Hook (diacritic)

Last updated
◌̡◌̢◌˞
Hook
In Unicode
  • U+0321 ̡ COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW
  • U+0322 ̢ COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW
  • U+02DE ˞ MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK

In typesetting, the hook or tail is a diacritic mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a descender, on top as an ascender and sometimes to the side. The orientation of the hook can change its meaning: when it is below and curls to the left it can be interpreted as a palatal hook, and when it curls to the right is called hook tail or tail and can be interpreted as a retroflex hook. It should not be mistaken with the hook above, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Contents

Letter ⟨Z⟩ with tophook - became letter ⟨ Latin capital letter Z with tophook.svg ⟩.

Letter ⟨X⟩ with two high hooks - became letter ⟨ Latin capital letter X with two high hooks.svg ⟩.

Different types of hook diacritics Types of Hook diacritics.svg
Different types of hook diacritics

Letters with hook

It could be argued that the hook was used to derive the letter ⟨J⟩ from the letter ⟨I⟩, or the letter Eng ⟨ŋ⟩ from the letter ⟨N⟩. However, these letters are usually not identified as being formed with the hook.

Most letters with hook are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and many languages use them (along with capitals) representing the same sounds.

The hook often attaches to the top part of the letter, curling to the left or to the right, finishing the ascender if present. It may then be referred to as a crook, in some languages like French [1] more commonly than in English that is less successful in mitigating the semantic overload of the hook term.

If the hook attaches to the bottom part of the letter, it is often called a palatal hook if it curls to the left, or a retroflex hook if it curls to the right.

In some fonts, a retroflex hook on a vowel letter may be attached to the bottom serif. However, in IPA publications, as here, the hook is continuous with the right stroke without a serif in letters such as <> , <> , <> , <>  and <> . IPA r-colored vowel letters, 1940.png
In some fonts, a retroflex hook on a vowel letter may be attached to the bottom serif. However, in IPA publications, as here, the hook is continuous with the right stroke without a serif in letters such as , , , 𝼚 and .

The retroflex hook occurs on alveolar and post-alveolar IPA letters; it also occurs on vowel letters, which currently indicates the effect of a retroflex consonant on the vowel, but formally was an option for writing rhotic vowels.

Note that the "fishhook r", ɾ, is shaped like a fishhook. It does not have a hook diacritic despite its misleading Unicode name "R with fishhook".

Latin alphabet
Letters[Unicode] nameHook position
A with retroflex hookbottom
Script a or alpha with retroflex hookbottom
Ɓ ɓ 𐞅 B with hook [2] top
B with flourishleft
B with palatal hookbottom
Ƈ ƈ C with hooktop
C with palatal hookbottom
𝼝 C with retroflex hook [3] bottom
Ɗ ɗ 𐞌 D with hook [2] top
Ɖ ɖ 𐞋 African d or d with tail [4] bottom
Latin capital letter african D with hook.svg 𐞍 D with hook and tail [2] top and bottom
D with palatal hookbottom
𝼥 D with left hookleft
𝼙 Dezh with retroflex hookbottom
E with flourishleft
E with retroflex hookbottom
ɚ Schwa with hookright
Schwa with retroflex hookbottom
Open e or epsilon with retroflex hookbottom
ɝ Reversed open e or epsilon with hookright
Reversed open e or epsilon with retroflex hookbottom
Ƒ ƒF with hookbottom
F with palatal hookbottom
Ɠ ɠ 𐞓 G with hook [2] top
ʛ 𐞔 Small capital g with hook [2] top
G with palatal hookright
Script g with crossed-tailbottom
ɦ ʱ H with hooktop
H with palatal hookbottom right
ɧ 𐞗 Heng with hook [4] top
ʮ Turned h with fishhooktop
ʯ Turned h with fishhook and tailtop and bottom
I with retroflex hookbottom
ʝ J with crossed-tailbottom
ʄ 𐞘 Dotless j with stroke and hook [2] top
Ƙ ƙK with hooktop
K with palatal hookbottom
𝼑L with fishhook [5] right
L with palatal hookbottom
𝼦 L with left hookleft
ɭ L with retroflex hookbottom
𐞝 L with retroflex hook and belt [6] [7] bottom
ɱ M with hookbottom
M with palatal hookbottom
M with crossed-tailbottom
Ɲ ɲ N with left hookbottom left
N with palatal hookbottom right
𝼧 N with left hookleft
ɳ N with retroflex hookbottom right
N with crossed-tailbottom
Eng with crossed-tailbottom
𝼔Eng with palatal hook [5] bottom
𝼛O with retroflex hook [5] bottom
Open o with retroflex hookbottom
Ƥ ƥP with hooktop
P with palatal hookright
P with flourishleft middle
P with squirrel tailleft top
ʠ Q with hooktop
Ɋ ɋSmall q with hook tailbottom
ɽ 𐞨 R with tail [4] bottom left
R with palatal hookbottom
𝼨 R with left hookleft
ɻ ʵ Turned r with hookbottom
𝼕Turned r with palatal hook [5] bottom
Turned r with tailtop
R with crossed-tailbottom
Double r with crossed-tailbottom
S with palatal hookbottom right
𝼩 S with left hookleft
ʂ S with retroflex hookbottom left
ȿS with swash tailbottom right
Esh with palatal hookright
Esh with retroflex hookbottom
Ƭ ƭT with hooktop
ƫ ƫT with palatal hookbottom
𝼪 T with left hookleft
Ʈ ʈ 𐞯 T with retroflex hook [4] bottom
𝼜 Tesh with retroflex hookbottom
U with left hooktop left
U with retroflex hookbottom
V with palatal hookbottom
𐞰 V with right hook [8] [4] top
Ʋ ʋ Script v or v with hooktop
W with hooktop right
X with palatal hookbottom right
Ƴ ƴY with hooktop right
Ȥ ȥZ with hookbottom
Z with palatal hookbottom
ʐ Z with retroflex hookbottom
Latin capital letter Z with tophook.svg Latin small letter Z with tophook.svg Z with top hooktop right or top left
Ɀ ɀZ with swash tailbottom
𝼘Ezh with palatal hook [5] right
Ezh with retroflex hookbottom
ƺ Ezh with tailbottom
𝼅 𐞟 Lezh with retroflex hook [7] bottom
𝼊 𐞹 Retroflex click with retroflex hook [9] [2] bottom
Cuatrillo tailbottom
Cuatrillo hookbottom
Cyrillic alphabet
Ӷ ӷGhe with hookbottom
Ӻ ӻGhe with stroke and hookbottom
Ҋ ҋShort i with tailbottom right
Ӄ~Қ ӄ~қKa with hookbottom right
Ԓ ԓEl with hookbottom right
Ӆ ӆEl with tailbottom right
Ӎ ӎEm with tailbottom right
Ӈ~Ң ӈ~ңEn with hookbottom right
Ԩ ԩEn with left hookbottom left
Ӊ ӊEn with tailbottom right
Ҭ ҭte with hookbottom right
Ӽ~Ҳ ӽ~ҳHa with hookbottom right
Ҷ ҷche with hookbottom right

Unicode

Unicode has the combining diacritics U+0321 ̡ COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW and U+0322 ̢ COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW but these are not recommended to be used with letters, and should be used to illustrate the hooks themselves. Instead Unicode recommends the use of characters that already include the hook. [10]

The U+02DE˞MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK is used to mark an r-colored vowel. [11]

See also

References

  1. As in the non-standard French translation of the UCS ListeNoms.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-253R: Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic" (PDF).
  3. Miller, Kirk (2021-01-11). "L2/21-041: Unicode request for additional para-IPA letters" (PDF).
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Miller, Kirk (2020-07-11). "L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks" (PDF).
  6. Priest, Lorna (2008-07-28). "L2/08-182: Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
  7. 1 2 Miller, Kirk; Ball, Martin (2020-07-11). "L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS" (PDF).
  8. Priest, Lorna; Constable, Peter (2005-08-09), N2945: Proposal to Encode Additional Latin Phonetic and Orthographic Characters (PDF)
  9. Miller, Kirk; Sands, Bonny (2020-07-10). "L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters" (PDF).
  10. Constable, Peter (1 February 2004). "Revised Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Retroflex Hook in the UCS" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. pp. 8–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 January 2024.
  11. "The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 2015)" (PDF). IPA Association. Retrieved 13 May 2024.