Dancing With Vices

Ø

Ø (or minuscule: ø) is a letter used in the Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, and Southern Sámi languages. It is mostly used as a representation of mid front rounded vowels, such as [ø] and [œ], except for Southern Sámi where it is used as an [oe] diphthong. The name of this letter is the same as the sound it represents (see usage). Though not its native name, among English-speaking typographers the symbol may be called a "slashed O" or "o with stroke". Although these names suggest it is a ligature or a diacritical variant of the letter o, it is considered a separate letter in Norwegian and Danish, and it is alphabetized after "z" — thus x, y, z, æ, ø, and å. In other languages that do not have the letter as part of the regular alphabet, or in limited character set… more »