A (Cyrillic) Explained

А (Azǔ/)
Letter:А а
Variations:(See below)А
Imagealt:Cyrillic letter А, in uppercase and lowercase fonts.
Script:Cyrillic script
Type:Alphabet
Typedesc:ic
Language:Old Church Slavonic
Phonemes:[{{IPAlink|a}}]
[{{IPAlink|ɑ}}]
[{{IPAlink|ə}}]
Unicode:U+0410, U+0430
Alphanumber:1
Number:1
Fam1:F1
Fam3:Proto-Canaanite script
Fam6:Α α
Usageperiod:~900 to present
Children:Я
Sisters:A
Α α
א
ا
ܐ


Ա ա
A ᴀ
Equivalents:A (Latin script)
Direction:Left-to-right
Heading:Cyrillic letter А
Size:120px
Numeral:1
Sound:pronounced as /[a]/, pronounced as /[ɑ]/, pronounced as /[ə]/, pronounced as /[ä]/
Derived:Greek letter Alpha (Α α)

А (А а; italics:

А а) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It commonly represents an open central unrounded vowel pronounced as //ä//, 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 (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Α α). 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 forms.

Usage

In most languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet – such as Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Macedonian and Montenegrin – the Cyrillic letter А represents the open central unrounded vowel pronounced as //a//. In Ingush and Chechen the Cyrillic letter А represents both the open back unrounded vowel pronounced as //ɑ// and the mid-central vowel pronounced as //ə//. In Tuvan the letter can be written as a double vowel.[1] [2]

Related letters and other similar characters

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Tuvan language, alphabet and pronunciation. omniglot.com. 14 June 2016.
  2. Book: Compendium of the World's Languages. George L.. Campbell. Gareth. King. 24 July 2013. Routledge. 9781136258459. 14 June 2016. Google Books.