D
[1]hh D
Writing cursive forms of D
History
| Egyptian hieroglyph door |
Phoenician daleth |
Greek Delta |
Etruscan D |
Roman D |
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| <hiero>O31</hiero> | 
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The Semitic letter Dāleth may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek and Latin, the letter represented Template:IPA; in the Etruscan alphabet the letter was superfluous but still retained (see letter B). The equivalent Greek letter is Delta, Δ.
The minuscule (lower-case) form of 'd' consists of a loop and a tall vertical stroke. It developed by gradual variations on the majuscule (capital) form. In handwriting, it was common to start the arc to the left of the vertical stroke, resulting in a serif at the top of the arc. This serif was extended while the rest of the letter was reduced, resulting in an angled stroke and loop. The angled stroke slowly developed into a vertical stroke.
Use in writing systems
In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, and in the International Phonetic Alphabet, Template:Angbr generally represents the voiced alveolar or voiced dental plosive Template:IPA. However, in the Vietnamese alphabet, it represents the sound Template:IPA in northern dialects or Template:IPA in southern dialects. (See D with stroke and Dz (digraph).) In Fijian it represents a prenasalized stop Template:IPA.[2] In some languages where voiceless unaspirated stops contrast with voiceless aspirated stops, Template:Angbr represents an unaspirated Template:IPA, while Template:Angbr represents an aspirated Template:IPA. Examples of such languages include Icelandic, Scottish Gaelic, Navajo and the Pinyin transliteration of Mandarin.
Other uses
The Roman numeral Template:Unicode represents the number 500.[3]
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
- Ð ð : Latin letter Eth
- D with diacritics: Đ đ [[Ɗ|Template:Unicode]] Ḋ ḋ Ḍ ḍ Ḑ ḑ Ḓ ḓ Ď ď Ḏ ḏ
- IPA-specific symbols related to D: Template:IPA link
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
- Template:Unicode : Semitic letter Dalet, from which the following symbols originally derive
- Δ δ : Greek letter Delta, from which the following symbols originally derive
- Template:Script : Coptic letter Delta
- Д д : Cyrillic letter De
- 𐌃 : Old Italic D, the ancestor of modern Latin D
- Template:Script : Runic letter dagaz, which is possibly a descendent of Old Italic D
- Template:Script Runic letter thurisaz, another possible descendent of Old Italic D
- Template:Script : Gothic letter daaz, which derives from Greek Delta
- Δ δ : Greek letter Delta, from which the following symbols originally derive
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
- ₫ : Dong sign
- ∂ : the partial derivative symbol,
Computing codes
Other representations
In British Sign Language (BSL), the letter 'd' is indicated by signing with the right hand held with the index and thumb extended and slightly curved, and the tip of the thumb and finger held against the extended index of the left hand.