B
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2008-07-16T18:04:54Z
BodhisattvaBot
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robot Modifying: [[tr:B (harf)]]
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{{Otherusesof|B}}
{{wiktionarypar2|B|b}}
{{Latin alphabet navbox|uc=B|lc=b}}
'''B''' is the second letter in the [[Latin alphabet]]. Its name in [[English language|English]] is spelled '''bee''' or occasionally '''be''' ({{pronEng|biː}}), plural '''bees'''.<ref>"B" ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989); ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "bee," op. cit.</ref>
==History==
The letter B might have started as a [[pictogram]] of the floorplan of a house in [[Egyptian hieroglyph]]s or the [[Proto-Sinaitic alphabet]]. By [[1050 BC]], the [[Phoenician alphabet]]'s letter had a linear form that served as the beth.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Egyptian hieroglyph <br>cottage
! [[Proto-Canaanite alphabet|Proto-Canaanite]] <br>house
! [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] <br>{{script|Phnx|𐤁}} ''[[Beth (Hebrew)|beth]]''
! [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] <br>{{script|Grek|Β}} beta
! [[Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan]] <br>{{script|Ital|𐌁}} B
! Latin <br>B
|- style="background-color:white; text-align:center;"
|[[Image:EgyptianB-01.svg|64px|Egyptian hieroglyphic house]]
|[[Image:Proto-semiticB-01.svg|64px|Proto-semitic house]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianB-01.svg|64px|Phoenician beth]]
|[[Image:Beta uc lc.svg|95px|Greek beta]]
|[[Image:EtruscanB-01.svg|46px|Etruscan B]]
|[[Image:RomanB-01.svg|37px|Roman B]]
|}
==Typography==
The modern lowercase letter ''b'' derives from later [[Roman cursive#New Roman cursive|Roman]] times, when scribes began omitting the upper loop of the capital.
{|
|align="center"|[[Image:BlackletterB-01.png|Blackletter B]]
|align="center"|[[Image:UncialB-01.png|Uncial B]]
|-
|align="center"|[[Blackletter]] B
|align="center"|[[Uncial]] B
|-
|align="center"|[[Image:ModernRomanB-01.png|Modern Roman B]]
|align="center"|[[Image:ModernItalicB-01.png|Modern Italic B]]
|align="center"|[[Image:ModernScriptB-01.png|Modern Script B]]
|-
|align="center"|Modern Roman B
|align="center"|Modern Italic B
|align="center"|Modern Script B
|}
The letter B is often confused with the visually similar [[German language|German]] [[ß]] which stands for ''ss''.
==Usage==
In [[English language|English]] and most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, the letter b denotes the [[voiced bilabial plosive]] ({{IPAEng|b}}), as in ''bib''. In English it is sometimes silent, as in ''debt'' or ''comb'' (however the 'b' in 'comb' was actually pronounced at one time). In [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], and in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] transcription, B is not voiced, but is still contrasted to P, which is [[geminate]]d {{IPA|/pp/}} in [[Estonian language|Estonian]] and [[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]] {{IPA|/pʰ/}} in Chinese and Icelandic. In [[Fijian language|Fijian]] B is [[prenasalized consonant|prenasalized]] {{IPA2|mb}}, whereas in [[Zulu language|Zulu]] and [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]] it is [[implosive consonant|implosive]] {{IPA2|ɓ}}, in contrast to the [[digraph]] Bh which represents {{IPA2|b}}.
[[Finnish language|Finnish]] uses the letter ''b'' only for loanwords.
In the [[help:IPA|International Phonetic Alphabet]] and [[X-SAMPA]], letter {{IPA|/b/}} denotes the [[voiced bilabial plosive]]. Variants of the letter b denote related [[bilabial consonant]]s, like the [[voiced bilabial implosive]] and the [[bilabial trill]]. In [[X-SAMPA]], capital B denotes the [[voiced bilabial fricative]].
B is also a [[musical note]].
==Codes for computing==
{{Letter
|NATO=Bravo
|Morse=–···
|Character=B2
|Braille=⠃
}}
In [[Unicode]] the [[majuscule|capital]] B is codepoint U+0042 and the [[lower case]] b is U+0062.
The [[ASCII]] code for capital B is 66 and for lowercase b is 98; or in [[Binary numeral system|binary]] 01000010 and 01100010, correspondingly.
The [[EBCDIC]] code for capital B is 194 and for lowercase b is 130.
The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are
"<tt>&#66;</tt>" and "<tt>&#98;</tt>" for upper and lower case
respectively.
==References==
{{reflist}}
== See also ==
{{Commons|B}}
*В, в : [[Ve (Cyrillic)]]
*Б, б: [[Be (Cyrillic)]]
*{{Unicode|[[Ɓ]]}}
*[[B postcode area]] (United Kingdom)
{{Latin alphabet}}
[[Category:Latin letters]]
[[af:B]]
[[als:B]]
[[ar:B]]
[[arc:B]]
[[ast:B]]
[[az:B]]
[[zh-min-nan:B]]
[[bs:B]]
[[br:B (lizherenn)]]
[[ca:B]]
[[cs:B]]
[[co:B]]
[[cy:B]]
[[da:B]]
[[de:B]]
[[dv:B]]
[[et:B]]
[[el:B]]
[[es:B]]
[[eo:B]]
[[eu:B]]
[[fa:B]]
[[fr:B (lettre)]]
[[fur:B]]
[[gan:B]]
[[gd:B]]
[[gl:B]]
[[ko:B]]
[[hr:B]]
[[io:B]]
[[ilo:B]]
[[is:B]]
[[it:B]]
[[he:B]]
[[ka:B]]
[[kw:B]]
[[sw:B]]
[[ht:B]]
[[la:B]]
[[lv:B]]
[[lb:B]]
[[lt:B]]
[[hu:B]]
[[mzn:B]]
[[ms:B]]
[[nah:B]]
[[nl:B (letter)]]
[[ja:B]]
[[no:B]]
[[nn:B]]
[[nrm:B]]
[[uz:B (harf)]]
[[pl:B]]
[[pt:B]]
[[crh:B]]
[[ro:B]]
[[qu:B]]
[[ru:B (латиница)]]
[[se:B]]
[[scn:B]]
[[simple:B]]
[[sk:B]]
[[sl:B]]
[[szl:B]]
[[sr:B (слово латинице)]]
[[fi:B]]
[[sv:B]]
[[tl:B]]
[[th:B]]
[[vi:B]]
[[tr:B (harf)]]
[[tk:B]]
[[tw:B]]
[[uk:B (латиниця)]]
[[vo:B]]
[[yo:B]]
[[zh-yue:B]]
[[bat-smg:B]]
[[zh:B]]