Thus, (genitive of ) retains the , e.g., ('government's ordinance'). Lithuanian In modern Lithuanian, it is no longer nasal and is now pronounced as a long a. It is the second letter of the Lithuanian alphabet called (nasal a). The letter is most often found at the end of the noun to construct an ending of accusative case, as in , the accusative of (ground, floor); both a and ą in are pronounced (a long a). Thus, ą is used to distinguish between the transcription of accusative and the nominative cases of the noun . It is also used when converting present tense verbs into participles, e.g., ( (somebody who is seeing () right now). Nasal an/am forms are now pronounced , as in (list) and (turnover, return). In some cases, ą, ę and į (but never ė) may be used in different forms interchangeably, as in (extension) – (extends) – (to lie extended). Finally, some verbs have it in the middle of a word but only in the present tense, e.g., ( (is getting white), but not (has become white). The letter can also be found at the beginning of several words, e.g., (jug). The Americas In some indigenous languages of the Americas, the letter denotes a nasal a sound: Western Apache Chiricahua Creek Gwich'in Hochunk Mescalero Navajo Tutchone Assiniboine/Nakoda Elfdalian The Elfdalian alphabet contains the letters that occur in the Swedish alphabet as well as various letters with ogonek to denote nasality. Ą and ą denote a nasal a sound. Reconstructed language Scholars who have reconstructed the Proto-Germanic language (the ancestor of all modern Germanic languages, spoken c. 500 BC – AD 500) use the letter ą to denote a nasal vowel. Computing codes See also Ę Ogonek Kashubian alphabet Lithuanian alphabet Elfdalian alphabet Polish phonology Polish alphabet Yus References A-ogonek Lithuanian language Polish letters with diacritics