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O (letter)

From Halbeeg, the open encyclopedia · Af-Soomaali

154 languages
O ace
O af
O als
O am
O an
O ang
O ar
O arc
O ast
O az
O azb
O ban
O bat-smg
O bcl
O bew
O bg
O bn
O bs
O ca
O cdo
O ckb
O co
O crh
O cs
O csb
O cv
O cy
O da
O de
O diq
O el
O eml
O en
O eo
O es
O et
O eu
O fa
O ff
O fi
O fj
O fo
O fur
O fy
O ga
O gan
O gd
O gl
O gn
O gor
O gv
O ha
O hak
O he
O hi
O hr
O hsb
O ht
O hu
O id
O ig
O ilo
O inh
O io
O is
O it
O ja
o jbo
O ka
O kge
O ko
O ks
O kv
O kw
O la
O lb
O lmo
O lt
O lv
O mg
O mr
O ms
O mzn
O nah
O nn
O no
O nrm
O oc
O pag
O pl
O pt
O qu
O ro
O scn
O sco
O se
O sh
O simple
O sk
O sl
O smn
O sn
O srn
O stq
O su
O sv
O sw
O szl
O tdd
O te
O th
O tk
O tl
O tn
O tr
O tt
O tyv
O ur
O vec
O vep
O vi
O vo
O war
O wuu
O xmf
O yi
O yo
O zgh
O zh
O zh-min-nan
O zh-yue
O (xaraf)
San-serif shown in Neue Helvetica 48 pt.. Serifs shown in Bodoni 48 pt..Eirik1231 · Public domain · Commons

O is the fifteenth letter of the standard Latin alphabet. Its uppercase form is O and its lowercase form is o. In most languages it is used as a vowel, meaning its sound is produced with the airflow unobstructed.

In Somali, O is one of the basic vowels. Like other Somali vowels, it has a short form (o) and a long form (oo), as found in the words 'god' and 'good'. This length distinction changes meaning and is considered an important distinction marked in writing.

History of the letter

The origin of the letter is traced to earlier Semitic letters, where a sign called 'ayin' represented an eye. The Phoenician alphabet used it for a pharyngeal consonant. When the Greeks adopted the alphabet, they converted this sign into a vowel, naming it 'omicron'. Latin adopted it from Greek, preserving the circular shape to the present day.

Pronunciation

In different languages, the letter O represents different vowel sounds, but generally it is a back vowel produced with rounded lips. Italian and Spanish have a clear, pure pronunciation. In English, O can represent multiple sounds depending on the word, as in 'go', 'not', and 'to'. Some languages, such as French and German, use O with diacritical marks to indicate vowel distinctions.

Other uses

Beyond written language, the symbol O is used in technical fields. In number systems, it resembles zero (0), which can sometimes cause confusion when reading codes and numerals; some systems therefore use a distinct form of zero to distinguish it. In chemistry, O is the symbol for oxygen. In mathematics and computer science, the letter is used for various notations.

UncertaintyDetails on the history of sound changes in earlier letters are based on scholarly reconstruction, and experts interpret the steps differently.
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