Ā
In the Latvian alphabet, Ā represents a distinct vowel and comes after A and before B in alphabetical order: for instance baznīca comes before bārda in a Latvian dictionary. It is considered as a separate letter in the Latvian alphabet. Ā is used to denote a long A in Latvian. In some languages Ā is used to denote a long A. Examples are the Polynesian languages, including Māori, some romanizations of Japanese (rōmaji) and Arabic, and some Latin texts (especially for learners). It is used in some orthography-based transcriptions of English to represent the diphthong [eɪ] ([eː] in some dialects), and also in commercial names such as Drāno and Powerāde.
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