Latin omega

Example of uppercase and lowercase Latin omega.

Latin omega, or simply omega, is an additional letter of the Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase shape of the Greek letter omega ⟨ω⟩. It was included as a Latin letter in the Mann and Dalby 1982 revision of the African reference alphabet and has been used as such in some publications in the Kulango languages in Côte d'Ivoire in the 1990s. In other Kulango publications the letters V with hook ⟨Ʋ⟩ or Latin upsilon ⟨Ʊ⟩ are found instead. The Italian humanist Giovan Giωrgio Trissino proposed in 1524 a reform of Italian orthography that included lowercase and uppercase omega for the open ⟨o⟩ sound ([ɔ]).[1] He later re-assigned it to the closed ⟨o⟩ ([o]).[2]

  1. ^ Trissino, Giovan Giωrgio (1524). De le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana  (in Italian) – via Wikisource. ma quando ʃi prenderà tωʃco per veneno, ε tωrre per pigliare, ciωὲ infinito di tωglio vεrbo, alhora ʃi ʃcriverà per ω apεrto;[...] le quali tutte hanno le loro majuʃcule, che ʃono Ɛ, Ꞷ, Ӡ, J, V.
  2. ^ D'Achille, Paolo (2011). "Trissino, Gian Giorgio in "Enciclopedia dell'Italiano"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Treccani. Retrieved 19 October 2022.