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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

B second letter of the alphabet . Its Greek correspondent is named beta. It is a usual symbol for a voiced bilabial stop. In musical notation it is used to represent a note in the scale. In chemistry B is the symbol of the element boron .

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B

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | | © Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

B, b [Called ‘bee’]. The 2nd LETTER of the modern Roman ALPHABET as used for English. It descends from the Phoenician symbol bēth (‘house’), which was adopted by the Greeks as beta, B, then by the Romans as B.

Sound values

In English, b normally represents the voiced bilabial stop, with p as its voiceless equivalent: bad/pad. Word-final b is rare, occurring mainly in monosyllables (hub, rib, scab), but occasionally in longer words (superb, disturb, cherub).

Double B

(1) The doubling of b occurs when monosyllables with a short vowel are followed by -er, -ed, and -ing: rob/robber/robbed/robbing (contrast the phonetically long vowel in daub/dauber/daubed/daubing). (2) Many disyllables contain double b after a stressed short vowel (abbey, rabbit, ribbon, rubber, rubble), but many others do not (cabin, debit, double, habit, robin).

Silent B

B is silent after syllable-final m (dumb, numb, tomb), including in some words of Germanic origin in which it was formerly pronounced (climb, comb, dumb, lamb, womb) and in French-derived words with final mb (aplomb, bomb, jamb, plumb, succumb, tomb). In a number of words, a silent b has been added by analogy: crumb, limb, numb, thumb. In some of these, it was created by backformation from words of the type crumble, thimble (formerly without b). Crum began to be written with b in the 16c, but occurs without it in Johnson's dictionary (1755) and in some 19c dictionaries. Derivatives from mb-words mostly keep the silent b, as in climber, lambing, thumbing, but b is pronounced in such non-derivative polysyllables as cucumber, encumber, Humber, slumber. There is no b in dummy, derived from dumb, or crummy, derived from crumb, and although b is not pronounced finally in bomb, medial b is pronounced in bombard.

Epenthetic B

B is epenthetic in debt, doubt, and subtle, which entered English from French as dette, doute, and soutil. As in French, these words were given a b in deference to their Latin etymons debitum, dubitum, and subtilis. However, while French shed b in dette and doute in the 18c and came to pronounce the b in subtil, English has kept a silent b in all three. EPENTHESIS also occurs after medial m in some words: for example, Latin camera and numerus became French chambre and nombre, English chamber and number. Compare German fummeln and rummeln with English fumble and rumble.

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TOM McARTHUR. "B." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "B." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (December 9, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-B.html

TOM McARTHUR. "B." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved December 09, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-B.html

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B

A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology | 2004 | | © A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

B. The second letter of the modern English alphabet was represented by beithe [birch] in the ogham alphabet of early Ireland.

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JAMES MacKILLOP. "B." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JAMES MacKILLOP. "B." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (December 9, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-B.html

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