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| A with Overring | |
|---|---|
| Å å | |
| Ǻ ǻ | |
 | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Language of origin | Swedish |
| Sound values | |
| In Unicode | U+00C5, U+00E5, U+212B |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Variations | Ǻ ǻ |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
The letterÅ (å in lower case) represents various (although often similar)sounds in several languages. It is a separate letter inDanish,Swedish,Norwegian,Finnish,North Frisian,Low Saxon,Transylvanian Saxon,Walloon,Rotuman,Chamorro,Lule Sami,Pite Sami,Skolt Sami,Southern Sami,Ume Sami, Pamirian languages, andGreenlandic alphabets. Additionally, it is part of thealphabets used for someAlemannic andAustro-Bavariandialects ofGerman.[1]
Though Å is derived fromA by adding anoverring, it is typically considered a separateletter. It developed as a form of semi-ligature of anA with a smallero above it to denote a rounding of the long /a/ inOld Danish.[2]
⟨Å⟩ is part of theDanish and Norwegian alphabet and theSwedish alphabet. In Danish,⟨å⟩ may represent the phonemes/ɔ/ or/ɒ/,[3]: 100 while it may represent[o] and[ɔ] in Norwegian[4]: 343–345 and Swedish.[citation needed]
Historically,Old Norse had a long vowel/aː/ (sometimes spelled⟨á⟩).[citation needed] Medieval writing often useddoubled letters for long vowels, writing the vowel as⟨aa⟩. From around 1200, the vowel underwent rounding towards[ɔː] to such a degree that it started to show up in the written language by using⟨o⟩. In manuscripts from 1300 to 1400, a word likeblaa ('blue', modern spelling⟨blå⟩) could also be spelled⟨blao⟩ or⟨blo(o)⟩, sometimes with an added line.[2]
InOld Swedish the use of the ligatureÆ and ofØ (originally also a variant of the ligature Œ) that represented the sounds[æ] and[ø] respectively were gradually replaced by new letters. Instead of using ligatures, aminuscule (that is, lower-case)E was placed above the lettersA andO to create newgraphemes, which later evolved into the modern lettersÄ andÖ, as theE was simplified into the two dots now referred to as anumlaut. Similarly, a minuscule O was placed on top of an A to create a new letter which was used in place of the digraphAa. It was first used inprint in theGustav Vasa Bible published in 1541 and replacedAa in the 16th century.[5]
In an attempt to modernize the orthography, linguists tried to introduce the Å to Danish and Norwegian writing in the 19th century. Most people felt no need for the new letter, as the letter groupAa had already been pronounced like Å for centuries in Denmark and Norway. Aa was usually treated as a single letter, spoken like the present Å when spelling out names or words. Orthography reforms making Å official were carried out inNorway in 1917 and inDenmark in 1948. According to Jørgen Nørby Jensen, senior consultant atDansk Sprognævn, the cause for the change in Denmark was a combination of anti-German and pro-Nordic sentiment.[6] Danish had been the only language apart from German andLuxembourgish to usecapitalized nouns in the last decades, but abolished them at the same time.
In a few names of Danish cities or towns, the old spelling has been retained as an option due to local resistance, e.g.Aalborg andAabenraa; however, Ålborg and Åbenrå are the spellings recommended by theDanish Language Board.[7] Between 1948 and 2010, the city ofAarhus was officially spelledÅrhus. However, the city has reverted to theAa spelling starting 2011, in a controversial decision citing internationalization andweb compatibility advantages.
Icelandic andFaroese are the only North Germanic languages not to use theå. The Old Norse letterá is retained, but the sound it now expresses is a diphthong, pronounced[au] in Icelandic and[ɔa] in Faroese. The short variation of Faroese á is pronounced[ɔ], though.
In some place names, the oldAa spelling dominates, more often in Denmark than in Norway (where it has been abolished in official use since 1917). Locals ofAalborg andAabenraa resist the Å, whereasÅlesund is rarely seen with Aa spelling. Official rules allow both forms in the most common cases, but Å is always correct. Å as a word means "small river" in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian and can be found in place names.
Before 1917, when spelling with the double A was common, some Norwegian place names contained three or four consecutive A letters: for instanceHaaa (nowHåa, a river) andBlaaaasen (Blååsen, 'the blue ("blå") ridge ("ås")').
In family names, the bearer of the name uses Aa or Å according to their choice, but since family names are inherited they are resistant to change and the traditional Aa style is often kept. For instance, the last nameAagaard is much more common thanÅgård. The surname Aa is always spelled with double A, never with the singleå. However, given names - which are less commonly inherited - have largely changed to the use of the Å. For instance, in Norway more than 12,000 male citizens spell their nameHåkon, while only around 2,500 are namedHaakon.
Company names are sometimes spelled with the double A by choice, usually in order to convey an impression of old-fashionedness or traditionality. The double A, representing a single sound, is usually kept in initials e.g. for people whose first, middle, and/or last name begins with the double A. Accordingly, a man named "Hans Aagard Hauge" would spell his initials "H. Aa. H." (not "H. A. H." nor "H. Å. H."), while a woman named Aase Vestergaard would spell her initials "Aa. V." (not "A. V." nor "Å. V.").
Correctalphabetization inDanish andNorwegian places Å as the last letter in thealphabet, the sequence beingÆ,Ø, Å. This is also true for the alternative spelling "Aa". Unless manually corrected, sorting algorithms of programs localized for Danish or Norwegian placee.g.,Aaron afterZorro.
In Danish the correct sorting of aa depends on pronunciation: If the sound is pronounced as one sound it is sorted as Å regardless of the sound is 'a' or 'å'; thus, for example, the German cityAachen is listed underÅ, as well as the Danish cityAabenraa. This is §3 in the DanishRetskrivningsreglerne.[8]
In theSwedish andFinnish alphabets, Å issorted afterZ, as the third letter from the end, the sequence being Å,Ä,Ö. A combined Nordic sorting mnemonic is Æ, Ø, Å, Ä, Ö.
Alternative spellings of the Scandinavian Å have become a concern because of globalization, and particularly because of the popularization of theWorld Wide Web. This is to a large extent due to the fact that prior to the creation ofIDNA system around 2005, internet domains containing Scandinavian letters were not recognized by theDNS, and anyway do not feature on keyboards adapted for other languages. While it is recommended to keep the Å intact wherever possible, the next best thing is to use the older, double A spelling (e.g. "www.raade.com" instead of "www.råde.com"). This is because, as previously discussed, the Å/Aa indicates a separate sound. If the Å is represented as a common A without the overring (e.g. "www.rade.com") there is no indication that the A is supposed to represent another sound entirely. Even so, representing the Å as just an A is particularly common in Sweden, as compared to Norway and Denmark, because the spelling Aa has no traditional use there.
Because theFinnish alphabet is derived from the Swedish alphabet, Å is carried over, but it has no native Finnish use and is treated as in Swedish. Its usage is limited to loanwords (the Finnish academic dictionaryKielitoimiston sanakirja, about 100,000 words, has only one word containing Å:ångström) and names of Swedish, Danish or Norwegian origin. In Finland there are many Swedish-speaking as well as many Finnish-speaking people with Swedish surnames, and many Swedish surnames include Å. In addition, there are many geographical places in the Finnish coastal areas and archipelago that have å in their Swedish names, such asKråkö andLångnäs, as well as the Finnish autonomous region ofÅland, a group of islands midst between Sweden and Finland where almost all natives speak Swedish. The Finnish name for Å isruotsalainen oo ("Swedish O"), and is pronounced identically toO, which has the value[o̞]. (Note that in Swedish, the sounds[oː] and[ɔ] may be represented byÅ orO, butO also represents[uː] and[ʊ].)
The substitutionaa forå is not allowed in Finnish, becauseaa is already a common letter combination with the value[ɑː].
InEmilian, å is used to represent theopen-mid back unrounded vowel[ʌ], like theRP pronunciation of⟨u⟩ in "up", e.g. Modenese dialectåmm,dånna[ˈʌmː],[ˈdʌnːa] "man, woman";
e.g. Bolognese dialectBulåggna,dåpp[buˈlʌɲːa][ˈdʌpː] "Bologna, later".
The letter å was introduced to some eastern local variants ofWalloon at the beginning of the 16th century and initially noted the same sound as in Danish. Its use then spread to all eastern dialects, under the cultural influence ofLiege, and covered three sounds, a long openo, a long closedo, or a longa, depending on the local varieties. The use of a singleå letter to cover such pronunciations has been embraced by the more recentpan-Walloon orthography (rifondou or Common Walloon), with one orthography for words regardless of the local phonetic variations.
In non-standardized writings outside the Liege area, words containingå are written withau /ô (representing the same sound) orâ. For example, the wordmåjhon (house) in the standardized orthography is spelledmôjo(n),mâhon,maujon in dialectal writings (mohone is another form that does not contain a long å).
TheIstro-Romanian alphabet is based on the standardRomanian alphabet with three additional letters used to mark sounds specific only to this language: å, ľ and ń.
Javanese uses å to indicateopen-mid back rounded vowel ⟨ɔ⟩ together with ó (o acute).
Å andå are also used in the practical orthography ofChamorro, a language indigenous to the people ofNorthern Mariana Islands andGuam. Unmarkeda represents thelow front unrounded vowel, whileå represents thelow back rounded vowel. The Chamorro name for Guam isGuåhån, and its capital is calledHagåtña.[9]
InGreenlandic,å is not used in native words, but is used in several loanwords from Danish, such asbåndoptageri (Danishbåndoptager) 'tape recorder'. Like in Danish,å is sorted last in the alphabet.
The letter "Å" (U+00C5) is also used as the international symbol for the non-SI unitangstrom, aphysical unit oflength named after theSwedishphysicistAnders Jonas Ångström. It is alwaysuppercase in this context (symbols for units named after people are generally uppercase). The angstrom is equal to10−10 m (one ten-billionth of a meter) or0.1 nm.
InUnicode, the unit is encoded asU+212B ÅANGSTROM SIGN. However, it iscanonically equivalent to the ordinary letter Å. The duplicate encoding at U+212B is due to round-trip mapping compatibility with an East-Asiancharacter encoding, but is otherwise not to be used.[10]
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Sometype designers like using the "ring stick" state, as they think that that way the glyph will not be very tall. Otherwise prefer the "ring separate" state, for exampleSIL Fonts. The second state is more common.[citation needed]
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