In written form, we use the so-called single-storey 'a', simply because it's faster to write. The design of the so-called double-storey 'a' which we mostly see in print is a matter of convention. Both forms are branches of an interesting typographic evolution.
The Printing Press was invented, and printing typeface changed the shape of some letters to fit the needs of printing to avoid blurring and mistaking individual letters. The double-story [a] and [g] were used – and continue to be used in most documents, books, and printed material today.
The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.
There are two forms of the lowercase letter a: the single-story (sometimes spelled storey) and the double-story (or storey). These variations can also be referred to as “one-story” and “two-story.”
a, letter that has stood at the head of the alphabet during the whole of the period through which it can be traced historically. The name of the letter in the Phoenician period resembled the Hebrew name aleph meaning “ox”; the form is thought to derive from an earlier symbol resembling the head of an ox.
Scholars believe that's why the Phoenicians called the first letter of their alphabet “aleph,” meaning ox. In fact, the Phoenicians drew their letter “A” to look like the head of an ox — well, at least the tilted head of an ox. It resembled our letter “K,” with its two diagonals representing the ox's horns.
From aleph to alpha
During the 8th century BCE, the ancient Greeks formed their own alphabet primarily based on the Phoenician alphabet. Since the Greeks had little use for a glottal stop, the aleph was used to denote the vowel a which was re-named alpha, possessing the phoneme a as in father.
(of a building) having two floors or levels.
Ȧ (minuscule: ȧ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from A with the addition of a dot above the letter. It is occasionally used as a phonetic symbol for a low central vowel, /ä/.
Ā, lowercase ā, is a grapheme, a Latin A with a macron, used in several orthographies. Ā is used to denote a long A.
Á, á (a-acute) is a letter of the Chinese (Pinyin), Blackfoot, Czech, Dutch, Faroese, Filipino, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Lakota, Navajo, Occitan, Portuguese, Sámi, Slovak, Spanish, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Western Apache languages as a variant of the letter a.
The lower case a as we see it in most computer fonts today is actually the original letterform in our alphabet. The simplified circle with a stick attached to the right side is a relatively recent development, used to simplify handwriting.
Pronouncing the Letter “A”
The letter “a” has seven different sounds. To master each of these, you must listen closely to experienced speakers of the English language and then practice articulating the words that contain “a” sounds.
Many educators choose Comic Sans deliberately because it is one of the few fonts available natively on both Mac and PC which has a 'true a' – that is, an 'a' which is a circle and stick (rather than the one used in my current font!). “I know Comic Sans isn't the greatest,” they say, “but it has the 'true a'.”
Stick with sans-serif fonts - As mentioned earlier, fonts without serifs, such as Arial, are much easier on the eyes. Increase browser display size - With the increase in wide-screen computer displays, websites are often shown as a column with empty margins.
SF Pro is the system font in iOS and iPadOS. iOS and iPadOS apps can also use NY.
The double-story “g”—what is now the common printed form—is the original form of the lowercase “g” (the OG ... ?), says Paul Shaw, a type designer who teaches at the New School. It originated in the eighth century among monks copying religious texts in Latin. The script they used became known as Carolingian script.
Double-storey. A double-story 'a' or 'g' has two counters, as opposed to their single-storey variants which only have one counter.
Double-Story:
A type of letter that has two counters (as opposed to the single-story version, which has only one counter).
The first alphabet created from Egyptian hieroglyphs in the Sinai area was picked up by Phoenician traders in the 11th century BC, who adopted it and altered it to suit their own needs, as we can see in this 2,700-year-old stone seal.
The original alphabet was developed by a Semitic people living in or near Egypt. * They based it on the idea developed by the Egyptians, but used their own specific symbols. It was quickly adopted by their neighbors and relatives to the east and north, the Canaanites, the Hebrews, and the Phoenicians.
The letter 'O' is unchanged in shape since its adoption in the Phoenician alphabet c. 1300BC.