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Alpha /ˈælfə/^[1] (uppercase Α, lowercase α)^[a] is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , which is the West Semitic word for "ox".^[2] Letters that arose from alpha include the Latin letter A and the Cyrillic letter А.

Uses

Greek

In Ancient Greek, alpha was pronounced [a] and could be either phonemically long ([aː]) or short ([a]). Where there is ambiguity, long and short alpha are sometimes written with a macron and breve today: Ᾱᾱ, Ᾰᾰ.

ὥρα = ὥρᾱ hōrā Greek pronunciation: [hɔ́ːraː] "a time"
γλῶσσα = γλῶσσᾰ glôssa Greek pronunciation: [ɡlɔ̂ːssa] "tongue"

In Modern Greek, vowel length has been lost, and all instances of alpha simply represent the open front unrounded vowel IPA: [a].

In the polytonic orthography of Greek, alpha, like other vowel letters, can occur with several diacritic marks: any of three accent symbols (ά, ὰ, ᾶ), and either of two breathing marks (ἁ, ἀ), as well as combinations of these. It can also combine with the iota subscript (ᾳ).

Greek grammar

In the Attic–Ionic dialect of Ancient Greek, long alpha [aː] fronted to [ɛː] (eta). In Ionic, the shift took place in all positions. In Attic, the shift did not take place after epsilon, iota, and rho (ε, ι, ρ; e, i, r). In Doric and Aeolic, long alpha is preserved in all positions.^[3]

Doric, Aeolic, Attic χώρᾱ chṓrā – Ionic χώρη chṓrē, "country"
Doric, Aeolic φᾱ́μᾱ phā́mā – Attic, Ionic φήμη phḗmē, "report"

Privative a is the Ancient Greek prefix ἀ- or ἀν- a-, an-, added to words to negate them. It originates from the Proto-Indo-European *n̥- (syllabic nasal) and is cognate with English un-.

Copulative a is the Greek prefix ἁ- or ἀ- ha-, a-. It comes from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥.

Mathematics and science

The letter alpha represents various concepts in physics and chemistry, including alpha radiation, angular acceleration, alpha particles, alpha carbon and strength of electromagnetic interaction (as fine-structure constant). Alpha also stands for thermal expansion coefficient of a compound in physical chemistry. It is also commonly used in mathematics in algebraic solutions representing quantities such as angles. Furthermore, in mathematics, the letter alpha is used to denote the area underneath a normal curve in statistics to denote significance level^[4] when proving null and alternative hypotheses. In ethology, it is used to name the dominant individual in a group of animals. In aerodynamics, the letter is used as a symbol for the angle of attack of an aircraft and the word "alpha" is used as a synonym for this property. In mathematical logic, α is sometimes used as a placeholder for ordinal numbers.

The proportionality operator "∝" (in Unicode: U+221D) is sometimes mistaken for alpha.

The uppercase letter alpha is not generally used as a symbol because it tends to be rendered identically to the uppercase Latin A.

International Phonetic Alphabet

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the letter ɑ, which looks similar to the lower-case alpha, represents the open back unrounded vowel.

History and symbolism

Origin

The Phoenician alphabet was adopted for Greek in the early 8th century BC, perhaps in Euboea.^[5] The majority of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet were adopted into Greek with much the same sounds as they had had in Phoenician, but ʼāleph, the Phoenician letter representing the glottal stop [ʔ], was adopted as representing the vowel [a]; similarly, hē [h] and ʽayin [ʕ] are Phoenician consonants that became Greek vowels, epsilon [e] and omicron [o], respectively.

Plutarch

Plutarch, in Moralia,^[6] presents a discussion on why the letter alpha stands first in the alphabet. Ammonius asks Plutarch what he, being a Boeotian, has to say for Cadmus, the Phoenician who reputedly settled in Thebes and introduced the alphabet to Greece, placing alpha first because it is the Phoenician name for ox—which, unlike Hesiod,^[7] the Phoenicians considered not the second or third, but the first of all necessities. "Nothing at all," Plutarch replied. He then added that he would rather be assisted by Lamprias, his own grandfather, than by Dionysus' grandfather, i.e. Cadmus. For Lamprias had said that the first articulate sound made is "alpha", because it is very plain and simple—the air coming off the mouth does not require any motion of the tongue—and therefore this is the first sound that children make.

According to Plutarch's natural order of attribution of the vowels to the planets, alpha was connected with the Moon.

Alpha and Omega

As the first letter of the alphabet, Alpha as a Greek numeral came to represent the number 1. Therefore, Alpha, both as a symbol and term, is used to refer to the "first", or "primary", or "principal" (most significant) occurrence or status of a thing.

The New Testament has God declaring himself to be the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." (Revelation 22:13, KJV, and see also 1:8).

Consequently, the term "alpha" has also come to be used to denote "primary" position in social hierarchy, examples being the concept of dominant "alpha" members in groups of animals.

Unicode

All code points with ALPHA or ALFA^[8] but without WITH (for accented Greek characters, see Greek diacritics: Computer encoding):

U+0251 ɑ LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA
U+0252 ɒ LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED ALPHA
U+0386 Ά GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS
U+0391 Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA (Α)
U+03AC ά GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS
U+03B1 α GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA (α)
U+1D45 ᵅ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL ALPHA
U+1D90 ᶐ LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH RETROFLEX HOOK
U+1D9B ᶛ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TURNED ALPHA
U+1DE7 ◌ᷧ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA
U+2376 ⍶ APL FUNCTIONAL SYMBOL ALPHA UNDERBAR
U+237A ⍺ APL FUNCTIONAL SYMBOL ALPHA
U+2C6D Ɑ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA
U+2C70 Ɒ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER TURNED ALPHA
U+2C80 Ⲁ COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER ALFA
U+2C81 ⲁ COPTIC SMALL LETTER ALFA
U+AB30 ꬰ LATIN SMALL LETTER BARRED ALPHA
U+AB64 ꭤ LATIN SMALL LETTER INVERTED ALPHA

These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style:

U+1D6A8 𝚨 MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL ALPHA
U+1D6C2 𝛂 MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL ALPHA
U+1D6E2 𝛢 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL ALPHA
U+1D6FC 𝛼 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL ALPHA
U+1D71C 𝜜 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL ALPHA
U+1D736 𝜶 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL ALPHA
U+1D756 𝝖 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL ALPHA
U+1D770 𝝰 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL ALPHA
U+1D790 𝞐 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL ALPHA
U+1D7AA 𝞪 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL ALPHA

Notes

^ Ancient Greek: ἄλφα, álpha, or Greek: άλφα, romanized: álfa

References

^ "alpha". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^ Brookes, I. (2004). Chamber Concise Dictionary. Allied Pub (p) Limited. p. 30. ISBN 978-81-86062-36-4. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
^ Herbert Weir Smyth. Greek grammar for colleges. paragraph 30 Archived 20 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine and note Archived 13 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
^ "Chapter 5: Analysing the Data Part II : Inferential Statistics". Research Methods and Statistics PESS202 Lecture and Commentary Notes. Archived from the original on 22 August 2011.
^ The date of the earliest inscribed objects; A.W. Johnston, "The alphabet", in N. Stampolidis and V. Karageorghis, eds, Sea Routes from Sidon to Huelva: Interconnections in the Mediterranean 2003:263-76, summarizes the present scholarship on the dating.
^ Symposiacs, Book IX, questions II & III On-line text Archived 13 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine at Adelaide library
^ Hesiod, in Works and Days (see on Perseus Project Archived 17 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine), advises the early Greek farmers, "First of all, get a house, then a woman and third, an ox for the plough."
^ "Character Encodings". Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2013.