Latin turned alpha

The Latin turned alpha, also known as the turned script A (uppercase: Ɒ, lowercase: ɒ), is an additional letter of the Latin script, based on letters A and Latin alpha (Ɑ). Its lowercase variant is used in International Phonetic Alphabet,[1] Americanist phonetic notation,[2] Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, Teuthonista, Swedish Dialect Alphabet, Dania, and Norvegia transcriptions.[3] Its uppercase variant is used in the Americanist phonetic notation.[2] The letter also appears in Belter Creole, a constructed language made by Nick Farmer for The Expanse television sci-fi series.[4]

Latin turned alpha
Ɒ ɒ
Upper and lower case Latin turned alpha.
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
Phonetic usage[ɒ]
[ɐ]
[ɑ]
Unicode codepointU+2C70, U+0252
History
Development
A a/Ɑ ɑ
  • Ɒ ɒ
    • Ɒ ɒ
Time period1890s to present
SistersA, Ɑ
Other
Writing directionLeft-to-Right

Usage

In the 1890s, Philipp Lenz used the turned alpha in his phonetic transcription to represent a very short vowel A.[5]

In Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, Swedish Dialect Alphabet, Dania, and Norvegia transcriptions, the lowercase letter is used to represent the near-open central vowel sound ([ɐ]).[3] It also appears in Teuthonista transcription.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the lowercase letter is used to represent the open back rounded vowel sound, that appears for example in the English word not. Its usage was originally proposed in the 1900s and 1910s and was formally introduced in the 1920s.[1][6]

It appeared in the 1939 Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England, where it was used to represent the open back rounded vowel ([ɒ]).[7] It is also sometimes appeared in other works, where it was used in to denote the open back unrounded vowel ([ɑ]).

In the Americanist phonetic notation the letter has its IPA value. The uppercase letter (Ɒ) is the same but voiceless.[2][8]

The letter is also used in Belter Creole, a constructed language made by Nick Farmer for The Expanse television sci-fi series. It is sometimes used as an alternative variant for the digraph Ow, used to denote the open back rounded vowel ([ɒ]) sound. For example, the alternative spelling of the word owkwa, which means water, would be ɒkwa.[4]

Encodings
Character information
PreviewⱰɒᶛ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER TURNED ALPHA LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED ALPHA MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TURNED ALPHA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode11376U+2C70594U+02527579U+1D9B
UTF-8226 177 176E2 B1 B0201 146C9 92225 182 155E1 B6 9B
Numeric character referenceⱰⱰɒɒᶛᶛ

See also

References
  1. The principles of the International Phonetic Association, p. 18.
  2. William A. Smalley, Manual of Articulatory Phonetics. Revised Edition p. 310.
  3. Manne Eriksson, Svensk ljudskrift 1878–1960: En översikt över det svenska landsmålsalfabetets utveckling och användning huvudsakligen i tidskriften Svenska Landsmål, p. 149.
  4. Nick Farmer. "Post". twitter.com. The only sound that can't be represented by the Roman alphabet with one character is the vowel "ow." On Twitter I've used the digraph, but sometimes on the show you'll see the symbol "ɒ," borrowed from the international phonetic alphabet.
  5. Philipp Lenz, Der Handschuhsheimer dialekt: Nachtrag zum wörterverzeichnis von 1887, p. 4.
  6. Martin Heepe, Lautzeichen und ihre Anwendung in verschiedenen Sprachgebieten, p. 23.
  7. Hans Kurath, Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England, p. 126.
  8. Lorna A. Priest, Proposal to encode two phonetic characters and two Shona characters

Bibliography
  • Philipp Lenz, Der Handschuhsheimer dialekt: Nachtrag zum wörterverzeichnis von 1887, Darmstadt, G. Otto, 1892.
  • Manne Eriksson, Svensk ljudskrift 1878–1960: En översikt över det svenska landsmålsalfabetets utveckling och användning huvudsakligen i tidskriften Svenska Landsmål, Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & Söner, 1961.
  • The principles of the International Phonetic Association, Paris, London, International Phonetic Association, 1912.
  • Martin Heepe, Lautzeichen und ihre Anwendung in verschiedenen Sprachgebieten, Berlin, Reichsdruckerei, 1928.
  • Hans Kurath (director), Marcus L. Hansen, Julia Bloch, Bernard Bloch, Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England, 1939.
  • William A. Smalley, Manual of Articulatory Phonetics. Revised Edition, Lanham, MD, University Press of America, Inc., 1989.
  • Lorna A. Priest, Proposal to encode two phonetic characters and two Shona characters, 2007.
  • Luanne von Schneidemesser, Lewis Lawyer, Ken Whistler, Deborah Anderson, Proposal for Two Phonetic Characters (no L2/12-266)
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