This article is about the diacritic used to modify other characters. For use as an independent, spacing character, seeCaret (proofreading) andCaret (computing).
Thecircumflex (◌̂) is adiacritic in theLatin andGreek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in variousromanization andtranscription schemes. It received its English name fromLatin:circumflexus "bent around"—a translation of theAncient Greek:περισπωμένη (perispōménē).
The circumflex in the Latin script ischevron-shaped (◌̂), while the Greek circumflex may be displayed either like atilde (◌̃) or like aninverted breve (◌̑). For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin alphabet,precomposed characters are available.
InEnglish, the circumflex, like other diacritics, is sometimes retained onloanwords that used it in the original language (for exampleentrepôt,crème brûlée).In mathematics andstatistics, the circumflex diacritic is sometimes used to denote a function and is called ahat operator.
The shape of the circumflex was originally a combination of theacute andgrave accents (^), as it marked asyllable contracted from two vowels: an acute-accented vowel and a non-accented vowel (all non-accented syllables in Ancient Greek were once marked with a grave accent).[1][clarification needed] Later a variant similar to thetilde (~) was also used.
The term "circumflex" is also used to describe similar tonal accents that result from combining two vowels in related languages such as Sanskrit and Latin.
SinceModern Greek has astress accent instead of a pitch accent, the circumflex has been replaced with anacute accent in the modern monotonic orthography.
InAfrikaans, the circumflex marks avowel with a lengthened pronunciation, often arising fromcompensatory lengthening due to the loss of⟨g⟩ from the originalDutch form. Examples of circumflex use in Afrikaans aresê "to say",wêreld "world",môre "tomorrow",brûe "bridges".
In the transliteration ofAkkadian, the circumflex indicates a long vowel resulting from analeph contraction.
In westernCree,Sauk, andSaulteaux, the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) indicates long vowels[aːeːiːoː~uː] either with a circumflex ⟨â ê î ô⟩ or with amacron ⟨ā ē ī ō⟩.
The PDA orthography forDomari uses circumflex-bearing vowels for length.
French. In some varieties, such as inBelgian French,Swiss French andAcadian French, vowels with a circumflex are long:fête[fɛːt] (party) is longer thanfaite[fɛt]. Thislength compensates for a deleted consonant, usuallys. French words with deleteds include châtain and hôpital.
Japanese. In theNihon-shiki system ofromanization, the circumflex is used to indicate long vowels. TheKunrei-shiki system, which is based on Nihon-shiki system, also uses the circumflex. The Traditional and Modified forms of theHepburn system use themacron for this purpose, though some users may use the circumflex as a substitute if there are difficulties inputting the macron, as the two diacritics are visually similar.
InUNGEGN romanization system forKhmer,â is used to represent[ɑː],ê[ae] in first series and[ɛː] in second series, andô for[ɔː]. There are also additional vowels which arediphthongs such asaô[ao],âu[ʔɨw],âm[ɑm],ŏâm[oəm] andaôh[ɑh].
Bilingual sign showing the use of the circumflex in Welsh as an indicator of length and stress:parêd [paˈreːd] "parade", as opposed topared [ˈparɛd] "partition wall".
The circumflex accent marks thestressed vowel of a word in some languages:
Portugueseâ,ê, andô are stressedclose vowels, opposed to their open counterpartsá,é, andó (see below).
Welsh: the circumflex, due to its function as a disambiguating lengthening sign (see above), is used in polysyllabic words with word-final long vowels. The circumflex thus indicates the stressed syllable (which would normally be on thepenultimate syllable), since in Welsh, non-stressed vowels may not normally be long. This happens notably where the singular ends in ana, to, e.g. singularcamera,drama,opera,sinema → pluralcamerâu,dramâu,operâu,sinemâu; however, it also occurs in singular nominal forms, e.g.arwyddocâd; in verbal forms, e.g.deffrônt,cryffânt; etc.
InBreton, it is used on ane to show that the letter is pronouncedopen instead of closed.
InBulgarian, the sound represented in Bulgarian by the Cyrillic letterъ (er goljam) is usually transliterated asâ in systems used prior to 1989. Although called aschwa (misleadingly suggesting an unstressed lax sound), it is more accurately described as amid back unrounded vowel/ɤ/. UnlikeEnglish orFrench, but similar toRomanian andAfrikaans, it can be stressed.
InPinyin romanizedMandarin Chinese,ê is used to represent the sound/ɛ/ in isolation, which occurs sometimes as an exclamation.
In French, the letterê is normally pronouncedopen, likeè. In the usual pronunciations of central and northernFrance,ô is pronouncedclose, likeeau; in Southern France, no distinction is made betweenclose andopeno.
Portugueseâ/ɐ/,ê/e/, andô/o/ are stressed high vowels, in opposition toá/a/,é/ɛ/, andó/ɔ/, which are stressed low vowels.
InRomanian, the circumflex is used on the vowelsâ andî to mark the vowel/ɨ/, similar to Russianyery. The names of these accented letters areâ din a andî din i, respectively. (The letterâ only appears in the middle of words; thus, itsmajuscule version appears only in all-capitals inscriptions.)
InSwedishdialect andfolkloreliterature the circumflex is used to indicate the phonemes/a(ː)/ or/æ(ː)/(â),/ɶ(ː)/ or/ɞ(ː)/ (ô) and/ɵ(ː)/ (û) in dialects and regional accents where these are distinct from/ɑ(ː)/ (a),/ø(ː)/ (ö) or/o(ː)/ (o orå) and/ʉ(ː)/ (u) respectively, unlike Standard Swedish where[a] and[ɑː],[ɵ] and[ʉː] are short and long allophones of the phonemes/a/ and/ʉ/ respectively, and whereOld Swedish short/o/ (ŏ) has merged with/o(ː)/ from Old Swedish/ɑː/ (ā, Modern Swedishå) instead of centralizing to[ɞ] or fronting to[ɶ] and remaining a distinct phoneme (ô) as in the dialects in question. Different methods can be found in different literature, so some author may useæ instead ofâ, or useâ where others useå̂ (å with a circumflex; for a sound between/ɑ(ː)/ and/o(ː)/).
Vietnameseâ/ə/,ê/e/, andô/o/ are higher vowels thana/ɑ/,e/ɛ/, ando/ɔ/. The circumflex can appear together with atone mark on the same vowel, as in the wordViệt. Vowels with circumflex are considered separate letters from the base vowels.
InLuxembourgishm̂ n̂ can be used to indicate nasalisation of a vowel. Also, the circumflex can be over the vowel to indicate nasalisation. In either case, the circumflex is rare.
InEmilian,ê ô[eː,oː] denote both length and height.
InTagalog,Cebuano and mostPhilippine languages, the circumflex accent (pakupyâ) is used to represent the simultaneous occurrence of a stress and aglottal stop on the last vowel of a word. Though not part of the official alphabet, possible combinations can include: â, ê, î, ô, and û. But in the case ofT'boli, the circumflex accent is only used as a pure unstressed glottal stop. It works as a combination of acute and grave accent; with the case of letters é and ó which represents the sound of/ɛ/ and/o/ respectively and can be shown as ê and ô if it contains a glottal stop.[4][5]
InRomagnol, they are used to represent the diphthongs/eə,oə/, whose specific articulation varies between dialects, e.g.sêl[seəl~seɛl~sæɛl~sɛɘl] "salt".
InRusyn, the letterŷ[ɨ] is sometimes used to transliterate theCyrillicы.
InTurkish, the circumflex overa andu is sometimes used in words ofArabic orPersian derivation to indicate when a preceding consonant (k,g,l) is to be pronounced as apalatal plosive;[c],[ɟ] (kâğıt,gâvur,mahkûm,Gülgûn). The circumflex overi is used to indicate anisba suffix (millî,dinî).[6]
InPe̍h-ōe-jī romanization ofHokkien, the circumflex over a vowel (a, e, i, o, o͘, u) or a syllabic nasal (m, ng) indicate thetone number 5, traditionally called Yang Level or Light Level (陽平). Thetone contour is usually low rising. For example,ê[e˩˧],n̂g[ŋ̩˩˧].
InSerbo-Croatian the circumflex can be used to distinguishhomographs, and it is called the "genitive sign" or "length sign". Examples includesam "am" versussâm "alone". For example, the phrase "I am alone" may be writtenJa sam sâm to improve clarity. Another example:da "yes",dâ "gives".[7]
Turkish. According toTurkish Language Association orthography,düzeltme işareti "correction mark" overa,i andu marks along vowel to disambiguate similar words. For example, compareama "but" andâmâ "blind",şura 'that place, there' andşûra "council".[6] In general, circumflexes occur only inArabic andPersianloanwords as vowel length in early Turkish was not phonemic. However, this standard was never applied entirely consistently[8] and by the late 20th century many publications had stopped using circumflexes almost entirely.[9]
Welsh. The circumflex is known ashirnod "long sign" oracen grom "crooked accent", but more usually and colloquially asto bach "little roof". It lengthens a stressed vowel (a, e, i, o, u, w, y), and is used particularly to differentiate betweenhomographs; e.g.tan andtân,ffon andffôn,gem andgêm,cyn andcŷn, orgwn andgŵn. However the circumflex is only required on elongated vowels if the same word exists without the circumflex - "nos" (night), for example, has an elongated "o" sound but a circumflex is not required as the same word with a shortened "o" doesn't exist.
InPinyin, the romanized writing ofMandarin Chinese,ẑ,ĉ, andŝ are, albeit rarely, used to representzh[tʂ],ch[tʂʰ], andsh[ʂ], respectively.
InEsperanto, the circumflex is used onĉ[tʃ],ĝ[dʒ],ĥ[x],ĵ[ʒ],ŝ[ʃ]. Each indicates a different consonant from the unaccented form, and is considered a separate letter for purposes ofcollation. (SeeEsperanto orthography.)
InChichewa,ŵ (present for example in the name of the countryMalaŵi) used to denote thevoiced bilabial fricative/β/; nowadays, however, most Chichewa-speakers pronounce it as a regular[w].[10]
In the African languageVenda, a circumflex below d, l, n, and t is used to represent dental consonants: ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ.
In the 18th century, theReal Academia Española introduced the circumflex accent in Spanish to mark that ach orx were pronounced/k/ and/ɡs/ respectively (instead of/tʃ/ and/x/, which were the default values):châracteres, exâcto (spelled todaycaracteres, exacto). This usage was quickly abandoned during the same century, once the RAE decided to usech andx with one assigned pronunciation only:/tʃ/ and/ɡs/ respectively.
InDomari (according to the Pan-Domari Alphabet orthography), the circumflex is used on the letters <ĉ ĝ ĵ ŝ ẑ> to represent the sounds of/t͡ʃɣd͡ʒʃʒ/. It is also used above vowels to indicate length.
In 18th centuryBritish English, before the cheapPenny Post and while paper was taxed, the combinationough was occasionally shortened toô when thegh was not pronounced, to save space:thô forthough,thorô forthorough, andbrôt forbrought.[citation needed]
InFrench, the circumflex generally marks the former presence of a consonant (usuallys) that wasdeleted and is no longer pronounced. (The correspondingNorman French words, and consequently the words derived from them in English, frequently retain the lost consonant.) For example:
ancêtre "ancestor"
hôpital "hospital"
hôtel "hostel"
forêt "forest"
rôtir "to roast"
côte "rib, coast, slope"
pâté "paste"
août "August"
dépôt (from the Latindepositum 'deposit', but now referring to both a deposit or a storehouse of any kind)[12]
Somehomophones (or near-homophones in some varieties of French) are distinguished by the circumflex. However, â, ê and ô distinguish different sounds in most varieties of French, for instancecote[kɔt] "level, mark, code number" andcôte[kot] "rib, coast, hillside".
In handwritten French, for example in taking notes, anm with a circumflex (m̂) is an informal abbreviation formême "same".
In February 2016, the Académie française decided to remove the circumflex from about 2,000 words, a plan that had been outlined since 1990. However, usage of the circumflex would not be considered incorrect.[13]
InItalian,î is occasionally used in the plural of nouns and adjectives ending with-io[jo] as acrasis mark. Other possible spellings are-ii and obsolete-j or-ij. For example, the plural ofvario[ˈvaːrjo] "various" can be speltvari,varî,varii; the pronunciation will usually stay[ˈvaːri] with only one[i]. The plural forms ofprincipe[ˈprintʃipe] "prince" and ofprincipio[prinˈtʃiːpjo] "principle, beginning" can be confusing. In pronunciation, they are distinguished by whether the stress is on the first or on the second syllable, butprincipi would be a correct spelling of both. When necessary to avoid ambiguity, it is advised to write the plural ofprincipio asprincipî or asprincipii.[citation needed]
InNeo-Latin, circumflex was used most often to disambiguate between forms of the same word that used a long vowel, for example ablative of first declension and genitive of fourth declension, or between second and third conjugation verbs. It was also used for the interjectionô.[14]
InNorwegian, the circumflex differentiatesfôr "lining, fodder" from the prepositionfor. From a historical point of view, the circumflex also indicates that the word used to be spelled with the letterð inOld Norse – for example,fôr is derived fromfóðr,lêr 'leather' fromleðr, andvêr "weather, ram" fromveðr (bothlêr andvêr only occur in theNynorsk spelling; inBokmål these words are spelledlær andvær). After theð disappeared, it was replaced by ad (fodr, vedr).
Circumflexes are used in many common words of the language, such as the name of the language,português. Usually,â, ê andô appear before nasals (m andn) inproparoxytone words, likehigiênico but in many cases in European Portuguesee ando will be marked with an acute accent (e.g.higiénico) since the vowel quality is open (ɛ or ɔ) in this standard variety. In early literacy classes in school, it is commonly nicknamedchapéu (hat).
The circumflex (ˆ) is mostly used to marklong vowels, soâ, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ are always long. However, not all long vowels are marked with a circumflex, so the lettersa, e, i, o, u, w, y with no circumflex do not necessarily represent short vowels.
In mathematics, the circumflex is used to modify variable names; it is usually read "hat", e.g., is "x hat". TheFourier transform of a functionƒ is often denoted by.
In geometry, a hat is sometimes used for anangle. For instance, the angles or.
Instatistics, the hat is used to denote anestimator or an estimated value, as opposed to its theoretical counterpart. For example, inerrors and residuals, the hat in indicates an observable estimate (the residual) of an unobservable quantity called (the statistical error). It is readx-hat orx-roof, wherex represents the character under the hat.
You may needrendering support to display the uncommonUnicode characters in this section correctly.
Unicode encodes a number of cases of "letter with circumflex" asprecomposed characters and these are displayed below. In addition, many more symbols may be composed using thecombining character facility (U+0302◌̂COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT andU+032D◌̭COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT 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 thus are not shown in the table.
TheGreek diacriticπερισπωμένη,perispōménē, 'twisted around', is encoded asU+0342͂COMBINING GREEK PERISPOMENI. In distinction to the angled Latin circumflex, the Greek circumflex is printed in the form of either atilde (◌̃) or an invertedbreve (◌̑).
There is a similar but larger character,U+005E^CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT (^), which was originally intended to emulate the typewriter'sdead key function using backspace and overtype. Nowadays, this glyph is more often called acaret instead (though the term has a long-standing meaning as aproofreader's mark, withits own codepoints in Unicode). It is, however, unsuitable for use as a diacritic on modern computer systems, as it is a spacing character. Two other spacing circumflex characters in Unicode are the smallermodifier lettersU+02C6ˆMODIFIER LETTER CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT andU+A788ꞈMODIFIER LETTER LOW CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT, mainly used inphonetic notations or as a sample of the diacritic in isolation.
^Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920).A Greek Grammar for Colleges. New York: American Book Company.Archived from the original on 2018-01-26. Retrieved2017-10-15 – via ccel.org.: "155. The ancients regarded the grave originally as belonging to every syllable not accented with the acute or circumflex; and some Mss. show this in practice, e.g. πὰγκρὰτής. [...]"
^Halawa, T.; Harefa, A.; Silitonga, M. (1983).Struktur Bahasa Nias [Nias Language Structure](PDF) (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2021-03-06. Retrieved2021-12-11 – via repositori.kemdikbud.go.id.
^"Dépôt".Larousse (in French).Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved8 December 2016.
