B (letter)

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B, b is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the second letter of most variants, being placed after A and before C, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈbiː], like bee and be.

Use in English[edit]

b is usually a voiced bilabial stop, the unvoiced equivalent of p: bíg, bág, bát, bún, beaûty, bôth, Albânia, câble, tâble, Bâbel, Róbert, bòunce, ábstract, hërb, distürb, abhŏr, sâbre, câber, bít, túb, bábble.

• The accents show stress and pronunciation (see English spellings): A: sát, mâde, pàrk, cāst (cást/càst), åll, ãir; E: ére, êar, vèin, fërn; I: sít, mîne, skì, bïrd; O: sóng, môde, lòve, wörd, ŏr; OO: moôn, foòt; U: sún, mûse, fùll, pürr; W: neŵ, ẁant; Y: gým, mŷ, keỳ, mÿrrh.

It is doubled after short vowels: ébb, fíbber, rábble, góbble, rúbble, clúbber, Débbie, clúbbed, drúbbing - but not when written as a double vowel: doúble, troúble.

It begins consonant clusters: bréad, ábdicate, abhŏr, abjûre, óblong, ábnegate, breâk, absürd, abscónd, abstâin, ábstract.

b is silent in two positions: final, after m: lámb, cômb, thúmb, límb, clîmb, dúmb, thúmb and tomb (which rhymes with doôm) and occasionally before t: dòubt, súbtle, débt.

Beijing and Belarus, Bombay and Burma[edit]

...Or should that be Peking and Byelorussia (old names for the first pair), Mumbai and Myanmar (new names for the second)?

Unsurprisingly, none of the new names has yet attained a single established pronunciation. Pekíng (*P. Kíng) is now either *Bèi-zhíng or, as written, Beijíng. Bürma has become Myánmar, or perhaps *Mêeanmar or even Mŷanmar, though Burmêse is still Burmêse. Bombây is now Mumbaî, or Mùmbaî or even Múmbaî. Byélorússia or Bélorússia, once better known as Whîte Rússia, a literal translation, is now Belarùs or Belarûs (*Bélla Roôse) and occasionally, and more regularly, Bélarus, while Byélorússian gives a choice of Bélarússian, Belarûsan, or Belarûsian, rhyming with confûsion.

Scientific uses[edit]

• B is the symbol for the chemical element boron.
• B: magnetic field vector