Examine individual changes

':''For technical reasons, B# redirects here. For the musical note, see [[B♯ (musical note)]]'' {{Two other uses|the letter}} {{wiktionarypar2|B|b}} {{Latin alphabet navbox|uc=B|lc=b}} '''B''' is the second [[letter]] in the [[Latin alphabet]]. Its name in [[English language|English]] ({{IPAc-en|icon|ˈ|b|iː}}) is spelled '''bee''', plural '''bees'''.<ref>"B" ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989); ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "bee", ''op. cit.''</ref> It is used to represent a variety of [[bilabial consonant|bilabial sounds]] (depending on language), most commonly a [[voiced bilabial plosive]]. ==History== ‹B› started as a [[pictogram]] of the floorplan of a house in [[Egyptian hieroglyph]]s or the [[Proto-Sinaitic alphabet]]. By [[1050 BC]], the [[Phoenician alphabet]]'s letter had a linear form that served as the beth. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Egyptian hieroglyph <br>cottage ! [[Proto-Canaanite alphabet|Proto-Canaanite]] <br>house ! [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] <br>''[[Bet (letter)|beth]]'' ! [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] <br>''[[Beta (letter)|Beta]]'' ! [[Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan]] <br>B ! Roman <br>B |- style="background-color:white; text-align:center;" |[[Image:EgyptianB-01.svg|64px|Egyptian hieroglyphic house]] |[[Image:Proto-semiticB-01.svg|64px|Proto-semitic house]] |[[Image:PhoenicianB-01.svg|64px|Phoenician beth]] |[[Image:Beta uc lc.svg|95px|Greek beta]] |[[Image:EtruscanB-01.svg|46px|Etruscan B]] |[[Image:RomanB-01.svg|37px|Roman B]] |} ==Typography== The modern lowercase ‹b› derives from later [[Roman cursive#New Roman cursive|Roman]] times, when scribes began omitting the upper loop of the capital. {| |align="center"|[[Image:BlackletterB-01.png|Blackletter B]] |align="center"|[[Image:UncialB-01.png|Uncial B]] |- |align="center"|[[Blackletter]] B |align="center"|[[Uncial script|Uncial]] B |- |align="center"|[[Image:ModernRomanB-01.png|Modern Roman B]] |align="center"|[[Image:ModernItalicB-01.png|Modern Italic B]] |align="center"|[[Image:ModernScriptB-01.png|Modern Script B]] |- |align="center"|Modern Roman B |align="center"|Modern Italic B |align="center"|Modern Script B |} ‹B› is often confused with the visually similar [[German language|German]] ‹[[ß]]› which stands for ‹ss›. ==Usage== In [[English language|English]] and most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, ‹b› denotes the [[voiced bilabial plosive]] {{IPAc-en|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 [[etymology|etymological]] spelling to make the word more like its [[Latin language|Latin]] original, such as ''debt'' or ''doubt''. In [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], and in [[Chinese language|Chinese]], ‹b› does not denote a voiced consonant; instead, it represents a voiceless {{IPA|/p/}} that contrasts with either a [[geminate]]d {{IPA|/pp/}} (in Estonian) or an [[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]] {{IPA|/pʰ/}} (in Chinese, Danish and Icelandic), represented by ‹p›. In [[Fijian language|Fijian]] ‹b› represents a [[prenasalized consonant|prenasalized]] {{IPA|/mb/}}, whereas in [[Zulu language|Zulu]] and [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]] it represents an [[implosive consonant|implosive]] {{IPA|/ɓ/}}, in contrast to the [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] ‹bh› which represents {{IPA|/b/}}. [[Finnish language|Finnish]] only uses ‹b› in loanwords. In the [[help:IPA|International Phonetic Alphabet]] and [[X-SAMPA]], ‹{{IPA|b}}› denotes the [[voiced bilabial plosive]]. Variants of ‹b› denote related [[bilabial consonant]]s, like the [[voiced bilabial implosive]] and the [[bilabial trill]]. In [[X-SAMPA]], capital ‹B› denotes the [[voiced bilabial fricative]]. ‹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, {{music|natural}}) and ''b rotundum'' (round b, {{music|b}}) remain in use for musical notation as the symbols for ''[[natural (music)|natural]]'' and ''[[flat (music)|flat]]'', respectively. In Contracted (grade 2) English braille, ‹b› stands for "but" when in isolation. == Codes for computing == {{Letter |NATO=Bravo |Morse=–··· |Character=B2 |Braille=⠃ }} In [[Unicode]] the [[majuscule|capital]] ‹B› is codepoint U+0042 and the [[lower case]] ‹b› is U+0062. The [[ASCII]] code for capital ‹B› is 66 and for lower case ‹b› is 98; or in [[Binary numeral system|binary]] 01000010 and 01100010, respectively. The [[EBCDIC]] code for capital ‹B› is 194 and for lowercase ‹b› is 130. The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are "<tt>&amp;#66;</tt>" and "<tt>&amp;#98;</tt>" for upper and lower case, respectively. == See also == {{Commons|B}} *В, в : [[Ve (Cyrillic)]] *Б, б: [[Be (Cyrillic)]] *The Semitic letter [[Bet (letter)|Bet]] *{{Unicode|[[Ɓ]]}} *[[B postcode area]] (United Kingdom) *Β, β: [[Beta (letter)|Beta]] *ב: [[Beth (letter)|Beth]] *Ъ, ъ, also known as the [[hard sign]], [[back yer]], [[yer]], [[jer]], [[Er (Cyrillic)|er]], or [[tvyordiy znak]], is shaped like the letter b, but has no phonetic value on its own in modern [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]] languages. The ъ serves as an orthographic device that indicates that the [[palatal approximant]] (the English '''y''' or IPA [j] sound) is heard after the consonant preceding the hard sign. *Ь, ь, also known as the [[soft sign]], [[soft sign|front yer]], or [[soft sign|myagkiy znak]], is also shaped like the letter b, but has no phonetic value on its own in modern [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]] languages. The ь serves as orthographic device that indicates that the consonant preceding the ь is softened or palatalized. ==References== {{reflist}} {{Latin alphabet|B|}} [[Category:Latin letters]] [[ace:B]] [[af:B]] [[als:B]] [[ar:B]] [[an:B]] [[arc:B]] [[ast:B]] [[az:B]] [[zh-min-nan:B]] [[be:B, літара]] [[bs:B]] [[br:B (lizherenn)]] [[ca:B]] [[cs:B]] [[co:B]] [[cy:B]] [[da:B]] [[de:B]] [[dv:B]] [[et:B]] [[el:B]] [[eml:B]] [[es:B]] [[eo:B]] [[eu:B]] [[fa:B]] [[fr:B (lettre)]] [[fy:B]] [[fur:B]] [[gv:Beih (lettyr)]] [[gd:B]] [[gl:B]] [[gan:B]] [[ko:B]] [[hr:B]] [[io:B]] [[ilo:B]] [[id:B]] [[ia:B]] [[is:B]] [[it:B]] [[he:B]] [[ka:B]] [[kw:B]] [[sw:B]] [[ht:B]] [[ku:B (tîp)]] [[la:B]] [[lv:B]] [[lb:B]] [[lt:B]] [[hu:B]] [[mk:B (Латиница)]] [[mg:B]] [[ml:B]] [[mzn:B]] [[ms:B]] [[nah:B]] [[nl:B (letter)]] [[ja:B]] [[no:B]] [[nn:B]] [[nrm:B]] [[uz:B (harf)]] [[pl:B]] [[pt:B]] [[crh:B]] [[ro:B]] [[qu:B]] [[ru:B (латиница)]] [[se:B]] [[stq:B]] [[scn:B]] [[simple:B]] [[sk:B]] [[sl:B]] [[szl:B]] [[sr:B (слово латинице)]] [[fi:B]] [[sv:B]] [[tl:B]] [[th:B]] [[tr:B (harf)]] [[tk:B]] [[uk:B (латиниця)]] [[vi:B]] [[vo:B]] [[yi:B]] [[yo:B]] [[zh-yue:B]] [[diq:B]] [[bat-smg:B]] [[zh:B]]'