O

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This article is about the letter of the alphabet. For the number zero, see 0. For other uses, see O (disambiguation).

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For technical reasons, ":O" redirects here. For the keyboard symbol, see List of emoticons.
Not to be confused with the number 0.
O
O o
File:Latin letter O.svg
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic
Language of originLatin language
Sound values
In UnicodeU+004F, U+006F
Alphabetical position15
History
Development
Time periodc. 700 BCE to present
Descendants
Sisters
Other
Associated graphso(x)
Writing directionLeft-to-right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
O
ISO basic
Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter of 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/ Audio file "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-O.wav" not found), plural oes.[1]

Name

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In English, the name of the letter is the "long O" sound, pronounced /ˈoʊ/. In most other languages, its name matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables.

File:Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨o⟩ in European languages.png
Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨o⟩ in European languages

History

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Egyptian Phoenician
Ayin 		Western Greek
Omicron 		Etruscan
O 		Latin
O
Egyptian Hieroglyph describing an eye File:PhoenicianO-01.svg File:Greek Omicron 04.svg File:EtruscanO-01.svg Latin O
File:Newes ABC Buchlein MET DP855603.jpg
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 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 "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"). The Greek omicron gave rise to the corresponding Cyrillic letter O.[2][3]

Use in writing systems

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Pronunciation of ⟨o⟩ by language
Orthography Phonemes
Standard Chinese (Pinyin) /ə/, /u/
Czech /ɔ/
Dutch /ɔ/, /oː/
English /ɒ/, /oʊ/, /ə/, /ɔː/, /aɪə/
French /o/, /ɔ/
German /ɔ/, /oː/, /o/
Irish /ɔ/, /ə/
Italian /o/, /ɔ/
Malagasy /u/
Malay /ɔ/
Occitan /u/
Polish /ɔ/
Portuguese /ɔ/, /o/, /u/, /w/
Spanish /o/
Slovak /ɔ/
Turkish /o/

English

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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.[citation needed]

"O" in isolation is a word, also spelled "oh" and pronounced /oʊ/. Before a noun, usually capitalized, it indicates a noun of address, as in the titles "O Canada" or "O Captain! My Captain!" or in certain verses of the Bible.[6]

Other languages

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⟨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.[citation needed]

Other systems

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

Other uses

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Main article: O (disambiguation)
  • Oxygen, symbol O, a chemical element
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See also: circle symbol
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Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

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Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

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  • 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[citation needed]

Other representations

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Computing

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  • U+004F O <reserved-004F>
  • U+006F o <reserved-006F>
  • U+FF2F Ｏ <reserved-FF2F>
  • U+FF4F ｏ <reserved-FF4F>

Other

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NATO phonetic Morse code
Oscar
 Audio file "O morse code.ogg" not found
File:ICS Oscar.svg

File:Semaphore Oscar.svg

File:Sign language O.svg File:BSL letter O.svg ⠕
Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-135
Unified English Braille

See also

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  • 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.

Notes

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References

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  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.
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File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg
Look up O or o in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
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