M

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This article is about the letter of the Roman alphabet. For the letter of the Cyrillic script (М, м), see Em (Cyrillic). For the letter of the Greek script (Μ, μ), see Mu (letter). For other uses, see M (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with ញ, ᛖ, ₥, ℳ, ෆ, or ʍ.

M
M m
File:Latin letter M.svg
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
Language of originLatin language
Sound values
In UnicodeU+004D, U+006D
Alphabetical position13
History
Development
Time periodc. 700 BCE to present
Descendants
Sisters
Other
Associated graphsm(x)
Associated numbers1000
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.
M
ISO basic
Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced /ˈɛm/ Audio file "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-M.wav" not found), plural ems.[1]

History

Egyptian hieroglyph
"n" 		Phoenician
Mem 		Western Greek
Mu 		Etruscan
M 		Latin
M
<hiero>n</hiero> File:PhoenicianM-01.svg File:Greek Mu 04.svg File:EtruscanM-01.svg Latin M

The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto-Sinaitic" (Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value /n/, from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for /m/ was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā(y)-.[2]

Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of ⟨m⟩ by language
Orthography Phonemes
Standard Chinese (Pinyin) /m/
English /m/, silent
French /m/
German /m/
Portuguese /m/, silent
Spanish /m/
Turkish /m/

English

In English, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.

The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that ⟨m⟩ is sometimes a vowel, such as in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this is described as a syllabic consonant (IPA: /m̩/).

The digraph, "mn," when used in the beginning of words, such as mnemonic, is pronounced as /n/. This digraph is the only instance where the letter ⟨m⟩ is silent.

M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language.

Other languages

The letter ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/ in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages.

In Washo, lower-case ⟨m⟩ represents a voiced bilabial nasal /m/, while upper-case ⟨M⟩ represents a voiceless bilabial nasal /m̥/.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.

Other uses

Main article: M (disambiguation)
File:Miehikkala.vaakuna.svg
Styled letter M in the coat of arms of Miehikkälä
  • The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.[3]
  • Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.[4][5]
  • m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI).[4] However, m is sometimes also used as an abbreviation for mile.[5]
  • M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.[4]
  • With money amounts, m or M is ambiguous. In the finance industry,[6] m or M means 1,000. In this context, five million dollars is written $5mm or $5MM. Outside of finance, some people use M like the metric system "mega-" to mean one million and write $5M.[4][5]
  • M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.[4][5]
  • In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is similar to that of a capital letter M.
  • M is used as a logo by many rapid transit systems, standing for "Metro" (or equivalents in other languages.)
  • M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ[7]
  • IPA-specific symbols related to M: ɱ ɰ
  • Ɱ : Capital M with hook
  • Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:[8]
    • U+1D0D ᴍ <reserved-1D0D>
    • U+1D1F ᴟ <reserved-1D1F>
    • U+1D39 ᴹ <reserved-1D39>
    • U+1D50 ᵐ <reserved-1D50>
    • U+1D5A ᵚ <reserved-1D5A>
  • Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902:[9]
    • U+2098 ₘ <reserved-2098>
    • U+A7FA ꟺ <reserved-A7FA>
  • The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses U+AB3A ꬺ <reserved-AB3A>[10]
  • Other variations used for phonetic transcription:[11] ᶆ ᶬ ᶭ
  • Ɯ ɯ : Turned M
  • ꟽ : Inverted M was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for mulier (woman)[12]
  • ꟿ : Archaic M was used in ancient Roman texts to abbreviate the personal name 'Manius' (A regular capital M was used for the more common personal name 'Marcus')[12]
  • ℳ : currency symbol for Mark

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

  • 𐤌 : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive:
    • Μ μ : Greek letter Mu, from which M derives
      • Ⲙ ⲙ : Coptic letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu
      • М м : Cyrillic letter Em, also derived from Mu
      • 𐌌 : Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M
        • ᛗ : Runic letter Mannaz, which derives from old Italic M
      • 𐌼 : Gothic letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu

Ligatures and abbreviations

Other representations

Computing

  • U+004D M <reserved-004D>
  • U+006D m <reserved-006D>
  • U+FF2D Ｍ <reserved-FF2D>
  • U+FF4D ｍ <reserved-FF4D>

Other

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

File:Semaphore Mike.svg

File:Sign language M.svg File:BSL letter M.svg ⠍
Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-134
Unified English Braille

Notes

References

  1. ^ "M" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "em," op. cit.
  2. ^ See F. Simons, "Proto-Sinaitic — Progenitor of the Alphabet" Rosetta 9 (2011): Figure Two: "Representative selection of proto-Sinaitic characters with comparison to Egyptian hieroglyphs", (p. 38) Figure Three: "Chart of all early proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 39), Figure Four: "Representative selection of later proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to early proto-Canaanite and proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 40). See also: Goldwasser (2010), following Albright (1966), "Schematic Table of Proto-Sinaitic Characters" (fig. 1 Archived 2016-07-03 at the Wayback Machine).
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ a b c d Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  9. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  10. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  12. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • 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
  • File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg The dictionary definition of M at Wiktionary
  • File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg The dictionary definition of m at Wiktionary
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