Latin alpha
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The letter Latin alpha with a lowercase Greek alpha shape, as in the African reference alphabet or the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages
The letter Latin alpha with a script-a shape, as in the International phonetic alphabet
The lowercase letter A: the double-story lowercase on the left; the single-story lowercase, also called literacy a or script-a, on the right. The latter can be confused with the Latin alpha.
Latin alpha (majuscule: Ɑ, minuscule: ɑ) or script a is a letter of the Latin alphabet, based on one lowercase form of a, or on the Greek lowercase alpha (α). Although ⟨ɑ⟩ is normally just an allograph of ⟨a⟩, there are instances in which the two letters must be carefully distinguished:
- In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨ɑ⟩ represents an open back unrounded vowel, while ⟨a⟩ represents an open front unrounded vowel. It has the shape of a script-a.
- Also in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages, ⟨Ɑ ɑ⟩ usually represents an open back unrounded vowel, while ⟨A a⟩ represents an open front unrounded vowel. The former is used in the orthographies of several languages of Cameroon, including:
- Fe'fe'[1][2]
- Mbembe[3]
- Mbo (?): but not Akoose, though it does have phonemes /aa/ and /ɑɑ/;[4] nor Bakaka.[5]
- in some languages, the script-a form (also called literacy form) of the letter ⟨A a⟩, with the lowercase much like the IPA ⟨ɑ⟩, is used and should not be confused with the Latin alpha ⟨Ɑ ɑ⟩ of the GACL; for example, in Muyang, the literacy ⟨A a⟩ represents an open-mid central unrounded vowel but it is not ⟨Ɑ ɑ⟩; the Latin alpha is not used.[6]
In Cameroon languages, ⟨Ɑ ɑ⟩ must look like the classical lowercase Greek alpha to better differentiate it from the letter a in script form.
Latin a, Latin alpha, and Greek alpha, using the fonts: Arial, Times New Roman, Gentium, Doulos SIL, Cambria, Linux Libertine, Andron Mega Corpus, Courier New, and Consolas. Second row: italics, using the same fonts.
The letter A
Encoding and forms
In Unicode, Latin alpha and Latin script a are considered as same letter. The minuscule form was present in Unicode 1.0, as U+0251 ɑ latin small letter script a. In version 1.1.5, it was renamed as U+0251 ɑ latin small letter alpha. The majuscule form is present in Unicode 5.1 as U+2C6D Ɑ latin capital letter alpha.
See also
- Turned a discusses the turned Latin alpha
References
- ↑ Priest, Lorna A.; Constable, Peter G. (2005). "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin Phonetic and Orthographic Characters". Retrieved March 17, 2013.
- ↑ "L’alphabet camerounais leçon 1.2" (in French). Retrieved March 17, 2013.
- ↑ EYOH, Julius A.; Echebi Emmanuel SANDAMU (2009). "Mbembe Orthography Guide". Retrieved March 17, 2013.
- ↑ HEDINGER, Robert (2011). "Akoose". Retrieved March 17, 2013. "Among the short vowels the two a-sounds and the two o-sounds are in complementary distribution and therefore do not have to be distinguished in the orthography. However, there is a problem in the long vowels where the two pairs of sounds distinguish between distinct words. Up to now they have not been distinguished and it seems this doesn’t cause any problem to readers."
- ↑ SPIELMANN, Kent (1998). "Mkaa' Orthography Review (Bakaka)". Retrieved March 17, 2013.
- ↑ SMITH, Tony (2001). "Alphabet et orthographe Muyang" (in French). Retrieved March 17, 2013.
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