About a month ago, I noticed a strange issue anywhere a repeating letter a appears on my Android phone: repeating letters are either truncated or replaced with a single letter that has a macron (bar/ line) above it. I have noticed this issue in nearly every application on the phone. Note that my phone should be configured for only US English and not any other languages. How can I get rid of this?

The phone is a Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII running stock Android 4.3

Here are some examples: NOAA to NOĀ, Firefox Klaas to Klās, Google Play Music Paas and Iaas to Pās and Iās, Google+