Most modern alphabets embark on with the letter “ A , ” or a near eq . It was also first in line in the ancient Greek and Phoenician — from which the Modern English alphabet is ultimately descended — alphabets , too .
Being the gateway to the other missive and to literacy , “ A ” has robust symbolical value . Grouped with “ B ” and “ speed of light , ” or even support all alone , it can represent the whole alphabet and the encyclopedism of it . When that trio is write on a chalkboard , there ’s no having to opine what the child are see . The “ A ” and its Greek cousinalphaare also shorthand for excellence and accomplishment . You get an “ A ” or “ A+ ” for good work in school day , an A-1 vessel is an well build boat of the high-pitched class and many social animate being , from dogs to humans , follow the lead story of the alpha male person .
Built Like an Ox
The “ A ” appears in some of the earliest known transcriptions of the ancient Canaanite or Semitic ( no one is sure which came first ) alphabet from which most mod alphabets descend , written on limestone tablets in central Egypt around 1800 BC . Like the respite of the letters in this ABCs , “ A ” is descended from an Egyptian glyph and started out as a picture of an wild ox ’s brain . Over time , the ox head teacher was simplified ( draw like a “ V ” with a crossbar to make a schnoz , ears and hooter ) and rotated to get to what we have today , with the horns acting as the letter ’s wooden leg .
The Phoenicians ruled a small empire of marine city - state and colony around the Mediterranean and were the first people to extensively habituate the ABCs as it emerged Egypt . In the Phoenician alphabet , the ancient “ A”—called thealeph — didn’t represent a vowel . It was , instead , a symbolization for one of several “ breathing place audio ” they used , and interpret the phone of what linguist call a glottal stoppage , a grab in the throat from which a following letter pushes off . fathom like this were common in the ancient Semitic linguistic process , but are rarefied today . you may still bump deterrent example here and there , though , most notably in the elbow room that people with Cockney emphasis swallow their tonne ’s in glottal stops to turn “ bottle ” into “ bah - owe . ”
When the Greeks adopt the Phoenician alphabet , it was n’t very well suitable to the audio of their language . The external respiration sounds were n’t need at all , so the Greeks alternatively employed those letters to represent their vowel sounds . They changed the cast of thealeph , too . When they borrowed the varsity letter and dub italpha , the ox - like ( though rotated , so it also sort of look like a “ K ” ) Phoenician symbol did n’t have much significance to them , so they rotated the varsity letter some more . The horns became legs . At one head , one of the leg got lopped off , but was eventually reattached .
Today , the sound of the “ A ” alter among the different languages that utilise it , and sometimes even within the same language . In English alone , “ A ” stand in for twelve separate vowel auditory sensation . The audio it makes in “ pa ” or “ ma”—what linguists call the low , back vowel sound — is mean to have been its pronunciation in ancient Etruscan .
