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The eighteenth letter of the modern English alphabet was signified by ruis [dwarf elder] in the ogham alphabet of early Ireland.

Symbol for ring chromosome.

• Constants, Theories, and Values - R: universal gas constant, used in the ideal gas equation
• Abbreviations - R: Latin. Rex, Regina; king, queen

This article is about the letter R. For other uses, see R (disambiguation).

ISO basic Latin alphabet
Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd
Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh
Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll
Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp
Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt
Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx
Yy	Zz

R (named ar /ˈɑr/)^[1] is the eighteenth letter of the ISO basic Latin alphabet.

Contents 1 History 2 Usage 3 Shape 3.1 Dog's letter 4 Related letters and other similar characters 5 Computing codes 6 Other representations 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

History

Egyptian hieroglyph tp	Phoenician resh	Etruscan R	Greek Rho	Later Etruscan R

The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for /r/ by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš (also the name of the letter). It developed into Greek Ρ ῥῶ (rhô) and Latin R. It is likely that some Etruscan and Western Greek forms of the letter added the extra stroke to distinguish it from a later form of the letter P.^{[citation needed]}

The minuscule (lower-case) form of r developed through several variations on the capital form. In handwriting it was common not to close the bottom of the loop but continue into the leg, saving an extra pen stroke. The loop-leg stroke shortened into the simple arc used today. Another minuscule, r rotunda (ꝛ), kept the loop-leg stroke but dropped the vertical stroke, although it fell out of use around the 18th century.

Usage

See also: Rhotic consonant, R-colored vowel, and Guttural R

In science, the letter R is a symbol for the gas constant. Mathematicians use R or (an R in blackboard bold, displayed as ℝ in Unicode) for set of all real numbers.

R represents a rhotic consonant in many languages, as shown in the table below. The International Phonetic Alphabet uses several variations of the letter to represent the different rhotic consonants; [r] represents the alveolar trill.

Alveolar trill [r]	Listen	some dialects of British English or in emphatic speech, standard Dutch, Finnish, Galician, German in some dialects, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Czech, Lithuanian, Latvian, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Catalan, Portuguese (traditional form), Romanian, Scots, Spanish and Albanian 'rr', Swedish, Welsh
Alveolar approximant [ɹ]	Listen	English (most varieties), Dutch in some Dutch dialects (in specific positions of words), Swedish, Faroese, Sicilian
Alveolar flap / Alveolar tap [ɾ]	Listen	Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish and Albanian 'r', Turkish, Dutch, Italian, Venetian, Galician, Leonese
Voiced retroflex fricative [ʐ]	Listen	Spanish used as an allophone of /r/ in some South American accents; Standard Chinese (in pinyin); Vietnamese (southern dialects)
Retroflex approximant [ɻ]	Listen	some varieties of American English; Standard Chinese (in pinyin); and Gutnish
Retroflex flap [ɽ]	Listen	sometimes in Scottish English
Uvular trill [ʀ]	Listen	German stage standard; some Dutch dialects (in Brabant and Limburg, and some city dialects in The Netherlands), Swedish in Southern Sweden, Norwegian in western and southern parts
Voiced uvular fricative [ʁ]	Listen	German, Danish, French, standard European Portuguese 'rr', standard Brazilian Portuguese 'rr'

Other languages may use the letter r in their alphabets (or Latin transliterations schemes) to represent rhotic consonants different from the alveolar trill. In Haitian Creole, it represents a sound so weak that it is often written interchangeably with w, e.g. Kweyol for Kreyol.

Brazilian Portuguese has a great number of allophones of /ʁ/ such as [χ], [h], [ɦ], [x], [ɣ], [ɹ] and [r], the latter three ones can be used only in certain contexts ([ɣ] and [r] as 'rr'; [ɹ] in the syllable coda, as an allophone of /ɾ/ according to the European Portuguese norm and /ʁ/ according to the Brazilian Portuguese norm). Usually at least two of them are present in a single dialect, such as Rio de Janeiro's [ʁ], [χ], [ɦ] and, for a few speakers, [ɣ].

Shape

The letter R is the only letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet in which the uppercase has a closed section and the lowercase does not.

Dog's letter

The letter R is sometimes referred to as the littera canina (canine letter). This phrase has Latin origins: the Latin R was trilled to sound like a growling dog. A good example of a trilling R is the Spanish word for dog, perro.^[2]

In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, such a reference is made by Juliet's nurse in Act 2, scene 4, when she calls the letter R "the dog's name." The reference is also found in Ben Jonson's English Grammar.^[3]

Related letters and other similar characters

• Ρ ρ/ϱ : Greek letter Rho
• Р р : Cyrillic letter Er
• Я я : Cyrillic letter Ya
• ℛ : Script capital R

Computing codes

character	R		r
Unicode name	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R		LATIN SMALL LETTER R
character encoding	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	82	0052	114	0072
UTF-8	82	52	114	72
Numeric character reference	R	R	r	r
EBCDIC family	217	D9	153	99
ASCII 1	82	52	114	72

¹ and all encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations

NATO phonetic	Morse code
Romeo	·–·

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	Braille

See also

• Raidô
• Vocalic r
• Vox Canina
• Republican Party
• Registered Trademark symbol

References

1. ^ "R" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); "ar," op. cit.
2. ^ "A Word A Day: Dog's letter". Wordsmith.org. http://wordsmith.org/words/dogs_letter.html. Retrieved 2012-01-17. 
3. ^ Shakespeare, William; Horace Howard Furness, Frederick Williams (1913). Romeo and Juliet. Lippincott. p. 189. http://books.google.com/books?id=Wj0OAAAAIAAJ. 

External links

• Media related to R at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary entry for R
• The Wiktionary entry for r

v t e The Letter "R" General The letter R Rhotic consonants (R-like sounds) Rhotic and non-rhotic accents R-colored vowels Guttural R Linking and intrusive R Pronunciations Alveolar trill [r] Alveolar approximant [ɹ] Alveolar tap [ɾ] Alveolar lateral flap [ɺ] Retroflex approximant [ɻ] Retroflex flap [ɽ] Retroflex trill [ɽ͡r] Uvular trill [ʀ] Voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] Labialized [ʋ] Variations ꝛ (R rotunda) Ɍɍ Ʀʀ Ȑȑ Ŕŕ Ŗŗ Řř Ȓȓ Ṙṙ Ṛṛ Ṝṝ Ṟṟ Rd Rh Rl Rn Rr Rt Rnd ᚱ (Raidô) ℛ (Riemann integral) ℜ (Real part) ℝ (Real number) ® (Registered trademark symbol) Ⓡ (Enclosed R) ℞ (Medical prescription)

The ISO basic Latin alphabet v t e
Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp	Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz
Letter R with diacritics
Ŕŕ	Řř	Ṙṙ	Ŗŗ	Ȑȑ	Ȓȓ	Ṛṛ	Ṝṝ	Ṟṟ	Ɍɍ	Ɽɽ	ᵲ	ᶉ	ɼ	ɾ	ᵳ
Related
History Palaeography Derivations Diacritics Punctuation Numerals Unicode List of letters ISO/IEC 646

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - r

2.
abbr. - rare (sjælden), retired (pensioneret), received (modtaget), residens
symb. - røntgen, resistance (modstand)

1.
n. - R, det attende bogstav i alfabetet

idioms:

• the r months    måneder med "r" i det engelske navn (september - april)

2.
abbr. - rex, regina, regiment, republikansk, royal, rabbiner, radius
symb. - registreret, rand, Reaumur, røntgen, R-film, rupee

Nederlands (Dutch)
koninklijk, rechts/ rechter-, straal (radius), Koning(in), De Kroon, achteruit (versnelling), toren (schaken)

Français (French)
1.
n. - r (dix-huitième lettre de l'alphabet)

2.
abbr. - rare, recette, recto, gouverné/dirigé, (Sport) dix points (cricket, base-ball), (Math) rayon, (Anat) radius, (Rail) chemin de fer, (Comm) marque déposée, droit, route, rouble
symb. - (Chim) gaz constant, tour (aux échecs), roupie, (Chim) radical, (Phys, Électron) résistance

1.
n. - R (dix-huitième lettre de l'alphabet), les trois R (la lecture, l'écriture, l'arithmétique)

idioms:

• the r months    les mois en r

2.
abbr. - (Relig) Rabbin, (Mil) Régiment, (GB) Roi, (GB) Reine, (US, Pol) Républicain, (Géog) Rivière, Royal(e), (US, Univ) Recteur, (Relig) ecclésiastique
symb. - (Fin) unité monétaire (d'un pays), Réaumur (l'échelle), Royal, Röntgen, (US, Austral) film R (interdit aux moins de 18 ans)

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - r

2.
abbr. - Fluß, Königin, König, Republikaner, als Warenzeichen eingetragen, rechts, Turm (Schach), Rand, Rückwärtsgang, Radius, Réaumur
symb. - Röntgen, elektr. Widerstand

1.
n. - R

idioms:

• the r months    die Monate September bis April (wenn man Auster ißt)

2.
abbr. - Fluß, Königin, König, Republikaner, als Warenzeichen eingetragen, rechts, Turm (Schach), Rand, Rückwärtsgang, Radius, Réaumur
symb. - Röntgen, elektr. Widerstand

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - το δέκατο όγδοο γράμμα του αγγλικού αλφαβήτου
symb. - Ραίντγκεν
abbr. - ακτίνα, δεξιά, ποταμός

idioms:

• the r months    οι μήνες από Σεπτέμβρη ώς Απρίλιο

Italiano (Italian)
R, re/regina, fiume, torre, destra, punti, raggio

idioms:

• the r months    da Settembre a Aprile

Português (Portuguese)
n. - décima oitava letra do alfabeto inglês
symb. - resistência (Eletr.), roentgen (Fís.)
abbr. - registrado, rei ou rainha

idioms:

• the r months    outubro, novembro, dezembro

Русский (Russian)
король/королева, река, ладья, правая сторона, радиус, газовая постоянная, 18-я буква англ. алфавита

idioms:

• the r months    с сентября по апрель

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - décimo octava letra del alfabeto inglés, cualquier sonido representado por la letra R, algo en forma de R

2.
abbr. - río, torre de ajedrez, derecha, corridas, radio, (com) registrado, (elec) resistencia, (fís) roentgen, real, rublo, rabino, vía ferroviaria, raro, (com) recibido, receta, residencia, goma, (béisbol) corridas
symb. - (quím) radio, (estadística) coeficiente de correlación

1.
n. - decimooctava letra del alfabeto inglés

idioms:

• the r months    temporada de ostras

2.
abbr. - rey/reina, río, torre de ajedrez, rabino, radical, vías ferroviarias, rector, redactor, (pol) Republicano, respuesta, rublo, Réaumur
symb. - (quím) radical, (mat) razón, relación, tamaño regular (vestimenta), (elec) resistencia, (películas) clasificación no apta para menores de 17 años de edad

Svenska (Swedish)
symb. - receptor
abbr. - flod, kunglig, Rumänien, (pol) radikal, rupie, höger, radie

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 字母R

2. 共和国的, 共和政体的, 17岁以上可看的电影, 罗马尼亚

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 字母R

2.
abbr. - 共和國的, 共和政體的, 17歲以上可看的電影, 羅馬尼亞

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 알파벳의 제18번째 자 'r, ', r자 모양(의 것)

idioms:

• the R months    9월부터 다음해 4월까지의 8개월

2.
abbr. - resistance(저항), royal(왕의), ruble(루블)
symb. - radius(반지름)

1.
n. - 알파벳의 제18번째 자 'R', R자 모양(의 것), 엑스선

2.
abbr. - radium(라듐)
symb. - regular army(정규군)

日本語 (Japanese)
abbr. - アール, R字形のもの

idioms:

• the r months    冬の間は,

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(علامه) الحرف الثامن من الابجديه الأنجليزيه (اختصار) شي على صورة حرف ر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮האות השמונה-עשר באלפבית האנגלי‬
abbr. - ‮ימין, רדיוס‬
symb. - ‮התנגדות (בחשמל)‬
n. - ‮האות השמונה-עשר באלפבית האנגלי‬
abbr. - ‮ימין, רדיוס, נהר, סימן מסחרי רשום, צריח (שחמט), רב, מלך, מלכה, דירוג סרטים (מוגבל למבוגרים)‬
symb. - ‮תחנת רכבת/מסילת ברזל, התנגדות (בחשמל), דירוג סרטים (מוגבל למבוגרים), רב, רנטגן‬

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