M

History

The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto-Sinaitic" (Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value , from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", **mā(y)-*.See F. Simons, "Proto-Sinaitic — Progenitor of the Alphabet" Rosetta 9 (2011): Figure Two: "Representative selection of proto-Sinaitic characters with comparison to Egyptian hieroglyphs", (p. 38) Figure Three: "Chart of all early proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 39), Figure Four: "Representative selection of later proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to early proto-Canaanite and proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 40). See also: Goldwasser (2010), following Albright (1966), "Schematic Table of Proto-Sinaitic Characters" (fig. 1 ).

Use in writing systems

English

In English, represents the voiced bilabial nasal .

The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that is sometimes a vowel, such as in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this is described as a syllabic consonant (IPA: ).

The digraph, "mn," when used in the beginning of words, such as mnemonic, is pronounced as /n/. This digraph is the only instance where the letter is silent.

M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language.

Other languages

The letter represents the voiced bilabial nasal in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages.

In Washo, lower-case represents a voiced bilabial nasal , while upper-case represents a voiceless bilabial nasal .

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, represents the voiced bilabial nasal .

Other uses

Main article: M (disambiguation)

• The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.
• Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.
• m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI). However, m is sometimes also used as an abbreviation for mile.
• M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.
• With money amounts, m or M is ambiguous. In the finance industry, m or M means 1,000. In this context, five million dollars is written $5mm or $5MM. Outside of finance, some people use M like the metric system "mega-" to mean one million and write $5M.
• M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.
• In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is similar to that of a capital letter M.
• M is used as a logo by many rapid transit systems, standing for "Metro" (or equivalents in other languages.)

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

• M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ
• IPA-specific symbols related to M:
• Ɱ : Capital M with hook

Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:

Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902:

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

• 𐤌 : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive:
  • Μ μ : Greek letter Mu, from which M derives
    • : Coptic letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu
    • М м : Cyrillic letter Em, also derived from Mu
    • 𐌌 : Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M
      • : Runic letter Mannaz, which derives from old Italic M
    • : Gothic letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu

Ligatures and abbreviations

• ₥ : Mill (currency)
• ™ : Trademark symbol
• ℠ : Service mark symbol

Other representations

Computing

Other

Notes

References

References

1. "M" ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]],'' 2nd edition (1989); ''[[Merriam-Webster]]'s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "em," op. cit.
2. Gordon, Arthur E.. (1983). "Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy". [[University of California Press]].
3. . ["What does M stand for?"](https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/m).
4. . ["M definition and meaning"](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/m_1).
5. "MM (Millions)". corporate finance institute..
6. Constable, Peter. (2003-09-30). "L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS".
7. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS".
8. (2009-01-27). "L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet".
9. (2011-06-02). "L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS".
10. Constable, Peter. (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS".
11. Perry, David J.. (2006-08-01). "L2/06-269: Proposal to Add Additional Ancient Roman Characters to UCS".