Why Are “a” and “g” Two Kinds Unlike Other Lowercase Letters?

Perhaps you were not aware, or never questioned, that the lowercase letters “a” and “g” have such a distinctive condition. Because these two representations are almost We have been accustomed to seeing ourselves that way and in our lives as long as we can remember.

But isn’t this very interesting? These two letters what makes it special from others Let’s take a closer look.

In fact, historically, the letter “a” has had many different forms.

Over time, various forms of this letter were used and many writing systems emerged. In fact, the use of letters is usually depended on the environment in which they were used.

For example, the Romans used two different styles of writing on stone, the “monumental” and the “concise style.” Then this distinctive style of writing, continued to differentiate with intermediate forms and thus the letters “a” with different spellings continued to be used. This was exactly the same for the letter “g”.

However, even today, it has not been possible to reach a consensus on the spelling of lowercase letters “a” and “g”. Okay but why?

First, to avoid confusion, let’s name the spellings of these letters. As can be seen from the image, it is a single storey “a” and “g” are what we usually use in handwriting; double-decker “a” and “g” are the preferred writing styles of these letters in printing houses.

In fact, we met the one-story form of the letter “a” in primary school and we adopted this letter as it is. The reason why this letter is taught to us in a single-layered form is as you can guess. It was much simpler to write.

Also, although still in some schools, cursive was preferred in the first grade of primary school, and it was also much more practical for younger children to write one-story variations of the letters “a” and “g”. In addition, 75% of people use of a single storey to continue.

So what led to the introduction of the double-decker “a” and “g”?

Although the single-fold writing of these letters is easier for beginners to read and write, especially this form of the letter “a”, It was quite apt to be confused with the letter “o”. For this reason, a double-decker variation of this letter emerged and its use became widespread in order to come to the fore in terms of distinctiveness.

These changed forms of the letters “a” and “g” since the day they appeared, Today, in all kinds of print works and most written materials (newspapers, magazines, books) continues to be used.

However, there are those who change their preferences at this point. For example, Google in its logo Using the double decker “g” until 2015now continues on its way with a single storey g.