ä

See also: Ä, ӓ, ɐ̤, -ä, and Appendix:Variations of "a"

ä U+00E4, ä LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS Composition: a [U+0061] + ◌̈ [U+0308] ← ã [U+00E3] Latin-1 Supplement å → [U+00E5]

Translingual

Symbol

ä

1. (IPA) Sometimes used to transcribe an open central unrounded vowel, as ⟨a⟩ is officially an open front vowel.
2. (UPA) An open front unrounded vowel (IPA [æ]).
3. (superscript ⟨ᵃ̈⟩, UPA) an extremely short or fleeting ä.
4. (actuarial notation) Annuity-due.

   ä_n̅| ― n-year annuity-due

   ä_x:n̅| ― n-year annuity-due to a person currently age x

   ä_x ― life annuity-due to a person currently age x

   $_{k|}{\ddot {a}}_{x:{\overline {n|}}}^{(m)}$ ― k-year deferred life annuity-due to a person currently age x, compounded m-thly

English

Symbol

ä

1. (lexicography) A dictionary transcription for the PALM vowel

Arin

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Yeniseian *axʷ (“I”). Compare Kott ai (“I”) and Pumpokol ad (“I”). Also see Assan aj.

Pronoun

ä

1. I (first-person singular subjective)

Synonyms

• aj

Related terms

• aiŋ

Dinka

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /a̤/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. A letter of the Dinka alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Elfdalian

Noun

ä f

1. island

Inflection

Declension of ä

feminine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	ä	enę	äer	äär
accusative	ä	enę	äer	äär
dative	ä	e'n	äum	äum(e)
genitive	—	—	—	—

Estonian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæː/

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. The twenty-eighth letter of the Estonian alphabet, called ää and written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) täht; A a, B b (C c), D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p (Q q), R r, S s, Š š, Z z, Ž ž, T t, U u, V v (W w), Õ õ, Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü (X x, Y y)

Finnish

Etymology

See Ä.

Pronunciation

• Audio; “ää, häkä, sää, määräys, ää”:

  (file)

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. The twenty-seventh letter of the Finnish alphabet, called ää and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

In case of technical restrictions, ä should be represented by a (not ae, as in German).

See also

• (Latin-script letters) kirjain; A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s (Š š), T t, U u, V v (W w), X x, Y y, Z z (Ž ž), Å å, Ä ä, Ö ö

German

Noun

ä n (strong, genitive ä or äs, plural ä or äs)

1. alternative form of Ä

Declension

Declension of ä [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	ä	die	ä, äs
genitive	eines	des	ä, äs	der	ä, äs
dative	einem	dem	ä	den	ä, äs
accusative	ein	das	ä	die	ä, äs

Further reading

• “ä” in Duden online
• “ä” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Livonian

Pronunciation

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /æ/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. The third letter of the Livonian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) kēratēd̦; A a, Ā ā, Ä ä, Ǟ ǟ, B b, D d, D̦ d̦, E e, Ē ē, F f, G g, H h, I i, Ī ī, J j, K k, L l, Ļ ļ, M m, N n, Ņ ņ, O o, Ō ō, Ȯ ȯ, Ȱ ȱ, Õ õ, Ȭ ȭ, P p, R r, Ŗ ŗ, S s, Š š, T t, Ț ț, U u, Ū ū, V v, Z z, Ž ž

North Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɛ] (short vowel)
• IPA^(key): [ɛː] (long vowel, spelt ää)

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. (Föhr-Amrum, Mooring) A letter of the North Frisian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

• In Föhr-Amrum Frisian, single ⟨ä⟩ occurs only in word-final position. Elsewhere, [ɛ] is represented by ⟨e⟩.
• Mooring Frisian uses ⟨ä⟩ for any [ɛ], the single letter ⟨e⟩ being reserved for the reduced vowel [ə], [ɐ].
• Sylt Frisian does not use ⟨ä⟩ at all. Long [ɛː] occurs only before ⟨r⟩ in this dialect and is represented by ⟨ē, ai, ia⟩.

See also

• (North Frisian letters): a, ä, å, ā, b, c, d, đ, e, ē, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, r, s, t, u, ü, v, w (q, x, y, z)

Romani

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): () /ɨ/, () /ə/

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. (International Standard) Used to represent a dialectal centralized vowel.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, X x, I i, J j, K k, Kh kh, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Ph ph, R r, S s, T t, Th th, U u, V v, Z z International Standard: (À à, Ä ä, Ǎ ǎ), Ć ć, Ćh ćh, (È è, Ë ë, Ě ě), (Ì ì, Ï ï, Ǐ ǐ), (Ò ò, Ö ö, Ǒ ǒ), Rr rr, Ś ś, (Ù ù, Ü ü, Ǔ ǔ), Ź ź, Ʒ ʒ, Q q, Ç ç, ϴ θ. Pan-Vlax: Č č, Čh čh, Dž dž, (Dź dź), Ř ř, Š š, (Ś ś), Ž ž, (Ź ź).

Skolt Sami

Pronunciation

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /a/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. The thirty-sixth letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) bukva; A a,  â, B b, C c, Č č, Ʒ ʒ, Ǯ ǯ, D d, Đ đ, E e, F f, G g, Ǧ ǧ, Ǥ ǥ, H h, I i, J j, K k, Ǩ ǩ, L l, M m, N n, Ŋ ŋ, O o, Õ õ, P p, R r, S s, Š š, T t, U u, V v, Z z, Ž ž, Å å, Ä ä, ʹ

Slovak

Pronunciation

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɛ/, /ɛɐ̯/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. The third letter of the Slovak alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) písmeno; A a, Á á, Ä ä, B b, C c, Č č, D d, Ď ď, Dz dz, Dž dž, E e, É é, F f, G g, H h, Ch ch, I i, Í í, J j, K k, L l, Ĺ ĺ, Ľ ľ, M m, N n, Ň ň, O o, Ó ó, Ô ô, P p, Q q, R r, Ŕ ŕ, S s, Š š, T t, Ť ť, U u, Ú ú, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Ý ý, Z z, Ž ž

Further reading

• “ä”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Slovene

Etymology 1

From German ä, with its corresponding pronunciation, which is still used by some speakers, however, the majority of speakers have vernacularized the pronunciation to a long close-mid vowel regardless of the initial pronunciation.

Pronunciation 1

• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /éː/, /èː/, [ɛ́ː]
• (letter name, common): IPA^(key): /prɛɡlaʃɛ̀ːni àː/, /prɛɡlaʃɛ̀ːni áː/ (preglašeni a)
• (letter name, educated): IPA^(key): /ɛ̀ː/, /ɛ́ː/
• Rhymes: -ɛː
• Homophone: e

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. Additional letter in Slovene common mostly in loanwords from German.

Noun

ä m inan

1. (educated) The name of the Latin script letter Ä / ä.

Usage notes

It is more common to use the name preglašeni a than to use this name.

Declension

• Overall more common

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., soft o-stem
nom. sing.	ä
gen. sing.	ä-ja
	singular	dual	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	ä	ä-ja	ä-ji
genitive (rodȋlnik)	ä-ja	ä-jev	ä-jev
dative (dajȃlnik)	ä-ju	ä-jema	ä-jem
accusative (tožȋlnik)	ä	ä-ja	ä-je
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	ä-ju	ä-jih	ä-jih
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	ä-jem	ä-jema	ä-ji

• More common when with a definite adjective

Masculine inan., no endings
nom. sing.	ä
gen. sing.	ä
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	ä	ä	ä
accusative	ä	ä	ä
genitive	ä	ä	ä
dative	ä	ä	ä
locative	ä	ä	ä
instrumental	ä	ä	ä

Pronunciation 2

• (sound) IPA^(key): [æ]

Symbol

ä

1. (SNPT) Phonetic transcription of dialectal sound [æ].

Etymology 2

Letter a with diaeresis (¨) to signify centralization.

Pronunciation

• (Resian) IPA^(key): /ɐ/

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. The second letter of the Slovene alphabet (Resian), written in the Latin script.

See also

• a
• à
• á
• ã
• å
• ā
• ą
• ȁ
• ȃ
• ȧ

References

• Kenda-Jež, Karmen (2017 February 27) Fonetična trankripcija [Phonetic transcription]‎^[1] (in Slovene), Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša, archived from the original on January 22, 2022, pages 27–30
• Steenwijk, Han (1994) Ortografia resiana = Tö jošt rozajanskë pïsanjë (overall work in Italian and Slovene), Padua: CLEUP

Southern Tutchone

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. A letter of the Southern Tutchone alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Swedish

Alternative forms

• æ, aͤ (archaic)
• ā (handwriting)

Pronunciation

Letter name

• IPA^(key): /æː/

• Audio:

  (file)

Phoneme

• IPA^(key): /æː/, /æ/, /ɛː/, /ɛ/

Etymology 1

The word aͤng (äng, “meadow”) from year 1777, where the now obsolete variation aͤ is still used.

Originally a ligature of A and E. During the 16th century, the letter began to be written as an A with a lower case e on top (Aͤ respectively aͤ). During the first decades of the 18th century, the use of umlaut emerged.

Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)

1. The second last letter of the Swedish alphabet, pronounced /æː/ when long, /æ/ when short. In Central Swedish, these phonemes are partially merged with long /eː/ and short /ɛ/.

Declension

Declension of ä

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	ä	äs
	definite	äet	äets
plural	indefinite	än	äns
	definite	äna	änas

Etymology 2

Verb

ä

1. (colloquial, Internet slang, text messaging) pronunciation spelling of är

Further reading

• ä in Svensk ordbok.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) bokstav; A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z, Å å, Ä ä, Ö ö

Teribe

Noun

ä

1. axe

References

• Gamarra A., Enrique, Villagra S., Inocencio (1980) Llëbo ñaglo lok kibokwogo ëre e lanyo = Vocabulario ilustrado teribe-español‎^[2] (overall work in Teribe and Spanish), Instituto Nacional de Cultura & Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 92

Turkmen

Pronunciation

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /æ/, /æː/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. The sixth letter of the Turkmen alphabet, called ä and written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) harp; A a, B b, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ä ä, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, Ž ž, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ň ň, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, W w, Y y, Ý ý, Z z

Volapük

Prefix

ä

1. Verbal prefix for the imperfect tense.

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /ˈaː/, /ˌa/

Letter

ä (upper case Ä)

1. The letter A, marked for its syllabic pronunciation distinct from adjacent vowels.