In English, the name of the letter is the "long O" sound, pronounced/ˈoʊ/. In most other languages, its name matches the letter's pronunciation inopen syllables.
Pronunciation of the name of the letter⟨o⟩ in European languages
Its graphic form has remained fairly constant fromPhoenician times until today. The name of the Phoenician letter wasʿeyn, meaning "eye", and its shape originates simply as a drawing of a human eye (possibly inspired by the correspondingEgyptian hieroglyph,cf.Proto-Sinaitic script). Its original sound value was that of a consonant, probably[ʕ], the sound represented by the cognateArabic letterعʿayn.[2]
The use of this Phoenician letter for a vowel sound is due to the earlyGreek alphabets, which adopted the letter "omicron" to represent the vowel/o/. The letter was adopted with the value in theOld Italic alphabets, including theearly Latin alphabet. In Greek, a variation of the form later came to differentiate this long sound (omega, meaning "large O") from the short o (Omicron, meaning "small o"). The Greek omicron gave rise to the correspondingCyrillic letter O.[2][3]
The letter⟨o⟩ is the fourthmost common letter in theEnglish alphabet.[4] Like the other English vowel letters, it has associated "long" and "short" pronunciations. The "long"⟨o⟩ as inboat is actually most often adiphthong/oʊ/ (realized dialectically anywhere from[o] to[əʊ]). In English, there is also a "short"⟨o⟩ as infox,/ɒ/, which sounds slightly different in different dialects. In most dialects ofBritish English, it is either anopen-mid back rounded vowel[ɔ] or anopen back rounded vowel[ɒ]; inAmerican English, it is most commonly an unrounded back[ɑ] to a central vowel[a].[5]
Commondigraphs include⟨oo⟩, which represents either/uː/ or/ʊ/;⟨oi⟩ or⟨oy⟩, which typically represents the diphthong/ɔɪ/, and⟨ao⟩,⟨oe⟩, and⟨ou⟩ which represent a variety of pronunciations depending on context and etymology.[5]
In other contexts, especially before a letter with aminim,⟨o⟩ may represent the sound/ʌ/, as in 'son' or 'love'. It can also represent thesemivowel/w/, as inchoir orquinoa.[citation needed]
"O" in isolation is a word, also spelled "oh" and pronounced/oʊ/. Before a noun, usually capitalized, it indicates anoun of address, as in the titles "O Canada" or "O Captain! My Captain!" or in certain verses of theBible.[6]
⟨o⟩ is commonly associated with theopen-mid back rounded vowel[ɔ],mid back rounded vowel[o̞] orclose-mid back rounded vowel[o] in many languages. Other languages use⟨o⟩ for various values, usually back vowels which are at least partly open. Derived letters such as⟨ö⟩ and⟨ø⟩ have been created for the alphabets of some languages to distinguish values that were not present in Latin and Greek, particularly rounded front vowels.[citation needed]
0 (zero). The capital letter O may be mistaken or misused for the number 0, as they appear quite identical in some typefaces. Early typewriters did not have a 'zero' key.
^"O"Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989);Chambers-Happap, "oes"op. cit.Oes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is renderedOs, O's,os, o's.
