J. A. |edition=2nd |volume=I |isbn=978-0-19-861213-1 |editor2-last=Weiner |editor2-first=E. S. C. |url-access=registration}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons}}

{{Wiktionary|A|a}}

{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-A-article.ogg|date=2023-06-26}}

• [http://members.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionaryclassic/chapters/pix/alphabet.gif History of the Alphabet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410005914/http://members.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionaryclassic/chapters/pix/alphabet.gif |date=10 April 2021 }}
• {{Wikisource-inline|list=
• "A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
• {{cite EB9 |wstitle=A |volume=I | page=1 |short=1}}
• {{cite AmCyc |wstitle=A |short=x |noicon=x}}
• {{cite EB1911|wstitle=A |volume=I | page=1 |short=x |noicon=x}}
• {{cite NSRW |wstitle=A |short=x |noicon=x}}
• {{cite Collier's|wstitle=A |short=x |noicon=x}}

}}

{{Latin script|A|}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:ISO basic Latin letters

Category:Vowel letters