# ä

| ä | U+00E4, &#228; LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS |
| Composition: | a [U+0061] + ◌̈ [U+0308] |
| ← ã [U+00E3] | Latin-1 Supplement | å → [U+00E5] |

## Translingual
### Symbol

ä
* (IPA) Sometimes used to transcribe an open central unrounded vowel, as ⟨a⟩ is officially an open front vowel.
* (UPA) An open front unrounded vowel (IPA [æ]).
* (superscript ⟨ᵃ̈⟩, UPA) an extremely short or fleeting ä.
* (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
* (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
* I (first-person singular subjective)

#### Synonyms

* aj

#### Related terms

* aiŋ

## Dinka
### Pronunciation

IPA: /a̤/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* A letter of the Dinka alphabet, written in the Latin script.

## Elfdalian
### Noun

ä f
* island

#### Inflection
## Estonian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈæː/

### Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)
* 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)
* 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)
* Alternative form of Ä

#### Further reading

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

## Livonian
### Pronunciation

* (phoneme) IPA: /æ/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* 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: [ɛ] (short vowel)
* IPA: [ɛː] (long vowel, spelt ää)

### Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)
* (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: /ɨ/, /ə/

### Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)
* (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).

### References

* ↑ Marcel Courthiade (2009) “DECISION : "THE ROMANI ALPHABET"”, in Melinda Rézműves, editor, Morri angluni rromane ćhibǎqi evroputni lavustik = Első rromani nyelvű európai szótáram : cigány, magyar, angol, francia, spanyol, német, ukrán, román, horvát, szlovák, görög [My First European-Romani Dictionary: Romani, Hungarian, English, French, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Croatian, Slovak, Greek] (overall work in Hungarian and English), Budapest: Fővárosi Onkormányzat Cigány Ház--Romano Kher, →ISBN, page 499
* ↑ Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “ä”, in ニューエクスプレス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, →ISBN, page 16

## Skolt Sami
### Pronunciation

* (phoneme) IPA: /a/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* The thirty-sixth letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

### See also

* (Latin-script letters) bukva; A a, Â 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: /ɛ/, /ɛɐ̯/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* 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: /éː/, /èː/, [ɛ́ː]
* (letter name, common): IPA: /prɛɡlaʃɛ̀ːni àː/, /prɛɡlaʃɛ̀ːni áː/ (preglašeni a)
* (letter name, educated): IPA: /ɛ̀ː/, /ɛ́ː/
* Rhymes: -ɛː
* Homophone: e

##### Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)
* Additional letter in Slovene common mostly in loanwords from German.

##### Noun

ä m inan
* (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.

#### Inflection

* Overall more common
* More common when with a definite adjective

#### Pronunciation 2

* (sound) IPA: [æ]

##### Symbol

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

### Etymology 2

Letter a with diaeresis (¨) to signify centralization.

#### Pronunciation

* (Resian) IPA: /ɐ/

#### Letter

ä (lower case, upper case Ä)
* 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]‎ (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: /ə/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* A letter of the Southern Tutchone alphabet, written in the Latin script.

## Swedish
### Alternative forms

* æ, aͤ (archaic)
* ā (handwriting)

### Pronunciation
#### Letter name

* IPA: /æː/
* Audio:(file)

#### Phoneme

* IPA: /æː/, /æ/, /ɛː/, /ɛ/

### Etymology 1

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)
* 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
### Etymology 2
#### Verb

ä
* (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
* axe

### References

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

## Turkmen
### Pronunciation

* (phoneme) IPA: /æ/, /æː/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* 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
* Verbal prefix for the imperfect tense.

## Welsh
### Pronunciation

* (phoneme): IPA: /ˈaː/, /ˌa/

### Letter

ä (upper case Ä)
* The letter A, marked for its syllabic pronunciation distinct from adjacent vowels.