Ą

Ą (lowercase: ą) is a letter in the Latin alphabet. It is formed by adding an ogonek (“little tail”) to the letter A. It is used in several languages, including Polish, Lithuanian, and various Native American languages.

Use in different languages

• Polish: In Polish, ą represents a nasalized vowel sound. It is pronounced differently depending on its position in a word and the sounds that follow it. For example:
  • Before fricatives like f, w, s, z, sz, ż, rz, h, and ch, it is pronounced as /ɔw̃/.
  • Before stops like k and g, it is pronounced as /ɔŋ/.
  • Before dental consonants like t, d, c, dz, cz, and dż, it is pronounced as /ɔn/.
  • Before labial consonants like p and b, it is pronounced as /ɔm/.
  • Before palatal consonants like ś, ź, ć, dź, si, zi, ci, and dzi, it is pronounced as /ɔɲ/.
  • Before l and ł, it is pronounced as /ɔ/.
• Lithuanian: In Lithuanian, ą represents a long nasalized vowel sound. It is used in both modern and historical contexts, though its pronunciation has evolved over time.
• Native American Languages: ą is used in several Native American languages, such as Navajo and Western Apache, to denote nasalized vowel sounds.

Historical development

The letter ą originated from the Latin alphabet. It was adapted to represent nasalized vowels in various languages. In Polish, it evolved from a long nasal a sound in medieval Polish, to a short nasal o sound in the modern language. This change was influenced by the adoption of Old Czech-style orthography in the 16th century.

Unicode representation

In Unicode, the uppercase Ą is represented as U+0104. The lowercase ą is represented as U+0105.

Examples

• Polish: The word “są” (they are) is pronounced /sɔw̃/.
• Lithuanian: The word “ką” (what) is pronounced /kãː/.