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Alpha

Alpha /ˈælfə/[1] (uppercase Α, lowercase α; Ancient Greek: ἄλφα, álpha, or Greek: άλφα,
romanized: álfa) 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
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"

́ ᾱ phā́mā – Attic, Ionic φήμη phḗmē, "report"

Doric, Aeolic φᾱμ

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

Memorial Stained Glass window, Royal Military College of Canada features 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 "alpha males" or pack leaders.

Computer encodings

Greek alpha / Coptic alfa[8]

Character information

Preview Α α Ⲁ ⲁ
Unicode GREEK CAPITAL GREEK SMALL COPTIC CAPITAL COPTIC SMALL
name LETTER ALPHA LETTER ALPHA LETTER ALFA LETTER ALFA

Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex

Unicode 913 U+0391 945 U+03B1 11392 U+2C80 11393 U+2C81

206 226 178 226 178

UTF-8 206 145 CE 91 CE B1 E2 B2 80 E2 B2 81
177 128 129

Numeric
character Α Α α α Ⲁ Ⲁ ⲁ ⲁ
reference

Named
character Α α
reference

CP 437 224 E0

DOS Greek 128 80 152 98

DOS Greek-
164 A4 214 D6
2

Windows
193 C1 225 E1
1253

TeX \alpha

For accented Greek characters, see Greek diacritics: Computer encoding.

 Latin / IPA alpha

Character information

Preview ɑ ɒ ᶐ ᵅ ᶛ
LATIN SMALL
MODIFIER LET
LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA MODIFIER LETTER
Unicode LATIN SMALL
LETTER TURNED
name LETTER ALPHA SMALL TURN
ALPHA WITH RETROFLEX SMALL ALPHA
ALPHA
HOOK

Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec he

Unicode 593 U+0251 594 U+0252 7568 U+1D90 7493 U+1D45 7579 U+1

225 225 225

201 201 E1 B6 E1 B5 E
UTF-8 C9 91 C9 92 182 181 182
145 146 90 85
144 133 155

Numeric
character ɑ ɑ ɒ ɒ ᶐ ᶐ ᵅ ᵅ ᶛ &#x1
reference

Mathematical / Technical alpha

Character information

Preview ⍺ ⍶
APL FUNCTIONAL
MATHEMATICAL MATHEMATICAL M
SYMBOL
Unicode APL FUNCTIONAL BOLD BOLD
name SYMBOL ALPHA
ALPHA
CAPITAL ALPHA SMALL ALPHA C
UNDERBAR

Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex d

Unicode 9082 U+237A 9078 U+2376 120488 U+1D6A8 120514 U+1D6C2 12

226 226
E2 8D E2 8D 240 157 F0 9D 9A 240 157 F0 9D 9B 24
UTF-8 141 141
BA B6 154 168 A8 155 130 82 15
186 182

55349 D835 55349 D835

UTF-16 9082 237A 9078 2376
57000 DEA8 57026 DEC2

Numeric
character ⍺ ⍺ ⍶ ⍶ 𝚨 𝚨 𝛂 𝛂 &#1
reference
Character information

Preview

MATHEMATICAL
MATHEMATICAL MATHEMATICAL MATHEMATICAL
SANS-SERIF
Unicode BOLD ITALIC BOLD ITALIC SANS-SERIF
name
BOLD CAPITAL
CAPITAL ALPHA SMALL ALPHA BOLD SMALL ALPHA
ALPHA

Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex

Unicode 120604 U+1D71C 120630 U+1D736 120662 U+1D756 120688 U+1D77

240 157 F0 9D 9C 240 157 F0 9D 9C 240 157 F0 9D 9D 240 157 F0 9D 9

UTF-8
156 156 9C 156 182 B6 157 150 96 157 176 B

55349 D835 55349 D835 55349 D835 55349 D83

UTF-16
57116 DF1C 57142 DF36 57174 DF56 57200 DF7

Numeric
character 𝜜 𝜜 𝜶 𝜶 𝝖 𝝖 𝝰 &#x1D77
reference

References

Look up Α or α in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has the text of the 1897 Easton's Bible Dictionary article A (letter).

1. "alpha" ([Link]
ain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw) . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.).
Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership ([Link]
[Link]/public/login/loggingin?iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw#withy
ourlibrary) required.)

2. Brookes, I. (2004). Chamber Concise Dictionary ([Link]

books?id=iwWuY9tAVq8C&iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw) . Allied
Pub (p) Limited. p. 30. ISBN 978-81-86062-36-4.

3. Herbert Weir Smyth. Greek grammar for colleges. paragraph 30 ([Link]

[Link]/s/smyth/grammar/html/smyth_1b_uni.htm?iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfp
ni-aGQGvUf5zw#30) and note ([Link]
ml/smyth_1b_notes.htm?iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw#30D) .

4. "Chapter 5: Analysing the Data Part II : Inferential Statistics" ([Link]

[Link]/web/20110822143239/[Link]
 ics/what_alpha_level.html?iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw) .
Research Methods and Statistics PESS202 Lecture and Commentary Notes. Archived from the original
([Link]
hat_alpha_level.html?iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw) on 22
August 2011.

5. 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.

6. Symposiacs, Book IX, questions II & III On-line text ([Link]

[Link]/p/plutarch/symposiacs/[Link]?iorg_domain_internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-
aGQGvUf5zw#section91) Archived ([Link]
3230602/[Link]
rnal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw#section91) 13 October 2008 at the Wayback
Machine at Adelaide library

7. Hesiod, in Works and Days (see on Perseus Project ([Link]

[Link]/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0132:card=405&iorg_domain_internal=[Link].
org%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw) ), advises the early Greek farmers, "First of all, get a house, then a woman
and third, an ox for the plough."

8. "Character Encodings" ([Link]

internal=[Link]%3BAfpni-aGQGvUf5zw) . Retrieved 14 January 2013.

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Last edited 1 month ago by RocksInMyDryer