F: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Sixth6th letter of the Latin alphabet}}

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|variations=([[#Related characters|See below]])

|fam3=[[File:PhoenicianW-01.pngsvg|20px]]

|fam5=[[File:Waw.svgDigamma|20pxϜ ϝ ϛ]]

|fam6=[[Digamma|Ϝ ϝ ϛ𐌅]]

|sisters={{grid list|[[U]]|[[V]]|[[W]]|[[Y]]|[[Ʊ]]|[[Ϝ]]|[[У]]|[[Ў]]|[[Ұ]]|[[Upsilon|Υ υ]]|[[Waw (letter)|<span>ו</span>, <span>וּ</span>, <span>וֹ</span>, <span>ﻭ</span>, <span>ۋ</span>, <span>ܘ</span>]]|[[ࠅ]]|[[𐎆]]|[[𐌖]]|[[wikt:Վ|Վ]] [[wikt:վ|վ]]|[[wikt:Ո|Ո]] [[wikt:ո|ո]]|[[wikt:Ւ|Ւ]] [[wikt:ւ|ւ]]|[[wikt:և|և]]}}

|direction=Left-to-Rightright

'''F''', or '''f''', is the sixth [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] inof the [[Latin alphabet]], usedand inmany modern alphabets influenced by it, including the [[English alphabet|modern English alphabet]], and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is [[English alphabet#Letter names|''ef'']]{{NoteTagefn|Spelled ''eff'' when used as a verb.}} (pronounced {{IPAc-en|'|ɛ|f}}), and the plural is ''efs''.<ref>"F", ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989); "ef", "eff", "bee" (under "bee eff"), ''op. cit.''</ref>

! Proto-SemiticSinaitic

! Phoenician<br />''[[Waw (letter)|waw]]''

! EarlyWestern Greek<br />''[[Digamma]]''

! [[Latin alphabet|Latin]]<br />F

| [[File:Proto-semiticW-01.pngsvg|40px]]

| [[File:PhoenicianW-01.pngsvg|40pxframeless|40x40px]]

| [[File:Capitalis monumentalis F.svg|x20pxx30px|Latin F]]

The origin of 'F' is the [[History of the alphabet#Semitic alphabet|Semitic]] letter ''[[Waw (letter)|waw]]'' that represented a sound like {{IPA|/v/}} or {{IPA|/w/}}. Graphically it originally probably originally depicted either a hook or a club. It may have been based on a comparable [[Egyptian hieroglyph]] such as [[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs by common name: M-Z#M|that which represented the word ''mace'']] (transliterated as ḥ(dj)): <hiero>T3</hiero>

The [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] form of the letter was adopted into Greek as a vowel, ''[[upsilon]]'' (which resembled its descendant '[[Y]]' but was also the ancestor of the Roman letters '[[U]]', '[[V]]', and '[[W]]'); and, with another form, as a consonant, ''[[digamma]]'', which indicated the pronunciation {{IPA|/w/}}, as in Phoenician. Latin 'F,' despite being pronounced differently, is ultimately descended from [[digamma]] and closely resembles it in form.

After sound changes eliminated {{IPA|/w/}} from spoken Greek, ''[[digamma]]'' was used only as a numeral. However, the Greek alphabet also gave rise to other alphabets, and some of these retained letters descended from digamma. In the [[Etruscan alphabet]], 'F' probably represented {{IPA|/w/}}, as in Greek, and the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]] formed the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] 'FH' to represent {{IPA|/f/}}. (At the time these letters were borrowed, there was no Greek letter that represented /f/: the Greek letter [[phi]] 'Φ' then represented an aspirated [[voiceless bilabial plosive]] {{IPA|/p^h/}}, although in [[Modern Greek]] it has come to represent {{IPA|/f/}}.) When the Romans adopted the alphabet, they used 'V' (from Greek ''[[upsilon]]'') not only for the vowel {{IPA|/u/}}, but also for the corresponding semivowel {{IPA|/w/}}, leaving 'F' available for {{IPA|/f/}}. And so out of the various ''vav'' variants in the Mediterranean world, the letter F entered the Roman alphabet attached to a sound which the Greeks did not have. The Roman alphabet forms the basis of the alphabet used today for English and many other languages.

In [[English orthography|the English writing system]] {{angbr|f}} is used to represent the sound {{IPAc-en|f}}, the [[voiceless labiodental fricative]]. It is often doubled at the end of words. Exceptionally, it represents the [[voiced labiodental fricative]] {{IPAc-en|v}} in the common word "of". and its derivatives.

F is the [[Letter frequency|eleventh least frequently used letter]] in the English language (after [[G]], [[Y]], [[P]], [[B]], [[V]], [[K]], [[J]], [[X]], [[Q]], and [[Z]]), with a frequency of about 2.23% in words.

* In [[Slavic language]]s, {{angbr|f}} is used primarily in words of foreign (GreekHellenic, LatinRomance, or Germanic) origin.

* In spoken [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], {{angbr|f}} in the middle of a word is often pronouncedvoiced as ato {{IPA|[v]}} (e.g., Að sofa -– to sleep).

=== InternationalOther Phonetic Alphabetsystems ===

{{main article|Press F to pay respects(disambiguation)}}

* ꟳ : Modifier letter capital F<ref>{{Cite web|title=L2/20-251: Unicode request for modifier Latin capital letters|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20251-mod-latin.pdf|date=2020-09-25|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Craig|last2=Cornelius}}</ref> -– Used to mark tone for the [[Chatino language|Chatino]] orthography in Oaxaca, Mexico; Used as a generic transcription for a falling tone; Usedused in para-[[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] notation.

* 𐤅: [[Phoenician alphabet|Semitic]] letter [[Waw (letter)|Waw]], from which the following symbols originally derive:

** Ϝ ϝ : [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] letter [[Digamma]], from which F derives:

**** U u : Latin letter [[U]], which is descended from V

**** W w : Latin letter [[W]], also descended from V

==Code= pointsComputing <span class="anchor" id="Computing codes"></span> ===

These are the [[code point]]s for the forms of the letter in various systems:

| map2 = [[ASCII]]{{efn|Also ¹for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.}} | map2char1 = 46 | map2char2 = 66

=== Other representations ===

{{NoteFootNotelist}}