Template:Short description Template:About Template:Technical reasons Template:Technical reasons Template:Pp-semi Template:Pp-move Template:Infobox grapheme Template:Latin letter info

D, or d, is the fourth 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 dee (pronounced Template:IPAc-en), plural dees.<ref>"D" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "dee", op. cit.</ref>

HistoryEdit

Egyptian hieroglyph
door, fish
Phoenician
daleth
Western Greek
Delta
Etruscan
D
Latin
D
<hiero>O31</hiero><hiero>K1</hiero><hiero>K2</hiero> File:PhoenicianD-01.svg File:Greek Delta 04.svg File:EtruscanD-01.svg Latin D

The Semitic letter Dāleth may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are many different Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Latin,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the letter represented {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; in the Etruscan alphabet<ref>Rex Wallace (2008) 𐌆𐌉𐌙 𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀 𐌀 Zikh Rasna: A Manual of the Etruscan Language and Inscriptions</ref> the letter was archaic but still retained. The equivalent Greek letter is delta, Δ.<ref name=":0" />

The minuscule (lower-case) form of 'd' consists of a lower-story left bowl and a stem ascender. It most likely developed by gradual variations on the majuscule (capital) form 'D', and is now composed as a stem with a full lobe to the right. In handwriting, it was common to start the arc to the left of the vertical stroke, resulting in a serif at the top of the arc. This serif was extended while the rest of the letter was reduced, resulting in an angled stroke and loop. The angled stroke slowly developed into a vertical stroke.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Use in writing systemsEdit

Pronunciation of Template:Angbr by language
Orthography Phonemes
Template:Nwr (Pinyin) Template:IPAslink
Dungan Template:IPAslink
English Template:IPAslink
French Template:IPAslink, silent
German Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink
Portuguese Template:IPAslink
Spanish Template:IPAslink
Turkish Template:IPAslink
Vietnamese Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink

EnglishEdit

In English, Template:Angbr generally represents the voiced alveolar plosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

The letter Template:Angbr is the tenth most frequently used in the English language.

Other languagesEdit

File:Boundary stone on the Demeljoch - 2.jpg
The letter D, standing for "Deutschland" (German for "Germany"), on a boundary stone at the border between Austria and Germany.

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, Template:Angbr generally represents the voiced alveolar or voiced dental plosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

In the Vietnamese alphabet, it represents the sound {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in northern dialects or {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in southern dialects. In Fijian, it represents a prenasalized stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In some languages where voiceless unaspirated stops contrast with voiceless aspirated stops, Template:Angbr represents an unaspirated {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, while Template:Angbr represents an aspirated {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. Examples of such languages include Icelandic, Scottish Gaelic, Navajo and the pinyin transliteration of Mandarin.

Other systemsEdit

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Template:Angbr represents the voiced alveolar plosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

Other usesEdit

Template:Main article

  • In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, D is a number that corresponds to the number 13 in decimal (base 10) counting.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Related charactersEdit

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabetEdit

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    • Other phonetic symbols related to D: ȡ<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Ꝺ ꝺ: Insular D is used in various phonetic contexts<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Ancestors and siblings in other alphabetsEdit

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviationsEdit

Other representationsEdit

Computing Edit

The Latin letters Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr have Unicode encodings Template:Unichar and Template:Unichar. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are also precomposed character encodings for Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the remainder are produced using combining diacritics.

Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in mathematics and science, plosive sounds in linguistics and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font compatibility.

OtherEdit

Template:Letter other reps In British Sign Language (BSL), the letter 'd' is indicated by signing with the right hand held with the index and thumb extended and slightly curved, and the tip of the thumb and finger held against the extended index of the left hand.

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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