⟨ M⟩, or ⟨ m⟩, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced ), plural ems.["M" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "em," op. cit.]
History
The letter ⟨M⟩ is derived from the Phoenician
Mem via the
Greek alphabet Mu ⟨Μ⟩. Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto-Sinaitic" (
Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the
acrophonic value , from the Egyptian word for "water",
nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water",
*mā-.
[See F. Simons, "Proto-Sinaitic — Progenitor of the Alphabet" Rosetta 9 (2011):
Figure Two: "Representative selection of proto-Sinaitic characters with comparison to Egyptian hieroglyphs", (p. 38)
Figure Three: "Chart of all early proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 39),
Figure Four: "Representative selection of later proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to early proto-Canaanite and proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 40). See also: Goldwasser (2010), following Albright (1966), "Schematic Table of Proto-Sinaitic Characters" ( fig. 1 ).]
Use in writing systems
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English
In English, represents the voiced bilabial nasal .
The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that is sometimes a vowel, such as in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this is described as a syllabic consonant (IPA: ).
M is the Letter frequency in the English language.
Other languages
The letter represents the voiced bilabial nasal in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern
.
In Washo language, lower-case represents a voiced bilabial nasal , while upper-case represents a voiceless bilabial nasal .
Other systems
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, represents the voiced bilabial nasal .
Other uses
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The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Ancient Rome. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.
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Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.
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m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI).
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M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.
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With money amounts, m or M is ambiguous. In the finance industry,
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M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.
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In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is similar to that of a capital letter M.
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M is used as a logo by many rapid transit systems, standing for "Metro" (or equivalents in other languages.)
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
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M with : Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ
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IPA-specific symbols related to M:
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Ɱ : Capital M with hook
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Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:
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Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902:
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The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses
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Other variations used for phonetic transcription:
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Ɯ ɯ : Turned M
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ꟽ : Inverted M was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for mulier (woman)
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ꟿ : Archaic M was used in ancient Roman texts to abbreviate the personal name 'Manius' (A regular capital M was used for the more common personal name 'Marcus')
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ℳ : currency symbol for Mark
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
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𐤌 : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive:
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Μ μ : Greek alphabet letter Mu, from which M derives
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: Coptic alphabet letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu
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М м : Cyrillic letter Em, also derived from Mu
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𐌌 : Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M
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: Gothic alphabet letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu
Ligatures and abbreviations
Other representations
Computing
Other
Notes
External links
