欧博娱乐Letter, History, Meaning & Uses
A History of the letter A. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1) gave way to early Semitic writing (about 1500 bce) on the Sinai Peninsula (2). About 1000 bce, in Byblos and other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the sign was given a linear form (3), the source of all later forms. In Semitic languages this sign was called aleph, meaning “ox.” The Greeks used the sign for the vowel a, changing its name to alpha. They used several forms of the sign, including the ancestor of the English capital A (4). The Romans incorporated this sign into Latin, and it is the source of the English form. The English small a first took shape in Greek handwriting in a form (5) similar to the present English capital letter. About the 4th century ce this was given a circular shape with a projection (6). This shape was the parent of both the English handwritten character (7) and the printed small a (8). (more)