Phonetic symbols: diacritics

To draw phonetic diacritical symbols in the Picture window or in the TextGridEditor, make sure that you have installed the Charis SIL and/or Doulos SIL font, for instance from www.sil.org or from www.praat.org. You can either type the symbols directly (if your computer has an input method for them), or use the backslash trigraphs in the following list.

Diacritics above the letter:

 n̩ n\|v (combining vertical line below): syllabic consonant
 b̥ b\0v (combining ring below): voiceless (e.g. lenis voiceless plosive, voiceless nasal or approximant)
 s̬ s\vv (combining caron below): voiced
 o̞ o\Tv (combining down tack below, lowering): lowered vowel; or turns a fricative into an approximant
 o̝ o\T^ (combining up tack below, raising): raised vowel; or turns an approximant into a fricative
 o̘ o\T( (combining left tack below, atr): advanced tongue root
 o̙ o\T) (combining right tack below, rtr): retracted tongue root
 e̠ e\-v (combining macron below): backed
 o̟ o\+v (combining plus sign below): fronted
 o̤ o\:v (combining diaeresis below): breathy voice
 o̰ o\~v (combining tilde below): creaky voice
 d̪ d\Nv (combining bridge below): dental (as opposed to alveolar)
 d̺ d\Uv (combining inverted bridge below): apical
 d̻ d\Dv (combining square below): laminal
 u̯ u\nv (combining inverted breve below): nonsyllabic
 e̹ e\3v (combining right half ring below): slightly rounded
 u̜ u\cv (combining left half ring below): slightly unrounded
 d̼ d\mv (combining seagull below): lingiolabial
 a‿b a\_ub undertie (liaison, if spaces don't mean breaks in your transcription)

Diacritics below the letter:

 ɣ̊ \gf\0^ (combining ring above): voiceless
 ɛ̋ \ef\'' (combining double acute accent): extra high tone
 ɛ́ \ef\'^ (combining acute accent): high tone
 ɛ̄ \ef\-^ (combining macron): mid tone (or so)
 ɛ̀ \ef\^ (combining grave accent): low tone
 ɛ̏ \ef\ (combining double grave accent): extra low tone
 ɛ᷄ \ef\-' (combining macron–acute): high-rising tone
 ɛ᷇ \ef\'- (combining acute–macron): high-falling tone
 ɛ᷅ \ef\- (combining grave–macron): low-rising tone
 ɛ᷆ \ef\- (combining macron–grave): low-falling tone
 ɛ᷈ \ef\rf (combining grave–acute–grave): rising–falling tone
 ɛ᷉ \ef\fr (combining acute–grave–acute): falling–rising tone
 ɛ̃ \ef\~^ (combining tilde): nasalized
 ɛ̌ \ef\v^ (combining caron, háček, wedge): rising tone
 ɛ̂ \ef\^^ (combining circumflex accent): falling tone
 ö o\:^ (combining diaeresis): centralized
 e̽ e\x^ (combining x above): mid-centralized
 ɛ̆ \ef\N^ (combining breve): extra short
 k͡p k\lip, t͡s t\lis (combining double inverted breve, ligature): simultaneous articulation, or single segment
 m͜b k\lix, m͜b k\LSx (combining double breve below, ligature): simultaneous articulation, or single segment

Diacritics struck through the letter (overlays):

 d̸ d\// (combining long solidus overlay): ?
 d̶ d\-/ (combining long stroke overlay): ?
 d̴ d\~/ (combining tilde overlay): velarized or pharyngealized, mainly used for “l”, although l̴ l\~/ can more easily be typed as ɫ \l~ (otherwise, velarization can more clearly be rendered as e.g. dˠ d\^g or dᵚ d\^M or dᶭ d\^G, and pharyngealization as dˁ d\^9).

In-line prefixes:

 ˈ \'1 primary stress
 ˌ \'2 secondary stress
 ꜛ \|u (modifier letter raised up arrow): upstep
 ꜜ \|d (modifier letter raised down arrow): downstep
 ↗ \NE (north east arrow): global rise
 ↘ \SE (south east arrow): global fall

In-line suffixes:

 ː \:f the phonetic length sign
 ˑ \.f half length
 t̚ t\cn (combining left angle above, corner): unreleased plosive
 ɜ˞ \er\hr (combining rhotic hook): rhotacized vowel
 pʼ p\ap apostrophe (for ejectives)
 ˥ \-5 extra high tone
 ˦ \-4 high tone
 ˧ \-3 mid tone
 ˨ \-2 low tone
 ˩ \-1 extra low tone
 (these last five can be combined, e.g. ˥˩ \-5\-1 falling, ˧˥ \-3\-5 high-rising, ˨˥˨ \-2\-5\-2 rising–falling, or ˨˩˧ \-2\-1\-3 low falling–rising)

Other in-line symbols:

 | \|f the phonetic stroke

Superscripts:

 tʰ t\^h aspiration
 bʱ b\^H voiced aspiration (breathiness)
 tʲ t\^j palatalization
 tˠ t\^g, tᵚ t\^M, tᶭ t\^G velarization
 kʷ k\^w rounding
 tᶣ t\^Y rounding with palatalization
 aˀ a\^? glottalization
 tˁ t\^9 pharyngealization
 tˡ t\^l lateral release
 tⁿ t\^n, pᵐ p\^m, kᵑ k\^N nasal release
 tˢ t\^s, kˣ k\^x, pᶠ p\^f affrication
 tʸ t\^y (palatalization in a deprecated Americanist notation)

Digraphs:

 ʦ \ts t–s ligature
 ʧ \tS tesh ligature
 ʣ \dz d–z ligature
 ʤ \dZ dezh ligature

Links to this page


© Paul Boersma 2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2011,2013,2021,2025