When used as a
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the ''
interpunct
An interpunct , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script. (Word-separating spaces did no ...
'' ( · ), or to the
glyph
A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...
s "combining dot above" ( ◌̇ ) and "combining dot below" ( ◌̣ )
which may be combined with some
letters of the extended
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
s in use in Central European languages and
Vietnamese.
Dots
Overdot
Language scripts or transcription schemes that use the dot above a letter as a diacritical mark:
* In some forms of
Arabic romanization, stands for ''
ghayin'' (غ); stands for
qāf (ق).
* The Latin orthography for
Chechen includes ċ, ç̇, ġ, q̇, and ẋ.
* In
Emilian-Romagnol, ''ṅ ṡ ż'' are used to represent .
*
Traditional Irish typography, where the dot denotes
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a ...
, and is called a or "dot of lenition": ''ḃ ċ ḋ ḟ ġ ṁ ṗ ṡ ṫ''. Alternatively, lenition may be represented by a following letter ''h'', thus: ''bh ch dh fh gh mh ph sh th''. In
Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writte ...
orthography, the dot was used only for ''ḟ ṡ'', while the following ''h'' was used for ''ch ph th''; lenition of other letters was not indicated. Later the two systems spread to the entire set of lenitable consonants and competed with each other. Eventually the standard practice was to use the dot when writing in
Gaelic script
Gaelic script may refer to:
* Insular script used in Ireland
* Gaelic type, based on Insular script
{{dab ...
and the following ''h'' when writing in
antiqua. Thus ''ċ'' and ''ch'' represent the same phonetic element in Modern Irish.
* lt, ė is pronounced as , as opposed to ''ę'', which is pronounced a lower (formerly
nasalised), or ''e'', pronounced .
*
Livonian uses ȯ as one of its eight vowels.
* mt, ċ is used for a
voiceless palato-alveolar affricate, ''ġ'' for a
voiced palato-alveolar affricate, and ''ż'' for a
voiced alveolar sibilant.
*
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
: ''ẏ'' was sometimes used to distinguish etymological ''y'' from the glyph's use as a replacement for ''
þ'', which did not exist in early press typographies.
*
Old English: In modernized orthography, ''ċ'' is used for a
voiceless palato-alveolar affricate , ''ġ'' for a
palatal approximant
The voiced palatal approximant, or yod, is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic n ...
(probably a
voiced palatal fricative in the earliest texts), and (more rarely) ''sċ'' for a
voiceless palato-alveolar fricative and ''cġ'' for a
voiced palato-alveolar affricate .
* pl, ż is used for a
voiced retroflex sibilant
The voiced retroflex sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`. Like all the retro ...
.
* The
Sioux
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
languages such as
Lakota,
Osage, and
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term " raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
sometimes use the dot above to indicate
ejective stops.
* In the
Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used in a number of Indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. These languages had no formal writing ...
orthography for the
Cree,
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
, and
Inuktitut languages, a dot above a symbol signifies that the symbol's vowel should be a long vowel—the equivalent effect using the Roman orthography is achieved by doubling the vowel (ᒥ = mi, ᒦ = mii ), placing a
macron
Macron may refer to:
People
* Emmanuel Macron (born 1977), president of France since 2017
** Brigitte Macron (born 1953), French teacher, wife of Emmanuel Macron
* Jean-Michel Macron (born 1950), French professor of neurology, father of Emmanu ...
over the vowel (ᑲ = ka, ᑳ = kā), or placing a
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
over the vowel (ᓄ = no, ᓅ = nô).
* In
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
, the dot above lowercase ''
i'' and ''
j'' (and uppercase ''
İ'') is not regarded as an independent diacritic but as an integral part of the letter. It is called a
tittle.
I without an overdot is a separate letter.
* In the
Rheinische Dokumenta phonetic writing system overdots denote a special pronunciation of ''r''.
* The
Ulithian alphabet includes ȧ, ė, and ȯ.
* The
ISO 9
ISO 9 is an international standard establishing a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of many Slavic and non-Slavic languages.
Published on February 23, 1995 by the Internati ...
(1968)
Romanization of Cyrillic uses ''ė'', ''ḟ'', and ''ẏ''.
* In the
ISO 259 Romanization of Hebrew, the overdot is used to transcribe the
dagesh
The dagesh () is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of m ...
: ; transcribes the shuruk.
* In
IAST and
National Library at Calcutta romanization
The National Library at Kolkata romanisationSee p 24-26 for table comparing Indic languages,
and p 33-34 for Devanagari alphabet listing. is a widely used transliteration scheme in dictionaries and grammars of Indic languages. This transliterat ...
transcribing
languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...
, ''ṅ'' is used to represent .
*
UNGEGN romanization of
includes ṙ.
* In the
Venda language
Venda or Tshivenda is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa. The Venda ...
, ''ṅ'' is used to represent .
* Some countries use the overdot as a
decimal mark.
The overdot is also used in the
Devanagari script, where it is called
anusvara.
In
mathematics and
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
, when using
Newton's notation the dot denotes the
time derivative as in
. In addition, the overdot is one way used to indicate an
infinitely repeating set of numbers in decimal notation, as in
, which is equal to the fraction , and
or
, which is equal to
.
Underdot
* In a number of languages, an underdot indicates a
raised or
relatively high vowel, often the counterpart of a lower vowel marked with an
ogonek or left unmarked.
** In
Rotuman, "ạ" represents /ɔ/.
** In
Romagnol
Romagnol ( or ; it, romagnolo) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in the historical region of Romagna, consisting mainly of the southeastern part of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The name is derived from the Lombard language, Lombard name ...
, ''ẹ ọ'' are used to represent
, o
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...
e.g. part of Riminese dialect ''fradẹll, ọcc'' "brothers, eyes".
** In academic notation of
Old Latin
Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin (Classical la, prīsca Latīnitās, lit=ancient Latinity), was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic ...
, ''ẹ̄'' (''e'' with underdot and macron) represents the long vowel, probably , that developed from the early Old Latin diphthong ''ei''. This vowel usually became ''ī'' in
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later pe ...
.
** In academic transcription of
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
, used in describing the development of the
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language f ...
, ẹ and ọ represent the close-mid vowels and , in contrast with the open-mid vowels and , which are represented as ''e'' and ''o'' with
ogonek (ę ǫ).
** Academic transcription of
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
uses the same conventions as Vulgar Latin above.
** In academic transcription of
Serbo-Croatian dialects, ''ẹ ọ ạ'' (typically ) represent higher vowels than standard ''e o a'', and the first two often contrast with lower vowels marked with a
comma below
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...
, ''e̦ o̦'' (typically ).
* In
Inari Sami, an underdot denotes a half-long voiced consonant: ''đ̣, j̣, ḷ, ṃ, ṇ, ṇj, ŋ̣, ṛ'', and ''ṿ''. The underdot is used in dictionaries, textbooks, and linguistic publications only.
* In
IAST and
National Library at Calcutta romanization
The National Library at Kolkata romanisationSee p 24-26 for table comparing Indic languages,
and p 33-34 for Devanagari alphabet listing. is a widely used transliteration scheme in dictionaries and grammars of Indic languages. This transliterat ...
, transcribing
languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...
, a dot below a letter distinguishes the
retroflex consonant
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ...
s ''ṭ, ḍ, ṛ, ḷ, ṇ, ṣ'', while ''m'' with underdot (''ṃ'') signifies an ''
anusvara'' and ''h'' with underdot (''ḥ'') signifies a ''
visarga''. Very frequently (in modern transliterations of Sanskrit) an underdot is used instead of the
ring (diacritic) below the vocalic ''r'' and ''l''.
* In romanizations of some
Afroasiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic ...
, particularly
Semitic Languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant a ...
and
Berber Languages, an underdot indicates an
emphatic consonant. The romanization of Arabic uses .
* In the
DIN 31636 and
ALA-LC
ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
Applications
The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...
Romanization of Hebrew, ''ṿ'' represents vav (
ו), while ''v'' without the underdot represents beth (
ב). ''ḳ'' represents qoph (
ק)
* The underdot is also used in the PDA orthography for Domari to show pharyngealization—the underdotted consonants represent the emphaticized sounds .
*In
Asturian, ''
ḷ
Ḷ (minuscule: ḷ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from L with a diacritical dot below. It is or was used in some languages to represent various sounds.
*In Asturian, a digraph (Ḷḷ, lower case: ḷḷ) is used to represent som ...
ḷ
Ḷ (minuscule: ḷ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from L with a diacritical dot below. It is or was used in some languages to represent various sounds.
*In Asturian, a digraph (Ḷḷ, lower case: ḷḷ) is used to represent som ...
'' (underdotted double ''ll'') represents the
voiced retroflex plosive or the
voiceless retroflex affricate, depending on dialect, and ''ḥ'' (underdotted ''h'') the
voiceless glottal fricative.
*In
O'odham language
The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora
Sonora (), officially ...
, ''
Ḍ
Ḍ (minuscule: ḍ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, formed from D with the addition of a dot diacritic.
In the transcription of Afro-Asiatic languages such as Arabic, ⟨ḍ⟩ represents an " emphatic" consonant , and is used for that purp ...
'' (''d'' with underdot) represents a
voiced retroflex stop.
*
Vietnamese: The ''nặng''
tone (low, glottal) is represented with a dot below the base vowel: ''ạ ặ ậ ẹ ệ ị ọ ộ ợ ụ ự ỵ''.
* In
Igbo, an underdot can be used on ''i'', ''o'', and ''u'' to make ''ị'', ''ọ'', and ''ụ''. The underdot symbolizes a reduction in the
vowel height
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...
.
* In
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba consti ...
, an underdot can be used on ''e'' and ''o'' to make ''ẹ'' and ''ọ'', symbolizing a reduction in the
vowel height
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...
, as well as on ''s'' to make ''ṣ'', symbolizing a
postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
articulation.
* In
Americanist phonetic notation
Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA), the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet or the American Phonetic Alphabet (APA), is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American an ...
, ''x'' with underdot ''
x̣
X̣ (minuscule: x̣) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, taken from an X with a dot below the letter. It is hard to render in computers because it is not used in the most common languages. It is used in the Livonian language
The Livonian langua ...
'' represents a
voiceless uvular fricative.
* Underdots are used in the
Rheinische Dokumenta phonetic writing system to denote a voiced ''s'' and special pronunciations of ''r'' and ''a''.
* In the Fiero-Rhodes orthography for
Eastern Ojibwe and
Odaawaa, in ''g̣'', ''ḥ'', and ''ḳ'', underdot is used to indicate
labialization
Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involv ...
when either or following them was lost in
syncope.
* The
Sicilian nexus ''ḍḍ'' is used to represent .
* In
Kalabari, ''ḅ'' and ''ḍ'' are used.
* In
Marshallese, underdots on consonants represent velarization, such as the velarized bilabial nasal ''ṃ''.
* In
Old Irish typography
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
* Old, Baranya, Hungary
* Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...
the letters ḃ, ḋ and ṫ are some times written as ḅ, ḍ and ṭ.
* UNGEGN romanization of
includes ḍ, g̣, ḳ, ṭ, ẉ, and ỵ.
* In
Mizo Mizo may refer to:
*Mizo people, an ethnic group native to north-eastern India, western Myanmar (Burma) and eastern Bangladesh
*Mizo language, a language spoken by the Mizo people
*Mizoram, a state in Northeast India
*Lusei people, an ethnic group ...
, ''ṭ'' represents .
* The underdot is also used in the
Devanagari script, where it is called
nukta.
Raised dot
* Number digits in
Enclosed Alphanumerics: '
* In
Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used in a number of Indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. These languages had no formal writing ...
, in addition to the middle dot as a letter, centred dot diacritic, and dot above diacritic, there also is a two-dot diacritic in the
Naskapi language representing /_w_V/ which depending on the placement on the specific Syllabic letter may resemble a colon when placed vertically,
diaeresis when placed horizontally, or a combination of middle dot and dot above diacritic when placed either at an angle or enveloping a small raised letter . Additionally, in
Northwestern Ojibwe, a small raised /wi/ as /w/, the middle dot is raised farther up as either or ; there also is a raised dot Final , which represents /w/ in some
Swampy Cree and /y/ in some Northwestern Ojibwe.
Letters with dot
Encoding
In Unicode, the dot is encoded at:
*
and at:
*
*
*
There is also:
*
*
Pre-composed characters:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*
Anunaasika
Anusvara ( Sanskrit: ') is a symbol used in many Indic scripts to mark a type of nasal sound, typically transliterated . Depending on its location in the word and the language for which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary. In the contex ...
*
Chandrabindu
Chandrabindu (IAST: , in Sanskrit) is a diacritic sign with the form of a dot inside the lower half of a circle. It is used in the Devanagari (ँ), Bengali-Assamese (), Gujarati (ઁ), Odia (ଁ), Telugu (ఁ), Javanese ( ꦀ) and other scr ...
*
Diaeresis (diacritic)
*
Tittle
*
Arabic alphabet
*
Hebrew diacritics
Hebrew orthography includes three types of diacritics:
* ''Niqqud'' in Hebrew is the way to indicate vowels, which are omitted in modern orthography, using a set of ancillary glyphs. Since the vowels can be understood from surrounding, context ...
*
Mathematical operators and symbols in Unicode
**
Therefore sign (∴ and "because sign" ∵)
**
Ratio
In mathematics, a ratio shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...
()
**
Proportionality (mathematics) (∷)
References
External links
Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
{{Latin script, , dot
Latin-script diacritics
Diakrytyka
Vietnamese alphabets