A ring
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 ...
may appear above or below letters. It may be combined with some
letters
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
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 o ...
s in various contexts.
Rings
Distinct letter
The character
Å (å) is derived from an
A with a ring. It is a distinct
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
in the
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
,
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
,
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
,
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Walloon, and
Chamorro Chamorro may refer to:
* Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific
* Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas
* Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mar ...
alphabets. For example, the 29-letter Swedish alphabet begins with the
basic 26 Latin letters and ends with the three letters
Å,
Ä, and
Ö.
Overring
The character Ů (ů; a Latin
U with overring, or
kroužek
A ring diacritic may appear above or below letters. It may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in various contexts.
Rings
Distinct letter
The character Å (å) is derived from an A with a ring. It is a distinct let ...
in
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
) is a
grapheme
In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system.
The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics' ...
in
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
preserved for historic reasons, which identifies a
vowel shift
A vowel shift is a systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language.
The best-known example in the English language is the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the 15th century. The Greek language also underwent a vowe ...
. For example, the word for "horse" used to be written ''kóň'', which evolved, along with pronunciation, into ''kuoň''. Ultimately, the vowel disappeared completely, and the ''uo'' evolved into ''ů'', modern form ''kůň''. The letter ''ů'' now has the same pronunciation as the letter ''
ú'' (long ), but changes to a short ''o'' when a word is morphed (e.g. nom. ''
kůň'' → gen. ''koně'', nom. ''dům'' → gen. ''domu''), thus showing the historical evolution of the language. ''Ů'' cannot occur in initial position, while ''ú'' occurs almost exclusively in initial position or at the beginning of a word
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
in a compound. These characters are used also in
Steuer's Silesian alphabet. The pronunciation has prevailed in some
Moravian dialects, as well as in
Slovak, which uses the letter
ô instead of ů.
The ring is used in some dialects of
Emilian-Romagnol
Emilian-Romagnol is a linguistic continuum part of the Gallo-Romance languages spoken in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. It is divided into two main varieties: Emilian and Romagnol.
While first registered under a single code in ...
to distinguish the sound (å) from (a).
ů was used in Old
Lithuanian in
Lithuania Minor
Lithuania Minor ( lt, Mažoji Lietuva; german: Kleinlitauen; pl, Litwa Mniejsza; russian: Ма́лая Литва́), or Prussian Lithuania ( lt, Prūsų Lietuva; german: Preußisch-Litauen, pl, Litwa Pruska), is a historical ethnographic re ...
from the 16th till the beginning of the 20th century and for a shorter time in 16th-century
Lithuania Major for diphthong .
The ring was used in the Lithuanian
Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
alphabet promoted by Russian authorities in the last quarter of the 19th century with the letter У̊ / у̊ used to represent the diphthong (now written ''uo'' in Lithuanian orthography).
ẘ and ẙ are used in the
ISO 233
The international standard ISO 233 establishes a system for romanization of Arabic and Syriac. It was supplemented by ISO 233-2 in 1993.
1984 edition
The table below shows the consonants for the Arabic language.
ISO 233-2:1993
ISO 233-2: ...
romanization of the
Arabic alphabet. A fatḥah followed by the letter ⟨ﻭ⟩ (wāw) with a sukūn (ـَوْ) is romanized as aẘ. A fatḥah followed by the letter ⟨ﻱ⟩ (yā’) with a sukūn over it (ـَيْ) is romanized as aẙ.
Ring upon e (e̊) is used by certain
dialectologist Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their assoc ...
s of
Walloon (especially
Jean-Jacques Gaziaux) to note the vowel typically replacing and in the
Brabant province central Walloon dialects. The difficulty of type-writing it has led some writers to prefer ''ë'' for the same sound.
Many more characters can be created in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
using the
combining character
In digital typography, combining characters are characters that are intended to modify other characters. The most common combining characters in the Latin script are the combining diacritical marks (including combining accents).
Unicode also ...
, including the above-mentioned у̊ (Cyrillic у with overring) or ń̊ (n with acute and overring).
The standalone (spacing) symbol is .
The unrelated, but nearly identical degree symbol is .
Although similar in appearance, it is not to be confused with the Japanese ''
handakuten
The , colloquially , is a diacritic most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced, for instance, on sounds that have undergone rendaku (sequential voicing).
The , c ...
'' (), a diacritic used with the ''kana'' for syllables starting with ''h'' to indicate that they should instead be pronounced with . In Japanese dialectology, handakuten is used with ''kana'' for syllables starting with ''k'' to indicate their consonant is , with syllables starting with ''r'' to indicate their consonant is ''l'' though this does not change the pronunciation, with ''kana'' ''u'' to indicate its morph into ''kana'' ''n'', and with ''kana'' ''i'' to indicate the vowel is to be said as .
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 s ...
, there are two ring characters: ᐤ (
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
and
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 ...
final ''w'', or
Sayisi ''o'') and ᣞ (Cree and Ojibwe final ''w'' or final ''y''). This second smaller ring can combine as a diacritic ring above in
Moose Cree Moose Cree (Cree: ''Mōsonī'' or ''Ililiw''), also known as Moosonee, and together with Eastern Swampy Cree, also known as Central Cree, West James Bay Cree or West Main Cree. They speak the l-dialect of the Cree language.
The Moose Cree were fi ...
and Moose-Cree influenced Ojibwe as a final ''y''; in
Inuktitut
Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...
, the ring above the /_i/ character turns it into a /_aai/ character. In Western Cree, /_w_w/ sequence is represented as ᐝ.
Unicode has:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Underring
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
encodes the underring at
The underring is used in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
to indicate
voicelessness
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, and in
Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...
or in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
transliteration (
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
) to indicate
syllabicity of r, l, m, n etc. (e.g. corresponding to IPA ). R with ring below, L with ring below, R with ring below and macron, and L with ring below and macron were actually proposed for Unicode because of their use in Sanskrit transliteration and the
CSX+ Indic character set The CSX Indic character set, or the Classical Sanskrit eXtended Indic Character Set, is used by LaTeX represent text used in the Romanization of Sanskrit. It has no association with American railroad company CSX Transportation. It is an extension ...
. However, the proposal was rejected, because they are already encoded as sequences.
In
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
romanization, ''ḁ'' is used to represent .
Examples:
*
*
Emilian-Romagnol
In
Romagnol, ''e̥'' is used to represent in diphthongs, e.g.
Santarcangelo dialect ''ame̥ig'' 'friend', ''ne̥ud'' 'naked'. In
Emilian, ''e̥'' can be used to represent unstressed in very accurate transcriptions.
Half rings
Half rings also exist as diacritic marks; these are characters and . These characters are used in the
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) or Finno-Ugric transcription system is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nesto ...
, respectively for mediopalatal pronunciation and strong-onset vowels. These characters may be used in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
, denoting less and more
roundedness
In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a ''rounded'' vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and ''unrounded'' vowels are pron ...
, as alternatives to half rings below and . They are here given with the lowercase a: a͑ and a͗, a̜ and a̹.
is similar in appearance but differs from a͗ because its
compatibility decomposition
Unicode equivalence is the specification by the Unicode character (computing), character encoding standard that some sequences of code points represent essentially the same character. This feature was introduced in the standard to allow compatibil ...
uses instead of .
Other, similar signs are in use in
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
: the and the .
Breve
A breve (, less often , neuter form of the Latin "short, brief") is the diacritic mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. As used in Ancient Greek, it is also called , . It resembles the caron (the wedge or in Czech, in Slo ...
and
inverted breve
Inverted breve or arch is a diacritical mark, shaped like the top half of a circle ( ̑ ), that is, like an upside-down breve (˘). It looks similar to the circumflex (ˆ), which has a sharp tip (''Â â Ê ê Î î Ô ô Û û''), whil ...
are also shaped like half rings, respectively, the bottom and top half of a circle.
Other uses
The ring is used in the transliteration of the
Abkhaz to represent the letter ҩ. It may also be used in place of the abbreviation symbol ''॰'' when transliterating the
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
alphabet.
Letters with ring
Similar marks
The ring as a diacritic mark should not be confused with the
dot or diacritic marks, or with the degree sign °.
The half ring as a diacritic mark should not be confused with the
comma
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 ...
or
ogonek
The (; Polish: , "little tail", diminutive of ) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European languages, and directly under a vowel in several Native American languages. It i ...
diacritic marks.
References
External links
Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ring (Diacritic)
Latin-script diacritics