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Latin alpha (
) are considered to be the same character, which has an uppercase and a lowercase form and is referred to as "Latin letter alpha".
Latin alpha (majuscule
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
: Ɑ, minuscule
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
: ɑ) or script a is a letter of the Latin alphabet based on one lowercase form of a, or on the Greek lowercase alpha
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...
(α).
Usage
Although is normally just an allograph of , there are instances in which the two letters must be carefully distinguished: * In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
, represents an open back unrounded vowel
The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The l ...
, while represents an open front unrounded vowel. It has the shape of a script-a.
* Also in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages, usually represents an open back unrounded vowel
The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The l ...
, while represents an open front unrounded vowel. The former is used in the orthographies of several languages of Cameroon, including:
** Fe'fe'
** Mbembe
** Mbo (?): but not Akoose, though it does have phonemes /aa/ and /ɑɑ/; nor Bakaka.
** in some languages, the script-a form (also called literacy form) of the letter , with the lowercase much like the IPA , is used and should not be confused with the Latin alpha of the GACL; for example, in Muyang, the literacy represents an open-mid central unrounded vowel but it is not ; the Latin alpha is not used.
In Cameroon languages, must look like the classical lowercase Greek alpha to better differentiate it from the letter a in script form.
is used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.
is used in the Teuthonista
Teuthonista is a phonetic transcription system used predominantly for the transcription of (High) German dialects. It is very similar to other Central European transcription systems from the early 20th century. The base characters are mostly bas ...
phonetic transcription system.
is used in Americanist phonetic notation.
Typography
Encoding and forms
In Unicode, "Latin alpha" () and "Latin script a" () are considered to be the same character, which has an uppercase and a lowercase form and is referred to as "Latin letter alpha".
See also
*Latin turned alpha
The Latin turned alpha, also known as the turned script A (uppercase: Ɒ, lowercase: ɒ), is an additional letter of the Latin script, based on letters A and Latin alpha (Ɑ). Its lowercase variant is used in International Phonetic Alphabet, Am ...
* G, which also has two distinct minuscule forms
References
A, Latin alpha Phonetic transcription symbols Vowel letters {{phonetics-stub