Latin omega

{{Short description|Letter of the Latin alphabet}}

{{Not to be confused with|Ꙍ|ω}}

{{More footnotes needed|date=October 2024}}

File:Latin letter Omega.svg

Latin omega, or simply omega, is an additional letter of the Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase shape of the Greek letter omega {{angle bracket|ω}}. It was included as a Latin letter in the Mann and Dalby 1982 revision of the African reference alphabet and has been used as such in some publications in the Kulango languages in Côte d'Ivoire in the 1990s. In other Kulango publications the letters V with hook {{angle bracket|Ʋ}} or Latin upsilon {{angle bracket|Ʊ}} are found instead.

The Italian humanist Giovan Giωrgio Trissino proposed in 1524 a reform of Italian orthography that included lowercase and uppercase omega for the open {{angbr|o}} sound ({{IPA|it|ɔ|}}).{{cite book |last1=Trissino |first1=Giovan Giωrgio |author1-link=Gian Giorgio Trissino |title=De le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana |via=Wikisource |date=1524 |title-link=s:it:De le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana |language=it |quote=ma quando ʃi prenderà tωʃco per veneno, ε tωrre per pigliare, ciωὲ infinito di tωglio vεrbo, alhora ʃi ʃcriverà per ω apεrto;[...] le quali tutte hanno le loro majuʃcule, che ʃono Ɛ, Ꞷ, Ӡ, J, V.}}

He later re-assigned it to the closed {{angbr|o}} ({{IPA|it|o|}}).{{cite web |last1=D'Achille |first1=Paolo |title=Trissino, Gian Giorgio in "Enciclopedia dell'Italiano" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gian-giorgio-trissino_(Enciclopedia-dell'Italiano)/ |website=www.treccani.it |publisher=Treccani |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=it-IT |date=2011}}