|[This is a MPIWG MPDL language technology service]| A () The
first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The
capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also
the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter,
etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed
from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from
the first letter (/) of the Phoenician alphabet, the equivalent
of the Hebrew Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The
Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that
was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it
to represent their vowel Alpha with the a sound, the Phoenician
alphabet having no vowel symbols. A () The name of the sixth
tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of
the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor.
The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble
staff. -- A sharp (A/) is the name of a musical tone
intermediate betwee