D, or d, is the fourth
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
in the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
, used in the
modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is
''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''.
History
The
Semitic letter
Dāleth may have developed from the
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, ...
for a fish or a door. There are many different
Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic,
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
and
Latin
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 ...
, the letter represented ; in the
Etruscan alphabet
The Etruscan alphabet was the alphabet used by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization of central and northern Italy, to write their language, from about 700 BC to sometime around 100 AD.
The Etruscan alphabet derives from the Euboean alphabet u ...
the letter was archaic, but still retained (see letter
B). The equivalent
Greek letter
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...
is Delta,
Δ.
Architecture
The
minuscule
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 ...
(lower-case) form of 'd' consists of a lower-story left
bowl
A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes ...
and a
stem ascender. It most likely developed by gradual variations on the
majuscule (capital) form 'D', and today now composed as a stem with a full
lobe to the right. In handwriting, it was common to start the arc to the left of the vertical stroke, resulting in a
serif at the top of the arc. This serif was extended while the rest of the letter was reduced, resulting in an angled stroke and loop. The angled stroke slowly developed into a vertical stroke.
Use in writing systems
![Boundary stone on the Demeljoch - 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Boundary_stone_on_the_Demeljoch_-_2.jpg)
In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, and in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
, generally represents the
voiced alveolar or
voiced dental plosive
The voiced alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosiv ...
. However, in the
Vietnamese alphabet
The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese m ...
, it represents the sound in northern dialects or in southern dialects. (See
D with stroke and
Dz (digraph)
Dz is a digraph of the Latin script, consisting of the consonants D and Z. It may represent , , or , depending on the language.
Usage by language
''Dz'' generally represents in Latin alphabets, including Hungarian, Kashubian, Latvian, Lit ...
.) In
Fijian it represents a
prenasalized
Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent (or occasionally a non-nasal sonorant such as ) that behave phonologically like single consonants. The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rather ...
stop . In some languages where
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
less
unaspirated
In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized.
In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ...
stops contrast with voiceless aspirated stops, represents an unaspirated , while represents an aspirated . Examples of such languages include
Icelandic,
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
,
Navajo and the
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
transliteration of
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
.
Other uses
* The
Roman numeral
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...
D represents the number
500 500 may refer to:
* 500 (number)
* 500 BC
* AD 500
Buildings and places
* 500 Boylston Street of Boston
* 500 Brickell in Miami
* 500 Capitol Mall in Sacramento
* 500 Fifth Avenue
* 500 Renaissance Center, one of seven buildings in the GM Renaiss ...
.
* D is the grade below C but above E in the
school grading system.
* D is the
International vehicle registration code
The country in which a motor vehicle's vehicle registration plate was issued may be indicated by an international licence plate country code, formerly known as an International Registration Letter or International Circulation Mark. It is re ...
for
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
(see also
.de
.de is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Federal Republic of Germany. DENIC (the Network Information Centre responsible for .de domains) does not require specific second-level domains, and there are no official ccSLDs under .d ...
).
* In
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
: Because the lack of Unicode CJK support in the early computer system, many Hong Kongers and Singaporeans used the capitalized D to represent (lit. a little).
* d. is the standard abbreviation for the
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The British pre-decimal penny was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound or of one shilling. Its symbol was ''d'', from the Roman denarius. It was a continuation of the earlier English penny, and in Scotland it had the same m ...
(from la,
denarius
The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...
)
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
*Ɖ ɖ :
African D
African D (Ɖ, ɖ) is a Latin letter representing the voiced retroflex plosive . It is a part of the African reference alphabet. It is mainly used by African languages such as Ewe, Fon, Aja, and Bassa. The African D should not be confused w ...
*Ð ð :
Latin letter Eth
*D with
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s:
Đ đ Ꟈ ꟈ Ɗ ɗ Ḋ ḋ Ḍ ḍ Ḑ ḑ Ḓ ḓ Ď ď Ḏ ḏ
*Phonetic symbols related to D:
** Symbols related to D used in the
IPA:
** Symbols related to D used in the
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) or Finno-Ugric transcription system is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nes ...
:
**
Superscript IPA letters
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation o ...
: 𐞋 𐞌 𐞍
** Other phonetic symbols related to D:
ȡ ᵭ ᶁ ᶑ
*Ƌ ƌ :
D with topbar
*𝼥 : D with mid-height left hook - Used by the
British and Foreign Bible Society in the early 20th century for
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
of the
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
language.
*Ꝺ ꝺ :
Insular D is used in various phonetic contexts
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
*𐤃 :
Semitic letter
Dalet
Dalet (, also spelled Daleth or Daled) is the fourth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Dālet 𐤃, Hebrew Dālet , Aramaic Dālath , Syriac Dālaṯ , and Arabic (in abjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value ...
, from which the following symbols originally derive
**Δ δ :
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
letter
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
, from which the following symbols originally derive
*** :
Coptic letter Delta
***Д д :
Cyrillic letter
De
***𐌃 :
Old Italic D, the ancestor of modern Latin D
**** :
Runic
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
letter
dagaz
The ''d'' rune (ᛞ) is called dæg "day" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem. The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet 𐌳 ''d'' is called ''dags''. This rune is also part of the Elder Futhark, with a reconstructed Proto-Germanic name *dagaz. ...
, which is possibly a descendant of Old Italic D
**** Runic letter
thurisaz
The rune is called Thurs (Old Norse '' Þurs'', a type of entity, from a reconstructed Common Germanic ') in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called thorn, whence the name of the letter þ derived.
I ...
, another possible descendant of Old Italic D
*** :
Gothic letter daaz, which derives from Greek Delta
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
*₫ :
Đồng sign
*∂ :
the partial derivative symbol,
Code points
These are the
code point
In character encoding terminology, a code point, codepoint or code position is a numerical value that maps to a specific character. Code points usually represent a single grapheme—usually a letter, digit, punctuation mark, or whitespace—but ...
s for the forms of the letter in various systems
:
1
Other representations
In
British Sign Language
British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language among the Deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on ...
(BSL), the letter 'd' is indicated by signing with the right hand held with the index and thumb extended and slightly curved, and the tip of the thumb and finger held against the extended index of the left hand.
Use as a number
In the
hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, D is a number that corresponds to the number 13 in
decimal (base 10) counting. In the
binary
Binary may refer to:
Science and technology Mathematics
* Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1)
* Binary function, a function that takes two arguments
* Binary operation, a mathematical operation that ta ...
(base 2) numbering system, D is denoted by 1101.
References
External links
*
*
{{Latin script, D}
ISO basic Latin letters