Ã

Ã/ã (a-tilde) is a letter used in some languages, generally considered a variant of the letter A.

In Portuguese, Ã/ã represents a nasal central unrounded vowel, normally transcribed in IPA as IPA|/ɐ̃/ (its exact height varies from open to mid according to dialect). The combination ãe represents the Diphthong IPA| [ɐ̃ĩ̯] , and ão represents IPA| [ɐ̃ũ̯] . Because à is a typically Portuguese character, it is sometimes used as a symbol of the Portuguese languageFact|date=August 2008.

This symbol is also used in the Aromanian, Kashubian and Vietnamese languages. In Vietnamese, it represents IPA| [aː] in a high breaking-rising tone.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA|/ã/ stands for a nasal open unrounded vowel, found for example in the French words "maman" and "Jean".

ee also

* Ñ
* Õ
* Tilde