M

13th letter of the Latin alphabet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M

M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced /ˈɛm/), plural ems.[1]

Quick Facts Usage, Writing system ...
M
M m
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
Language of originLatin language
Sound values
In UnicodeU+004D, U+006D
Alphabetical position13
History
Development
Time period~−700 to present
Descendants
Sisters
Other
Associated graphsm(x)
Associated numbers1000
Writing directionLeft-to-right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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History

More information Egyptian hieroglyph "n", Phoenician Mem ...
Egyptian hieroglyph
"n"
Phoenician
Mem
Western Greek
Mu
Etruscan
M
Latin
M
n
Latin M
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The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem via the Greek Mu (Μ, 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 /n/, from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for /m/ was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā(y)-.[2]

Use in writing systems

More information Orthography, Phonemes ...
Pronunciation of m by language
Orthography Phonemes
Standard Chinese (Pinyin) /m/
English /m/, silent
French /m/
German /m/
Portuguese /m/, silent
Spanish /m/
Turkish /m/
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English

In English, m represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.

The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that m 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: /m̩/).

M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language.

Other languages

The letter m represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/ in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages.

In Washo, lower-case m represents a voiced bilabial nasal /m/, while upper-case M represents a voiceless bilabial nasal /m̥/.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, m represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.

Other uses

Thumb
Styled letter M in the coat of arms of Miehikkälä
  • The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.[3]
  • Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.[4][5]
  • m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI).[4] However, m is also used as an abbreviation for mile.[5]
  • M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.[4]
  • With money amounts, m or M is ambiguous. In the finance industry,[6] m or M means 1,000. In this context, five million dollars is written $5mm or $5MM. Outside of finance, some people use M like the metric system "mega-" to mean one million and write $5M.[4][5]
  • M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.[4][5]
  • In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is similar to that of a capital letter M.
  • M is used as a logo by many rapid transit systems, standing for "Metro" (or equivalents in other languages.)
  • M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ[7]
  • IPA-specific symbols related to M: ɱ ɰ
  •  : Capital M with hook
  • Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:[8]
    • U+1D0D LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL M
    • U+1D1F LATIN SMALL LETTER SIDEWAYS TURNED M
    • U+1D39 MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL M
    • U+1D50 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL M
    • U+1D5A MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TURNED M
  • Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902:[9]
    • U+2098 LATIN SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER M
    • U+A7FA LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL TURNED M
  • The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses U+AB3A LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH CROSSED-TAIL[10]
  • Other variations used for phonetic transcription:[11]
  • Ɯ ɯ : Turned M
  •  : Inverted M was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for mulier (woman)[12]
  •  : 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')[12]
  •  : currency symbol for Mark

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

  • 𐤌 : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive:
    • Μ μ : Greek letter Mu, from which M derives
      • Ⲙ ⲙ : Coptic letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu
      • М м : Cyrillic letter Em, also derived from Mu
      • 𐌌 : Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M
        •  : Runic letter Mannaz, which derives from old Italic M
      • 𐌼 : Gothic letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu

Ligatures and abbreviations

Other representations

Computing

More information Preview, M ...
Character information
PreviewMm
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M LATIN SMALL LETTER M FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER M
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode77U+004D109U+006D65325U+FF2D65357U+FF4D
UTF-8774D1096D239 188 173EF BC AD239 189 141EF BD 8D
Numeric character referenceMMmmMMmm
EBCDIC family212D414894
ASCII[a]774D1096D
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Other

Notes

  1. Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

References

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