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| ◌̌ | |
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Caron | |
| U+030C ◌̌COMBINING CARON |
Acaron/ˈkærən/KARR-ən[1] orháček (/ˈhɑːtʃɛk,ˈhætʃɛk,ˈheɪtʃɛk/HAH-chek,HATCH-ek,HAY-chek),[a] is adiacritic mark (◌̌) placed over certain letters in the orthography of some languages, to indicate a change of the related letter's pronunciation.Typographers tend to use the termcaron, while linguists prefer theCzech wordháček.
The symbol is common in theBaltic,Slavic,Finnic,Samic andBerber language families.Its use differs according to the orthographic rules of a language. In most Slavic and other European languages it indicates present or historicalpalatalization (e →ě; [e] → [ʲe]),iotation, orpostalveolar articulation (c →č;[ts] →[tʃ]). InSalishan languages, it often represents auvular consonant (x →x̌; [x] →[χ]). When placed over vowel symbols, the caron can indicate a contourtone, for instance the falling and then rising tone in thePinyinromanization ofMandarin Chinese. It is also used to decorate symbols in mathematics, where it is often pronounced/ˈtʃɛk/ ("check").
The caron is shaped approximately like a small letter "v". Forserif typefaces, the caron generally has one of two forms: either symmetrical, essentially identical to an invertedcircumflex; or with the left stroke thicker than the right, like the usual serif form of the letter "v" (v, but without serifs). The latter form is often preferred by Czech designers for use inCzech, while for other uses the symmetrical form tends to predominate,[2] as it does also amongsans-serif typefaces.
The caron is not to be confused with thebreve (◌̆, which is curved rather than angled):
| 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 |
Different disciplines generally refer to this diacritic mark by different names. Typography tends to use the termcaron. Linguistics more often uses the Czech wordháček.[citation needed] Pullum's and Ladusaw'sPhonetic Symbol Guide uses the termwedge.[citation needed]
The termcaron is used in the official names ofUnicode characters (e.g., "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CARON"). TheUnicode Consortium explicitly states[3] that the reason for this is unknown, but its earliest known use was in theUnited States Government Printing Office Style Manual of 1967, and it was later used in character sets such as DIN 31624 (1979), ISO 5426 (1980), ISO/IEC 6937 (1983) and ISO/IEC 8859-2 (1985).[4] Its actual origin remains obscure, but some have suggested that it may derive from a fusion ofcaret andmacron.[5] Though this may befolk etymology, it is plausible, particularly in the absence of other suggestions. A Unicode technical note states that the name "hacek" should have been used instead.[6]
TheOxford English Dictionary gives 1953 as the earliest appearance in English forháček. InCzech,háček ([ˈɦaːtʃɛk]) means 'smallhook', thediminutive form ofhák ([ˈɦaːk], 'hook')". The name appears in most English dictionaries, but they treat the long mark (acute accent) differently. British dictionaries, such as theOED,ODE,CED, writeháček (with the mark) in the headwords,[7] while American ones, such as theMerriam-Webster,NOAD,AHD, incorrectly omit the acute and writehaček,[8] however, theNOAD givesháček as an alternative spelling.[citation needed]
InSlovak it is calledmäkčeň ([ˈmɛɐktʂeɲ], i.e., 'softener' or 'palatalization mark'), inSerbo-Croatiankvaka orkvačica ('angled hook' or 'small angled hook'), inSlovenianstrešica ('littleroof') orkljukica ('little hook'), inLithuanianpaukščiukas ('little bird') orvarnelė ('littlejackdaw'), inEstoniankatus ('roof'), inFinnishhattu ('hat'), and inLakotaičášleče ('wedge').[citation needed]
The caron evolved from thedot above diacritic, whichJan Hus introduced intoCzech orthography (along with theacute accent) in hisDe Orthographia Bohemica (1412). The original form still exists inPolishż. However, Hus's work was hardly known at that time, andháček became widespread only in the 16th century with the introduction of printing.[9]
For the fricativesš[ʃ],ž[ʒ], and the affricateč[tʃ] only, the caron is used in most northwestern Uralic languages that use the Latin alphabet, such asKarelian,Veps,Northern Sami, andInari Sami (although not inSouthern Sami).Estonian andFinnish useš andž (but notč), but only for transcribing foreign names and loanwords (albeit common loanwords such asšekki ortšekk 'check'); the sounds (and letters) are native and common in Karelian, Veps, and Sami.[citation needed]
InItalian,š,ž, andč are routinely used as in Slovenian to transcribeSlavic names in theCyrillic script since in native Italian words, the sounds represented by these letters must be followed by a vowel, and Italian usesch for/k/, not/tʃ/. OtherRomance languages, by contrast, tend to use their own orthographies, or in a few cases such as Spanish, borrow Englishsh orzh.[citation needed]
The caron is also used in theRomany alphabet. TheFaggin-Nazzi writing system forFriulian makes use of the caron over the lettersc,g, ands.[10]
The caron is also often used as a diacritical mark on consonants forromanization of text from non-Latin writing systems, particularly in thescientific transliteration of Slavic languages. Philologists and the standard Finnish orthography often prefer using it to express sounds for which English require a digraph (sh, ch, andzh) because most Slavic languages use only one character to spell the sounds (the key exceptions are Polishsz andcz). Its use for that purpose can even be found in the United States because certainatlases use it in romanization of foreignplace names. On the typographical side, Š/š and Ž/ž are likely the easiest among non-Western European diacritic characters to adopt for Westerners because the two are part of theWindows-1252 character encoding.[citation needed]
Esperanto uses thecircumflex overc,g,h,j, ands in similar ways; the circumflex was chosen because there was no caron on most Western Europeantypewriters, but the circumflex existed onFrench ones.[citation needed]
It is also used as an accent mark on vowels to indicate thetone of a syllable. The main example is inPinyin forChinese in which it represents a falling-rising tone. It is used in transliterations ofThai to indicate a rising tone.[citation needed]
The caron ⟨ǎ⟩ represents a rising tone in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet. It is used in theUralic Phonetic Alphabet for indicating postalveolar consonants and inAmericanist phonetic notation to indicate various types of pronunciation.[citation needed]
The caron below ⟨p̬⟩ representsvoicing.[citation needed]
In printed Czech and Slovak text, the caron combined with certain letters (lower-case ť, ď, ľ, and upper-case Ľ) is reduced to a small stroke. That is optional in handwritten text. Latin fonts are typically set to display this way by default. In some applications, using thecombining grapheme joiner, U+034F, between the letter and the combining mark, as in t͏̌, d͏̌, l͏̌, may prevent the caron from looking like a small stroke of the canonical characters.
InLazuri orthography, the lower-casek with caron sometimes has its caron reduced to a stroke while the lower-caset with caron preserves its caron shape.[11]
Although the stroke looks similar to anapostrophe, thekerning is significantly different. Using an apostrophe in place of a caron can be perceived as very unprofessional, but it is still often found on imported goods meant for sale in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (compare t’ to ť, L’ahko to Ľahko). (Apostrophes appearing as palatalization marks in someFinnic languages, such asVõro andKarelian, are not forms of caron either.) Foreigners also sometimes mistake the caron for theacute accent (compare Ĺ to Ľ, ĺ to ľ).[citation needed]
The following are theCzech andSlovak letters anddigraphs with the caron (Czech:háček, Slovak:mäkčeň):
InLower Sorbian andUpper Sorbian, the following letters and digraphs have the caron:
Balto-SlavicSerbo-Croatian,Slovenian,Latvian andLithuanian use č, š and ž. The digraph dž is also used in these languages but is considered a separate letter only in Serbo-Croatian. TheBelarusianLacinka alphabet also contains the digraph dž (as a separate letter), and Latin transcriptions ofBulgarian andMacedonian may use them at times, for transcription of the letter-combination ДЖ (Bulgarian) and the letter Џ (Macedonian).
In theFinnic languages,Estonian (and transcriptions toFinnish) uses Š/š and Ž/ž, andKarelian uses Č/č, Š/š and Ž/ž. Dž is not a separate letter. Č is present because it may be phonemicallygeminate: in Karelian, the phoneme 'čč' is found, and is distinct from 'č', which is not the case in Finnish or Estonian, for which only one length is recognized for 'tš'. (Incidentally, in transcriptions, Finnish orthography has to employ complicated notations likemettšä or even themettshä to express Karelianmeččä.) On some Finnish keyboards, it is possible to write those letters by typings orz while holding rightAlt key orAltGr key, though that is not supported by the Microsoft Windows keyboard device driver KBDFI.DLL for the Finnish language. The Finnish multilingual keyboard layout allows typing the lettersŠ/š andŽ/ž by pressing AltGr+'+S forš and AltGr+'+Z forž.
In Estonian, Finnish and Karelian these arenotpalatalized but postalveolar consonants. For example, EstonianNissi (palatalized) is distinct fromnišši (postalveolar).Palatalization is typically ignored in spelling, but some Karelian and Võro orthographies use anapostrophe (') or an acute accent (´). In Finnish and Estonian,š andž (and in Estonian, very rarelyč) appear in loanwords and foreignproper names only and when not available, they can be substituted with 'h': 'sh' for 'š', in print.
In the orthographies of theSami languages, the letters Č/č, Š/š and Ž/ž appear inNorthern Sami,Inari Sami andSkolt Sami. Skolt Sami also uses three other consonants with the caron: Ǯ/ǯ (ezh-caron) to mark the voiced postalveolar affricate[dʒ] (plain Ʒ/ʒ marks the alveolar affricate[dz]), Ǧ/ǧ to mark the voiced palatal affricate[ɟʝ] and Ǩ/ǩ the corresponding voiceless palatal affricate[cç]. More often than not, they are geminated:vuäǯǯad "to get". The orthographies of the more southern Sami languages of Sweden and Norway such asLule Sami do not use caron, and prefer instead thedigraphstj andsj.
Most other Uralic languages (includingKildin Sami) are normally written withCyrillic instead of the Latin script. In their scientifictranscription, theFinno-Ugric Transcription /Uralic Phonetic Alphabet however employs the lettersš,ž and occasionallyč,ǯ (alternatelytš,dž) for the postalveolar consonants. These serve as basic letters, and with further diacritics are used to transcribe also other fricative and affricate sounds.Retroflex consonants are marked by a caron and anunderdot (ṣ̌,ẓ̌ = IPA[ʂ],[ʐ]),alveolo-palatal (palatalized postalveolar) consonants by a caron and anacute (š́,ž́ = IPA[ɕ],[ʑ]). Thus, for example, the postalveolar consonants of theUdmurt language, normally written as Ж/ж, Ӝ/ӝ, Ӵ/ӵ, Ш/ш are in Uralic studies normally transcribed asž,ǯ,č,š respectively, and the alveolo-palatal consonants normally written as Зь/зь, Ӟ/ӟ, Сь/сь, Ч/ч are normally transcribed asž́,ǯ́,š́,č́ respectively.[12]
In theBerber Latin alphabet of theBerber language (North Africa) the following letters and digraphs are used with the caron:
Finnish Kalo uses Ȟ/ȟ.
Lakota uses Č/č, Š/š, Ž/ž, Ǧ/ǧ (voiced post-velar fricative) and Ȟ/ȟ (plain post-velar fricative).
Indonesian uses ě (e with caron) informally to mark theschwa (Indonesian:pepet).
Many alphabets of African languages use the caron to mark the rising tone, as in theAfrican reference alphabet.
Outside of the Latin alphabet, the caron is also used forCypriot Greek letters that have a different sound fromStandard Modern Greek: σ̌ κ̌ π̌ τ̌ ζ̌ in words likeτζ̌αι ('and'),κάτ̌τ̌ος ('cat').
TheDIN 31635 standard for transliteration of Arabic uses Ǧ/ǧ to represent the letterج.ǧīm, on account of the inconsistent pronunciation ofJ in European languages, the variable pronunciation of the letter ineducated Arabic[d͡ʒ~ʒ~ɟ~ɡ], and the desire of the DIN committee to have a one-to-one correspondence of Arabic to Latin letters in its system.
Romanization ofPashto uses Č/č, Š/š, Ž/ž, X̌/x̌, to represent the letters چ, ش, ژ, ښ, respectively. Additionally, Ṣ̌/ṣ̌ and Ẓ̌/ẓ̌ are used by the southern Pashto dialect only (replaced by X̌/x̌ and Ǵ/ǵ in the north).[citation needed]
The latter Š/š is also used to transcribe the/ʃ/ phoneme inSumerian andAkkadian cuneiform, and the/ʃ/ phoneme inSemitic languages represented by the lettershin (Phoenician
and its descendants).
The caron is also used inMandarin Chinesepinyin romanization and orthographies of several othertonal languages to indicate the "falling-rising"tone (similar to the pitch made when asking "Huh?"). The caron can be placed over the vowels: ǎ, ě, ǐ, ǒ, ǔ, ǚ. The alternative to a caron is a number 3 after the syllable:hǎo =hao3, as the "falling-rising" tone is the third tone inMandarin.
The caron is used in theNew Transliteration System ofD'ni in the symbol š to represent the sound[ʃ] (English "sh").
A-caron (ǎ) is also used to transliterate theCyrillic letterЪ (er golyam) inBulgarian—it represents themid back unrounded vowel[ɤ̞].
Caron marks a falling and rising tone (bǔ, bǐ) inFon languages.
Unicode encodes a number of cases of "letter with caron" asprecomposed characters and these are displayed below. In addition, many more symbols may be composed using thecombining character facility (U+030C ◌̌COMBINING CARON andU+032C ◌̬COMBINING CARON BELOW) that may be used with any letter or other diacritic to create a customised symbol but this does not mean that the result has any real-world application and are not shown in the table.
There are a number of Cyrillic letters with caron but they do not have precomposed characters and thus must be generated using the combining character method. These are:В̌ в̌;Ǯ ǯ;Г̌ г̌;Ғ̌ ғ̌;Д̌ д̌;З̌ з̌;Р̌ р̌;Т̌ т̌;Х̌ х̌
For legacy reasons, most letters that carry carons areprecomposed characters inUnicode, but a caron can also be added to any letter by using thecombining characterU+030C ◌̌COMBINING CARON, for example: b̌ q̌ J̌. Themodifier letter version is encoded withU+02C7 ˇCARON.
The characters Č, č, Ě, ě, Š, š, Ž, ž are a part of theUnicodeLatin Extended-A set because they occur in Czech and other official languages in Europe, while the rest are inLatin Extended-B, which often causes an inconsistent appearance.
Unicode also encodesU+032C ◌̬COMBINING CARON BELOW, for example: p̬.
A combining double caron was proposed for inclusion in April, 2024.[13]
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