a in Wingdings is ♋︎
The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets.The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as alsothe small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter,etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed fromthe Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the firstletter (Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was aconsonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not anelement of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to representtheir vowel Alpha with the ä sound, the Phoenician alphabet having novowel symbols. This letter, in English, is used for several differentvowel sounds. See Guide to pronunciation, §§ 43-74. The regular longa, as in fate, etc., is a comparatively modern sound, and has takenthe place of what, till about the early part of the 17th century, wasa sound of the quality of ä (as in far).