D

D, or d, is the fourth letter of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is dee (pronounced /ˈdiː/), plural dees.[1]

D
D d
(See below)
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic
Language of originLatin language
Phonetic usage
  • [d]
  • [t]
  • [ɗ]
  • [z~j]
  • [ⁿd]
  • [ɖ]
Unicode codepointU+0044, U+0064
Alphabetical position4
Numerical value: 4
History
Development
Time period~-700 to present
Descendants
Sisters
Variations(See below)
Other
Other letters commonly used withd(x)
Associated numbers4
ISO basic
Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

History
Egyptian hieroglyph
door, fish		 Phoenician
daleth		 Greek
Delta		 Etruscan
D		 Latin
D

The Semitic letter Dāleth may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door.[2] There are many different Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek[3] and Latin,[4] the letter represented /d/; in the Etruscan alphabet[5] the letter was archaic, but still retained (see letter B). The equivalent Greek letter is Delta, Δ.[3]

Architecture

The minuscule (lower-case) form of 'd' consists of a lower-story left bowl and a stem ascender. It most likely developed by gradual variations on the majuscule (capital) form 'D', and today now composed as a stem with a full lobe to the right. In handwriting, it was common to start the arc to the left of the vertical stroke, resulting in a serif at the top of the arc. This serif was extended while the rest of the letter was reduced, resulting in an angled stroke and loop. The angled stroke slowly developed into a vertical stroke.[6]

Use in writing systems
The letter D, standing for "Deutschland" (German for "Germany"), on a boundary stone at the border between Austria and Germany.

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, and in the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨d⟩ generally represents the voiced alveolar or voiced dental plosive /d/. However, in the Vietnamese alphabet, it represents the sound /z/ in northern dialects or /j/ in southern dialects. (See D with stroke and Dz (digraph).) In Fijian it represents a prenasalized stop /nd/.[7] In some languages where voiceless unaspirated stops contrast with voiceless aspirated stops, ⟨d⟩ represents an unaspirated /t/, while ⟨t⟩ represents an aspirated /tʰ/. Examples of such languages include Icelandic, Scottish Gaelic, Navajo and the Pinyin transliteration of Mandarin.

Other uses
  • The Roman numeral D represents the number 500.[8]
  • D is the grade below C but above E in the school grading system.
  • D is the International vehicle registration code for Germany (see also .de).
  • In Cantonese: Because the lack of Unicode CJK support in the early computer system, many Hong Kongers and Singaporeans used the capitalized D to represent 啲 (lit. a little).
  • d. is the standard abbreviation for the Penny (British pre-decimal coin) (from Latin: denarius)

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
  • 𐤃 : Semitic letter Dalet, from which the following symbols originally derive
    • Δ δ : Greek letter Delta, from which the following symbols originally derive
      • Ⲇ ⲇ : Coptic letter Delta
      • Д д : Cyrillic letter De
      • 𐌃 : Old Italic D, the ancestor of modern Latin D
        • ᛞ : Runic letter dagaz, which is possibly a descendant of Old Italic D
        • ᚦ Runic letter thurisaz, another possible descendant of Old Italic D
      • 𐌳 : Gothic letter daaz, which derives from Greek Delta

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
  • ₫ : Đồng sign
  • ∂ : the partial derivative symbol,

Code points

These are the code points for the forms of the letter in various systems

Character information
PreviewDd
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D LATIN SMALL LETTER D
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode68U+0044100U+0064
UTF-8684410064
Numeric character referenceDDdd
EBCDIC family196C413284
ASCII 1684410064
1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations
NATO phonetic Morse code
Delta
   ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ 
Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-145
Unified English Braille

In British Sign Language (BSL), the letter 'd' is indicated by signing with the right hand held with the index and thumb extended and slightly curved, and the tip of the thumb and finger held against the extended index of the left hand.

Use as a number

In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, D is a number that corresponds to the number 13 in decimal (base 10) counting.[17] In the binary (base 2) numbering system, D is denoted by 1101.[18]

References
  1. "D" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "dee", op. cit.
  2. "The letter D". issuu. Archived from the original on 2021-08-29. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  3. "Definition of DELTA". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  4. "Latin Alphabet" (PDF).
  5. Rex Wallace (2008) 𐌆𐌉𐌙 𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀 𐌀 Zikh Rasna: A Manual of the Etruscan Language and Inscriptions
  6. "Introduction to Old English". lrc.la.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  7. Lynch, John (1998). Pacific languages: an introduction. University of Hawaii Press. p. 97. ISBN 0-8248-1898-9.
  8. Gordon, Arthur E. (1983). Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy. University of California Press. pp. 44. ISBN 9780520038981. Retrieved 3 October 2015. roman numerals.
  9. Everson, Michael; Lilley, Chris (2019-05-26). "L2/19-179: Proposal for the addition of four Latin characters for Gaulish" (PDF).
  10. Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF).
  11. Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
  12. Cook, Richard; Everson, Michael (2001-09-20). "L2/01-347: Proposal to add six phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF).
  13. Constable, Peter (2003-09-30). "L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS" (PDF).
  14. Constable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF).
  15. Miller, Kirk; Rees, Neil (2021-07-16). "L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam" (PDF).
  16. Everson, Michael (2006-08-06). "L2/06-266: Proposal to add Latin letters and a Greek symbol to the UCS" (PDF).
  17. "Hexadecimal Number System | There are Many Ways to Write Numbers". u.osu.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
  18. "DECIMAL, BINARY, AND HEXIDECIMAL" (PDF). courses.cs.washington.edu. p. 13. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
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