B
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Translingual
Etymology 1
From the Etruscan letter 𐌁 (b, be), from the Ancient Greek letter Β (B, beta), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤁 (b, bet), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓉐.
Usage notes
The letter B (usually its lower case form b) is used in several romanization systems of non-Latin scripts to represent the bilabial plosive or stop, usually voiced (/b/).
See also
Symbol
B
- A blood type that has a specific antigen that aggravates the immune response in people with type A antigen in their blood. They can receive blood from type B or type O, but cannot receive blood from AB or A.
- (chemistry) The chemical element boron.
- Eleven, especially used in the base more than ten, such as duodecimal, hexadecimal, vigesimal and so on.
- The equivalent numbers of decimal 1611 are duodecimal B23, hexadecimal 64B, vigesimal 40B and so on.
- (biochemistry) As an IUPAC code for amino acids, aspartic acid or asparagine.
- (physics) A magnetic flux density.
- (linguistics) A wildcard for a labial consonant
- (finance) Long-term bond credit rating by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, indicating that a bond is highly speculative with high risk of default.
- (clothing) Bra cup size.
Gallery
See also
- (blood type): from antigen B
- (symbol for boron): abbreviation of boron
- (hexadecimal 11): The eleventh item from the sequence {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F}
Character=B2Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.
Other representations of B:
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English
Pronunciation
- (phoneme) IPA(key): /b/
- (letter name) IPA(key): /biː/
Audio (UK) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -iː
Etymology 1
Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ (b, beorc).
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b, plural Bs or B's)
- The second letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.
- 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
- Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his great hoof […]
Usage notes
In Modern English, the letter B is sometimes silent, e.g. in climb, and debt.
Apostrophes are sometimes used to form plurals of single upper case letters, especially at the start of a sentence:
- A’s are difficult to achieve in this class.
Usually, though, the apostrophe is avoided when there is no risk of confusion:
- She gets straight As in school.
See also
Number
B (upper case, lower case b)
Etymology 2
Noun
B
- (cricket) The number of balls faced by a batsman.
- The quantity one billion (1,000,000,000), usually used to signify a sum of money
- $2.8 B — “two point eight billion dollars” (i.e., $2,800,000,000)
- (British) The grade of pencil that makes darker marks than grade HB but lighter marks than grade 2B; a pencil with soft lead.
- (chess) Bishop
- (music) Bass.
- (euphemistic) Bitch.
- 2011 December 25, Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, Linda L. Shaw, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Second Edition, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 99:
- [quoting an ethnographer's account:] He then called me a "dumb B" and hung up the phone. Meredith pauses, looks at Graciela, and says, "Okay, I need you to be as specific as you can, so that means you're going to have to tell me what he called you, exactly." [...] Graciela grabs the pen and writes down, "Dumb Bitch." [...] Robert then arrived at my house that day to see our son and upon leaving said, "I'll see you in court you Dumb B."
- 2016 May 23, Caron Lipman, Co-habiting with Ghosts: Knowledge, Experience, Belief and the Domestic Uncanny, Routledge, →ISBN, page 179:
- And then he looked again and she wasn't there. So he probably thought, 'Stupid B'. You know.
Etymology 3
- (personality type): from contrast with the letter ‘A’ and its corresponding personality type
- (academic grade): from the position of the letter ‘B’ in the English alphabet
Noun
B (plural Bs)
- A personality type of someone who is relaxed and easygoing and able to engage in leisure activities without worrying about work.
- An academic grade, better than a C and worse than an A
- Signifies a second-tier or second class of a given commodity, group, or category, as in B-movie, B-list, etc.
- The television studio revived some of its B characters for the spinoff.
- 1999, Michael Sauter, The Worst Movies of All Time, Or, What Were They Thinking?, page 268:
- The baddest of the Bs, then, are a rare, precious mix of jerry-built production values and jazzed-up creative juices. But that's not to say that even with a budget, a B movie can't still bounce way off the wall, […]
- The alternate or secondary part, as the back side of a phonograph record. Contrasted with A, which is the primary part.
- (music) The seventh note in the C major scale.
- (immunology) A B cell.
- 2020 May 2, “Leaving lockdown means understanding immune responses to the virus”, in The Economist:
- Mind your Bs and Ts
[…] And if the combined efforts of macrophages, b cells and t cells are sufficient, the pathogen will be beaten back and eventually cleared from the body.
Usage notes
Apostrophes are sometimes used to form plurals of single upper case letters, especially at the start of a sentence:
- A’s are difficult to achieve in this class.
Usually, though, the apostrophe is avoided when there is no risk of confusion:
- She gets straight As in school.
Translations
See also
Translations
See also
- (computing): b (bit)
Afar
Letter
B
- The second letter in the Afar alphabet.
Angami
See also
- (Latin-script letters) Ü ü, Üi üi, A a, Ai ai, I i, Ie ie, U u, Uo uo, E e, Ei ei, O o, Ou ou, K k, Kh kh, G g, Ng ng, C c, Ch ch, J j, Jh jh, Ny ny, T t, Th th, D d, N n, Ts ts, Tsh tsh, Dz dz, P p, Ph ph, B b, M m, Pf pf, Bv bv, Y y, Yh yh, R r, Rh rh, L l, Lh lh, F f, V v, W w, Wh wh, S s, Sh sh, Z z, Zh zh, H h
Azerbaijani
Letter
B upper case (lower case b)
Blagar
Catalan
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Central Franconian
Etymology
- /b/ is from West Germanic stem-initial *b, in Ripuarian and northernmost Moselle Franconian also from geminated *bb.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /b/, (coda) [p]
Letter
B
- A letter in the German-based alphabet of Central Franconian.
- A letter in the Dutch-based alphabet of Central Franconian.
Usage notes
- In the German-based spelling, b is doubled after short vowels except in certain function words and when the letter is followed by another consonant within the word stem. In the syllable coda, the choice between b and p may be based on internal analogy, but more often follows the German cognate.
- In the Dutch-based spelling, b is doubled after short vowels if the syllable were otherwise open. In the syllable coda, internal analogy prevails.
Chinese
Pronunciation
Pronunciation
Noun
B
Synonyms
Compounds
Pronunciation 1
Letter
B
- The second letter of the Latin alphabet.
Pronunciation 2
Usage notes
- 《汉语拼音方案》 defines a standard pronunciation for each letter. However, these pronunciations are rarely used in education; another pronunciation is commonly used instead.
- The pronunciation above are only used while referring to letters in Pinyin. They are not used in other context (such as English).
Chipewyan
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /p/
Czech
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /beː/
See also
Elfdalian
Alternative forms
- ᛒ (Dalecarlian runes)
Esperanto
Pronunciation
- (letter name): IPA(key): /bo/
- (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/
Audio (file) - Homophone (letter name): bo-
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Estonian
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Finnish
Etymology
The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on those of Swedish, German and Latin, and was first used in the mid-16th century. No earlier script is known. See the Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, and B for information on the development of the glyph itself.
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Usage notes
- Used only in loanwords.
See also
Noun
B
- Abbreviation of lubenter approbatur.
- Alternative letter-case form of b (“B flat (musical note)”)
Galician
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /beː/
Audio (file)
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
See also
Declension
See also
- H (“B (musical note)”)
Hungarian
Alternative forms
- b (in music)
Pronunciation
- (phoneme): IPA(key): [ˈb]
- (letter name): IPA(key): [ˈbeː]
Audio (file)
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Declension
Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | B | B-k |
accusative | B-t | B-ket |
dative | B-nek | B-knek |
instrumental | B-vel | B-kkel |
causal-final | B-ért | B-kért |
translative | B-vé | B-kké |
terminative | B-ig | B-kig |
essive-formal | B-ként | B-kként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | B-ben | B-kben |
superessive | B-n | B-ken |
adessive | B-nél | B-knél |
illative | B-be | B-kbe |
sublative | B-re | B-kre |
allative | B-hez | B-khez |
elative | B-ből | B-kből |
delative | B-ről | B-kről |
ablative | B-től | B-ktől |
non-attributive possessive - singular |
B-é | B-ké |
non-attributive possessive - plural |
B-éi | B-kéi |
Possessive forms of B | ||
---|---|---|
possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
1st person sing. | B-m | B-im |
2nd person sing. | B-d | B-id |
3rd person sing. | B-je | B-i |
1st person plural | B-nk | B-ink |
2nd person plural | B-tek | B-itek |
3rd person plural | B-jük | B-ik |
Derived terms
- B-dúr
- b-moll
See also
Further reading
- (the letter and symbol): (1): b in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
- (in music): (2): b in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
- b in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)
Ido
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /b/
Indonesian
Pronunciation
- (letter name): IPA(key): /be/
- (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Italian
Pronunciation
- (letter name) IPA(key): **/ˈbi/*
- Rhymes: -i
- (phonemic realization) IPA(key): /b/
Letter
B f or m (invariable, upper case, lower case b)
Kalo Finnish Romani
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /b/
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
See also
References
- Kimmo Granqvist (2011) “Aakkoset [Alphabet]”, in Lyhyt Suomen romanikielen kielioppi [Consice grammar of Finnish Romani] (in Finnish), Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten keskus, →ISBN, →ISSN, retrieved February 6, 2022, pages 1-2
Kashubian
Etymology
The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Kashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, and B for development of the glyph itself.
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Latvian
Etymology
Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [b]
Audio (file)
Malay
Pronunciation
- (Name of letter) IPA(key): [bi]
- (Phoneme, Syllable initial) IPA(key): [b]
- (Phoneme, Syllable final) IPA(key): [p̚]
Maltese
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Norwegian Bokmål
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Latin B, from Etruscan 𐌁 (b, be), from Ancient Greek Β (B, beta), from the Phoenician 𐤁 (b, bet), from Proto-Canaanite , from Proto-Sinaitic , from Egyptian 𓉐, representing the plan of a house.
Pronunciation
Letter
B (lower case b)
See also
Noun
B m (definite singular B-en, indefinite plural B-er, definite plural B-ene)
- the letter B, the second letter of the Norwegian alphabet
- 1873, Henrik Ibsen, Kærlighedens komedie, page 14:
- [ordet «neste»] skulde ud af verden uden nåde, som b og g af Knudsens grammatik
- [the word «next»] was to come out of the world without grace, as b and g of Knudsen's grammar
- Denoting the second, or number two, on a scale, order or degree.
- B-post, B-lag, blodtype B, energiklasse B ― B-post, B-team, blood type B, energy class B
- øl i klasse B ― beer with 0.7–2.75 volume percent alcohol
- førerkort klasse B ― driving license class B
- plan B ― plan B
- 2003, Espen Søbye, Kathe, alltid vært i Norge:
- øverst i oppgang b lå den nye presteboligen med åtte rom, hall, entré og kjøkken
- at the top of entrance b was the new parsonage with eight rooms, hall, entrance and kitchen
- the second highest grade in a school or university using the A-F scale
- få B til eksamen
- receive an B on an exam
- 2019, Helene Uri, Stillheten etterpå, page 14:
- jeg har gode karakterer. Bare A-er og B-er
- I have good grades. Only A's and B's
- (music) the tone h lowered by half a step
- stemt i B ― tuned so that a C on the instrument sounds like B in the normal scale
- 1944, Børre Qvamme, Musikk, pages 35–36:
- enhver tone er mangetydig, fiss er også gess, diss er ess, b er aiss og så videre
- every tone is ambiguous, fiss is also gess, diss is ace, b is aiss and so on
- 2000, Bjørnar Pedersen og Egil Birkeland, Hillman Hunter:
- skotske sekkepiper stemmes i B
- Scottish bagpipes are tuned in B
- (music) a B-flat (sign indicating that the following note is to be lowered by half a step)
- 1974, Jens Bjørneboe, Haiene, page 98:
- ingen vil påstå at notebladet med nøkler, kryss og b’er er selve musikken
- no one will claim that the sheet music with keys, crosses and bs is the music itself
- Abbreviation of bass (“bass”).
- (physics) symbol for bel (“bel”)
- (chemistry) symbol for bor (“boron”)
References
- “B” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
- “B” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
- “B (bokstav)” in Store norske leksikon
- “B (notasjon)” in Store norske leksikon
- “B (tone)” in Store norske leksikon
- “B (atomsymbol)” in Store norske leksikon
Anagrams
Polish
Etymology
The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the history of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, and B for development of the glyph itself.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /b/, or IPA(key): /p/ if devoiced
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Portuguese
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Romani
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /b/
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
See also
- (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, X x, I i, J j, K k, Kh kh, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Ph ph, R r, S s, T t, Th th, U u, V v, Z z International Standard: (À à, Ä ä, Ǎ ǎ), Ć ć, Ćh ćh, (È è, Ë ë, Ě ě), (Ì ì, Ï ï, Ǐ ǐ), (Ò ò, Ö ö, Ǒ ǒ), Rr rr, Ś ś, (Ù ù, Ü ü, Ǔ ǔ), Ź ź, Ʒ ʒ, Q q, Ç ç, ϴ θ. Pan-Vlax: Č č, Čh čh, Dž dž, (Dź dź), Ř ř, Š š, (Ś ś), Ž ž, (Ź ź).
Saanich
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pʼ/
Silesian
Etymology
The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Silesian language article on Wikipedia for more, and B for development of the glyph itself.
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Skolt Sami
Pronunciation
- (phoneme) IPA(key): /b/
Slovene
Etymology
From Gaj's Latin alphabet B, from Czech alphabet B, from the Etruscan letter 𐌁 (b, be), from the Ancient Greek letter Β (B, beta), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤁 (b, bet), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓉐. Pronunciation as /bə/ is initial Slovene (phoneme plus a fill vowel) and the second pronunciation is probably taken from German B.
Pronunciation
- (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/, [p], [b̪]
- (letter name): IPA(key): /bə́/, /bèː/, /béː/
Audio (letter name, non-tonal) (file) - Rhymes: -ə, -eː
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Inflection
- Overall more common
Masculine inan., soft o-stem | |||
---|---|---|---|
nom. sing. | B | ||
gen. sing. | B-ja | ||
singular | dual | plural | |
nominative (imenovȃlnik) |
B | B-ja | B-ji |
genitive (rodȋlnik) |
B-ja | B-jev | B-jev |
dative (dajȃlnik) |
B-ju | B-jema | B-jem |
accusative (tožȋlnik) |
B | B-ja | B-je |
locative (mẹ̑stnik) |
B-ju | B-jih | B-jih |
instrumental (orọ̑dnik) |
B-jem | B-jema | B-ji |
- More common when with a definite adjective
Masculine inan., no endings | |||
---|---|---|---|
nom. sing. | B | ||
gen. sing. | B | ||
singular | dual | plural | |
nominative | B | B | B |
accusative | B | B | B |
genitive | B | B | B |
dative | B | B | B |
locative | B | B | B |
instrumental | B | B | B |
Derived terms
- od A do B
See also
Further reading
- “B”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
Somali
Letter
B upper case (lower case b)
Swedish
Etymology
Likely from B movies in (sense 2).
Symbol
B
Adjective
B
- indication of being of lesser rank, less successful
- Antonym: A
- (colloquial) low-quality, shoddy, bad
- Dialogen i filmen är rätt B
- The dialogue in the movie is pretty janky
Derived terms
- B-aktie (“class B share”)
- B-lag (“second raters”)
Tagalog
Pronunciation
- (Standard Tagalog)
- IPA(key): /ˈbi/ [ˈbi] (letter name, Filipino alphabet)
- Rhymes: -i
- IPA(key): /ˈbe/ [ˈbɛ] (letter name, Abecedario)
- Rhymes: -e
- IPA(key): /ˈba/ [ˈba] (letter name, Abakada alphabet)
- Rhymes: -a
- IPA(key): /b/ [b] (phoneme)
- IPA(key): /ˈbi/ [ˈbi] (letter name, Filipino alphabet)
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b, Baybayin spelling ᜊᜒ)
- The second letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Filipino alphabet), called bi and written in the Latin script.
- (historical) The second letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Abecedario), called be and written in the Latin script.
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b, Baybayin spelling ᜊ)
- The second letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Abakada alphabet), called ba and written in the Latin script.
See also
Further reading
- “B”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
Turkish
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Vietnamese
Pronunciation
- (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɓe˧˧]
- (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɓej˧˧]
- (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɓej˧˧]
- Phonetic: bêThe template Template:vi-IPA does not use the parameter(s):
2=bê bò 3=bờ
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.
Letter
B (lower case b)
See also
- (Quốc ngữ letters) chữ cái; A a (À à, Ả ả, Ã ã, Á á, Ạ ạ), Ă ă (Ằ ằ, Ẳ ẳ, Ẵ ẵ, Ắ ắ, Ặ ặ), Â â (Ầ ầ, Ẩ ẩ, Ẫ ẫ, Ấ ấ, Ậ ậ), B b, C c (Ch ch), D d, Đ đ, E e (È è, Ẻ ẻ, Ẽ ẽ, É é, Ẹ ẹ), Ê ê (Ề ề, Ể ể, Ễ ễ, Ế ế, Ệ ệ), G g (Gh gh, Gi gi), H h, I i (Ì ì, Ỉ ỉ, Ĩ ĩ, Í í, Ị ị), K k (Kh kh), L l, M m, N n (Ng ng, Ngh ngh, Nh nh), O o (Ò ò, Ỏ ỏ, Õ õ, Ó ó, Ọ ọ), Ô ô (Ồ ồ, Ổ ổ, Ỗ ỗ, Ố ố, Ộ ộ), Ơ ơ (Ờ ờ, Ở ở, Ỡ ỡ, Ớ ớ, Ợ ợ), P p (Ph ph), Q q (Qu qu), R r, S s, T t (Th th, Tr tr), U u (Ù ù, Ủ ủ, Ũ ũ, Ú ú, Ụ ụ), Ư ư (Ừ ừ, Ử ử, Ữ ữ, Ứ ứ, Ự ự), V v, X x, Y y (Ỳ ỳ, Ỷ ỷ, Ỹ ỹ, Ý ý, Ỵ ỵ)
Welsh
Pronunciation
- (standard) IPA(key): /biː/
- (informal) IPA(key): /bə/
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
Mutation
- B at the beginning of words mutates to F in a soft mutation, to M in a nasal mutation and is unchanged by aspirate mutation, for example with the word Bangor (“Bangor”):
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
Bangor | Fangor | Mangor | unchanged |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
See also
- (Latin-script letters) llythyren; A a (Á á, À à, Â â, Ä ä), B b, C c, Ch ch, D d, Dd dd, E e (É é, È è, Ê ê, Ë ë), F f, Ff ff, G g, Ng ng, H h, I i (Í í, Ì ì, Î î, Ï ï), J j, L l, Ll ll, M m, N n, O o (Ó ó, Ò ò, Ô ô, Ö ö), P p, Ph ph, R r, Rh rh, S s, T t, Th th, U u (Ú ú, Ù ù, Û û, Ü ü), W w (Ẃ ẃ, Ẁ ẁ, Ŵ ŵ, Ẅ ẅ), Y y (Ý ý, Ỳ ỳ, Ŷ ŷ, Ÿ ÿ)
Further reading
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “B”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
Yoruba
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
See also
- (Latin-script letters) lẹ́tà; A a (Á á, À à, Ā ā), B b, D d, E e (É é, È è, Ē ē), Ẹ ẹ (Ẹ́ ẹ́, Ẹ̀ ẹ̀, Ẹ̄ ẹ̄), F f, G g, Gb gb, H h, I i (Í í, Ì ì, Ī ī), J j, K k, L l, M m (Ḿ ḿ, M̀ m̀, M̄ m̄), N n (Ń ń, Ǹ ǹ, N̄ n̄), O o (Ó ó, Ò ò, Ō ō), Ọ ọ (Ọ́ ọ́, Ọ̀ ọ̀, Ọ̄ ọ̄), P p, R r, S s, Ṣ ṣ, T t, U u (Ú ú, Ù ù, Ū ū), W w, Y y
- (Benin) (Latin-script letters) lɛ́tà; A a, B b, D d, E e, Ɛ ɛ, F f, G g, Gb gb, H h, I i, J j, K k, Kp kp, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ɔ ɔ, P p, R r, S s, Sh sh, T t, U u, W w, Y y
Zulu
Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)