Ring (diacritic)
Encyclopedia
A ring diacritic
may appear above or below letters. It may be combined with some letters
of the extended Latin alphabet
s in various contexts.
, Norwegian
, Swedish
and Walloon
character Å
(å) is typically seen as an A
with a ring above. However, in the languages in which it is used, the letter is seen as a distinct symbol, rather than an A with a diacritic. The letter Å is the symbol of the unit ångström
, named after the Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström
.
Other characters with a ring diacritic are Ů and ů (a Latin U
with ring above). These characters are used in the Czech language
(where the ring is known as a kroužek), together with háček and čárka (like an acute accent
) above many other letters. This vowel "ů" shows how the pronunciation of various words evolved during the centuries. For example, the word for "horse" used to be written kóň, which evolved, along with pronunciation, into kuoň. Ultimately, the vowel [o] disappeared completely, and in its modern form kůň it has become the ring above "u". The letter ů now has the same pronunciation as the letter ú
(long [uː]), but changes to a short o in declension (e.g. kůň→koně), thus showing the historical evolution of the language. For historical reasons, ů can never be the first letter of the word; however, ú is almost always the first letter of the word or the word root
. These characters are used also in Steuer's Silesian alphabet.
The ring is also used in Bolognese (a dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo language) to distinguish the sound /ɑ/ (å) from /a/ (a).
Ring above has been used in Lithuanian
Cyrillic alphabet promoted by Russian authorities at the last quarter of 19th century in the letter / , used to represent the /wɔ/ diphthong (now written uo in contemporary Lithuanian orthography).
Many more characters can be created in Unicode
using the 'combining ring above' U+030A, including the above mentioned (Cyrillic у with ring above) or even (n with acute and ring above). The standalone ring above symbol has the codepoint U+02DA.
encodes "combining ring below" at
The diacritic is used in IPA
to indicate voicelessness
, and in Indo-European studies
or in Sanskrit
transliteration (IAST
) to indicate syllabicity
of r, l, m, n etc. (e.g. corresponding to IPA [ɹ̩]).
Examples:
, denoting roundedness
. They are here given with the lowercase a: and .
Other, similar signs are in use in Armenian
: the , and the Armenian comma
or .
The ring as a diacritic mark should not be confused with the dot above or comma above
diacritic marks, with the combing o above , or with the degree sign °.
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...
may appear above or below letters. It may be combined with some letters
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
of the extended Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
s in various contexts.
Ring above
The DanishDanish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish 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...
and Walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
character Å
Å
Å represents various sounds in several languages. Å is part of the alphabets used for the Alemannic and the Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German...
(å) is typically seen as an A
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 :...
with a ring above. However, in the languages in which it is used, the letter is seen as a distinct symbol, rather than an A with a diacritic. The letter Å is the symbol of the unit ångström
Ångström
The angstrom or ångström, is a unit of length equal to 1/10,000,000,000 of a meter . Its symbol is the Swedish letter Å....
, named after the Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström
Anders Jonas Ångström
Anders Jonas Ångström was a Swedish physicist and one of the founders of the science of spectroscopy.-Biography:...
.
Other characters with a ring diacritic are Ů and ů (a Latin U
U
U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
with ring above). These characters are used in the Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
(where the ring is known as a kroužek), together with háček and čárka (like an acute accent
Acute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
) above many other letters. This vowel "ů" shows how the pronunciation of various words evolved during the centuries. For example, the word for "horse" used to be written kóň, which evolved, along with pronunciation, into kuoň. Ultimately, the vowel [o] disappeared completely, and in its modern form kůň it has become the ring above "u". The letter ů now has the same pronunciation as the letter ú
Ú
Ú or ú is a Latin letter used in the Czech, Faroese, Hungarian, Icelandic, and Slovak writing systems. This letter also appears in Dutch, Irish, Occitan, Pinyin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Vietnamese as a variant of the letter "U"....
(long [uː]), but changes to a short o in declension (e.g. kůň→koně), thus showing the historical evolution of the language. For historical reasons, ů can never be the first letter of the word; however, ú is almost always the first letter of the word or the word root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
. These characters are used also in Steuer's Silesian alphabet.
The ring is also used in Bolognese (a dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo language) to distinguish the sound /ɑ/ (å) from /a/ (a).
Ring above has been used in Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian 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...
Cyrillic alphabet promoted by Russian authorities at the last quarter of 19th century in the letter / , used to represent the /wɔ/ diphthong (now written uo in contemporary Lithuanian orthography).
Many more characters can be created in Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
using the 'combining ring above' U+030A, including the above mentioned (Cyrillic у with ring above) or even (n with acute and ring above). The standalone ring above symbol has the codepoint U+02DA.
Ring below
UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
encodes "combining ring below" at
The diacritic is used in IPA
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...
to indicate voicelessness
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
, and in Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. Its goal is to amass information about the hypothetical proto-language from which all of these languages are descended, a language dubbed Proto-Indo-European , and its speakers, the...
or in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , 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...
transliteration (IAST
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts as employed by the Sanskrit language.-Popularity:...
) to indicate syllabicity
Syllabic consonant
A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable on its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. The diacritic for this in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the under-stroke, ⟨⟩...
of r, l, m, n etc. (e.g. corresponding to IPA [ɹ̩]).
Examples:
Half rings
Half rings also exist as diacritic marks, these are characters and . These characters may be used in the International Phonetic AlphabetInternational 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...
, denoting roundedness
Roundedness
In phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. That is, it is vocalic labialization. When pronouncing a rounded vowel, the lips form a circular opening, while unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed...
. They are here given with the lowercase a: and .
Other, similar signs are in use in Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
: the , and the Armenian comma
Comma (punctuation)
The comma is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical, or...
or .
The ring as a diacritic mark should not be confused with the dot above or comma above
Comma (punctuation)
The comma is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical, or...
diacritic marks, with the combing o above , or with the degree sign °.