Latin alpha

File:Latin alpha in GACL.svg

The letter Latin alpha with a lowercase Greek alpha shape, as in the African reference alphabet or the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages

Latin alpha (majuscule: Ɑ, minuscule: ɑ), script a, or single-story a is a letter of the Latin alphabet based on a handwritten form of lowercase a, and which is commonly typeset with the Greek lowercase alpha (α).

Usage

Although Template:Gph is normally just an allograph of Template:Angbr, there are instances in which the two letters are distinguished:

• In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Template:Angbr IPA represents an open back unrounded vowel, while Template:Angbr IPA represents an open front unrounded vowel. It has the shape of a script-a.
• Also in the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages, Template:Angbr usually represents an open back unrounded vowel, while Template:Angbr represents an open front unrounded vowel. The former is used in the orthographies of several languages of Cameroon, including:
  • Feʼfeʼ
  • Mbembe
  • Mbo (?): but not Akoose, though it does have phonemes /aa/ and /ɑɑ/; nor Bakaka.
  • in some languages, the script-a form (also called literacy form) of the letter Template:Angbr, with the lowercase much like the IPA Template:Angbr, is used and should not be confused with the Latin alpha Template:Angbr of the GACL; for example, in Muyang, the literacy Template:Angbr represents an open-mid central unrounded vowel but it is not Template:Angbr; the Latin alpha is not used.
• In typography, it is sometimes referred to as the single-story a, to distinguish it from double-story a.

In Cameroon languages, lowercase Template:Angbr is typeset as a lowercase Greek alpha to better differentiate it from the letter a in script or italic form. the capital is typically typeset as a large Latin script a.

Template:Unichar is used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.

Template:Unichar is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system.

Latin turned alpha is used in IPA

Template:Unichar is used in Americanist phonetic notation.

Typography

File:Latin-a-and-Latin-alpha-and-Greek-alpha-in-different-fonts.svg

Latin a, Latin alpha, and Greek alpha, using the fonts: Arial, Times New Roman, Gentium, Doulos SIL, Cambria, Linux Libertine, Andron Mega Corpus, Courier New, and Consolas. Second row: italics, using the same fonts.

Encoding and forms

In Unicode, "Latin alpha" (File:Latin uppercase alpha.svgFile:Latin lowercase alpha.svg) and "Latin script a" (File:Latin uppercase script a.svgFile:Latin lowercase script a.svg) are considered to be the same character, which has an uppercase and a lowercase form and is referred to as "Latin letter alpha".

See also

• Latin turned alpha
• G, which also has two distinct minuscule forms