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==History== |
==History== |
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The [[English alphabet|English]] [[capital letter|capital]] [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] {{angle bracket|B}} derives from the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] capital [[beta (letter)|beta]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|grc|Β}}}} via the [[Old Italic script|Etruscan]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|itc|𐌁}}}} and [[Roman alphabet]] |
The [[English alphabet|English]] [[capital letter|capital]] [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] {{angle bracket|B}} derives from the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] capital [[beta (letter)|beta]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|grc|Β}}}} via the [[Old Italic script|Etruscan]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|itc|𐌁}}}} and [[Roman alphabet|Roman]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|la|B}}}}. The Greek letter was an adaptation of the [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] letter [[bet (letter)|bēt]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|phn|𐤁}}}}. The [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyph]] for the [[consonant]] /b/ had been an image of a [[foot (hieroglyph)|foot and calf]] {{angle bracket| [[File:Hiero D58.png|10px|B]] }},<ref>{{citation |last=Schumann-Antelme |first=Ruth |author2-last=Rossini |author2-first=Stéphane |display-authors=1 |date=1998 |publisher=English translation by Sterling Publishing (2002) |title=[[Illustrated Hieroglyphics Handbook]] |isbn=1-4027-0025-3 |pp=22–23 }}.</ref> but bēt (Phoenician for "house") was a modified form of a [[Proto-Sinaitic script|Proto-Sinaitic]] [[glyph]] {{angle bracket| [[Image:Proto-Canaanite - bet.png|20px|Bet]] }} probably adapted from the separate [[Pr (hieroglyph)|hieroglyph Pr]] {{angle bracket| [[File:Egyptian-per2.PNG|20px|Per]] }} meaning "house".<ref>{{citation |last=Goldwasser |first=Orly |authorlink=Orly Goldwasser |contribution=How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs |title=[[Biblical Archaeology Review]] |volume=Vol. 36 |issue=No. 1 |publisher=Biblical Archaeology Society |location=[[Washington, DC|Washington]] |date=Mar–Apr 2010 |contribution-url=http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=36&Issue=02&ArticleID=06 |issn=0098-9444 |accessdate=6 Nov 2011 }}.</ref>{{refn|group=n|It also resembles the [[Reed shelter (hieroglyph)|hieroglyph for /h/]] {{angle bracket| [[File:Hiero O4.png|15px|H]] }} meaning "manor" or "reed shelter".}} |
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Revision as of 11:47, 11 August 2015
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| ISO basic Latin alphabet |
|---|
| AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz |
B (pronounced /ˈbiː/, bee)[1][2] is the 2nd letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds (depending on language), but most commonly a voiced bilabial stop.
History
The English capital letter ⟨B⟩ derives from the Greek capital beta ⟨Β⟩ via the Etruscan ⟨𐌁⟩ and Roman ⟨B⟩. The Greek letter was an adaptation of the Phoenician letter bēt ⟨𐤁⟩. The Egyptian hieroglyph for the consonant /b/ had been an image of a foot and calf ⟨ 
⟩,[3] but bēt (Phoenician for "house") was a modified form of a Proto-Sinaitic glyph ⟨ 
⟩ probably adapted from the separate hieroglyph Pr ⟨ 
⟩ meaning "house".[4][n 1]
| Egyptian Pr |
Phoenician bēt |
Greek beta |
Etruscan B |
Roman B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Typographic variants
The modern lowercase 'b' derives from later Roman times, when scribes began omitting the upper loop of the capital.
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| Uncial B | Blackletter B | Modern Roman B | Modern Italic B | Modern Script B |
Use
In English, most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, and the International Phonetic Alphabet, 'b' denotes the voiced bilabial plosive /b/, as in 'bib'. In English it is sometimes silent; most instances are derived from old monosyllablic words with the 'b' final and immediately preceded by an 'm', such as 'lamb' and 'bomb'; a few are examples of etymological spelling to make the word more like its Latin original, such as 'debt' or 'doubt'.
In Estonian, Icelandic, and Chinese pinyin, 'b' does not denote a voiced consonant; instead, it represents a voiceless /p/ that contrasts with either a geminated /p:/ (in Estonian) or an aspirated /pʰ/ (in Chinese, Danish and Icelandic), represented by 'p'. In Fijian 'b' represents a prenasalized /mb/, whereas in Zulu and Xhosa it represents an implosive /ɓ/, in contrast to the digraph 'bh' which represents /b/.
Finnish only uses 'b' in loanwords.
'B' is also a musical note. Its value varies depending on the region; a 'b' in Anglophone countries represents a note that is a semitone higher than the B note in Northern Continental Europe. (Anglophone B is represented in Northern Europe with 'H'.) Archaic forms of 'b', the b quadratum (square b, ♮) and b rotundum (round b, ♭) remain in use for musical notation as the symbols for natural and flat, respectively.
In Contracted (grade 2) English braille, 'b' stands for "but" when in isolation.
Related letters and other similar characters
- Β β : Greek letter Beta
- В в : Cyrillic letter Ve
- Б б : Cyrillic letter Be
- Ɓ ɓ : Latin letter B with hook
- Ъ ъ : Cyrillic letter Yer (also known as the hard sign, back yer, or tvyordiy znak) is shaped like the letter b, but has no phonetic value on its own in modern East Slavic languages. The ъ serves as an orthographic device that indicates that the consonant preceding the ъ is not palatalized.
- Ь ь : Cyrillic letter Soft sign (also known as the front yer, or myagkiy znak) is also shaped like the letter b, but has no phonetic value on its own in modern East Slavic languages. The ь serves as orthographic device that indicates that the consonant preceding the ь is softened or palatalized.
- ẞ ß : German letter Eszett, originally a ligature of long s 'ſ' with 's', now considered to stand for 'ss'.
- ב : Hebrew letter Bet
- ␢ : U+2422 ␢ BLANK SYMBOL
- ♭: The flat in music, mentioned above, still closely resembles lowercase b.
Computing codes
| Preview | B | b | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B | LATIN SMALL LETTER B | ||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 66 | U+0042 | 98 | U+0062 |
| UTF-8 | 66 | 42 | 98 | 62 |
| Numeric character reference | B |
B |
b |
b |
| EBCDIC family | 194 | C2 | 130 | 82 |
| ASCII 1 | 66 | 42 | 98 | 62 |
- 1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.
Other representations
| NATO phonetic | Morse code |
| Bravo |
See also
Notes
- ^ It also resembles the hieroglyph for /h/ ⟨
⟩ meaning "manor" or "reed shelter".
References
Citations
- ^ "B", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
- ^ "B", Merriam-Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, 1993.
- ^ Schumann-Antelme, Ruth; et al. (1998), Illustrated Hieroglyphics Handbook, English translation by Sterling Publishing (2002), pp. 22–23, ISBN 1-4027-0025-3.
- ^ Goldwasser, Orly (Mar–Apr 2010), "How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs", Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. Vol. 36, Washington: Biblical Archaeology Society, ISSN 0098-9444, retrieved 6 Nov 2011
{{citation}}:|volume=has extra text (help).
Bibliography
- , Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. III, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878, p. 173.
- , Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. III, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 87.
