D


 * For the emoticon :D'', see Emoticon. (For technical reasons, :D brings you here.)

D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de.

History
The Semitic letter Dâlet probably 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 was pronounced /d/; in the Etruscan alphabet the letter was superfluous, but still maintained (see letter B). Greek letter: Δ (capital) or δ (small) (Delta).

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.

Usage
In most languages using the Latin alphabet, the letter d represents the sound, but in the Vietnamese alphabet it represents the sound in the north and  in the south. In Fijian it stands for the prenasalized stop. In some languages where voiceless unaspirated stops contrast with voiceless aspirated stops, d represents an unaspirated, while t represents an aspirated. Examples of such languages include Icelandic, Scottish Gaelic, Navajo, and the Pinyin transliteration of Mandarin.

Meanings of D

 * See D (disambiguation).