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Letter (alphabet)

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Character in alphabet writing systems
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This page usesIPA notation for orthographic or other linguistic analysis. For the meaning of how⟨ ⟩,| |,/ /, and[ ]are used here, seethis page.

In awriting system, aletter is agrapheme that generally corresponds to aphoneme—the smallest functional unit of speech—though there is rarely total one-to-one correspondence between the two. Analphabet is a writing system that uses letters.[1]

Definition and usage

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Further information:Grapheme,Glyph, andCharacter (symbol)

A letter is a type ofgrapheme, the smallest functional unit within a writing system. Letters are graphemes that broadly correspond tophonemes, the smallest functional units of sound in speech. Similarly to how phonemes are combined to form spoken words, letters may be combined to form written words. A single phoneme may also be represented by multiple letters in sequence, collectively called amultigraph. Multigraphs includedigraphs of two letters[2] (e.g. Englishch,sh,th), andtrigraphs of three letters (e.g. Englishtch).

The sameletterform may be used in different alphabets while representing different phonemic categories. The LatinH, Greeketa⟨Η⟩, and Cyrillicen⟨Н⟩ arehomoglyphs, but represent different phonemes. Conversely, the distinct forms of⟨S⟩, the Greeksigma⟨Σ⟩, and Cyrillices⟨С⟩ each represent analogous /s/ phonemes.

Ancient inscription on a vase featuringGreek letters

Letters are associated with specific names, which may differ between languages and dialects.Z, for example, is usually calledzed outside of the United States, where it is namedzee. Both ultimately derive from the name of the parent Greek letterzeta⟨Ζ⟩. In alphabets, letters are arranged inalphabetical order, which also may vary by language. In Spanish,⟨ñ⟩ is considered to be a separate letter from⟨n⟩, though this distinction is not usually recognised in English dictionaries. In computer systems, each has its owncode point,U+006E nLATIN SMALL LETTER N andU+00F1 ñLATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE, respectively.

Letters may also function as numerals with assigned numerical values, for example withRoman numerals. Greek and Latin letters have avariety of modern uses in mathematics, science, and engineering.

People and objects are sometimes named after letters, for one of these reasons:

  1. The letter is an abbreviation, e.g. "G-man" as slang for aFederal Bureau of Investigation agent, arose as short for "Government Man"
  2. Alphabetical order used as a counting system, e.g. Plan A, Plan B, etc.;alpha ray,beta ray,gamma ray, etc.
  3. The shape of the letter, e.g.A-clamp,A-frame,D-ring,F-clamp,G-clamp,H-block,H engine,O-ring,R-clip,S or Z twist,U engine,U-bend,V engine,W engine,X engine,Z-drive, ariverdelta,omega block
  4. Other reasons, e.g.X-ray after "x the unknown" inalgebra, because the discoverer did not know what they were

The wordletter enteredMiddle Englishc. 1200, borrowed from theOld Frenchletre. It eventually displaced the previousOld English termbōcstæf 'bookstaff'.Letter ultimately descends from the Latinlittera, which may have been derived from the Greekdiphthera 'writing tablet' viaEtruscan.[3] Until the 19th century,letter was also used interchangeably to refer to aspeech segment.[4]

History

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Further information:History of writing andHistory of the alphabet
TheAmerican manual alphabet, an example of letters infingerspelling

Before alphabets,phonograms, graphic symbols of sounds, were used. There were three kinds of phonograms: verbal, pictures for entire words, syllabic, which stood for articulations of words, and alphabetic, which represented signs or letters. The earliest examples of which are from Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, dating toc. 3000 BCE. The first consonantal alphabet emerged aroundc. 1800 BCE, representing the Phoenicians,Semitic workers in Egypt. Their script was originally written and read from right to left. From thePhoenician alphabet came theEtruscan and Greek alphabets. From there, the most widely used alphabet today emerged, Latin, which is written and read from left to right.[5]

The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, nineteen of which the Latin alphabet used, and the Greek alphabet, adaptedc. 900 BCE, added four letters to those used in Phoenician. This Greek alphabet was the first to assign letters not only toconsonant sounds, but also tovowels.

The Roman Empire further developed and refined the Latin alphabet, beginning around 500 BCE. During the fifth and sixth centuries, the development of lowercase letters began to emerge in Roman writing. At this point, paragraphs, uppercase and lowercase letters, and the concept of sentences and clauses still had not emerged; these final bits of development emerged in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.[6]

Finally, many slight letter additions and drops were made to the common alphabet used in the western world. Minor changes were made such as the removal of certain letters, such asthorn⟨Þ þ⟩,wynn⟨Ƿ ƿ⟩, andeth⟨Ð ð⟩.[7]

Types

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Uppercase and lowercase

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Main article:Letter case
Transliterations and iconography of the Semitic script, the first consonantal alphabet

A letter can have multiple variants, orallographs, related to variation in style ofhandwriting orprinting. Some writing systems have two major types of allographs for each letter: anuppercase form (also calledcapital ormajuscule) and alowercase form (also calledminuscule). Upper- and lowercase letters represent the same sound, but serve different functions in writing. Capital letters are most often used at the beginning of a sentence, as the first letter of a proper name or title, or in headers or inscriptions.[8] They may also serve other functions, such as in theGerman language where allnouns begin with capital letters.[9]

The termsuppercase andlowercase originated in the days of handset type for printing presses. Individual letter blocks were kept in specific compartments of drawers in a type case. Capital letters were stored in a higher drawer or upper case.[10][11]

Engravings of decorated Latin letters, from the 18th century (note the lack of a J and a U)

Diacritics

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Main article:Diacritics

In most alphabetic scripts, diacritics (or accents) are routinely used.English is unusual in not using them except forloanwords from other languages or personal names (for example,naïve,Brontë). The ubiquity of this usage is indicated by the existence ofprecomposed characters for use with computer systems (for example,⟨á⟩,⟨à⟩,⟨ä⟩,⟨â⟩,⟨ã⟩.)

Ascenders (as in "h") anddescenders (as in "p") make the height of lower-case letters vary.

Examples in writing systems

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See also:List of writing systems
Venn diagram of letters in theGreek,Cyrillic andLatin alphabets. Certain letters appear in two or more of these alphabets, although they may not represent the same sound.

In the following table, letters from multiple differentwriting systems are shown, to demonstrate the variety of letters used throughout the world.

Example alphabetLetters in example alphabet
Assameseঅ, আ, ই, ঈ, উ, ঊ, ঋ, এ, ঐ, ও, ঔ, ক, খ, গ, ঘ, ঙ, চ, ছ, জ, ঝ, ঞ, ট, ঠ, ড, ঢ, ণ, ত, থ, দ, ধ, ন, প, ফ, ব, ভ, ম, য, ৰ, ল, ৱ, শ, ষ, স, হ,ক্ষ, ড়, ঢ়, য়, ৎ, ং, ঃ, ঁ
Bengaliঅ, আ, ই, ঈ, উ, ঊ, ঋ, এ, ঐ, ও, ঔ, ক, খ, গ, ঘ, ঙ, চ, ছ, জ, ঝ, ঞ, ট, ঠ, ড, ঢ, ণ, ত, থ, দ, ধ, ন, প, ফ, ব, ভ, ম, য, ল, শ, ষ, স, হ,ক্ষ, ড়, ঢ়, য়, ৎ, ং, ঃ, ঁ
Arabic(Alphabetical from right to left)ﺍ,ﺏ,ﺕ,ﺙ,ﺝ,ﺡ,ﺥ,ﺩ,ﺫ,ﺭ,ﺯ,ﺱ,ﺵ,ﺹ,ﺽ,ﻁ,ﻅ,ﻉ,ﻍ,ﻑ,ﻕ,ﻙ,ﻝ,ﻡ,ﻥ,هـ,ﻭ,ﻱ
ArmenianԱ,Բ,Գ, Դ,Ե,Զ, Է,Ը,Թ, Ժ,Ի, Լ, Խ, Ծ, Կ,Հ, Ձ, Ղ, Ճ, Մ, Յ, Ն, Շ,Ո, Չ,Պ, Ջ, Ռ,Ս, Վ,Տ, Ր, Ց, Ւ,Փ, Ք, Օ, Ֆ
Syriac(Alphabetical from right to left)ܐ,ܒ,ܓ,ܕ,ܗ,ܘ,ܙ,ܚ,ܛ,ܝ,ܟܟ,ܠ,ܡܡ,ܢܢ,ܣ,ܥ,ܦ,ܨ,ܩ,ܪ,ܫ,ܬ
Cyrillic scriptА,Б,В,Г,Д,Е,Ё,Ж,З,И,Й,К,Л,М,Н,О,П,Р,С,Т,У,Ф,Х,Ц,Ч,Ш,Щ,Ъ,Ы,Ь,Э,Ю,Я
Georgian scriptა,ბ,გ,დ,ე,ვ,ზ,თ,ი,კ,ლ,მ,ნ,ო,პ,ჟ,რ,ს,ტ,უ,ფ,ქ,ღ,ყ,შ,ჩ,ც,ძ,წ,ჭ,ხ,ჯ,ჰ
GreekΑ,Β,Γ,Δ,Ε,Ζ,Η,Θ,Ι,Κ,Λ,Μ,Ν,Ξ,Ο,Π,Ρ,Σ,Τ,Υ,Φ,Χ,Ψ,Ω
Hebrew alphabet(Alphabetical from right to left)א,ב,ג,ד,ה,ו,ז,ח,ט,י,כ,ל,מ,נ,ס,ע,פ,צ,ק,ר,ש,ת
Latin alphabetA,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z
Hangulㄱ ㄲ ㄴ ㄷ ㄸ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅃ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅉ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ
Burmeseက ခ ဂ ဃ င စ ဆ ဇ ဈ ည ဋ ဌ ဍ ဎ ဏ တ ထ ဒ ဓ န ပ ဖ ဗ ဘ မ ယ ရ လ ဝ သ ဟ ဠ အ
Bopomofoㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ ㄉ ㄊ ㄋ ㄌ ㄍ ㄎ ㄏ ㄐ ㄑ ㄒ ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ ㄖ ㄗ ㄘ ㄙ ㄚ ㄛ ㄜ ㄝ ㄞ ㄟ ㄠ ㄡ ㄢ ㄣ ㄤ ㄥ ㄦ ㄧ ㄨ ㄩ ㄭ
Ogham ᚁ ᚂ ᚃ ᚄ ᚅ ᚆ ᚇ ᚈ ᚉ ᚊ ᚋ ᚌ ᚍ ᚎ ᚏ ᚐ ᚑ ᚒ ᚓ ᚔ ᚕ ᚖ ᚗ ᚘ ᚙ ᚚ ᚛ ᚜
Ethiopicሀ ለ ሐ መ ሠ ረ ሰ ሸ ቀ በ ተ ቸ ኀ ነ ኘ አ ከ ኸ ወ ዐ ዘ ዠ የ ደ ጀ ገ ጠ ጨ ጰ ጸ ፀ ፈ ፐ
Tifinagh (Amazigh alphabet)ⴰ,ⴱ,ⵛ,ⴷ,ⴹ,ⴻ,ⴼ,ⴳ,ⴳⵯ,ⵀ,ⵃ,ⵉ,ⵊ,ⴽ,ⴽⵯ,ⵍ,ⵎ,ⵏ,ⵓ,ⵄ,ⵖ,ⵅ,ⵇ,ⵔ,ⵕ,ⵙ,ⵚ,ⵜ,ⵟ,ⵡ,ⵢ,ⵣ,ⵥ
Meetei Mayekꯀ,ꯁ,ꯂ,ꯃ,ꯄ,ꯅ,ꯆ,ꯈ,ꯉ,ꯊ,ꯋ,ꯌ,ꯍ,ꯎ,ꯏ,ꯐ,ꯑ,ꯒ,ꯓ,ꯔ,ꯕ,ꯖ,ꯗ,ꯘ,ꯙ,ꯚ,ꯛ,ꯜ,ꯝ,ꯞ,ꯟ,ꯠ,ꯡ,ꯢ,ꯥ,ꯤ,ꯨ,ꯦ,ꯣ,ꯩ,ꯧ,ꯪ

See also

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References

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Inline citations

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  1. ^Rogers (2005), p. 13–14.
  2. ^Rogers (2005), p. 35.
  3. ^Harper, Douglas."Origin and meaning of letter".Online Etymology Dictionary.Archived from the original on 2017-11-03.
  4. ^Abercrombie, David (1949). "What is a "letter?"".Lingua.2:54–63.doi:10.1016/0024-3841(49)90006-6.
  5. ^Taylor, Isaac (1899).The history of the alphabet; an account of the origin and development of letters. New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
  6. ^Mason, William Albert (1920).A history of the art of writing. New York: The Macmillan company – viaHathiTrust.
  7. ^Taylor, Isaac (1879).Greeks and Goths: a study on the runes. London: Macmillan and co. – via HathiTrust.
  8. ^Rogers (2005), p. 10–11.
  9. ^Flippo, Hyde (February 14, 2020)."Capitalization in German".ThoughtCo.Archived from the original on 2021-11-19. Retrieved2022-03-15.
  10. ^Hansard, Thomas Curson (1825).Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing. p. 406. Retrieved12 August 2015.
  11. ^Drogin, Marc (1980).Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique. Courier Corporation. p. 37.ISBN 9780486261423.Archived from the original on 2022-01-23. Retrieved2022-03-14.

General references

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Further reading

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External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toLetters.
Look upletter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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