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Breve |
Abreve (/ˈbriːv/ ⓘBREEV, less often/ˈbrɛv/ ⓘBREV,neuter form of theLatinbrevis "short, brief") is thediacritic mark◌̆, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. As used inAncient Greek, it is also calledbrachy,βραχύ. It resembles thecaron (◌̌, the wedge orháček inCzech,mäkčeň inSlovak) but is rounded, in contrast to the angular tip of the caron. In many forms ofLatin,◌̆ is used for a shorter, softer variant of a vowel, such as "Ĭ", where the sound is nearly identical to the English /i/. (See:Latin IPA)
| Breve | Ă ă Ĕ ĕ Ğ ğ Ĭ ĭ Ŏ ŏ Ŭ ŭ Y̆ y̆ |
|---|---|
| Caron | Ǎ ǎ Ě ě Ǧ ǧ Ǐ ǐ Ǒ ǒ Ǔ ǔ Y̌ y̌ |
The breve sign indicates a short vowel, as opposed to themacron (◌̄), which indicates long vowels, in academic transcription. It is often used that way in dictionaries and textbooks ofLatin,Ancient Greek,Tuareg and other languages. However, there is a frequent convention of indicating only the long vowels. It is then understood that a vowel with nomacron is short. If the vowel length is unknown, a breve as well as a macron are used in historical linguistics (Ā̆ ā̆ Ē̆ ē̆ Ī̆ ī̆ Ō̆ ō̆ Ū̆ ū̆ Ȳ̆ ȳ̆).InCyrillic script, a breve is used forЙ. InBelarusian, it is used for both the CyrillicЎ (semivowel U) and in the Latin (Łacinka)Ŭ.Ў was also used in CyrillicUzbek under theSoviet Union. TheMoldovan Cyrillic alphabet uses a breve onӁ to represent avoiced postalveolar affricate/d͡ʒ/ (corresponding to⟨g⟩ before a front vowel in the Latin script forMoldovan). InChuvash, a breve is used for Cyrillic letters Ӑ (A-breve) and Ӗ (E-breve). InItelmen orthography, it is used for Ӑ,О̆ and Ў. The traditional Cyrillic breve differs in shape and is thicker on the edges of the curve and thinner in the middle, as opposed to the Latin one,[1] but the Unicode encoding is the same.
InEmilian,ĕ ŏ are used to represent[ɛ,ɔ] in dialects where also long[ɛː,ɔː] occur.
InEsperanto,u with breve (ŭ) represents anon-syllabicu indiphthongs/u̯/, analogous to Belarusianў.
In the transcription ofSinhala, the breve over anm or ann indicates aprenasalized consonant; for example,n̆da is used to represent[ⁿda].
In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, a breve over a phonetic symbol is used to indicateextra-shortness.
In other languages, it is used for other purposes.
Thebreve below is diacritic with the same appearance as the conventional breve, except that it is placed under the letter (or space) to be marked. There are just two precomposed character code-points:U+1E2A ḪLATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH BREVE BELOW andU+1E2B ḫLATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH BREVE BELOW. For other uses, it is rendered as acombining character,U+032E ◌̮COMBINING BREVE BELOW.
Traditional editions of Spanish vocal sheet music use the 'breve below' to indicateelision. Modern editions tend to use a (freestanding)underscore.
Unicode codepoints for breve characters.
| Name | Letter | Unicode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breve (spacing) | ˘ | U+02D8 ˘BREVE | |
| Combining breve | ◌̆ | U+0306 ◌̆COMBINING BREVE | |
| Combining breve below | ◌̮ | U+032E ◌̮COMBINING BREVE BELOW | |
| Combining double breve | ◌͝◌ | U+035D ◌͝COMBINING DOUBLE BREVE | |
| Combining double breve below | ◌͜◌ | U+035C ◌͜COMBINING DOUBLE BREVE BELOW | |
| Breve withinverted breve (spacing) | ꭛ | U+AB5B ꭛MODIFIER BREVE WITH INVERTED BREVE | |
| Latin | |||
| A-breve | Ă ă | U+0102 ĂLATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE U+0103 ăLATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE | |
| E-breve | Ĕ ĕ | U+0114 ĔLATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH BREVE U+0115 ĕLATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH BREVE | |
| I-breve | Ĭ ĭ | U+012C ĬLATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH BREVE U+012D ĭLATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH BREVE | |
| O-breve | Ŏ ŏ | U+014E ŎLATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH BREVE U+014F ŏLATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH BREVE | |
| U-breve | Ŭ ŭ | U+016C ŬLATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH BREVE U+016D ŭLATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH BREVE | |
| Azerbaijani, Tatar, Turkish | |||
| G-breve | Ğ ğ | U+011E ĞLATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH BREVE U+011F ğLATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH BREVE | |
| Vietnamese | |||
| A-sắc-breve | Ắ ắ | U+1EAE ẮLATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND ACUTE U+1EAF ắLATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND ACUTE | |
| A-huyền-breve | Ằ ằ | U+1EB0 ẰLATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND GRAVE U+1EB1 ằLATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND GRAVE | |
| A-hỏi-breve | Ẳ ẳ | U+1EB2 ẲLATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND HOOK ABOVE U+1EB3 ẳLATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND HOOK ABOVE | |
| A-ngã-breve | Ẵ ẵ | U+1EB4 ẴLATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND TILDE U+1EB5 ẵLATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND TILDE | |
| A-nặng-breve | Ặ ặ | U+1EB6 ẶLATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND DOT BELOW U+1EB7 ặLATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE AND DOT BELOW | |
| Cyrillic | |||
| A-breve | Ӑ ӑ | U+04D0 ӐCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE U+04D1 ӑCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE | |
| Ye-breve | Ӗ ӗ | U+04D6 ӖCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IE WITH BREVE U+04D7 ӗCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IE WITH BREVE | |
| Zhe-breve | Ӂ ӂ | U+04C1 ӁCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ZHE WITH BREVE U+04C2 ӂCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ZHE WITH BREVE | |
| Short I | Й й | U+0419 ЙCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHORT I U+0439 йCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHORT I | |
| O-breve | О̆ о̆ | U+041E ОCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER OU+0306 ̆COMBINING BREVE U+043E оCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER OU+0306 ̆COMBINING BREVE | |
| Short U | Ў ў | U+040E ЎCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHORT U U+045E ўCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHORT U | |
| Greek | |||
| Alpha with brachy | Ᾰ ᾰ | U+1FB8 ᾸGREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH VRACHY U+1FB0 ᾰGREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VRACHY | |
| Iota with brachy | Ῐ ῐ | U+1FD8 ῘGREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH VRACHY U+1FD0 ῐGREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VRACHY | |
| Upsilon with brachy | Ῠ ῠ | U+1FE8 ῨGREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH VRACHY U+1FE0 ῠGREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH VRACHY | |
| Arabic, Hittite, Akkadian, Egyptian transliteration[3] | |||
| H-breve below | Ḫ ḫ | U+1E2A ḪLATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH BREVE BELOW U+1E2B ḫLATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH BREVE BELOW | |
| Hebrew transliteration[3] | |||
| E-cedilla-breve | Ḝ ḝ | U+1E1C ḜLATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CEDILLA AND BREVE U+1E1D ḝLATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CEDILLA AND BREVE | |
| In Latin, Cyrillic and Greek |
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| InEarly Cyrillic |
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| InIndic | |
| In other scripts | |
| Marks used as diacritics |
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| Non-diacritic uses | |
| InUnicode |
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