O
O o
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic
Language of originLatin language
Phonetic usage[o]
[o̞]
[ɔ]
/oʊ/
[uː]
[ʌ]
[ɒ]
[ø]
[a]
[ʕ]
[w]
[◌ʷ]
[ʊ]
[ə]
[ɐ]
Unicode codepointU+004F, U+006F
Alphabetical position15
History
Development
Time period~-700 to present
Descendants • Ö
 • ⱺ
 • Ø
 • Œ
 • Ɔ
 • Ơ
 • Ỏ
 • Ꝋ
 • ∅
 • º
 • ℅
Sistersᴥ
Ƹ
ʿ
О
Ю
Ө
ע
ع
ܥ
ࠏ
ዐ
ࡘ
ჺ
Ո ո
Օ օ
ᱳ
ᱜ
ᱣ
Other
Other letters commonly used witho(x)
Writing directionLeft-to-Right

O, or o, is the 15th letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is o (pronounced /ˈoʊ/), plural oes.[1]

History

Late Renaissance or early Baroque design of an O, from 1627

Its graphic form has remained fairly constant from Phoenician times until today. The name of the Phoenician letter was ʿeyn, meaning "eye", and indeed its shape originates simply as a drawing of a human eye (possibly inspired by the corresponding Egyptian hieroglyph, cf. Proto-Sinaitic script). Its original sound value was that of a consonant, probably [ʕ], the sound represented by the cognate Arabic letter ع ʿayn.[2]

The use of this Phoenician letter for a vowel sound is due to the early Greek alphabets, which adopted the letter of O "omicron" to represent the vowel /o/. The letter was adopted with the value in the Old Italic alphabets, including the early Latin alphabet. In Greek, a variation of the form later came to differentiate this long sound (Omega, meaning "large O") from the short o (Omicron, meaning "small o"). Greek omicron gave rise to the corresponding Cyrillic letter O.[2][3]

Use in writing systems

English

The letter ⟨o⟩ is the fourth most common letter in the English alphabet.[4] Like the other English vowel letters, it has associated "long" and "short" pronunciations. The "long" ⟨o⟩ as in boat is actually most often a diphthong /oʊ/ (realized dialectically anywhere from [o] to [əʊ]). In English there is also a "short" ⟨o⟩ as in fox, /ɒ/, which sounds slightly different in different dialects. In most dialects of British English, it is either an open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ] or an open back rounded vowel [ɒ]; in American English, it is most commonly an unrounded back [ɑ] to a central vowel [a].[5]

Common digraphs include ⟨oo⟩, which represents either /uː/ or /ʊ/; ⟨oi⟩ or ⟨oy⟩, which typically represents the diphthong /ɔɪ/, and ⟨ao⟩, ⟨oe⟩, and ⟨ou⟩ which represent a variety of pronunciations depending on context and etymology.[5]

In other contexts, especially before a letter with a minim, ⟨o⟩ may represent the sound /ʌ/, as in 'son' or 'love'. It can also represent the semivowel /w/ as in choir or quinoa.

In English, the letter ⟨o⟩ in isolation before a noun, usually capitalized, marks the vocative case, as in the titles to O Canada or O Captain! My Captain! or certain verses of the Bible.[6]

Other languages

Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨o⟩ in European languages

⟨o⟩ is commonly associated with the open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ], mid back rounded vowel [o̞] or close-mid back rounded vowel [o] in many languages. 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.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨o⟩ represents the close-mid back rounded vowel.[7]

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

  • 𐤏 : Semitic letter Ayin, from which the following symbols originally derive
    • Ω ω : Greek letter Omega
    • Ο ο : Greek letter Omicron
      • Ⲟ ⲟ : Coptic letter O, which derives from Greek omicron
      • О о : Cyrillic letter O, which also derives from Omicron
      • 𐌏 : Old Italic O, which derives from Greek Omicron, and is the ancestor of modern Latin O
      • Օ օ : Armenian letter O

Computing codes

Character information
PreviewOoＯｏ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O LATIN SMALL LETTER O FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER O
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode79U+004F111U+006F65327U+FF2F65359U+FF4F
UTF-8794F1116F239 188 175EF BC AF239 189 143EF BD 8F
Numeric character referenceOOooＯＯｏｏ
EBCDIC family214D615096
ASCII g1794F1116F
1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations

See also

  • Oxygen, symbol O, a chemical element
  • O mark
  • Open O (Ɔ ɔ)
  • 0 (zero). The capital letter O may be mistaken or misused for the number 0, as they appear quite identical in some typefaces. Early typewriters did not have a 'zero' key: users were actually expected to use capital O.

References

  1. ↑ "O" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989);Chambers-Happap, "oes" op. cit. Oes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered Os, O's, os, o's.
  2. 1 2 "Evolution of Alphabets". webspace.ship.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  3. ↑ "Cyrillic script". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  4. ↑ "Frequency Table". www.math.cornell.edu.
  5. 1 2 "International Phonetic Alphabet for American English - IPA Chart". easypronunciation.com. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. ↑ "Quick search: "o lord"". Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  7. ↑ "IPA Chart with Sounds – International Phonetic Alphabet Sounds". www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  8. ↑ Constable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF).
  9. 1 2 Everson, Michael; Baker, Peter; Emiliano, António; Grammel, Florian; Haugen, Odd Einar; Luft, Diana; Pedro, Susana; Schumacher, Gerd; Stötzner, Andreas (2006-01-30). "L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS" (PDF).
  10. ↑ Bunčić, Daniel (2021-01-12). "L2/21-039: Proposal to include the letter 'Old Polish O'" (PDF).
  11. ↑ Lemonen, Therese; Ruppel, Klaas; Kolehmainen, Erkki I.; Sandström, Caroline (2006-01-26). "L2/06-036: Proposal to encode characters for Ordbok över Finlands svenska folkmål in the UCS" (PDF).
  12. ↑ Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
  13. ↑ Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF).
  14. ↑ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2011-06-02). "L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS" (PDF).
  15. ↑ Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (2004-06-07). "L2/04-191: Proposal to encode six Indo-Europeanist phonetic characters in the UCS" (PDF).
  16. ↑ Miller, Kirk (2020-07-11). "L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks" (PDF).
  17. ↑ Anderson, Deborah (2020-12-07). "L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes" (PDF).
  18. ↑ "Earliest Uses of Symbols of Set Theory and Logic". jeff560.tripod.com.
  19. ↑ "Script (or Calligraphic)". www.w3.org. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
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