Ą (

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 ...

: ''ą'') is a letter in the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Kashubian Kashubian can refer to: * Pertaining to Kashubia, a region of north-central Poland * Kashubians, an ethnic group of north-central Poland * Kashubian language See also *Kashubian alphabet The Kashubian or Cassubian alphabet (''kaszëbsczi alf ...

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

, Western Apache,

Chiricahua Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehende ...

Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode b ...

, Hocąk, Mescalero, Gwich'in, Tutchone, and Elfdalian alphabets. It is formed from the letter ''a'' and an

ogonek The (; Polish: , "little tail", diminutive of ) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European languages, and directly under a vowel in several Native American languages. It i ...

and usually, except for modern Lithuanian and Polish, denotes a nasal ''a'' sound.

Polish

In the

Polish alphabet The Polish alphabet (Polish: ''alfabet polski'', ''abecadło'') is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography. It is based on the Latin alphabet but includes certain letters with diacritics: the ''kreska'' ...

, ''ą'' comes after ''a'', but never appears at the beginning of a word. Originally, ''ą'' used to represent a

nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery ** ...

''a'' sound, but in modern times, its pronunciation has shifted to a nasal ''o'' sound. The letter does not have one determined pronunciation and instead, its pronunciation is dependent on the sounds it is followed by.

Pronunciation

In some dialects, word-final ''ą'' is also pronounced as ; thus, is occasionally pronounced as .

History

Polish ''ą'' sound evolved from a long nasal ''a'' sound of medieval Polish into a short nasal ''o'' sound in the modern language. The medieval vowel, along with its short counterpart, evolved in turn from the merged nasal *''ę'' and *''ǫ'' of Late Proto-Slavic. Another explanation is connected to the adoption of the Old Czech-style orthography of the Latin alphabet to write Polish at the turn of the 16th century. In Poland-Lithuania, Latin still dominated in writing in the Kingdom of Poland, and the

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

-based vernacular of Ruthenian had been in official use in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the 13th century. In pronunciation, the Church Cyrillic letter big yus (Ѫ ѫ) corresponds to the pronunciation of the Polish ''ą''. However, it is

little yus Little yus (Ѧ ѧ) and big yus (Ѫ ѫ), or jus, are letters of the Cyrillic script representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels in the early Cyrillic alphabet, early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet, Glagolitic alphabets. Each can occu ...

(Ѧ ѧ), which is phonetically similar to ''ę'' and, more importantly, shares visual resemblances with the Latin alphabet initial letter (A, a) plus an

, that some believe led to ogonek's introduction. This, according to proponents of the theory, resulted in the letter ''ą'' for denoting the nasal ''o'', when it logically should have been ''ǫ'' rather than ''ą''. When the ogonek had already been in place as the diacritic for marking nasality in vowels, it was appended to ''e'', resulting in ''ę'' for nasal ''e''.

Alternations

The letter often alternates with . * 'tooth': → ('teeth'), *'snake': → ('snakes') * 'husband' in

nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...

: → ('with husband', in

instrumental case In grammar, the instrumental case (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an ...

) * 'weight': → ('to weigh down, to be a burden'), *'month': → ('monthly'), *'a judge': → ('to judge, think') * 'row' in

: → ('four times in a row',

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

) However, in words derived from ('government'), the vowel does not change. Thus, (

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

of ) retains the , e.g., ('government's ordinance').

Lithuanian

In modern

, it is no longer nasal and is now pronounced as a

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...

''a''. It is the second letter of the Lithuanian alphabet called (nasal ''a''). The letter is most often found at the end of the noun to construct an ending of

accusative case The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...

, as in , the accusative of (ground, floor); both ''a'' and ''ą'' in are pronounced (a

''a''). Thus, ''ą'' is used to distinguish between the transcription of accusative and the

cases of the noun . It is also used when converting present tense verbs into participles, e.g., ( (somebody who is seeing () right now). Nasal ''an/am'' forms are now pronounced , as in (list) and (turnover, return). In some cases, ''ą'', '' ę'' and '' į'' (but never '' ė'') may be used in different forms interchangeably, as in (extension) - (extends) - (to lie extended). Finally, some verbs have it in the middle of a word but only in the present tense, e.g., ( (is getting white), but not (has become white). The letter can also be found at the beginning of several words, e.g., (jug).

The Americas

In some indigenous languages of the Americas, the letter denotes a nasal ''a'' sound: * Western Apache *

* Gwich'in *

Hochunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iow ...

* Mescalero *

* Tutchone

Elfdalian

The Elfdalian alphabet contains the letters that occur in the

Swedish alphabet The Swedish alphabet ( sv, Svenska alfabetet) is a basic element of the Latin writing system used for the Swedish language. The 29 letters of this alphabet are the modern 26-letter basic Latin alphabet (A through Z) plus Å, Ä, and Ö, in t ...

as well as various letters with

to denote nasality. ''Ą'' and ''ą'' denote a nasal ''a'' sound.

Reconstructed language

Scholars who have reconstructed the Proto-Germanic language (the ancestor of all modern Germanic languages, spoken c. 500 BC – AD 500) use the letter ''ą'' to denote a

nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced wit ...

Computing codes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:A Polish language A-ogonek Lithuanian language Polish letters with diacritics