A is the first letter of the latin alphabet, and is encoded in unicode as Latin Capital Letter A, U+0041 (A) and Latin Small Letter A, U+0061 (a).
Appearance[]
The upper case letter is identical to the related Greek Capital Letter Alpha, U+0391 (Α) and Cyrillic Capital Letter A, U+0410 (А), as well as Cherokee Letter Go, U+13AA (Ꭺ). In some stylized versions it may look like Greek Capital Letter Lamda, U+039B (Λ) and Latin Capital Letter Turned V, U+0245 (Ʌ).
The lower case letter has two main variants: double-storey, and single-storey. This is also the case with Cyrillic Small Letter A, U+0430 (а). The double-storey a is commonly seen in roman and grotesk typefaces. Italic versions of serif and humanist sans serif typefaces normally have a single-storey a, making it identical to Latin Small Letter Alpha, U+0251 (ɑ) and - depending on the font - identical or similar to Greek Small Letter Alpha, U+03B1 (α).
Usage[]
The letter A is used by virtually all languages that use the latin alphabet.
The double-storey lower case a is also used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to denote an open front unrounded vowel. In this case, it is very important to distinguish it from the single-storey Latin Small Letter Alpha, U+0251 (ɑ), which is also used in the IPA, but for a different vowel sound.
Diacritics, ligatures and derivations[]
The latin letter A can take a lot of diacritics and combine with many letters to make ligatures. Some of the precomposed unicode characters follow here.
Above the character
Diacritic | Capital | Unicode point | Lower case | Unicode point | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dot (˙) | Ȧ | U+0226 | ȧ | U+0227 | Phonetics? |
Diaeresis (¨) | Ä | U+00C4 | ä | U+00E4 | e.g. German |
Acute (´) | Á | U+00C1 | á | U+00E1 | e.g. Icelandic |
Grave (`) | À | U+00C0 | à | U+00E0 | e.g. Italian |
Double grave (˵) | Ȁ | U+0200 | ȁ | U+0201 | Serbo-croatian linguistics |
Circumflex (ˆ) | Â | U+00C2 | â | U+00E2 | e.g. French |
Caron (ˇ) | Ǎ | U+01CD | ǎ | U+01CE | e.g. Pinyin |
Tilde (~) | Ã | U+00C3 | ã | U+00E3 | e.g. Portugese |
Macron (¯) | Ā | U+0100 | ā | U+0101 | e.g. Latvian |
Breve (˘) | Ă | U+0102 | ă | U+0103 | e.g. Romanian |
Inverted breve | Ȃ | U+0202 | ȃ | U+0203 | Serbo-croatian linguistics |
Ring (˚) | Å | U+00C5 | å | U+00E5 | e.g. Norwegian |
Hook | Ả | U+1EA2 | ả | U+1EA3 | Vietnamese |
Below the character:
Diacritic | Capital | Unicode point | Lower case | Unicode point | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dot | Ạ | U+1EA0 | ạ | U+1EA1 | Vietnamese |
Ring (˳) | Ḁ | U+1E00 | ḁ | U+1E01 | Phonetics? |
Through the letter or as part of the letter:
Diacritic | Capital | Unicode point | Lower case | Unicode point | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ogonek (˛) | Ą | U+0104 | ą | U+0105 | e.g. Polish |
Slash (/) | Ⱥ | U+023A | ⱥ | U+2C65 | Saanich |
Retroflex hook | ᶏ | U+1D8F | Phonetics? |
Ligatures:
Letter | Capital | Unicode point | Lower case | Unicode point | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AA ligature | Ꜳ | U+A732 | ꜳ | U+A733 | Midiaeval manuscripts? |
AE ligature | Æ | U+00C6 | æ | U+00E6 | e.g. Icelandic |
AO ligature | Ꜵ | U+A734 | Ꜵ | U+A735 | Midiaeval manuscripts? |
AU ligature | Ꜷ | U+A736 | ꜷ | U+A737 | Midiaeval manuscripts? |
AV ligature | Ꜹ | U+A738 | ꜹ | U+A739 | Midiaeval manuscripts? |
AY ligature | Ꜽ | U+A73C | ꜽ | U+A73D | Midiaeval manuscripts? |
Combinations:
Diacritics | Capital | Unicode point | Lower case | Unicode point | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dot and macron | Ǡ | U+01E0 | ǡ | U+01E1 | ? |
Diaeresis and macron | Ǟ | U+01DE | ǟ | U+01DF | ? |
Circumflex and acute | Ấ | U+1EA4 | ấ | U+1EA5 | Vietnamese |
Circumflex and grave | Ầ | U+1EA6 | ầ | U+1EA7 | Vietnamese |
Circumflex and tilde | Ẫ | U+1EAA | ẫ | U+1EAB | Vietnamese |
Circumflex and hook | Ẩ | U+1EA8 | ẩ | U+1EA9 | Vietnamese |
Circumflex and dot below | Ậ | U+1EAC | ậ | U+1EAD | Vietnamese |
Breve and acute | Ắ | U+1EAE | ắ | U+1EAF | Vietnamese |
Breve and grave | Ằ | U+1EB0 | ằ | U+1EB1 | Vietnamese |
Breve and tilde | Ẵ | U+1EB4 | ẵ | U+1EB5 | Vietnamese |
Breve and hook | Ẳ | U+1EB2 | ẳ | U+1EB3 | Vietnamese |
Breve and dot below | Ặ | U+1EB6 | ặ | U+1EB7 | Vietnamese |
Ring and acute | Ǻ | U+01FA | ǻ | U+01FB | e.g. Danish (but very rarely used) |
Æ with acute | Ǽ | U+01FC | ǽ | U+01FD | e.g. Old Norse transcription |
Æ with macron | Ǣ | U+01E2 | ǣ | U+01E3 | ? |
Derived letters:
Variation | Capital | Unicode point | Lower case | Unicode point | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small capital | ᴀ | U+1D00 | Phonetics? | ||
Small capital Æ | ᴁ | U+1D01 | Phonetics? | ||
Small capital, no stroke (aka. Turned V) | Ʌ | U+0245 | ʌ | U+028C | e.g. IPA |
Turned | Ɐ | U+2C6F | ɐ | U+0250 | e.g. IPA |
Turned Æ | ᴂ | U+1D02 | Phonetics? | ||
Alpha | Ɑ | U+2C6D | ɑ | U+0251 | e.g. IPA |
Alpha with retroflex hook | ᶐ | U+1D90 | Phonetics? | ||
Turned alpha | Ɒ | U+2C70 | ɒ | U+0252 | e.g. IPA |