Ā

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

• IPA^(key): [aː]

Ā (upper case, lower case ā)

1. The second letter of the Latvian alphabet, called garais ā and written in the Latin script.

Despite being an independent letter with its own position in the Latvian alphabet, Ā/ā, like all long vowels with macrons, is treated as a simple A/a in alphabetized lists (e.g., in dictionaries).

• Letters of the Latvian alphabet:

  burti: Aa, Āā, Bb, Cc, Čč, Dd, Ee, Ēē, Ff, Gg, Ģģ, Hh, Ii, Īī, Jj, Kk, Ķķ, Ll, Ļļ, Mm, Nn, Ņņ, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Šš, Tt, Uu, Ūū, Vv, Zz, Žž

From the perceived ease and speed of writing a macron (¯) compared to an umlaut (¨).

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɛː/, /ɛ/

Ā (upper case, lower case ā)

1. (in handwriting) alternative form of Ä

• Ō