А (А а; italics:
''А а'') is a letter of the
Cyrillic script. It commonly represents an
open central unrounded vowel , halfway between the pronunciation of in "cat" and "father". The Cyrillic letter А is romanized using the
Latin letter A.
History
The Cyrillic letter А was derived directly from the
Greek letter Alpha (). In the
Early Cyrillic alphabet its name was (azǔ), meaning "I". In the
Cyrillic numeral system, the Cyrillic letter А has a value of 1.
Form
Throughout history, the Cyrillic letter А has had various shapes, but today is standardised on one that
looks exactly like the Latin letter A, including the
italic and
lower case
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
forms.
Usage
In most languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet – such as
Bulgarian,
Ukrainian,
Belarusian
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
,
Russian,
Rusyn
Rusyn may refer to:
* Rusyns, Rusyn people, an East Slavic people
** Pannonian Rusyns, Pannonian Rusyn people, a branch of Rusyn people
** Lemkos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people
** Boykos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people
* Rusyn l ...
,
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguat ...
,
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
and
Montenegrin – the Cyrillic letter А represents the
open central unrounded vowel . In
Ingush Ingush may refer to:
* Ingush language
* Ingush people
The Ingush (, inh, ГIалгIай, translit=Ghalghaj, pronounced ) per Oxford dictionary "a member of a people living mainly in Ingushetia in the central Caucasus." Ingushetia is a federa ...
and
Chechen the Cyrillic letter А represents both the
open back unrounded vowel
The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The l ...
and the
mid-central vowel
The mid central vowel (also known as schwa) is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter e.
While the ''Handbook of the ...
. In
Tuvan the letter can be written as a
double vowel.
Related letters and other similar characters
*A a :
Latin letter A
*Á á :
Latin letter Á
*Α α :
Greek letter Alpha
*Ă ă :
Latin letter A with Breve
*Â â :
Latin letter A with Circumflex
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
*Ā ā :
Latin letter A with Macron
*Æ æ :
Latin letter Æ
Computing codes
See also
*
Cyrillic characters in Unicode
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Vowel letters