This article is about single dot diacritics. For the dot on the letters i and j, seetittle. For the diaeresis and similar-looking diacritics, seetwo dots (diacritic).
This page uses notation for orthographic or other linguistic analysis. For the meaning of how⟨ ⟩,| |,/ /, and[ ]are used here, seethis page.
When used as adiacritic mark, the termdot refers to theglyphs "combining dot above" (◌̇), and "combining dot below" (◌̣)which may be combined with someletters of the extendedLatin alphabets in use in a variety of languages. Similar marks are used with other scripts.
The Latin orthography forChechen includesċ,ç̇,ġ,q̇ andẋ, corresponding to Cyrillicцӏ,чӏ,гӏ,къ andхь and representing/tsʼ/,/t͡ʃʼ/,/ɣ/,/qʼ/ and/ħ/ respectively.
Traditional Irish typography, where the dot denoteslenition, and is called aponc séimhithe orbuailte "dot of lenition":ḃ ċ ḋ ḟ ġ ṁ ṗ ṡ ṫ. Alternatively, lenition may be represented by a following letterh, thus:bh ch dh fh gh mh ph sh th. InOld Irish orthography, the dot was used only forḟ ṡ, while the followingh was used forch 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 inGaelic script and the followingh when writing inantiqua. Thusċ andch represent the same phonetic element in Modern Irish.
Lithuanian:ė is pronounced as[eː], as opposed toę, which is pronounced a lower[æː] (formerlynasalised), ore, pronounced[ɛ,æː].
Livonian usesȯ as one of its eight vowels, pronounced as/ɤ/.
In theCanadian Aboriginal Syllabics orthography for theCree,Ojibwe, andInuktitut 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 amacron over the vowel (ᑲ = ka, ᑳ = kā), or placing acircumflex over the vowel (ᓄ = no, ᓅ = nô).
InTurkish, the dot above lowercasei andj (and uppercaseİ) is not regarded as an independent diacritic but as an integral part of the letter. It is called atittle.I without an overdot is a separate letter.
In theRheinische Dokumenta phonetic writing system overdots denote a special pronunciation ofr.
In a number of languages, an underdot indicates araised orrelatively high vowel, often the counterpart of a lower vowel marked with anogonek or left unmarked.
InRomagnol,ẹ ọ are used to represent [e, o], e.g. part of Riminese dialectfradẹll, ọcc[fraˈdell,ˈotʃː] "brothers, eyes".
In academic notation ofOld Latin,ẹ̄ (e with underdot and macron) represents the long vowel, probably/eː/, that developed from the early Old Latin diphthongei. This vowel usually becameī inClassical Latin.
In academic transcription ofVulgar Latin, used in describing the development of theRomance languages, ẹ and ọ represent the close-mid vowels/e/ and/o/, in contrast with the open-mid vowels/ɛ/ and/ɔ/, which are represented ase ando withogonek (ę ǫ).
Academic transcription ofMiddle English uses the same conventions as Vulgar Latin above.
In academic transcription ofSerbo-Croatian dialects,ẹ ọ ạ (typically/e//o//ɐ/) represent higher vowels than standarde o a, and the first two often contrast with lower vowels marked with acomma below,e̦ o̦ (typically/ɛ//ɔ/).
InInari Sami, an underdot denotes a half-long voiced consonant:đ̣, j̣, ḷ, ṃ, ṇ, ṇj, ŋ̣, ṛ, andṿ. The underdot is used in dictionaries, textbooks, and linguistic publications only.
In theDIN 31636 andALA-LCRomanization of Hebrew,ṿ represents vav (ו), whilev without the underdot represents beth (ב).ḳ represents qoph (ק) whilek represents kaph (כ). ḥ represents chet (ח).
The underdot is also used in the PDA orthography for Domari to show pharyngealization—the underdotted consonants⟨ḍ ḥ ṣ ṭ ẓ⟩ represent the emphaticized sounds/d̪ˤħsˤt̪ˤzˤ/.
InVietnamese, Thenặngtone (low, glottal) is represented with a dot below the base vowel:ạ ặ ậ ẹ ệ ị ọ ộ ợ ụ ự ỵ.
InIgbo, an underdot can be used oni,o, andu to makeị,ọ, andụ. The underdot symbolizes a reduction in thevowel height.
InYoruba, an underdot can be used one ando to makeẹ andọ, symbolizing a reduction in thevowel height, as well as ons to makeṣ, symbolizing apostalveolar articulation.
Underdots are used in theRheinische Dokumenta phonetic writing system to denote a voiceds and special pronunciations ofr anda.
In the Fiero-Rhodes orthography forEastern Ojibwe andOdaawaa, ing̣,ḥ, andḳ, underdot is used to indicatelabialization when either⟨o⟩ or⟨w⟩ following them was lost insyncope.
InCanadian Aboriginal Syllabics, in addition to themiddle dot as a letter, centred dot diacritic, and dot above diacritic, there also is atwo-dot diacritic in theNaskapi 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 letterᓴ. Additionally, inNorthwestern Ojibwe, a small raised /wi/ as /w/, the middle dot is raised farther up as eitherᣜ orᣝ; there also is a raised dot"Final" (ᣟ), which represents /w/ in someSwampy Cree and /y/ in some Northwestern Ojibwe.
The diacritics 〮 and〯 , known as Bangjeom (방점; 傍點), were used to mark pitch accents inHangul forMiddle Korean. They were written to the left of a syllable in vertical writing and above a syllable in horizontal writing.
