Why are there two a's? 

sorry for the audio on this video, was trying a new mic that didn't work out

everything you say sounds like you’re about to make a joke but never do. i love it

“The letter a is derived from the Egyptian letter of a bull head. Not sure what it means, but it’s a bull head.” Love this sentence

Seeing a single history 'a' in a computer is uncanny. Italic 'a' is so beautiful.

The portrayal of Niccolo de Nicoli as an exaggerated clipart of an Italian baker made me laugh way harder than it should have, especially when he frowned. Great stuff.

Thanks a lot for this, it's genuinely a question I had on my mind a while ago

This is one of those things that I probably saw at one point and didn’t question it. I’ve never really thought about the two types of lowercase a’s. But this was a great breakdown of it. Also the fact that italicizing an a turns it from double story to single story is super cool!

I’m so stoned I had to listen to the opening paragraph like sixteen times to understand it

It's interesting, I remember being taught the "double story" a in my textbook, but then the "cursive" a by my Mom. So as a child I thought this was actually just a style choice. I also learned cursive so I just assumed that we were just borrowing the cursive version, which made sense because it was easier. I had no idea that this was a historical shift.

The reason for the bull's head representing the letter A and other vowels comes from the fact that the word for bull was something similar to "Alp" which became "Alef" in Hebrew and "Alfa" in Greek

I just realised, that while I can easily read the double story a, I don't think I've ever actually written it. I wouldn't even know how to. It's odd that in my mind I barely realize that there are multiple shapes for the same letter, it just feels like the same letter to me. Learning as a child is amazing, wish I could still do it.

In Germany I learnt two ways of writing in school: Schreibschrift (cursive) and Druckschrift (printed writing). In the first the letters are connected and the a is one story. In the second the letters are never connected and you can write a double story a if you want to. We never really got deeper into cursive, maybe because I am from Mainz where printing was invented and literally attended the Gutenberg school💀

I actually write using the "double story" a, for the reason that it does take longer to write. I've had a bad habit of writing too fast and my letters being nearly illegible to anyone else, so by slowing down and taking my time it becomes easier to read.

Storytime: When I was in kindergarten learning how to write, I insisted on writing the double story 'a' because that's what it looks like in books, but my teacher told me I needed to stop and only write single story, just because that's what everyone else did. I went home and told my parents, and my dad actually agreed with me, and he decided to change his handwriting from that moment on. To this day my dad still writes the double story 'a' even though I actually just use single story now because it's faster lmao

I believe it was 4th grade where I randomly decided to start only using double story 'a's … still do it over a couple decades later.

i'm a proud user of the double storey a!! i initially changed to it cause i thought it looked cool but now i'm learning that i'm keeping history alive (and also it looks cool :))

I'm also interested in why we have 2 capital I's, and why one of them looks almost exactly like a lowercase l.

Once i heard that when you type "a" in italic on a computer it changes into a single story "a", i IMMEDIATELY opened ms. Word and started doing what was said. After i hit ctrl+i on the letter "a", I WAS MINDBLOWN. never knew that kind of small things that the software developer adds, have a history behind it. Well done video!

literally wondering about this the other day. Thanks hoseboi

This is actually very informative! Didn't know this. Very cool!

I use the double story "a". When I was younger I wrote the single story, but I somehow ended up with writing the double story as I got older and now I can't get out of it lol. I thought the reason was simply a matter of choice, so thanks for making this video! Now I have something else to add in my stock knowledge.

When I was in grade 6, I thought the double storey "a" looked fancier and so I literally trained myself to write that one. Sometimes I would still accidentally use the single storey, but after a while I got used to it and I've been using the double storey one ever since

Thought about this some weeks ago, now ur vid poped up, thxs

I write with the double story "a" personally, and I don't find it to be any slower than the single story. You can very easily and quickly do it in one stroke of a pen

The double storey "a" is actually faster to write, if you just write it like a curved alpha. You only use one continuous movement, instead of two. I used to write the single story "a" in my handwriting, since it was the way I learned it at school, but after a while it turned automatically to a double storey "a" since it didn't interrupt my writing flow as much.

I always thought the computer A was a fancy stylized version of it

i used to write single-story a’s like most people do, but hated the way they looked in my handwriting and started writing double-story a’s. never looked back, i love them

ty my man you gave me a good topic for my public speech presentation tomorrow.

I don’t know if it’s the same in the rest of the world but in Italian school they teach us that there are two types of writing: “stampatello minuscolo” (print writing) and “corsivo” (cursive). The first “a” belongs to stampatello minuscolo and the second one belongs to corsivo.

In 6th grade my math teacher had the most admirable handwriting and she used the double-story A rather than the single story. I decided to improve my own handwriting by copying hers and I’ve been writing double story A’s ever since. Sometimes i alternate between the two if I’m in a rush. But this is really interesting.

I actually am accustomed to writing a double-story lowercase a. It's pretty similar to d though so I try to make clearance between the two.

This was one of the biggest questions in my life. Thank you

I remember my 7 year old self practicing on writing the double story "a" lots of times when learning english, with no success. As a greek I was like "screw it" and I use the much easier single story one ever since. Back then I even used to believe that it was wrong, that I was using a greek letter on the latin alphabet, but didn't care because there was no way in hell my lazy ass would try the other one ever again.

Doctor of Linguistics here! A FANTASTIC explanation, but it can't be stressed enough just how popular Italic Script became. And how recent majority literacy is. It all adds up to: Writing systems are always in flux.

I've been using a double story "a" (never knew it was called that) since I was in college. And I also use a "g" that has the two circles. Looks cool.

I remember we learned both in school as we began writing in my country. The a that is smaller became standard as I remember. BUT, some people in school preferred to write the one used here in the comments on RU-vid. The double-storey one... :) I guess they wanted to stand out... :) I adapted this a too in my younger years, but have since went back and forth between the two. I like the look of the one used in the comments on RU-vid, cause it's easier to tell apart from the letter o when writing by hand than the other one. :)

I actually hand write the double-story a. It makes my handwriting look a lot neater and fits better with my writing style, which almost entirely consists of very short lines instead of long, single-stroke letters. I developed this writing style while I was working on an ambulance, as it is much easier to write neatly in a moving vehicle using shorter strokes.

The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it from a true alphabet). In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended. the consonant sound that the letter denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, and that was the first phoneme of the Phoenician pronunciation of the letter so they used their version of the sign to represent the vowel a, and called it by the similar name of alpha.

We all know that one girl that took her sweet time making sure every letter was perfectly even and using the double story

Very interesting video. I hadn't really realised there was a significant difference between the two, because in cursive writing, when using an ascender, the letter 'a' might well come out looking double-story, depending on writing style or precision of writing. I'm from the generation that did not use ascenders at the beginning of words (only mid-word), but kids have been taught to always start words with an ascender for many years now, so maybe there are more handwritten double story 'a's these days. I don't actually know because I haven' t been paying close attention. I just know that if you start an 'a' with an ascender, you begin on the line, go over the top, before forming the lower 'story' underneath (though the lines might merge, perhaps by preference, to look single-story). I think I'd always just assumed that that was what was going on (with the mid-word 'a's I was taught, beth bynnag) . Fascinating to know there's a more extensive history.

I only use double story because i like how it looks, but I've always wondered why we were taught single story when the keyboards always featured double story. Thanks for the video! very interesting stuff

0:49 No humans! Please don't turn me into a simplified logo!

This was actually really interesting.

No way!!!!! I just checked it out by writing 'Italics' on my computer and changing it into italics to see the a swap forms. Amazing! Blew my mind. So unreasonably excited about this!

The printed a has a higher recognizability than single story a, the optimization of which is a priority for printed text, but the handwritten form is much restricted by how efficiently people can write, so the distinctions are kept. You can try changing all the A's (especially with a serif font) to single story, it will be slightly harder for you to read.

It took me over 40 to realize that we are taught a standard way, but it’s ok to have our own handwriting style. When I realized that’s all cursive was, I finally stopped being mad cursive wasn’t taught anymore. I suppose the most important thing is others being able to read what you write. I love cursive, but I don’t write in proper cursive & totally forget how to make a proper cursive capital T and Q. I’ve also had to “translate” old recipe cards for people my age, who never used cursive out of High School because most of our society had a home computer and was typing on keyboards more by then. It’s crazy and fascinating to me! Great video!

i actually write with the double story a and have been curious about this many times, great vid

“not sure what it means but it’s a bull head” absolutely took me out

Cool. Now do the "s" that looks like an "f"

Never knew I had this question until now, thanks hoser! What about g? Typing g with Times New Roman brings up some weird abomination.

I use a double-story ‘a’ because that’s how my dad wrote it and I wanted to write like he did, even though he had pretty bad handwriting-it was distinctive and consistent.

Omg I was thinking about this today!😂💜

its weird how for the longest time i never even noticed how they were different. They both were a's and carried the same message so child me never took sight of it. It was only when i started learning about linguistics and the history of english that i saw it.

0:45 "I don't know what it means, but it's a bull head." I died laughing lmaoo keep up the good work

I love how dumb curious questions end with a 6min history lesson

I use the double-story a, simply because one day I thought it was fancy, and I should write with it, and now I use it regularly.

I typically write the "double story" a, like as seen in typing. For me it is just as quick, and more distinguishable quickly from the letter "o".

i literally never realized there were two different forms of a, like, i just got so used to seeing both that i just thought "yeah, thats an a" anytime i saw either and never processed that they were different.

you could kinda write the double story "a" in the same manner you draw a vortex. from the stem to the middle. it kinda made my writing a bit more tidier and comfortable in the eye

This is so interesting I've always wondered this because I'd write the single story "a" until I got to 7th grade. Then I had a friend who wrote the double story one and I was so amazed i tried it out and ever since then I have chosen to write with that one because it looks way more aesthetically pleasing to me! And I don't write too much now days, just lists and sometimes cards so if I'm taking the time to physically write something- I may as well take half an extra second and make it look way better

1:46 holy shit you just gave me an epiphany. I'm 20 and I never fucking realised this. What the fuck 😭

i love how you grasp the pencil with your fingers like an alien trying to figure out how to use human appendages.

I like it, the ɑ is easy and fast to write by hand, while the a looks better and typing it isn't any more difficult!

I was taught single story but switched to writing double story when I was around 15 or so because it just looks much better in my opinion. I know a lot of other people who write double story As too.

the double a’s actually have a use in linguistics (specifically french linguistics)! i’m a linguistics student that studies in a french-canadian uni and, in the french international phonetic alphabet, there’s two kinds of a’s : posterior a’s (it’s similar to the regular a in english, it’s articulated in the front of the mouth and it’s presented as such: [a]) and anterior a’s (which are represented by [ɑ], and articulated in the back of the mouth; hence, they’re deeper like a “uh”) anyways, hope this helps :]

Cool vid man

This man literally answered my childhood questions.

i used to use the simple “a” till secondary school but then our teacher gave us a task to make our writing more pleasing during summer holiday and it seemed like the duble story “a” was more elegant or old fashioned in hand writing so i started using that. Now my brain has an epileptic seizure whenever i try to use the simple one

I didn't know where it came from, but I always thought the reason why we use one in print and digital vs the other in handwriting was that the double storey a is easier to distinguish from o when reading quickly, but the single storey one is faster to write by hand.

When i was a kid i used the usual easier a, but my friend used the double a to look fancy... so i started doing it too. She stopped doing it afterwards, but i just continued and now im stuck writing double story a's forever lol

Crazy how I never realized the existence of double story a until this video made me think about it

I just can't read all this comments without looking at EVERY "a" letter

I actually use the double-story 'a' because I found that it was easier for me to write in an efficient and consistent manner as compared to my writing the single-story 'a' (the one that I was originally taught). I think I made that change to my handwriting at some point in middle school, if I'm remembering correctly.

Very interesting 🤔 ..... Always wondered about it

I use double story a in my handwriting all the time. I stopped using single story a several years ago. I wanted my handwriting to look different, so I consciously made the choice to start using double story a.

As a young child I struggled with learning how to handwrite. I had grown obsessed with computers from an early age, so I much preferred typing over handwriting, and my teachers always had to get me computers so I could do my schoolwork. But when I absolutely had to write letters by hand, I basically just copied what letters looked like on computers, so I ended up using double story "a" all the time. Nowadays I do use single story "a" though, ever since I realized that its far easier for me to write. Although to this day, I still barely ever handwrite.

Definitely different from your usual videos, but it managed to be just as enjoyable. If you are planning to start changing up your content more in the future, I support your move to other types of videos.

I’ve been using the double story a just cause it looks better, it’s that simple

I avoid this conundrum entirely by writing my a's the way a computer would

I've always wondered about this as well, thank you for answering it. I personally prefer 'single story a', it just looks better to me

I write double-story a because it looks cooler in my opinion. Also I write lowercase r as a miniature of the capital R, because the version I had learned to write in elementary school often came out looking indistinguishable from a v.

the reason why i don’t do the double story a is because they look goofy on my papers

The single/double story letter efficiency thing is obvious enough (Thanks Da Vinci!) but what about the letter g? I noticed the Lorem Ipsum text uses our modern handwritten g, but there are two of them that you see in fonts. We use a hook going in one direction, but a lot of fonts use a full circle going in the opposite direction. What's up with that?

3:40 jokes on you, i write with the double-storied a

What's confusing a.f. is that these are two distinct symbols in IPA: [ɑ] and [a]. My whole life, my brain had been taught to automatically treat these as allographs of the same grapheme, ⟨a⟩, but when I learned IPA, I had to see them as distinct symbols. Another problem is that I find it more or less impossible to nicely draw "a" by hand - I can only type it.

...it's a simple thing of taste - there are also fonts with that single story version of a, as well as there are ways for fast simplified handwriting of double story a :)

for some reason, i still write with the 2 story a, i just like the font style more.

Ahh, I always appreciate how people delve into mundane questions that everyone kind of has! As for myself, I actually write in the double-storey a, mostly because when I was a kid some girls in my class started doing it and I wanted to fit in. Funnily enough, they stopped eventually or we drifted even further apart, yet here I am 10+ years later, still writing in a double-storey a. Honestly, I think it’s pretty cute. 😂 And recently I did also stop writing capital I with the horizontal lines at the top and bottom, and _that_ actually _was_ because I wanted to write faster while writing my university notes ahaha.

This video is: ✔ Life changing ✔ Informative ✔ Inspiring ✔ Heartwarming ✔ Useful ✔calming ✔Enjoyable ✔ Other

FINALLY, SOMEONE ELSE WHO USES 5PM FOR BACKGROUND MUSIC

I remember in first grade, probably my first day in school, where there were posters for the entire alphabet in lower and uppercase written on the wall with a picture of something that starts with that letter, for example: the poster with Zz would have a pictogram of a Zeppelin. I was probably told to write the letter A but I struggled because the poster had the double story a even tho we were supposed to write it down on paper. The teacher got to my desk and she said that I wrote it wrong and corrected me.

I actually write the double-story lowercase a, because I couldn't figure out how to write the single-story one without making it look too much like an "o" or a "d". I would just get it a little wrong every time. For context, I write in print exclusively and never managed to figure out cursive, and if you are writing in print, the double-story version is actually more legible. I always thought my handwriting was terrible, but my teachers in high school and college said that my handwriting is actually easier to read than most people's cursive writing because I take my time and form the letters properly. I have gotten so used to printing that I can write at about 2/3rds the speed of someone writing in cursive. It's a bit slower, sure, but if I really needed the extra speed I would be typing on a computer.

Canadian: Oh, hey there. You're having some car troubles, eh? Stewie: Yeah, we're trying to get to the North Pole. I don't suppose you're from Triple A, are you? Canadian: Who? Stewie: Triple A, you know? A-A-A. Canadian: Oh, AA, eh? Oh, I just came from AA. Stewie: No, not AA! AAA! Canadian: Yeah, that's what I said. AA, eh? Stewie: Oh, so you are with Triple A. Canadian: Oh, no, that's AAA. I just came from AA, eh? Stewie: Huh? Brian: Stewie, I think he's just a drunk. Stewie: Well, drunk or not, can you help us? Canadian: I can if you wanna join AA, eh? Stewie: Oh, I'm already a member of AAA! I need help with the car! Canadian: Oh, I see. Yeah, looks like you got some water leakage. You might need a hose, eh? Stewie: José, Roberto, whatever. If you got some Latinos up here that can fix cars, that'd be great. Canadian: No, I mean, it looks like you need a part, eh? Stewie: Well, yeah, when it's fixed, we can celebrate, but let's deal with first thing's first. Canadian: Well, I can probably take you to a gas station, eh? You have cash, eh? Stewie: Well, I dunno, my name carries a little weight, but I don't see how that matters here. Brian: Look, we...we...we don't have enough cash to fix the car and we're kind of on our way to the North Pole. Canadian: Oh, a car won't take ya there anyway. But if ya like, you can take my snowmobile. Brian: Really? Ya just...give it to us? Canadian: Oh, sure. That's what Canadian hospitality's all aboot. If ya like, you can have all my money and my leg. [pause] Stewie: Okay.

Many years ago I decided I wanted to use the double story "a" by habit. After much practice I now write "a" without thinking about it.

A question that that has always been somewhere in my mind hidden, today was found by the algorithm.

Good video, love to see a similar one explaining the two 4s and 9s… and 1s and maybe 2s too… also the 7… just make a video on the numbers please feel like it’d end up really well.

as a hungarian i ask myself this every day

grew up writing single story a's, changed in maybe 7th grade and will never go back. double story flows so well, looks elegant, and i so much more fun than single story. single story a's make me think of a child's writing

I like that Brennan and Raph tell Trapp to schedule his dentist appointment even though he’s Dead and An Actual Ghost

This is funny, in my handwriting I sometimes write the "double story" a starting from the stem and going up and around, then going down to make a loop that goes back around and finishes the stem, but sometimes it looks like a 2