O 22314 226112554 2008-07-16T21:40:20Z Monkeynoze 3466181 Reverted 1 edit by [[Special:Contributions/67.167.112.201|67.167.112.201]] identified as [[WP:VAND|vandalism]] to last revision by [[User:Jumbuck|Jumbuck]]. using [[WP:TWINKLE|TW]] {{otherusesof}} {{dablink|For technical reasons, ''<tt>:O</tt>'' (smiley face) and some similar combinations starting with ''<tt>:</tt>'' redirect here. See [[emoticon]].}} {{wiktionarypar2|O|o}} {{Latin alphabet navbox|uc=O|lc=o}} '''O''' is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin [[alphabet]]. Its name in [[English language|English]] is spelled '''o''' ({{pronEng|oʊ}}), plural usually '''o's''' or '''os'''; sometimes '''oes'''.<ref>[http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/o_1 Askoxford.com], [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/o merriam-webster.com], [http://www.oup.com/oald-bin/web_getald7index1a.pl?nav=on&which_entry=025396%23x1%23x1%23O&selected_word=O&search_word=o Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary], [http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=54614&dict=CALD Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary], [http://www.bartleby.com/61/1/O0000100.html American Heritage Dictionary] all list ''o's'' and ''os'' as the plural forms; [http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=o&title=21st chambersharrap.co.uk] lists ''oes'', ''os'' and ''o's''. Retrieved 2008-07-03.</ref> == History == {| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;text-align:center;" |- bgcolor="#EEEEEE" ! Egyptian hieroglyph ''`ir'' ! Proto-Semitic O ! Phoenician O ! Etruscan O ! Greek Omicron |----- |<hiero>D4</hiero> |[[Image:Proto-semiticO-01.svg]] |[[Image:PhoenicianO-01.png]] |[[Image:EtruscanO-01.svg|65px]] |[[Image:Omicron uc lc.svg|65px]] |} The letter was derived from the Semitic ''`[[Ayin]]'' (eye), which represented a consonant, probably the [[voiced pharyngeal fricative]] ({{IPA2|ʕ}}), the sound represented by the [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] letter ع called ''`Ayn''. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a similar Egyptian hieroglyph for "eye". The Greeks are thought to have come up with the innovation of vowel characters, and lacking a pharyngeal consonant, employed this letter as the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] [[Omicron|O]] to represent the vowel {{IPA|/o/}}, a sound it maintained in [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] and [[Latin]]. In Greek, a variation of the form later came to distinguish this long sound ([[Omega]], meaning "large O") from the short o (Omicron, meaning "small o"). Its graphic form has also remained fairly constant from Phoenician times until today. Indeed, even alphabets constructed "from scratch", i.e. not derived from Semitic, usually have similar forms to represent this sound -- for example the creators of the [[Afaka script|Afaka]] and [[Ol Chiki script]]s, each invented in different parts of the world in the last century, both attributed their vowels for 'O' to the shape of the mouth when making this sound. == Usage == O is most commonly associated with the [[close-mid back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[o]}} in many languages. This form is colloquially termed the "long o" in [[English language|English]], but the sound used for it is actually different. In the British prestigious dialect called [[Received Pronunciation]], the [[diphthong]] ({{IPA|əʊ}}) appears. This pronunciation and its spelling sometimes appears in British attempts to describe the French pronunciation of the letter ({{IPA|[o]}} above); North Americans use {{IPA|[o]}} for this purpose, whereas the sound they use is really the [[diphthong]]: {{IPA|/oʊ/}}. In English there is also a "short O", which also has several pronunciations. In most dialects of English English, it is an [[open back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɒ]}}; in North America, it is most commonly an unrounded back to central vowel, but it may actually vary from {{IPA|[ɒ]}} to {{IPA|[a]}} depending on the dialect. Common digraphs include OO, which represents either {{IPA|/ʊ/}} or {{IPA|/u/}}; OI which typically represents the diphthong {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}}; and OA, OE, and OU represent a variety of pronunciations depending on context and etymology. Other languages use O for various values, usually back vowels which are at least partly open. Derived letters such as [[Ö]] and [[Ø]] have been created for the alphabets of some languages to distinguish values that were not present in Latin and Greek, particularly rounded front vowels. In the [[Help:IPA|International Phonetic Alphabet]], {{IPA|[o]}} represents the [[close-mid back rounded vowel]]. == Codes for computing == {{Letter |NATO=Oscar |Morse=––– |Character=O |Braille=⠕ }} In [[Unicode]] the [[majuscule|capital]] O is codepoint U+004F and the [[Lower case|lowercase]] o is U+006F. The [[ASCII]] code for capital O is 79 and for lowercase o is 111; or in [[Binary numeral system|binary]] 01001111 and 01101111, correspondingly. The [[EBCDIC]] code for capital O is 214 and for lowercase o is 150. The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are "<tt>&amp;#79;</tt>" and "<tt>&amp;#111;</tt>" for upper and lower case respectively. == Distinguishing O from zero == :''See [[0 (number)#Distinguishing zero from O|0: Distinguishing zero from O]]'' == Meanings of O == :''See [[O (disambiguation)]].'' == Similar letters and symbols == *[[0]] (zero) *[[Oh]] *ò o [[grave accent|grave]] (0x00F2) *ó o [[acute accent|acute]] (0x00F3) *ô o [[circumflex]] (0x00F4) *[[õ]] o tilde (0x00F5) *[[ö]] o diaeresis (0x00F6) *[[ø]] o stroke (0x00F8) *ō o [[macron]] (0x014D) *ŏ o [[breve]] (0x014F) *ő o [[double acute accent|double acute]] (0x0151) *[[œ]] oe ligature (0x0153) *[[ơ]] o horn (0x01A1) *ǒ o [[caron]] (0x01D2) *ǫ o [[ogonek]] (0x01EB) *ǭ o ogonek macron (0x01ED) *ǿ o stroke acute (0x01FF) *ȍ o [[double grave accent|double grave]] (0x020D) *ȏ o inverted breve (0x020F) *ȫ o diaeresis macron (0x022B) *ȭ o tilde macron (0x022D) *ȯ o [[dot (diacritic)|dot]] above (0x022F) *ȱ o dot above and macron (0x0231) *ṍ o tilde acute (0x1E4D) *ṏ o tilde diaeresis (0x1E4F) *ṑ o macron grave (0x1E51) *ṓ o macron acute (0x1E53) *ọ o dot below (0x1ECD) *ỏ o [[hook (diacritic)|hook]] above (0x1ECF) *ố o circumflex acute (0x1ED1) *ồ o circumflex grave (0x1ED3) *ổ o circumflex hook above (0x1ED5) *ỗ o circumflex tilde (0x1ED7) *ộ o circumflex dot below (0x1ED9) *ớ o horn acute (0x1EDB) *ờ o horn grave (0x1EDD) *ở o horn hook above (0x1EDF) *ỡ o horn tilde (0x1EE1) *ợ o horn dot below (0x1EE3) *[[ɵ]] o bar (0x0275) *ο [[Omicron|Ο, ο - Greek omicron]] (0x03BF) *о [[O (Cyrillic)|О, о - Cyrillic o]] (0x043E) == See also == {{Commons|O}} {{Latin alphabet}} ==References== <references /> [[Category:Latin letters]] [[Category:Vowel letters]] [[af:O]] [[als:O]] [[ar:O]] [[arc:O]] [[ast:O]] [[az:O]] [[bs:O]] [[br:O (lizherenn)]] [[ca:O]] [[cs:O]] [[co:O]] [[cy:O]] [[da:O]] [[de:O]] [[el:O]] [[es:O]] [[eo:O]] [[eu:O]] [[fa:O]] [[fr:O (lettre)]] [[fur:O]] [[gan:O]] [[gd:O]] [[gl:O]] [[ko:O]] [[hr:O]] [[ilo:O]] [[is:O]] [[it:O]] [[he:O]] [[ka:O]] [[kw:O]] [[sw:O]] [[ht:O]] [[ku:O (herf)]] [[la:O]] [[lv:O]] [[lt:O]] [[hu:O]] [[mzn:O]] [[nah:O]] [[nl:O (letter)]] [[ja:O]] [[no:O]] [[nn:O]] [[nrm:O]] [[uz:O (harf)]] [[pl:O]] [[pt:O]] [[ro:O]] [[qu:O]] [[ru:O (латиница)]] [[se:O]] [[scn:O]] [[simple:O]] [[sk:O]] [[sl:O]] [[sr:O (слово латинице)]] [[fi:O]] [[sv:O]] [[tl:O]] [[th:O]] [[vi:O]] [[tr:O]] [[uk:O (латиниця)]] [[vo:O]] [[yo:O]] [[zh-yue:O]] [[bat-smg:O]] [[zh:O]]