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Cursive script 'm' and capital 'M' in the U.S. D'Nealian script style
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M (named em )[1] is the thirteent letter o the ISO basic Latin alphabet.
History
The letter M is derived frae the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem probably oreeginally pictured watter. It is kent that Semitic fowk workin in Egyp c. 2000 BC borrowed a hieroglyph for "watter" that wis first uised for an alveolar nasal (/n/), acause o the Egyptian wird for watter, n-t. This same seembol acame uised for /m/ in Semitic, acause the wird for watter began wi that soond.
The letter 'm' represents the bilabial consonant soond, [m], in Classical leids as well as the modren leids. The Oxford Inglis Dictionary (first edeetion) says that 'm' is whiles a vowel in wirds lik spasm an in the suffix -ism. In modren terminology, this wad be describit as a syllabic consonant — IPA [m̩].