Thepalatal hook (◌̡) is ahook diacritic formerly used in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet to markpalatalized consonants.[1] It is a small, leftwards-facing hook joined to the bottom-right side of a letter that derives from a subscript letterj, and it is distinct from other IPA hooks that indicateretroflexion,implosion andrhotic vowels. Theoretically, it could be used on all IPA consonant letters – even on those used forpalatal consonants – but it is not attested on all of theIPA letters of its era.[2] It was withdrawn by the IPA in 1989, in favor of asuperscriptj following the consonant (i.e., ⟨ƫ⟩ was replaced with ⟨tʲ⟩).[1]
The IPA recommended thatesh ⟨ ʃ ⟩ andezh ⟨ʒ⟩ not use the palatal hook, but instead get special curled symbols: ⟨ ʆ ⟩ and ⟨ʓ⟩. The same has been done with ⟨ɮ⟩.[3] However, versions with the hook have been used and are supported by Unicode, excluding unattested ⟨ɮ⟩.[3]
Palatal hooks are also used for Lithuanian dialectology in theLithuanian Phonetic Transcription System (orLithuanian Phonetic Alphabet), including the exceptional formꞔ, which while graphically resembling ac plus palatal hook is actually a variant of theᶃ once recommended by the IPA.[4]
The palatal hook was introduced in 1921 and officially adopted in 1928. The last published IPA chart to support it wasthat of 1979. The following single non-palatal consonants appear on that chart. Those attested with palatal hook are bolded and set with the hook; the hooked letters are either in Unicode or are scheduled to appear in Unicode 18 in 2026. The columns for palatal letters are omitted; they are generally redundant with the hook, though 'palatalized palatals' are described in the literature. C with hook,ꞔ, is not a palatal letter but a script variant ofᶃ.[2] W with hook,, is attested as a convenient transcription for a bilabial approximant.
| ᶆ | ɱ | ᶇ | ɳ | 𝼔 | ɴ | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ᶈ | ᶀ | ƫ | ᶁ | ʈ | ɖ | ᶄ | ᶃ/ꞔ | q̡ () | ɢ̡ () | ʔ | |||||||||||||
| ɸ̡ () | β̡ () | ᶂ | ᶌ | θ̡ () | ð̡ () | ᶊ | ᶎ | ʂ | ʐ | ᶋ/ʆ* | 𝼘/ʓ* | ᶍ | ɣ̡ () | χ̡ () | ʁ̡ () | ʍ | ħ̡ () | ʕ̡ () | ꞕ | ɦ | |||
| ʋ̡ () | 𝼕 | ɻ | ɰ | w̡ () | |||||||||||||||||||
| 𝼓 | ɮ ()* | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ᶅ | ɭ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ᶉ | ʀ̡ () | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 𝼖 | ɽ̡ () | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ɓ | ɗ̡ () | ɠ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ʘ | ʇ | ʗ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ʖ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
*ʃ,ʒ andɮ occur with a palatal curl, which was the preferred forms for these letters in the IPA of their era.
Other non-palatal consonants listed under the 1979 chart:
The affricateʣ̡ () is implied but is not listed under the 1979 chart.
Unicode includes acombining character for the palatal hook, but it is not canonically equivalent to theprecomposed characters, which should be used instead.[2]
| Appearance | Code point | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ◌̡ | U+0321 | COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW |
| ᶀ | U+1D80 | LATIN SMALL LETTER B WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| Ꞔ | U+A7C4 | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ꞔ | U+A794 | LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶁ | U+1D81 | LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼒 | U+1DF12 | LATIN SMALL LETTER DEZH DIGRAPH WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶂ | U+1D82 | LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶃ | U+1D83 | LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ꞕ | U+A795 | LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶄ | U+1D84 | LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶅ | U+1D85 | LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶪ | U+1DAA | MODIFIER LETTER L WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼓 | U+1DF13 | LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH BELT AND PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶆ | U+1D86 | LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶇ | U+1D87 | LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼔 | U+1DF14 | LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶈ | U+1D88 | LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶉ | U+1D89 | LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼕 | U+1DF15 | LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED R WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼖 | U+1DF16 | LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH FISHHOOK AND PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶊ | U+1D8A | LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶋ | U+1D8B | LATIN SMALL LETTER ESH WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ƫ | U+01AB | LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶵ | U+1DB5 | MODIFIER LETTER T WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼗 | U+1DF17 | LATIN SMALL LETTER TESH DIGRAPH WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶌ | U+1D8C | LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶍ | U+1D8D | LATIN SMALL LETTER X WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| Ᶎ | U+A7C6 | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| ᶎ | U+1D8E | LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 𝼘 | U+1DF18 | LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH PALATAL HOOK |
| 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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