Macron
Encyclopedia
A macron, from the Greek
(makrón), meaning "long", is a diacritic
placed above a vowel
(and, more rarely, under or above a consonant
). It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable
in Greco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long
vowel
. In the International Phonetic Alphabet
the macron is used to indicate mid tone
; the sign for a long vowel is a modified triangular colon ⟨ː⟩.
The opposite is the breve
⟨˘⟩, which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel.
:
:
:
and Vanuatu
, particularly those which were first transcribed by Anglican missionaries
. The macron has no unique value, and is simply used to distinguish between two different phonemes. Thus, in several languages of the Banks Islands
, including Mwotlap
, the simple m stands for /m/, but an m with a macron (m̄) is a labial-velar nasal
/ŋ͡mʷ/; while the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal
/n/, an n with macron (n̄) represents the velar nasal
/ŋ/; the vowel ē stands for a (short) higher /ɪ/ by contrast with plain e /ɛ/; likewise ō /ʊ/ contrasts with plain o /ɔ/. In Kokota
, ḡ is used for the velar stop /ɡ/, but g without macron is the voiced velar fricative
/ɣ/.
s and other handwritten notes, macrons mean:
is a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science.
In LaTeX
a macron is created with the command "\=", for example: M\=aori for Māori.
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
(makrón), meaning "long", is a diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
placed above a vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
(and, more rarely, under or above a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
). It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
in Greco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
. In the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
the macron is used to indicate mid tone
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
; the sign for a long vowel is a modified triangular colon ⟨ː⟩.
The opposite is the breve
Breve
A breve is a diacritical mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It resembles the caron , but is rounded, while the caron has a sharp tip...
⟨˘⟩, which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel.
Syllable weight
In Greco-Roman metrics and in the description of the metrics of other literatures, the macron was introduced and is still widely used to mark a long (i.e., heavy) syllable. Even the best and relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries are still only concerned with indicating the length (i.e., weight) of syllables; that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined. Though many textbooks about ancient Rome and Greece employ the macron, it was not actually used at that time.Vowel length
The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to mark long vowelsVowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
:
- Slavicists use the macron to indicate a non-tonic long vowel, or a non-tonic syllabic liquid, such as on l, lj, m, n, nj, and r. Languages with this feature include standard and jargon varieties of Serbo-CroatianSerbo-Croatian languageSerbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
, MacedonianMacedonian languageMacedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
, Slovene, BulgarianBulgarian languageBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
. - Transcriptions of ArabicArabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
typically use macrons to indicate long vowels — ا (alifAleph* Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Semitic abjads descended from Proto-Canaanite, Arabic alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet-People:*Aleph , an Italo disco artist and alias of Dave Rodgers...
when pronounced /aː/), و (wawWaw (letter)Waw is the sixth letter of the Northwest Semitic family of scripts, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic ....
, when pronounced /uː/), and ي (ya'YodhYodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Yud , Syriac and Arabic...
, when pronounced /iː/). Thus the Arabic word ثلاثة (three) is transliterated ṯalāṯah. - Some modern dictionaries of classical GreekAncient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, where the macron is sometimes used in conjunction with the breveBreveA breve is a diacritical mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It resembles the caron , but is rounded, while the caron has a sharp tip...
. However, many such dictionaries still have ambiguities in their treatment and distinction of long vowels or heavy syllables. - In romanization of Greek, the letters η (eta) and ω (omega) are transliterated, respectively, as ē and ō. This corresponds to vowel length, by contrast with the short vowels ε (epsilon) and ο (omicron), which are transliterated as plain e and o.
- The Hepburn romanizationHepburn romanizationThe is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
system of JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, for example, kōtsū "traffic" as opposed to kotsu "bone" or "knack" - LatvianLatvian languageLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
. "Ā", "ē", "ī", "ū" are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after "a", "e", "i", "u" respectively. Ō was also used in Latvian, but it was discarded as of 1957. - LithuanianLithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
. "Ū" is a separate letter but given the same position in collationCollationCollation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...
as the unaccented "u". It marks a long vowel; other long vowels are indicated with an ogonekOgonekThe ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
(which used to indicate nasalization, but no longer does): "ą", "ę", "į", "ų", "o" being always long in Lithuanian except for some recent loanwords. For the long counterpart of "i", "y" is used. - SamogitianSamogitian languageSamogitian is a dialect of the Lithuanian language spoken mostly in Samogitia . Attempts have been made to standardize it...
. "Ā", "ē", "ī", "ū", "ō" are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after "a", "e", "i", "u", "o" respectively. - Transcriptions of NahuatlNahuatlNahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
(spoken in Mexico). Since Nahuatl (Nāhuatl) (Aztecs' language) did not have a writing system, when Spanish conquistadors arrived, they wrote the language in their own alphabet without distinguishing long vowels. Over a century later, in 1645, Horacio CarochiHoracio CarochiHoracio Carochi was an Italian Jesuit priest and grammarian who was born in Florence, Italy, and died in Mexico. He is known for his grammar of the Classical Nahuatl language.- Life:...
defined macrons to mark long vowels ā, ē, ī and ō, and short vowels with grave (`) accents. This is rare nowadays since many people write Nahuatl without any orthographic sign and with the letters "k", "s" and "w", not present in the original alphabet. - Modern transcriptions of Old English.
- Latin transliteration of PaliPáli- External links :* *...
and SanskritSanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. - Polynesian languagesPolynesian languagesThe Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Polynesians share many cultural traits...
:- HawaiianHawaiian alphabetThe Hawaiian alphabet, ka pīʻāpā Hawaiʻi, was adapted from the English alphabet in the early 19th century by American missionaries to print a Hawaiian bible.- Origins :...
. The macron is called kahakō, and it indicates vowel length, which changes meaning and the placement of stressStress (linguistics)In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
. - MāoriMaori languageMāori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
. Early writing in Māori did not distinguish vowel length. Some, notably Professor Bruce Biggs, have advocated that double vowels be written to mark long vowel sounds (e.g., Maaori), but he was more concerned that they be marked at all than with the method. The Māori Language Commission (Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori) advocates that macrons be used to designate long vowels. The use of the macron is widespread in modern Māori, although sometimes the trema mark is used instead (e.g. "Mäori" instead of "Māori") if the macron is not available for technical reasons http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/unicode/macrons_issues.shtml. The Māori words for macron are pōtae ("hat") or tohutō. - TonganTongan languageTongan is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has around 200,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO language.-Related languages:...
. Called the toloi, its usage is similar to that in Māori, including its substitution by a trema.
- Hawaiian
Tone
The following languages or alphabets use the macron to mark tonesTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
:
- In the International Phonetic AlphabetInternational Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
, a macron over a vowel indicates a mid-level tone. - In PinyinPinyinPinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
, the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, macrons over a, e, i, o, u, ü (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ) indicate the high level toneTone (linguistics)Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
of Mandarin Chinese. The alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable, e.g. tā = ta1. - Similarly, the Cantonese Yale Romanization uses the macron to represent the high level tone, as in yāt gāan chāan tēng.
Omission
Sometimes the macron marks an omitted n or m, like the tildeTilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
:
- In Old English texts a macron above a letter indicates the omission of an m or n that would normally follow that letter.
- In older handwriting such as the German KurrentKurrentKurrent is an old form of German language handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing, also known as Kurrentschrift or Alte Deutsche Schrift...
schrift, the macron over an a-e-i-o-u or ä-ö-ü stood for an n, or over an m or an n meant that the letter was doubled. This continued into print in English in the sixteenth century. Over a u at the end of a word, the macron indicated um as a form of scribal abbreviationScribal abbreviationScribal abbreviations are the abbreviations used by ancient and mediæval scribes writing in Latin and, later, in Greek and Old Norse...
.
Letter extension
The macron is used in the orthography of a number of vernacular languages of the Solomon IslandsSolomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
and Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
, particularly those which were first transcribed by Anglican missionaries
Melanesian Mission
The Melanesian Mission is an Anglican missionary agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches in Melanesia. It was established to purchase the ship Southern Cross. Today it continues to provide financial and staffing support for the Church of the Province of Melanesia, an independent...
. The macron has no unique value, and is simply used to distinguish between two different phonemes. Thus, in several languages of the Banks Islands
Banks Islands
The Banks Islands are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu.Together with the Torres Islands to the northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba. The group lies about north of Maewo, and includes Gaua and Vanua Lava, two of the 13 largest islands in Vanuatu...
, including Mwotlap
Mwotlap
-External links: *...
, the simple m stands for /m/, but an m with a macron (m̄) is a labial-velar nasal
Nasal
Nasal may refer to:* Nose, a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth...
/ŋ͡mʷ/; while the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal
Alveolar nasal
The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n....
/n/, an n with macron (n̄) represents the velar nasal
Velar nasal
The velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
/ŋ/; the vowel ē stands for a (short) higher /ɪ/ by contrast with plain e /ɛ/; likewise ō /ʊ/ contrasts with plain o /ɔ/. In Kokota
Kokota language
Kokota is an Austronesian language spoken by perhaps as many as 1,200 people in three villages on Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands. The villages of Goveo and Sisiga lie on the north coast, while Hurepelo lies on the south coast...
, ḡ is used for the velar stop /ɡ/, but g without macron is the voiced velar fricative
Voiced velar fricative
The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in various spoken languages. It is not found in English today, but did exist in Old English...
/ɣ/.
Other uses
- In some GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
handwriting, a macron is used to distinguish u from n or instead of the umlaut. - In some FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
and SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
comic books that are hand-lettered, or in handwriting, the macron is used instead of äÄ"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
or öÖ"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut...
, sometimes known colloquially as a "lazy man's umlaut". - In Russian handwriting, as well as in some others based on the Cyrillic script (for example, Ukrainian), a lowercase Т looks like a lowercase m, and a macron is often used to distinguish it from Ш, which looks like a lowercase w. Some writers also underline the letter ш to reduce ambiguity further.
- In modernized Hepburn romanizationHepburn romanizationThe is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
of JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, an n with macron represents a syllabic n.
Medicine
In medical prescriptionMedical prescription
A prescription is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other medical practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient. Prescriptions may include orders to be performed by a patient, caretaker, nurse, pharmacist or other therapist....
s and other handwritten notes, macrons mean:
- over a, before, abbreviating Latin ante
- over c, with, abbreviating Latin cum
- over p, after, abbreviating Latin post
- over q, every, abbreviating Latin quisque (and its inflected forms)
- over s, without, abbreviating Latin sine
- over x, except
Math and science
The overlineOverline
An overline or overbar or overscore , refers to the typographical feature of a line drawn immediately above the text, for example used to indicate medieval sigla. Specifically, a line drawn over one symbol is a macron, and a line over a collection of symbols is a vinculum...
is a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science.
Technical notes
| description | character | Unicode | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|
| macron above |
◌̄ combining |
U+0304 | ̄ |
| ◌¯ spacing |
U+00AF | ¯ ¯ |
|
| ◌ˉ spacing |
U+02C9 | ˉ | |
| macron below |
◌̱ combining |
U+0331 | ̱ |
| ◌ˍ spacing |
U+02CD | ˍ | |
| additional diacritic |
Latin | ||
| — | Ā A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... ā |
U+0100 U+0101 |
Ā ā |
| Ē ē |
U+0112 U+0113 |
Ē ē |
|
| Ī ī |
U+012A U+012B |
Ī ī |
|
| Ō ō |
U+014C U+014D |
Ō ō |
|
| Ū ū |
U+016A U+016B |
Ū ū |
|
| Ȳ ȳ |
U+0232 U+0233 |
Ȳ ȳ |
|
| Ǣ ǣ |
U+01E2 U+01E3 |
Ǣ ǣ |
|
| Ḡ ḡ |
U+1E20 U+1E21 |
Ḡ ḡ |
|
| diaeresis | Ǟ ǟ |
U+01DE U+01DF |
Ǟ ǟ |
| Ȫ ȫ |
U+022A U+022B |
Ȫ ȫ |
|
| Ǖ ǖ |
U+01D5 U+01D6 |
Ǖ ǖ |
|
| Ṻ ṻ |
U+1E7A U+1E7B |
Ṻ ṻ |
|
| dot above | Ǡ ǡ |
U+01E0 U+01E1 |
Ǡ ǡ |
| Ȱ ȱ |
U+0230 U+0231 |
Ȱ ȱ |
|
| dot below | Ḹ ḹ |
U+1E38 U+1E39 |
Ḹ ḹ |
| Ṝ ṝ |
U+1E5C U+1E5D |
Ṝ ṝ |
|
| ogonek | Ǭ ǭ |
U+01EC U+01ED |
Ǭ ǭ |
| tilde | Ȭ ȭ |
U+022C U+022D |
Ȭ ȭ |
| acute | Ḗ ḗ |
U+1E16 U+1E17 |
Ḗ ḗ |
| Ṓ ṓ |
U+1E52 U+1E53 |
Ṓ ṓ |
|
| grave | Ḕ ḕ |
U+1E14 U+1E15 |
Ḕ ḕ |
| Ṑ ṑ |
U+1E50 U+1E51 |
Ṑ ṑ |
|
| Cyrillic | |||
| — | Ӣ ӣ |
U+04E2 U+04E3 |
Ӣ ӣ |
| Ӯ ӯ |
U+04EE U+04EF |
Ӯ ӯ |
|
| Greek | |||
| — | Ᾱ Alpha Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Alpha or ALPHA may also refer to:-Science:*Alpha , the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals... ᾱ |
U+1FB9 U+1FB1 |
Ᾱ ᾱ |
| Ῑ Iota Iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 10. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh . Letters that arose from this letter include the Roman I and J and the Cyrillic І , Yi , Je , and iotified letters .Iota represents... ῑ |
U+1FD9 U+1FD1 |
Ῑ ῑ |
|
| Ῡ Upsilon Upsilon is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 400. It is derived from the Phoenician waw. The name of the letter is pronounced in Modern Greek, and in English , , or... ῡ |
U+1FE9 U+1FE1 |
Ῡ ῡ |
|
In LaTeX
LaTeX
LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
a macron is created with the command "\=", for example: M\=aori for Māori.
See also
- DiacriticDiacriticA diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
- OverlineOverlineAn overline or overbar or overscore , refers to the typographical feature of a line drawn immediately above the text, for example used to indicate medieval sigla. Specifically, a line drawn over one symbol is a macron, and a line over a collection of symbols is a vinculum...
- Macron below
- Vinculum (symbol)
- Overline
External links
- Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
- He Kupu o te Rā Information about typing macrons, macron support in email packages, and TXTing macrons.