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{{Dablink|Due to ], A# redirects here. For other uses, see ].}} |
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{{Two other uses|the letter|the indefinite article|A and an}} |
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{{Wiktionary|A|a}} |
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{{Latin alphabet navbox|uc=A|lc=a}} |
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'''A''' ({{IPAc-en|icon|ˈ|eɪ}}; ] ''a'', plural ''aes'')<ref name="OED" /> is the first ] and a ] in the ]. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter ], from which it derives. |
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:A]] |
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==Origins== |
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"A" can be traced to a ] of an ] head in ] or the ].<ref name="World Book" /> |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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|- style="background-color:#EEEEEE; text-align:center;" |
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! Egyptian |
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! Proto-Semitic<br> ox's head |
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! Phoenician <br>'']'' |
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! Greek <br>'']'' |
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! Etruscan <br>A |
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! Roman/Cyrillic <br>A |
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|- style="background-color:white; text-align:center;" |
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|] |
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|] |
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|] |
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|] |
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|] |
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|] |
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In 1600 B.C. the ]'s letter had a linear form that served as the base for some later forms. Its name must have corresponded closely to the ] or ] ]. |
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{| cellspacing="10" cellpadding="0" style="background-color: white; float: right;" |
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|- align="center" |
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|]<br />] A |
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|]<br />] A |
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|]<br />Another Blackletter A |
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|- align="center" |
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|]<br />Modern Roman A |
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|]<br />Modern Italic A |
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|]<br />Modern Script A |
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|} |
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When the ] adopted the alphabet, they had no use for the ] that the letter had denoted in ] and other ], so they used the sign to represent the vowel {{IPA|/a/}}, and kept its name with a minor change (]). In the earliest Greek inscriptions after the ], dating to the 8th century BC, the letter rests upon its side, but in the ] 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. |
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The ] brought the Greek alphabet to their civilization in the ] and left the letter unchanged. The Romans later adopted the ] to write the ], and the resulting letter was preserved in the modern ] used to write many languages, including ]. |
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] |
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The letter has two ] (lower-case) forms. The form used in most current ] consists of a circle and vertical stoke ({{Unicode|"ɑ"}}), called ] or "script a". Most printed material uses a form consisting of a small loop with an arc over it ({{Unicode|"a"}}). Both derive from the ] (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 ] 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. |
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==Usage== |
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{{main|a (disambiguation)}} |
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In English, "a" by itself frequently denotes the ] ({{IPA|/æ/}}) as in ''pad'', the ] ({{IPA|/ɑː/}}) as in ''father'', or, in concert with a later orthographic vowel, the diphthong {{IPA|/eɪ/}} as in ''ace'' and ''major'', due to effects of the ]. |
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In most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, "a" denotes an ] ({{IPA|/a/}}). In the ], variants of "a" denote various ]s. In ], capital "A" denotes the ] and lowercase "a" denotes the ]. |
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"A" is the third common used letter in English, and the second most common in ] and ]. In one study, on average, about 3.68% of letters used in English tend to be ‹a›s, while the number is 6.22% in Spanish and 3.95% in French.<ref name="Trinity College" /> |
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"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; ] celebrities, etc. Such associations can have a ] effect as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters.<ref>{{Cite document |url=http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20100903-20689.html |title=Letters affect exam results |date=9 March 2010 |publisher=British Psychological Society |postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> |
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A ] ({{IPA|"ɐ"}}) is used by the ] for the ], while a turned capital "A" ("∀") is used in ] to specify ]. |
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{{Letter |
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|NATO=Alpha<!--don't change to official "alfa" until Commons images are moved to this spelling, or redirects are set up, as otherwise the table does not display the semaphore and flag images--> |
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|Morse=·– |
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|Character=A1 |
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|Braille=⠁ |
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}} |
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==Codes for computing== |
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In ], the ] "A" is codepoint U+0041 and the ] "a" is U+0061.<ref name="unicode" /> |
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The ] code for capital "A" is 65 and for lower case "a" is 97; or in ] 01000001 and 01100001, respectively. |
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The ] code for capital "A" is 193 and for lowercase "a" is 129; or in ] 11000001 and 10000001, respectively. |
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The ]s in ] and ] are "<tt>&#65;</tt>" and "<tt>&#97;</tt>" for upper and lower case, respectively. |
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==See also== |
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{{Commons|A}} |
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* <big>]</big> |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist|refs= |
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<ref name="OED">"A" ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989). ''Aes'' is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is ''A''s, A's, ''a''s, a's.</ref> |
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<ref name="World Book">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=A|encyclopedia=The World Book Encyclopedia|volume=1|page=1|publisher=Field Enterprises, Inc|year=1956}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Trinity College">{{Cite web|url=http://starbase.trincoll.edu/~crypto/resources/LetFreq.html|title=Percentages of Letter frequencies per Thousand words|accessdate=2006-05-01}}</ref> |
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<ref name="unicode">{{Cite web|url=http://macchiato.com/unicode/chart/|title=Javascript Unicode Chart|language=en|accessdate=2009-03-08}}</ref> |
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}} |
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== External links == |
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{{Wiktionary|A}} |
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* |
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*{{Wikisource-inline|list= |
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**“]” in '']'' by ] |
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**{{Cite EB1911|A|noicon=x}} |
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**{{Cite NSRW|A|noicon=x}} |
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**{{Cite Collier's|A|noicon=x}} |
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}} |
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{{Latin alphabet|A|}} |
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