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 ''diacrit ...

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 n ...

'' ( · ), 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 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 ...

, ''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 pa ...

, 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 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 The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , (formerly ...

, ''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 Englis ...

: ''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 Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

: In modernized orthography, ''ċ'' is used for a

, ''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 The voiced palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is (crossed-tail j), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j\. It is t ...

in the earliest texts), and (more rarely) ''sċ'' for a

voiceless palato-alveolar fricative A voiceless postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses the term ''voiceless postalveolar fricative'' only for the sound , but it also describes the voiceless ...

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: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...

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 s ...

orthography for the

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...

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 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 ...

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 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" ...

over the vowel (ᓄ = no, ᓅ = nô). * In Turkish, 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 The Rheinische Dokumenta () is a phonetic writing system developed in the early 1980s by a working group of academics, linguists, local language experts, and local language speakers of the Rhineland. It was presented to the public in 1986 by the ...

phonetic writing system overdots denote a special pronunciation of ''r''. * The

Ulithian Ulithian is the language spoken on Ulithi Atoll and neighboring islands. Ulithian is one of the six official languages of the Federated States of Micronesia. There are some 3,000 speakers, although only 700 of these live on Ulithi Atoll. In 2010 ...

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 Internatio ...

(1968) Romanization of Cyrillic uses ''ė'', ''ḟ'', and ''ẏ''. * In the

ISO 259 ISO 259 is a series of international standards for the romanization of Hebrew characters into Latin characters, dating to 1984, with updated ISO 259-2 (a simplification, disregarding several vowel signs, 1994) and ISO 259-3 ( Phonemic Conversion, ...

Romanization of Hebrew The Hebrew language uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel diacritics. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words. For example, the Hebrew name spelled ("Israel") in the Hebrew alphabet ca ...

, 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 modi ...

: ; transcribes the shuruk. * In

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 ...

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 translitera ...

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 know ...

, ''ṅ'' is used to represent . *

UNGEGN The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) is one of the nine expert groups of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and deals with the national and international standardization of geographical names. E ...

romanization of

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' * 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 l ...

, ''ṅ'' is used to represent . * Some countries use the overdot as a

decimal mark A decimal separator is a symbol used to separate the integer part from the fractional part of a number written in decimal form (e.g., "." in 12.45). Different countries officially designate different symbols for use as the separator. The choi ...

. The overdot is also used in the

Devanagari script 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 ...

, where it is called

anusvara 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 context ...

. In

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern 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 ...

, when using Newton's notation the dot denotes the

time derivative A time derivative is a derivative of a function with respect to time, usually interpreted as the rate of change of the value of the function. The variable denoting time is usually written as t. Notation A variety of notations are used to denote th ...

as in

v=\dot

. In addition, the overdot is one way used to indicate an infinitely repeating set of numbers in decimal notation, as in

0.\dot

, which is equal to the fraction , and

0.\dot\dot\dot\dot\dot\dot

0.\dot4285\dot

, 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 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 ...

or left unmarked. ** In Rotuman, "ạ" represents /ɔ/. ** In Romagnol, ''ẹ ọ'' are used to represent , 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 period ...

. ** 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 ...

, 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

(ę ǫ). ** Academic transcription of

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, ''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

and

, transcribing

, 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 h ...

s ''ṭ, ḍ, ṛ, ḷ, ṇ, ṣ'', while ''m'' with underdot (''ṃ'') signifies an ''

'' and ''h'' with underdot (''ḥ'') signifies a ''

visarga Visarga ( sa, विसर्गः, translit=visargaḥ) means "sending forth, discharge". In Sanskrit phonology ('' ''), ' (also called, equivalently, ' by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone voiceless glottal fricative, , written as ...

''. Very frequently (in modern transliterations of Sanskrit) an underdot is used instead of the

ring (diacritic) 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 le ...

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 ...

and

Berber Languages The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...

, an underdot indicates an

emphatic consonant In Semitic linguistics, an emphatic consonant is an obstruent consonant which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents. In specific Semitic languages, the members of this series may be realized as uvularized ...

. The romanization of Arabic uses . * In the DIN 31636 and ALA-LC

, ''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'' (underdotted double ''ll'') represents the

voiced retroflex plosive The voiced retroflex plosive or stop 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 d`. Like all the retroflex ...

or the

voiceless retroflex affricate The voiceless retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , sometimes simplified to or , and the equivalent X-SAMPA ...

, depending on dialect, and ''ḥ'' (underdotted ''h'') the

voiceless glottal fricative The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition, and sometimes called the aspirate, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that patterns like a fricative or approximant consonant '' phonologically'', bu ...

. *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, united by a common heri ...

, '' Ḍ'' (''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 (le ...

. * 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 constitute ...

, an underdot can be used on ''e'' and ''o'' to make ''ẹ'' and ''ọ'', symbolizing a reduction in the

, 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 n ...

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 ...

, ''x'' with underdot '' x̣'' represents a

voiceless uvular fricative The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , the Greek chi. The sound is represented by (ex with underdot) in Am ...

. * Underdots are used in the

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 the letters ḃ, ḋ and ṫ are some times written as ḅ, ḍ and ṭ. * UNGEGN romanization of

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' * 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

, where it is called nukta.

Raised dot

* Number digits in

Enclosed Alphanumerics Enclosed Alphanumerics is a Unicode block of typographical symbols of an alphanumeric within a circle, a bracket or other not-closed enclosure, or ending in a full stop. It is currently fully allocated. Within the Basic Multilingual Plan ...

: ' * In

, 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 Naskapi (also known as ᐃᔪᐤ ᐃᔨᒧᐅᓐ/Iyuw Iyimuun in the Naskapi language) is an Algonquian language spoken by the Naskapi in Quebec and Labrador, Canada. It is written in Eastern Cree syllabics. The term Naskapi is chiefly used ...

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 The Swampy Cree people, also known by their autonyms ''Néhinaw'', ''Maskiki Wi Iniwak'', ''Mushkekowuk,'' ''Maškékowak'' or ''Maskekon'' (and therefore also ''Muskegon'' and ''Muskegoes'') or by exonyms including ''West Main Cree,'' ''Lowlan ...

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: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
{{Latin script, , dot Latin-script diacritics Diakrytyka Vietnamese alphabets