The letter name is fromMiddle Englishā, fromOld French, ultimately fromLatinā. Use of the Latin letter in (Old) English displaced thefuthorc letterᚪ(a) beginning in the 7th century, and partially alsoᚫ(æ).
The current pronunciation resulted from theGreat Vowel Shift. Before the early part of the 17th century, the pronunciation was similar to that in other languages.
1974, Ervin A. Dennis, John D. Jenkins, “A Font of Type”, inComprehensive Graphic Arts, Indianapolis, I.N.:Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc.,→ISBN,page26, column 2:
Note that with 18-point type, fifteen capitalA's, twenty-five lowercasea's, and twelve1's are obtained with one font. With this information, it is possible to refer to Table 10-1 which gives the number of characters for each letter, punctuation mark, or figure.
Across every sheet of paper were lines and lines of letters of the alphabet. A row ofa's followed by a row of b's and so on, pages of them, like pages from a copy book, crudely formed as if from the hand of a young child.
In the seventh grade I admired a charismatic, witty girl who had a particular way of writing her lowercasea's. After some practice, I took to writing my lowercasea's in the same fashion.
1816,William Young Ottley,An Inquiry Into the Origin and Early History of Engraving[…], volume II, London:[…] John and Arthur Arch,[…] by J. M'Creery,page621:
This piece somewhat resembles ana. On the left is a man seated on the ground, with a dog between his legs, and a large bird of prey in his hands, which appears to be biting his head.
But with some prelude of disparagement, / Read, mouthing out his hollow oes andaes, / Deep-chested music, and to this result.
[1906, Leigh H[adley] Irvine, “Abbreviations in General”, inThe Magazine Style Code: A Manual For The Guidance Of Authors, Reporters And All Who Write, San Francisco, C.A.: Crown Publishing Company,pages15–16:
Letters should be spelled as follows;aes, bees, cees, dees, ees, efs, gees, aitches, ies, jays, kays, els, ems, ens, oes, pees, ques, ars, esses, tees, ues, vees, ws or dubleyuz, exes, wyes, zees.]
1993, Frank Pagden, “Teaching”, inThe Gospel According to St. Lynas, Tunbridge Wells: Mitre,→ISBN,unnumbered page:
St Lynas was chatting with a group of rebellious young college students one day, who decried the moral standards of the past. ¶ So St Lynas drew an'a' on some paper, and asked them what it was. ¶ 'A' they said.
He had another formidable difficulty in getting him across the river, where both horses stuck fora time in the mire, and Beatte was nearly unseated from his saddle by the force of the current and the struggles of his captive.
Speaking asa servant, I am deeply indebted to you. Speaking asa man, I consider you to bea person whose head is full of maggots, and I take up my testimony against your experiment asa delusion and a snare.
1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, “Preface”, inThe Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.:Field Museum of Natural History,→ISBN, page vii:
With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied;a herbarium packet gives one onlya small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]
2005, Emily Kingsley (lyricist), Kevin Clash (voice actor), “A Cookie is a Sometime Food”,Sesame Street, season 36, Sesame Workshop:
Hoots the Owl: Yes a, fruit, isa[sic], any, time, food!
In retrospect, I realise, I had been unconsciously devotinga large amount of energy to negative choice, a concept I'm borrowing and adapting from sociologist Eva Illouz's 2019 treatise, The End of Love (by way ofa viral Paris Review essay).
The C.I.A. infiltrated not just magazines, radio, and movies but youth organizations and movements like Abstract Expressionism; all were meant to inspirea reverence for democracy and freedom,a project that, in Walker's telling, often tips into absurdity.
By the time he gets onto a chair, the pristine powder snow below the lift has already been chopped up bya hundred tracks, and the line to get back up stretches the length of a football field.
But I was going to say, that while I was dawdling about abroad, I sawa good many talented young fellows making all sorts of sacrifices, and enduring real hardships, that they might realize their dreams. Splendid fellows, some of them, working like heroes, poor and friendless, but so full of courage, patience and ambition, that I was ashamed of myself, and longed to give them a right good lift.
Twenty years after the movie's release, we knowa lot more about the Atlantic Ocean's circulation. Instruments deployed in the ocean starting in 2004 show that the Atlantic Ocean circulation has observably slowed over the past two decades, possibly to its weakest state in almost a millennium.
The blues were eating leisurely, swimming about and opening their great mouths, spouting and filling their enormous stomachs with intense satisfaction. They had no idea of danger. There must have been about fifteen of them, peacefully feeding. One of them, its belly gorged probably witha few trillion plankton, seemed to be lying asleep on the surface.
The impact of hidden virality can't be stopped by retroactively banninga few thousand Twitter accounts; it is an iterative, memetic phenomenon that outpaces terms of service.
If, for example, you ask a child what he likes to do, he may say he doesn't know. However, if you watch him during free time, and note that he plays basketballa lot, you may infer that this is a high-probability behavior, and he finds it reinforcing.
2009, James H. S. McGregor,Paris From the Ground Up, Cambridge, M.A., London:Belknap Press,→ISBN,page163:
The bridge was shifteda bit to the east and rebuilt, this time with the shops of money-changers along both sides.
You don't need to go cold turkey to help your health. Even reducinga little bit can be beneficial, especially if you currently drink over the recommended limits.
My friend Cindy's husband, Michael Zahavi, a true chocoholic if there ever was one, adores this tart. In fact, when I visited their cottage up in Muskoka, Ontario one summer and brought this along as a treat, he got up in the middle of the night to nosh away at it, leaving us sleepyheads with narya crumb the next day.
Used before an adjective that modifies a noun (singular or plural) delimited by a numeral.
The lottery jackpot is wortha staggering three hundred million dollars.
The holidays area mere one week away.
One; someone named;used before a person's name, suggesting that the speaker knows little about the person other than the name.[4]
We've received an interesting letter froma Mrs. Miggins of London.
Used before an adjective modifying a person's name, typically used to emphasize that person's current condition or emotional state.
1963, Robert Hancock,Ruth Ellis: The Last Woman To Be Hanged, London:Orion, published1993,→ISBN,page35:
At Waterloo she asked George for £5 and said that she would go home by tube, anda relieved George watched her descend the Underground steps.
[Jules] Pécher actually sculpteda sort of Statue of Liberty for the centerpiece of the monument, but for the rest he thought it advisable to call in Van Rasbourgh, and Rodin thus became a ghost sculptor to a ghost sculptor.
Billy fancied himself as a bit ofa Han Solo, but he shook his head. 'Stop being a wuss.' He grinned. 'Your go.'
2020, Laura Erickson,The Love Lives of Birds: Courting and Mating Rituals, North Adams, M.A.:Storey Publishing,→ISBN,page81:
For the first 5 or 6 days after the eggs hatch, the mother spends most of her time keeping the chicks warm while the father provides most of their meals. All that work may be what prompts the female to leave the family. They share feeding duties more equally during the next week or 10 days, until the young leave the nest. Producing a second batch is easier if she skips the last grueling week or two of provisioning fledglings. She can recharge her batteries by moseying off and, while on vacation, looking fora new Casanova.
"Well, I reckon it did, marm, for that shot woulda gone a couple a inches deeper but for my old mammy's camphor bag," answered the cheerful philosopher.
He dropped below me, with the current, and by-and-by he come a-swinging up shore in the easy water, and he went by so close I coulda reached out the gun and touched him.
They live in the river bottom. Don't you know a thing? I thought you musta seen them, since they was here all winter, cutting at the woods and burning brush.
'I never told him, pleaded Liam. 'If I 'ada done, he'da taken the rifles, wouldn't he? Thing is, I wanted to fire a gun for real. See what it felt like. So I just borrowed it and went out on me own to have a go. But I didn't get the chance because I came across a patrol and I panicked and chucked the thing in a bin.'
Isis rode my mug like she was on a ten-inch dick, and as soon as she nutted I tossed her ass offa me and flipped her on her back, then fucked the shit outta her cause it was payback time.
1923 January, “The Sunshine of Childhood (Contributed)”, in Benedict Brown, editor,The Grail, volume 4, number 9, St. Meinrad, Ind.:The Abbey Press,page284, column 2:
James was going with his mother to attend the ceremonies at which his oldest sister in the convent would make perpetual vows. Being asked where he was going, he answered, “I’m goin’a see my sister make percapital vowels.”
"Sure, Billy, I'ma run downstairs to the machine and get me a pack ofbigarettes," he said, taking off with his Melody.
2012, Bertrand E. Brown,Sylvia's Dilemma: A Novel,→ISBN,page95:
Ain't nothin' in the house to eat and now that we has Mr. Alex staying with us a few days I'ma need to buy some groceries so yous two can have the house to yo'self 'til I get back.
2018, Monica Jeremie,Married to a Dade County Bully 2, Urban Chapters Publications,→ISBN,page85:
1655, William Barton,Man's Monitor, or, the Free-school of Virtue; Holding Forth the Duties Required and Sins Forbidden in the Two Tables of the Law., London: W.D. for T. Underhill,unnumbered page; republished inEarly English Books Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:Text Creation Partnership,p.2011:
By cocka pie and Mous-footDent bring's in, / Examples to express forbidden Sin:
TheOxford English Dictionary notes: "The form is not common in any period, and some of the earlier examples could instead show a transmission error foran in its abbreviated form (i.e. ā, with mark of suspension)."[5]
"We will resume yesterday's discourse, young ladies," said he, "and you shall each read a page by turns; so that Missa—Miss Short may have an opportunity of hearing you"; and the poor girls began to spell a long dismal sermon delivered at Bethesda Chapel, Liverpool, on behalf of the mission for the Chickasaw Indians.
(Stenoscript) the long vowel /eɪ/ at the end of a word, or before a final consonant that is not /dʒ, v, z/. (Note: the final consonant is not written; [ɛə˞] counts as /eɪr/.)
E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “a”, inAn Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London,→ISBN
Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015)L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)[12], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)
When the prepositiona is followed by a masculine definite article,el orels, it is contracted with it to the formsal andals respectively. Ifel would be elided to the forml’ because it is before a word beginning with a vowel, the elision toal’ takes precedence over contracting toal.
The same occurs with thesalat articlees, to formas except wherees would be elided tos’.
Pensinger, Brenda J. (1974)Diccionario mixteco-español, español-mixteco (Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”;18)[14] (in Spanish), México, D.F.: ElInstituto Lingüístico de Verano en coordinación con laSecretaría de Educación Pública a través de la Dirección General de Educación Extraescolar en el Medio Indígena, pages3, 110
“a”, in[EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation),2009
The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on those of Swedish, German and Latin, and was first used in the mid-16th century. No earlier script is known. Seethe Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, anda for information on the development of the glyph itself.
Capitalized for the great octave or any octave below that, or in names of major keys; not capitalized for the small octave or any octave above that, or in names of minor keys.
Stich, Dominique (2003) “a”, inDictionnaire francoprovençal/français, français/francoprovençal: Dictionnaire des mots de base du francoprovençal: Orthographe ORB supradialectale standardisée, Thonon-les-Bains: Éditions Le Carré: “a (sert parfois à la possession)”.
The prepositiona regularly forms contractions when it precedes the definite articleo,a,os, andas. For example,a o ("to the") contracts toao oró, anda a ("to the") contracts toá.
The definite articleo (in all its forms) regularly forms contractions when it follows the prepositionsa(“to”),con(“with”),de(“of, from”), anden(“in”). For example,con a(“with the”) contracts tocoa, anden a(“in the”) contracts tona.
Also, the definite article presents a second form that could be represented as <-lo/-la/-los/-las>, or either lack any specific representation. Its origin is in the assimilation of the last consonant of words ended in -s or -r, due tosandhi, with the /l/ present in the article in pre-Galician-Portuguese period. SoVou comer o caldo orVou come-lo caldo are representations of/ˈβowˈkomelo̝ˈkaldo̝/ ("I'm going to have my soup"). This phenomenon, rare in Portuguese, is already documented in 13th century Medieval Galician texts, as theCantigas de Santa Maria.[1]
Due tosandhi, the accusative formo (in all its forms) regularly changes to-lo after verbal forms ended in⟨r⟩ or⟨s⟩, and to-no after verbal forms ended in a semivowel:
^Vaz Leão, Ângela (2000) “Questões de linguagem nasCantigas de Santa Maria, de Afonso X”, inScripta[1], volume 4, number 7,→DOI, retrieved16 November 2017, pages11-24
Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “a”, inCorpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
Used for acquired possessions, whileo is used for possessions that are inherited, out of personal control, and for things that can be got into (houses, clothes, cars).
a in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.).A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (’A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031(work in progress; publishedA–ez as of 2021)
Entries inBárczi, Géza andLászló Országh.A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992:ISBN 9630535793
1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus,Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page17:
A siä Jaakko, kuhu määt?
And you Jaakko, where are you going?
1936, L. G. Terehova, V. G. Erdeli, translated by Mihailov and P. I. Maksimov,Geografia: oppikirja iƶoroin alkușkoulun kolmatta klaassaa vart (ensimäine osa), Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 7:
keskipäivääl hää [päivyt] on kaikkiin ylemmääl,a siis alkaa laskiissa.
on midday it [the Sun] is highest,and then it starts to descend.
A reduced form of olderdo (itself a reanalysis ofdo used in past tenses, and also present in early modern verbs likedo-bheirim(“I give”),do-chím(“I see”)), or from the preverba- in early modern verbs likea-tú(“I am”),a-deirim(“I say”) in relative clauses.
FromOld Irisha(“that, whichthe relative particle used after prepositions”), reanalyzed as an independent indirect relative particle from forms likear a(“on which, on whom”),dá(“to which, to whom”), or early modernle a(“with which, with whom”),agá(“at which, at whom”) when prepositional pronouns started to be repeated in such clauses (eg.don té agá mbíon cloidheamh (…) aige,daoine agá mbíonn grádh aco do Dhia). Compare the forms used in Munster instead:go (fromagá(“at which”)) andna (fromi n-a(“in which”),go n-a(“with which”),ria n-a(“before which”) and laterlena(“with which”),tréna(“through which”)).
Nicholas Williams (1994) “Na Canúintí a Theacht chun Solais”, in K. McCone, D. McManus, C. Ó Háinle, N. Williams, L. Breatnach, editors,Stair na Gaeilge: in ómós do P[h]ádraig Ó Fiannachta (in Irish), Maynooth: Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Coláiste Phádraig,→ISBN, page464: “Tháinig nós chun cinn sa 17ú haois freisin an réamhfhocal a dhúbláil:don té agá mbíonn cloidheamh..aige; daoine agá mbíonn grádh aco do Dhia (Ó Cuív, 1952b, 177),an tí ag a bhfuil a bheag do chuntabhairt aige (Williams, 1986, 155).”
Gerald O’Nolan (1934)The New Era Grammar of Modern Irish, The Educational Company of Ireland Ltd., page56
Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (2016)Ortograpiya di Kankanaëy [Kankanaey Orthography][17] (in Kankanaey and Tagalog),→ISBN, pages10-11
Morice Vanoverbergh (1933) “a”, inA Dictionary of Lepanto Igorot or Kankanay. As it is spoken at Bauco (Linguistische Anthropos-Bibliothek; XII)[18], Mödling bei Wien, St. Gabriel, Österreich: Verlag der Internationalen Zeitschrift „Anthropos“,→OCLC, page 1
Allen, Larry (2021) “a”, inKankanaey – English Dictionary, Summer Institute of Linguistics
Janet L. Allen (2014)Kankanaey: A Role and Reference Grammar Analysis[19] (overall work in English),→ISBN, page164
Courtz, Hendrik (2008)A Carib grammar and dictionary[20], Toronto: Magoria Books,→ISBN, page213
Yamada, Racquel-María (2010) “a”, inSpeech community-based documentation, description, and revitalization: Kari’nja in Konomerume[21], University of Oregon, page707
The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See theKashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, anda for development of the glyph itself.
Quamquam philosophiae quidem vituperātōribus satis respōnsum est eō librō, quōā nōbīs philosophia dēfēnsa et collaudāta est, cum esset accūsāta et vituperāta ab Hortēnsiō.
Although indeed to the vituperators of philosophy an adequate response is in that book, in which philosophy has been defended and highly praisedby us [me], when it had been accused and vituperated by Hortensius.
“a”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“a”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
a inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
a, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese),University of Chicago, since 2011
Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed byK. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in GermanFraktur, and sporadically inCyrillic.
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Hernández Cruz, Luis, Victoria Torquemada, Moisés (2010)Diccionario del hñähñu (otomí) del Valle del Mezquital, estado de Hidalgo (Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”;45)[26] (in Spanish), second edition,Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., page 3
Sylt Frisian ⟨aa⟩ was originally[ɔː], but has since merged with ⟨oo⟩. The letter ⟨ā⟩ is used for[aː]. The diphthongs ⟨ai, ia⟩ are both monophthongized to[ɛː] when followed by ⟨r⟩.
In Föhr-Amrum Frisian, ⟨ai⟩ represents a lengthened diphthong[aːɪ̯] as if written ⟨*aai⟩. The short equivalent is ⟨ei⟩.
1847–1868,Halfdan Kjerulf,Av hans efterladte papirer, page245:
jeg [skrev] klaverstykker … en lille scherzo med nordisk motiv … «gjenta» og «Jørgen Matros», som gjør kur til ’a og «Ola Spelman» som hun foretrækker
I [wrote] piano pieces… a small scherzo with a Nordic motif… «gjenta» and «Jørgen Matros», which makes cure for her and «Ola Spelman» which she prefers
1875, Alexander Erbe,Fra skjærgaarden, page23:
[klokkeren] skulle da koste paa a amen
[the clockmaker] would then cost her amen
1921,Sigrid Undset,Samlede romaner og fortællinger fra nutiden I, page 6:
Sands, Bonny & Jones, Kerry & Esau, Katrina & Collins, Chris & Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena & Job, Sylvanus & Miller, Amanda & Steyn, Betta & Zaanen, Menno & Namaseb, Levi & Berg, Dietloff & Mantzel, Dotty & Damarah, Willem & Snyman, Claudia & Wyk, David & Brugman, Johanna & Exter, Mats & Vaalbooi, Antjie & Westhuizen, Mietjie. (2022). Nǀuuki Namagowab Afrikaans English ǂXoakiǂxanisi/Mîdi di ǂKhanis/Woordeboek/Dictionary.
Shah, Sheena, and Matthias Brenzinger. Ouma Geelmeid ke kx’u ǁxaǁxa Nǀuu. Cape Town: CALDi, University of Cape Town. 2016.http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17432.
Collins, C., & Namaseb, L. (2011). A Grammatical Sketch of N|uuki with Stories. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
a (predicativeaíoráe)(triggerslenition in the masculine and neuter singular, an unwritten prothetic /h/ before a vowel in the feminine singular, andeclipsis in the plural)
Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “a”, inSłownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie,→ISBN
Mańczak, Witold (2017) “a”, inPolski słownik etymologiczny (in Polish), Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności,→ISBN
Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000) “a”, inEtymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
Sławski, Franciszek (1958-1965) “a”, inJan Safarewicz, Andrzej Siudut, editors,Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego [Etymological dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), Kraków: Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego
B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “a”, inSłownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków:IJP PAN,→ISBN
B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “a, ha”, inSłownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków:IJP PAN,→ISBN
Ewa Deptuchowa, Mariusz Frodyma, Katarzyna Jasińska, Magdalena Klapper, Dorota Kołodziej, Mariusz Leńczuk, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, editors (2023), “a”, inRozariusze z polskimi glosami. Internetowa baza danych [Dictionaries of Polish glosses, an Internet database] (in Polish), Kraków:Pracownia Języka Staropolskiego Instytut Języka Polskiego Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Wanda Decyk-Zięba, Krystyna Długosz-Kurczabowa, Stanisław Dubisz, Zygmunt Gałecki, Justyna Garczyńska, Halina Karaś, Alina Kępińska, Anna Pasoń, Izabela Stąpor, Barbara Taras, Izabela Winiarska-Górska (2008) “a”, in Wanda Decyk-Zięba, Stanisław Dubisz, editors,Glosariusz staropolski - dydaktyczny słownik etymologiczny [Old Polish Glossary - Didactic Etymological Dictionary] (in Polish), Warszawa: Wydział Polonistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego,→ISBN, page 1
[R]emont por la gracia de dios. arçobispo de Toledo.a don almeric. arçidiano de antiochia con grant amor ſalut ⁊ amidtad. […] a qui reſpódio el arcidiano El mẏo ſénor dó remont. arçobispo de Toledo. El to clerigo almerich. aRçidiano de antiochẏa. réde gŕasadios &atẏ.
Remont, by the Grace of God archbishop of Toledo,to master Almerich, archdeacon of Antioch, with great love, haleness and goodwill. […] To this the archdeacon responded thus, “My lord, master Remont, archbishop of Toledo, your cleric Almerich, archdeacon of Antioch, gives thanksto God andto you”.
Et dixieron los ſabios en el libro de las piedras que la uerde atal uirtut. que quien la engaſtonare en ſortija. la traxiere conſigo. nõ aura la enfermedata que dizen ydropiſia.
And in theBook of Stones the wise men claimed that the green stone possesses such virtue that he who mounts it on a ring and has it with him will not suffer from the illness they call dropsy.
The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See thehistory of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, anda for development of the glyph itself.
According toSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990),a is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 555 times in scientific texts, 307 times in news, 507 times in essays, 703 times in fiction, and 1175 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 3226 times, making it the 13th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[2]
^Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “a”, inSłownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
^Ida Kurcz (1990) “a”, inSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 1
Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “a”, inSłownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “a”, inSłownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
“A”, inElektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 2022 May 31
Zofia Stamirowska (1987-2024) “a”, in Anna Basara, editor,Słownik gwar Ostródzkiego, Warmii i Mazur, volume 1, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk,→ISBN, pages107-109
Becomes-la after verb forms ending in-r, -s, or-z, the pronounsnos(“us”) andvos(“plural you”), and the adverbeis(“here is; behold”); the final letter causing the change disappears.
Afterver(“to see”):Posso vê-la? — “May I seeher/it?”
Dia(“day”),manhã(“morning”),madrugada(“early morning”) usede(“of”) instead, which can optionally be used fortarde,noitinha andnoite as well. Names of months, days of the month and of the week useem(“in”).
Unlike English, this form can be used before both consonant and vowel sounds. However, this is not often the case in written Scots, probably due to the influence of English.[1]
Attested since the 15th century. Probably of onomatopoeic origin. CompareSlovenea,Russianа(a),Lithuanianõ,Latinō andAncient Greekὦ(ô). These could all derive from Proto-Indo-European interjection*ō(“oh, ah”), but each form in individual languages could easily be an independent, expressive formation.
“a”, inHrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian),2006–2025
“a”, inHrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian),2006–2025
Skok, Petar (1971) “a”, inEtimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika [Etymological Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language] (in Serbo-Croatian), volumes 1 (A – J), Zagreb: JAZU, page 1
As for other Romance languages, such as Neapolitan or Portuguese, Sicilian definite articles have undergone a consonant lenition that has led to the phonetic fall of the initiall. The use of this illiquid variant has not yet made the use of liquid variants disappear, but today it is still the prevalent use in speech and writing.
In the case of the production of literary texts, such as singing or poetry, or of formal and institutional texts, resorting to "liquid articles" and "liquid articulated prepositions" confers greater euphony to the text, although it may sound a form of courtly recovery.
Illiquid definite articles can be phonetically absorbed by the following noun. I.e:l'arancina (liquid) andârancina (illiquid).
The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See theSilesian language article on Wikipedia for more, anda for development of the glyph itself.
Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008),Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages[35], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
“a”, inSlovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak),https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk,2003–2025
Attested since the 18th century. Probably of onomatopoeic origin. CompareSerbo-Croatiana,Russianа(a),Lithuanianõ,Latinō andAncient Greekὦ(ô). These could all derive from Proto-Indo-European interjection*ō(“oh, ah”), but each form in individual languages could easily be an independent, expressive formation.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
Nominally,a always takes the usual feminine articlesThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. andThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. (la a,una a). This makes it an exception to the rule according to which feminine nouns beginning with stressedThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. frequently take the articlesThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. andThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. otherwise reserved for masculine nouns (e.g.,elThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.,unThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.).
1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,Don Quijote de la Mancha1, Chapter I:
Tenía en su casa una ama que pasaba de los cuarenta y una sobrina queno llegaba a los veinte, y un mozo de campo y plaza que así ensillaba el rocín como tomaba la podadera.
He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a nieceunder twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the billhook.
Sranan Tongo makes no difference between singular and plural forms, except for pronouns and determiners and the definite article. Common nouns referring to a collection of similar items are usually treated as singular where in English they would be grammatically plural, and so are referred to with singular pronouns and determiners and the singular definite article.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet (theFilipino alphabet), calledThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. and written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet (theAbakada alphabet), calledThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. and written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet (theAbecedario), calledThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. and written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.the name of theLatin-script letter[[A#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|A]]/[[a#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|a]], in theAbakada alphabetThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The time allocated for running scripts has expired.the name of theLatin-script letter[[A#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|A]]/[[a#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|a]], in theAbecedarioThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
FromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.. Cognate withThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired..
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.FromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.. Cognates includeThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. andThe time allocated for running scripts has expired..
FromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.. Cognates includeThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. andThe time allocated for running scripts has expired..
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, calledThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. and written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The name of theLatin-script letter[[A#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|A]]/[[a#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|a]].The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
(classifierThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.) The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, calledThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. and written in theLatin script.It is followed byThe time allocated for running scripts has expired..
a cannot be mutated but, being a vowel, does takeThe time allocated for running scripts has expired., for example with the wordThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.:
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
Digraph sequences:The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The name of theLatin-script letter[[A#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|A]]/[[a#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|a]].The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
FromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired., fromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired., fromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. (compareThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. andThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.).
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired. that, which, who(used in 'direct' relative clauses, i.e. where the pronoun refers to the subject or the direct object of an inflected verb (as opposed to a periphrastic construction withbod, to be)).
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
a is not used with the third person singular present of the verb bod, where the relative verb formsydd is used instead
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
not*Y dyna yw'n ifanc
a is not used in indirect relative clauses, where the pronoun is part of a genitive or periphrastic construction. Instead the second relative pronouny is used
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.FromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired., fromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired..
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
FromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired., fromThe time allocated for running scripts has expired..
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, calledThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. and written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.The name of theLatin-script letter[[A#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|A]]/[[a#The time allocated for running scripts has expired.|a]].The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
Similar to other shortened subject pronouns, its usage is restricted and can only be found directly before a verb or pre-verbal marker. It cannot be used with particles/discourse markers such asThe time allocated for running scripts has expired. or conjunctions such asThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.,The time allocated for running scripts has expired., andThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.. In those cases,The time allocated for running scripts has expired. must be used instead.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
The time allocated for running scripts has expired.TheThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.letter of theThe time allocated for running scripts has expired.alphabet, written in theLatin script.
