A, or a, is the first letter of the basic Latin alphabet[[1], being also, with some variations of form, the first letter and first vowel (in A, E, I, O, U) of the phonetic writing alphabets, with the exception of the Ethiopian alphabet. In Afrikaans, the lyrics are pronounced as "aa". The letter is derived from the Greek letter alpha, which also had the value of sound / a/ and/a: /. The letter is also related to the pictogram of the head of an ox in the proto-semitic and the Egyptian hieroglyph.