But an also occurs though less frequently now than formerly. A similar fronting of this sound took place in the Ionic-Attic dialects of Greek, where sounds derive from the a-sound and represented in other dialects by a are represented by η. Sound 3 represents a stage in the development of a on its way from 1 to 4 which was arrested at this point when the sound was followed by r.
In English, ⟨a⟩ is the indefinite article (with the alternative form an when followed by a vowel). When the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write Latin, the resulting form used in the Latin script would come to be used to write many other languages, including English. The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to the Italian Peninsula, and they left the form of alpha unchanged. However, in the later Greek alphabet it generally resembles the modern capital form—though many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set. In speech and writing a is used before a consonant sound. This is the sound that the letter now normally represents when the vowel is long.
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