5 Questions
In the earliest Greek inscriptions, how did the letter alpha appear?
Resting upon its side
What did the ancient Greeks use their version of the Phoenician letter to represent?
The vowel /a/
What did the Etruscans bring to their civilization in the Italian Peninsula?
The Greek alphabet
What did the ancient Greeks have no use for when adopting the alphabet?
A letter to represent the glottal stop
How did the Greek alphabet generally resemble in later times?
The modern capital letter
Study Notes
The Letter A
- The first letter and vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in modern English and other western European languages.
- Similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.
Characteristics
- Uppercase version: two slanting sides of a triangle crossed by a horizontal bar.
- Lowercase version: two forms - double-storey "a" and single-storey "ɑ".
Usage
- In English grammar, "a" and its variant "an" are indefinite articles.
- Commonly used in handwriting and fonts, especially in fonts for children, and in italic type.
History
- Earliest known ancestor: aleph, the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet.
- Aleph's ancestor may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script, influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended.
Test your knowledge of the letter A with this fun quiz! From its role in the Latin alphabet to its pronunciation and usage in various languages, see how much you know about this important letter.
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