Translingual

Symbol

M

1. mega-
2. (astronomy): Messier number. Objects in Charles Messier's catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters in 1774 are numbered, and the letter M (for Messier) is prepended to these numbers, as in M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) or M13 (the globular cluster in Hercules).
3. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for methionine

Letter

M (uppercase, lowercase m)

1. The thirteenth letter of the English alphabet, preceded by L and followed by N.

M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /ɛm/) is spelled em.

History

The letter M derives its shape from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water. It is known that Semitic people working in Egypt c. 2000 BC borrowed a hieroglyph for "water" that was first used for an alveolar nasal (/n/, because of the Egyptian word for water, "n-t". This same symbol became used for M in Semitic, because their word for water began with that sound.

The letter M represents the bilabial nasal consonant sound, IPA: [m], in Classical languages as well as the modern languages. The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that 'm' is sometimes a vowel in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this would be described as a syllabic consonant — IPA [m̩].

M is a 1931 film about how when the Berlin police are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang.

Contents

• 1 Schränker
• 2 Dialogue
• 3 Other
• 4 Cast
• 5 External links

Schränker

• We're doing our job because we have a living to make. But this monster has no right to live. He must disappear. He must be exterminated, without pity… without scruples.

• [to Murderer] You talk of rights… You will get your rights. We are all law experts here, from six weeks in Tegel, to fifteen years in Brandenburg.