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Macron (diacritic)

A macron (/ˈmækrɒn, ˈm-/) is a diacritical mark: it is a straight bar ¯ placed above a letter, usually a vowel. Its name derives from Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón) "long", since it was originally used to mark long or heavy syllables in Greco-Roman metrics. It now more often marks a long vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the macron is used to indicate a mid-tone; the sign for a long vowel is instead a modified triangular colonː⟩.

◌̄
Macron

The opposite is the breve ⟨˘⟩, which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel.

Uses

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 in dictionaries and educational materials to mark a long (heavy) syllable. Even relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries[1] are still concerned with indicating only the length (weight) of syllables; that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined. Many textbooks about Ancient Rome and Greece use the macron, even if it was not actually used at that time (an apex was used if vowel length was marked in Latin).

Vowel length

The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to mark long vowels:

  • 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 dialect varieties of Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, and Bulgarian.[2]
  • Transcriptions of Arabic typically use macrons to indicate long vowels – ا (alif when pronounced /aː/), و (waw, when pronounced /uː/ or /oː/), and ي (ya', when pronounced /iː/ or /eː/). Thus the Arabic word ثلاثة (three) is transliterated thalāthah.
  • Transcriptions of Sanskrit typically use a macron over ā, ī, ū, ṝ, and ḹ in order to mark a long vowel (e and o are always long and consequently do not need any macron).[citation needed]
  • In Latin, many of the more recent dictionaries and learning materials use the macron as the modern equivalent of the ancient Roman apex to mark long vowels. Any of the six vowel letters (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ) can bear it. It is sometimes used in conjunction with the breve, especially to distinguish the short vowels /i/ and /u/ from their semi-vowel counterparts /j/ and /w/, originally, and often to this day, spelt with the same letters. However, the older of these editions are not always explicit on whether they mark long vowels or heavy syllables – a confusion that is even found in some modern learning materials. In addition, most of the newest academic publications use both the macron and the breve sparingly, mainly when vowel length is relevant to the discussion.
  • In romanization of classical Greek, the letters η (eta) and ω (omega) are transliterated, respectively, as ē and ō, representing the long vowels of classical Greek, whereas the short vowels ε (epsilon) and ο (omicron) are always transliterated as plain e and o. The other long vowel phonemes don't have dedicated letters in the Greek alphabet, being indicated by digraphs (transliterated likewise as digraphs) or by the letters α, ι , υ – represented as ā, ī, ū. The same three letters are transliterated as plain a, i, u when representing short vowels.
  • The Hepburn romanization system of Japanese, for example, kōtsū (交通, こうつう) "traffic" as opposed to kotsu (, こつ) "bone" or "knack".
  • The Syriac language uses macrons to indicate long vowels in its romanized transliteration: ā for /aː/, ē for /eː/, ū for /uː/ and ō for /ɔː/.
  • Baltic languages and Baltic-Finnic languages:
    • Latvian. ā, ē, ī, ū are separate letters but are given the same position in collation as a, e, i, u respectively. Ō was also used in Latvian, but it was discarded as of 1946.[3] Some usage remains in Latgalian.
    • Lithuanian. ū is a separate letter but is given the same position in collation as the unaccented u. It marks a long vowel; other long vowels are indicated with an ogonek (which used to indicate nasalization, but it no longer does): ą, ę, į, ų and o being always long in Lithuanian except for some recent loanwords. For the long counterpart of i, y is used.
    • Livonian. ā, ǟ, ē, ī, ō, ȱ, ȭ and ū are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after a, ä, e, i, o, ȯ, õ, and u, respectively.
    • Samogitian. ā, ē, ė̄, ī, ū and ō are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after a, e, ė, i, u and o respectively.
  • Transcriptions of Nahuatl, the Aztecs' language, spoken in Mexico. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, they wrote the language in their own alphabet without distinguishing long vowels. Over a century later, in 1645, Horacio Carochi 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, for long vowels.
  • Latin transliteration of Pali and Sanskrit, and in the IAST and ISO 15919 transcriptions of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages.
  • Polynesian languages:
    • Cook Islands Māori. In Cook Islands Māori, the macron or mākarōna is not commonly used in writing, but is used in references and teaching materials for those learning the language.[4][5]
    • Hawaiian. The macron is called kahakō, and it indicates vowel length, which changes meaning and the placement of stress.
    • Māori. In modern written Māori, the macron is used to designate long vowels, with the trema mark sometimes used if the macron is unavailable (e.g. "Mäori").[6] The Māori word for macron is tohutō. The term pōtae ("hat") is also used.[7] In the past, writing in Māori either did not distinguish vowel length, or doubled long vowels (e.g. "Maaori"), as some iwi dialects still do.
    • Niuean. In Niuean, "popular spelling" does not worry too much about vowel quantity (length), so the macron is primarily used in scholarly study of the language.[8]
    • Tahitian. The use of the macron is comparatively recent in Tahitian. The Fare Vānaʻa or Académie Tahitienne (Tahitian Academy) recommends using the macron, called the tārava, to represent long vowels in written text, especially for scientific or teaching texts[9][10] and it has widespread acceptance.[11][12][13] (In the past, written Tahitian either did not distinguish vowel length, or used multiple other ways).[14]
    • Tongan and Samoan. The macron is called the toloi/fakamamafa or fa'amamafa, respectively. Its usage is similar to that in Māori, including its substitution by a trema. Its usage is not universal in Samoan, but recent academic publications and advanced study textbooks promote its use.[15]
  • The macron is used in Fijian language dictionaries, in instructional materials for non-Fijian speakers, and in books and papers on Fijian linguistics. It is not typically used in Fijian publications intended for fluent speakers, where context is usually sufficient for a reader to distinguish between heteronyms.
  • Both Cyrillic and Latin transcriptions of Udege.
  • The Latin and Cyrillic alphabet transcriptions of the Tsebari dialect of Tsez.
  • In western Cree, Sauk, and Saulteaux, the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) indicates long vowels [aː eː iː oː~uː] either with a circumflexâ ê î ô⟩ or with a macron ⟨ā ē ī ō⟩.

Tone

The following languages or alphabets use the macron to mark tones:

  • In the International Phonetic Alphabet, a macron over a vowel indicates a mid-level tone.
  • In Yoruba an optional macron can be used to indicate mid-level tone if it would otherwise be ambiguous.
  • In Pinyin, the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, macrons over a, e, i, o, u, ü (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ) indicate the high level tone of Mandarin Chinese. The alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable (for example, tā = ta1).
  • Similarly in the Yale romanization of Cantonese, macrons over a, e, i, o, u, m, n (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, m̄, n̄) indicate the high level tone of Cantonese. Like Mandarin, the alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable (for example, tā = ta1).
  • In Pe̍h-ōe-jī romanization of Hokkien, macrons over a, e, i, m, n, o, o͘, u, (ā, ē, ī, m̄, n̄, ō, ō͘, ū) indicate the mid level tone ("light departing" or 7th tone) of Hokkien.

Omission

Sometimes the macron marks an omitted n or m, like the tilde:

  • 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 Kurrentschrift, 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, and to some extent in German. Over a u at the end of a word, the macron indicated um as a form of scribal abbreviation.

Letter extension

In romanizations of Hebrew, the macron below is typically used to mark the begadkefat consonant lenition. However, for typographical reasons a regular macron is used on p and g instead: p̄, ḡ.

The macron is used in the orthography of a number of vernacular languages of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, particularly those 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,[16] the simple m stands for /m/, but an m with a macron () is a rounded labial-velar nasal /ŋ͡mʷ/; while the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal /n/, an n with macron () 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 Hiw orthography, the consonant stands for the prestopped velar lateral approximant /ᶢʟ/.[17] In Araki, the same symbol encodes the alveolar trill /r/ – by contrast with r, which encodes the alveolar flap /ɾ/.[18]

In Bislama (orthography before 1995), Lamenu and Lewo, a macron is used on two letters m̄ p̄.[19][20] represents /mʷ/, and represents /pʷ/. The orthography after 1995 (which has no diacritics) has these written as mw and pw.

In Kokota, is used for the velar stop /ɡ/, but g without macron is the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/.[21]

In Marshallese, a macron is used on four letters – ā n̄ ō ū – whose pronunciations differ from the unmarked a n o u. Marshallese uses a vertical vowel system with three to four vowel phonemes, but traditionally their allophones have been written out, so vowel letters with macron are used for some of these allophones. Though the standard diacritic involved is a macron, there are no other diacritics used above letters, so in practice other diacritics can and have been used in less polished writing or print, yielding nonstandard letters like ã ñ õ û, depending on displayability of letters in computer fonts.

  • The letter ā is pronounced [æ~ɛ], the palatalized allophone of the phoneme /a/.
  • The letter represents the velar nasal phoneme /ŋ/ and the labialized velar nasal phoneme /ŋʷ/, depending on context. The standard letter does not exist as a precombined glyph in Unicode, so the nonstandard variant ñ is often used in its place.
  • The letter ō is pronounced [ʌ] or [ɤ], which are the unrounded velarized allophones of the phonemes /ɜ/ and /ɘ/ respectively.
  • The letter ū is pronounced [ɯ], the unrounded velarized allophone of the phoneme /ɨ/.

In Obolo, the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal /n/, while an n with macron () represents the velar nasal /ŋ/.[22]

Other uses

  • In older German and in the German Kurrent handwriting, as well as older Danish, a macron is used on some consonants, especially n and m, as a short form for a double consonant (for example, instead of nn).
  • In Russian cursive, as well as in some others based on the Cyrillic script (for example, Bulgarian), 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 (see Т). Some writers also underline the letter ш to reduce ambiguity further.

Also, in some instances, a diacritic will be written like a macron, although it represents another diacritic whose standard form is different:

  • In some Finnish, Estonian and Swedish comic books that are hand-lettered, or in handwriting, a macron-style umlaut is used for ä or ö (also õ and ü in Estonian), sometimes known colloquially as a "lazy man's umlaut". This can also be seen in some modern handwritten German.
  • In Norwegian ū, ā, ī, ē and ō can be used for decorative purposes both in handwritten and computed Bokmål and Nynorsk or to denote vowel length such as in (you), (infinitive form of to let), lēser (present form of "to read") and lūft (air). The diacritic is entirely optional, carries no IPA value and is seldom used in modern Norwegian outside of handwriting.
  • In informal Hungarian handwriting, a macron is often a substitute for either a double acute accent or an umlaut (e.g., ö or ő). Because of this ambiguity, using it is often regarded as bad practice.
  • In informal handwriting, the Spanish ñ is sometimes written with a macron-shaped tilde: ().

Medicine

Continuing previous Latin scribal abbreviations, letters with combining macron can be used in various European languages to represent the overlines indicating various medical abbreviations, particularly including:

  • ā for ante ("before")
  • for cum ("with")
  • for post ("after")[23]
  • for quisque and its inflections ("every", "each")
  • for sine ("without")
  • for exceptus and its inflections ("except")

Note, however, that abbreviations involving the letter h take their macron halfway up the ascending line rather than at the normal height for unicode macrons and overlines: ħ. This is separately encoded in Unicode with the symbols using bar diacritics and appears shorter than other macrons in many fonts.

Mathematics and science

The overline is a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science. For example, it is used to represent complex conjugation:

 

and to represent a line segment in geometry (e.g.,  ), sample means in statistics (e.g.,  ) and negations in logic.[24] It is also used in Hermann–Mauguin notation.[how?]

Music

In music, the tenuto marking resembles the macron.

The macron is also used in German lute tablature to distinguish repeating alphabetic characters.

Letters with macron

Technical notes

The Unicode Standard encodes combining and precomposed macron characters:

Description Macrons
Character Unicode HTML Character Unicode HTML
Macron
above
Combining Spacing
◌̄
single
U+0304 ̄ ¯
mark
U+00AF ¯
¯
◌͞◌
double
U+035E ͞ ˉ
letter
U+02C9 ˉ
Macron
below
(see macron below)
Additional
diacritic
Latin
Upper case Lower case
Ā U+0100 Ā ā U+0101 ā
Ǣ U+01E2 Ǣ ǣ U+01E3 ǣ
Ē U+0112 Ē ē U+0113 ē
U+1E20 Ḡ U+1E21 ḡ
Ī U+012A Ī ī U+012B ī
Ō U+014C Ō ō U+014D ō
Ū U+016A Ū ū U+016B ū
Ȳ U+0232 Ȳ ȳ U+0233 ȳ
Diaeresis Ǟ U+01DE Ǟ ǟ U+01DF ǟ
Ȫ U+022A Ȫ ȫ U+022B ȫ
Ǖ U+01D5 Ǖ ǖ U+01D6 ǖ
U+1E7A Ṻ U+1E7B ṻ
Dot above Ǡ U+01E0 Ǡ ǡ U+01E1 ǡ
Ȱ U+0230 Ȱ ȱ U+0231 ȱ
Dot below U+1E38 Ḹ U+1E39 ḹ
U+1E5C Ṝ U+1E5D ṝ
Ogonek Ǭ U+01EC Ǭ ǭ U+01ED ǭ
Tilde Ȭ U+022C Ȭ ȭ U+022D ȭ
Acute U+1E16 Ḗ U+1E17 ḗ
U+1E52 Ṓ U+1E53 ṓ
Grave U+1E14 Ḕ U+1E15 ḕ
U+1E50 Ṑ U+1E51 ṑ
Cyrillic
Ӣ U+04E2 Ӣ ӣ U+04E3 ӣ
Ӯ U+04EE Ӯ ӯ U+04EF ӯ
Greek
U+1FB9 Ᾱ U+1FB1 ᾱ
U+1FD9 Ῑ U+1FD1 ῑ
U+1FE9 Ῡ U+1FE1 ῡ

Macron-related Unicode characters not included in the table above:

  • CJK fullwidth variety:
    • U+FFE3 FULLWIDTH MACRON
  • Kazakhstani tenge
    • U+20B8 TENGE SIGN
  • Overlines
  • Characters using a macron below instead of above
  • Tone contour transcription characters incorporating a macron:
    • U+1DC4 ◌᷄ COMBINING MACRON-ACUTE
    • U+1DC5 ◌᷅ COMBINING GRAVE-MACRON
    • U+1DC6 ◌᷆ COMBINING MACRON-GRAVE
    • U+1DC7 ◌᷇ COMBINING ACUTE-MACRON
  • Two intonation marks historically used by Antanas Baranauskas for Lithuanian dialectology:[25][26]
    • U+1DCB ◌᷋ COMBINING BREVE-MACRON
    • U+1DCC ◌᷌ COMBINING MACRON-BREVE

In LaTeX a macron is created with the command "\=", for example: M\=aori for Māori. In OpenOffice, if the extension Compose Special Characters is installed,[27] a macron may be added by following the letter with a hyphen and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for composing special characters. A macron may also be added by following the letter with the character's four-digit hex-code, and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for adding unicode characters.

See also

References

  1. ^ P.G.W. Glare (ed.), Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1990), p. xxiii: Vowel quantities. Normally, only long vowels in a metrically indeterminate position are marked.
  2. ^ Годечкият Говор от Михаил Виденов,Издателство на българската академия на науките,София, 1978, p. 19: ...характерни за всички селища от годечкия говор....Подобни случай са характерни и за книжовния език-Ст.Стойков, Увод във фонетиката на българския език , стр. 151.. (in Bulgarian)
  3. ^ Iluta Dalbiņa un Inese Lāčauniece (2001). Latviešu valoda vidusskolām. Rīga: RaKa. p. 110. ISBN 978-9984-46-130-4.
  4. ^ Buse, Jasper with Taringa, Raututi (Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moekaʻa, eds.). (1996). Cook Islands Maori Dictionary with English-Cook Islands Maori Finder List. Avarua, Rarotonga: The Ministry of Education, Government of the Cook Islands; The School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London; The Institute of Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific; The Centre for Pacific Studies, The University of Auckland; Pacific Linguistics, The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
  5. ^ Carpentier, Tai Tepuaoterā Turepu and Beaumont, Clive. (1995). Kai kōrero: A Cook Islands Maori Language Coursebook. Auckland, New Zealand: Pasifika Press.
  6. ^ "Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori". www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz.
  7. ^ "Macrons". kupu.maori.nz. Retrieved 2017-10-08.
  8. ^ Sperlich, Wolfgang B. (ed.) (1997). Tohi vagahau Niue – Niue language dictionary: Niuen-English with English-Niuean finderlist. Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Linguistics.
  9. ^ Académie Tahitienne. (1986). Grammaire de la langue tahitienne. Papeete, Tahiti: Fare Vānaʻa.
  10. ^ Académie Tahitienne. (1999). Dictionnaire tahitien-français: Faʻatoro parau tahiti-farāni. Papeete, Tahiti: Fare Vānaʻa.
  11. ^ LeMaître, Yves. (1995). Lexique du tahitien contemporain: tahitien-français français-tahitien. Paris: Éditions de l'IRD (ex-Orstom).
  12. ^ Montillier, Pierre. (1999). Te reo tahiti ʻāpi: Dictionnaire du tahitien nouveau et biblique. Papeete, Tahiti: STP Multipress.
  13. ^ Jaussen, Mgr Tepano. (2001). Dictionnaire de la langue Tahitienne (10ème édition, revue et augmentée). Papeete, Tahiti: Société des Études Océaniennes.
  14. ^ Académie Tahitienne (6 January 2003). Graphie et graphies de la langue tahitienne.
  15. ^ Simanu, Aumua Mata'itusi. 'O si Manu a Ali'i: A Text for the Advanced Study of Samoan Language and Culture
  16. ^ François, Alexandre (2005), "A typological overview of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu", Linguistic Typology, 9 (1): 115–146 [118], doi:10.1515/lity.2005.9.1.115, S2CID 55878308
  17. ^ François, Alexandre (2010), "Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment", Phonology, 27 (3): 393–434, doi:10.1017/s0952675710000205, S2CID 62628417, p. 421.
  18. ^ François, Alexandre (2008). "The alphabet of Araki".
  19. ^ "Letter Database". eki.ee.
  20. ^ Smith, Rachel E. (2016). "The Goal of the Good House": Seasonal Work and Seeking a Good Life in Lamen and Lamen Bay, Epi, Vanuatu (PDF) (PhD). University of Manchester. p. 439.
  21. ^ Palmer, Bill. A grammar of the Kokota language, Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands. PhD dissertation.
  22. ^ OLBTO (2011) "Reading and Writing Obolo: Obolo Alphabet" in "A Workshop Manual for Teaching Obolo." Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organisation (OLBTO). p.1
  23. ^ Cappelli, Adriano (1961). Manuali Hoepli Lexicon Abbreviature Dizionario Di Abbreviature Latine ed Italiane. Milan: Editore Ulrico Hoepli Milano. p. 256.
  24. ^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Macron". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
  25. ^ "N3048: Proposal to encode two combining characters in the UCS" (PDF). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2. 2006-03-02.
  26. ^ "N3861: Resolutions of the WG 2 meeting 48 held in Mountain View, CA, USA, 2006-04-24/27" (PDF). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2. 2006-04-27.
  27. ^ "Compose Special Characters". openoffice.org.

External links

  • Diacritics Project – All you need to design a font with correct accents
  • Kupu o te Rā How to set up the keyboard to type macrons in various operating systems.

macron, diacritic, this, article, about, diacritic, other, uses, macron, disambiguation, confused, with, overline, diacritic, macron, redirect, here, greek, letter, omicron, prefix, japanese, japanese, honorifics, macron, diacritical, mark, straight, placed, a. This article is about the diacritic For other uses see Macron disambiguation Not to be confused with overline or bar diacritic O macron and O redirect here For the Greek letter see omicron For the o prefix in Japanese see Japanese honorifics A macron ˈ m ae k r ɒ n ˈ m eɪ is a diacritical mark it is a straight bar placed above a letter usually a vowel Its name derives from Ancient Greek makron makron long since it was originally used to mark long or heavy syllables in Greco Roman metrics It now more often marks a long vowel In the International Phonetic Alphabet the macron is used to indicate a mid tone the sign for a long vowel is instead a modified triangular colon ː MacronThe opposite is the breve which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel Contents 1 Uses 1 1 Syllable weight 1 2 Vowel length 1 3 Tone 1 4 Omission 1 5 Letter extension 1 6 Other uses 1 7 Medicine 1 8 Mathematics and science 1 9 Music 2 Letters with macron 3 Technical notes 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksUses EditSyllable weight Edit In Greco Roman metrics and in the description of the metrics of other literatures the macron was introduced and is still widely used in dictionaries and educational materials to mark a long heavy syllable Even relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries 1 are still concerned with indicating only the length weight of syllables that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined Many textbooks about Ancient Rome and Greece use the macron even if it was not actually used at that time an apex was used if vowel length was marked in Latin Vowel length Edit The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to mark long vowels 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 dialect varieties of Serbo Croatian Slovene and Bulgarian 2 Transcriptions of Arabic typically use macrons to indicate long vowels ا alif when pronounced aː و waw when pronounced uː or oː and ي ya when pronounced iː or eː Thus the Arabic word ثلاثة three is transliterated thalathah Transcriptions of Sanskrit typically use a macron over a i u ṝ and ḹ in order to mark a long vowel e and o are always long and consequently do not need any macron citation needed In Latin many of the more recent dictionaries and learning materials use the macron as the modern equivalent of the ancient Roman apex to mark long vowels Any of the six vowel letters a e i ō u ȳ can bear it It is sometimes used in conjunction with the breve especially to distinguish the short vowels i and u from their semi vowel counterparts j and w originally and often to this day spelt with the same letters However the older of these editions are not always explicit on whether they mark long vowels or heavy syllables a confusion that is even found in some modern learning materials In addition most of the newest academic publications use both the macron and the breve sparingly mainly when vowel length is relevant to the discussion In romanization of classical Greek the letters h eta and w omega are transliterated respectively as e and ō representing the long vowels of classical Greek whereas the short vowels e epsilon and o omicron are always transliterated as plain e and o The other long vowel phonemes don t have dedicated letters in the Greek alphabet being indicated by digraphs transliterated likewise as digraphs or by the letters a i y represented as a i u The same three letters are transliterated as plain a i u when representing short vowels The Hepburn romanization system of Japanese for example kōtsu 交通 こうつう traffic as opposed to kotsu 骨 こつ bone or knack The Syriac language uses macrons to indicate long vowels in its romanized transliteration a for aː e for eː u for uː and ō for ɔː Baltic languages and Baltic Finnic languages Latvian a e i u are separate letters but are given the same position in collation as a e i u respectively Ō was also used in Latvian but it was discarded as of 1946 3 Some usage remains in Latgalian Lithuanian u is a separate letter but is given the same position in collation as the unaccented u It marks a long vowel other long vowels are indicated with an ogonek which used to indicate nasalization but it no longer does a e į u and o being always long in Lithuanian except for some recent loanwords For the long counterpart of i y is used Livonian a ǟ e i ō ȱ ȭ and u are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after a a e i o ȯ o and u respectively Samogitian a e e i u and ō are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after a e e i u and o respectively Transcriptions of Nahuatl the Aztecs language spoken in Mexico When the Spanish conquistadors arrived they wrote the language in their own alphabet without distinguishing long vowels Over a century later in 1645 Horacio Carochi defined macrons to mark long vowels a e i 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 for long vowels Latin transliteration of Pali and Sanskrit and in the IAST and ISO 15919 transcriptions of Indo Aryan and Dravidian languages Polynesian languages Cook Islands Maori In Cook Islands Maori the macron or makarōna is not commonly used in writing but is used in references and teaching materials for those learning the language 4 5 Hawaiian The macron is called kahakō and it indicates vowel length which changes meaning and the placement of stress Maori In modern written Maori the macron is used to designate long vowels with the trema mark sometimes used if the macron is unavailable e g Maori 6 The Maori word for macron is tohutō The term pōtae hat is also used 7 In the past writing in Maori either did not distinguish vowel length or doubled long vowels e g Maaori as some iwi dialects still do Niuean In Niuean popular spelling does not worry too much about vowel quantity length so the macron is primarily used in scholarly study of the language 8 Tahitian The use of the macron is comparatively recent in Tahitian The Fare Vanaʻa or Academie Tahitienne Tahitian Academy recommends using the macron called the tarava to represent long vowels in written text especially for scientific or teaching texts 9 10 and it has widespread acceptance 11 12 13 In the past written Tahitian either did not distinguish vowel length or used multiple other ways 14 Tongan and Samoan The macron is called the toloi fakamamafa or fa amamafa respectively Its usage is similar to that in Maori including its substitution by a trema Its usage is not universal in Samoan but recent academic publications and advanced study textbooks promote its use 15 The macron is used in Fijian language dictionaries in instructional materials for non Fijian speakers and in books and papers on Fijian linguistics It is not typically used in Fijian publications intended for fluent speakers where context is usually sufficient for a reader to distinguish between heteronyms Both Cyrillic and Latin transcriptions of Udege The Latin and Cyrillic alphabet transcriptions of the Tsebari dialect of Tsez In western Cree Sauk and Saulteaux the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography SRO indicates long vowels aː eː iː oː uː either with a circumflex a e i o or with a macron a e i ō Tone Edit The following languages or alphabets use the macron to mark tones In the International Phonetic Alphabet a macron over a vowel indicates a mid level tone In Yoruba an optional macron can be used to indicate mid level tone if it would otherwise be ambiguous In Pinyin the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese macrons over a e i o u u a e i ō u ǖ indicate the high level tone of Mandarin Chinese The alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable for example ta ta1 Similarly in the Yale romanization of Cantonese macrons over a e i o u m n a e i ō u m n indicate the high level tone of Cantonese Like Mandarin the alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable for example ta ta1 In Pe h ōe ji romanization of Hokkien macrons over a e i m n o o u a e i m n ō ō u indicate the mid level tone light departing or 7th tone of Hokkien Omission Edit Sometimes the macron marks an omitted n or m like the tilde 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 Kurrentschrift the macron over an a e i o u or a o u 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 and to some extent in German Over a u at the end of a word the macron indicated um as a form of scribal abbreviation Letter extension Edit p redirects here For the subatomic particle see Antiproton n redirects here For the subatomic particle see Antineutron In romanizations of Hebrew the macron below is typically used to mark the begadkefat consonant lenition However for typographical reasons a regular macron is used on p and g instead p ḡ The macron is used in the orthography of a number of vernacular languages of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu particularly those 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 16 the simple m stands for m but an m with a macron m is a rounded labial velar nasal ŋ mʷ while the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal n an n with macron n represents the velar nasal ŋ the vowel e stands for a short higher ɪ by contrast with plain e ɛ likewise ō ʊ contrasts with plain o ɔ In Hiw orthography the consonant r stands for the prestopped velar lateral approximant ᶢʟ 17 In Araki the same symbol r encodes the alveolar trill r by contrast with r which encodes the alveolar flap ɾ 18 In Bislama orthography before 1995 Lamenu and Lewo a macron is used on two letters m p 19 20 m represents mʷ and p represents pʷ The orthography after 1995 which has no diacritics has these written as mw and pw In Kokota ḡ is used for the velar stop ɡ but g without macron is the voiced velar fricative ɣ 21 In Marshallese a macron is used on four letters a n ō u whose pronunciations differ from the unmarked a n o u Marshallese uses a vertical vowel system with three to four vowel phonemes but traditionally their allophones have been written out so vowel letters with macron are used for some of these allophones Though the standard diacritic involved is a macron there are no other diacritics used above letters so in practice other diacritics can and have been used in less polished writing or print yielding nonstandard letters like a n o u depending on displayability of letters in computer fonts The letter a is pronounced ae ɛ the palatalized allophone of the phoneme a The letter n represents the velar nasal phoneme ŋ and the labialized velar nasal phoneme ŋʷ depending on context The standard letter does not exist as a precombined glyph in Unicode so the nonstandard variant n is often used in its place The letter ō is pronounced ʌ or ɤ which are the unrounded velarized allophones of the phonemes ɜ and ɘ respectively The letter u is pronounced ɯ the unrounded velarized allophone of the phoneme ɨ In Obolo the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal n while an n with macron n represents the velar nasal ŋ 22 Other uses Edit In older German and in the German Kurrent handwriting as well as older Danish a macron is used on some consonants especially n and m as a short form for a double consonant for example n instead of nn In Russian cursive as well as in some others based on the Cyrillic script for example Bulgarian a lowercase T looks like a lowercase m and a macron is often used to distinguish it from Sh which looks like a lowercase w see T Some writers also underline the letter sh to reduce ambiguity further Also in some instances a diacritic will be written like a macron although it represents another diacritic whose standard form is different In some Finnish Estonian and Swedish comic books that are hand lettered or in handwriting a macron style umlaut is used for a or o also o and u in Estonian sometimes known colloquially as a lazy man s umlaut This can also be seen in some modern handwritten German In Norwegian u a i e and ō can be used for decorative purposes both in handwritten and computed Bokmal and Nynorsk or to denote vowel length such as in du you la infinitive form of to let leser present form of to read and luft air The diacritic is entirely optional carries no IPA value and is seldom used in modern Norwegian outside of handwriting In informal Hungarian handwriting a macron is often a substitute for either a double acute accent or an umlaut e g o or o Because of this ambiguity using it is often regarded as bad practice In informal handwriting the Spanish n is sometimes written with a macron shaped tilde n Medicine Edit Main articles overline bar diacritic scribal abbreviation and medical abbreviation Continuing previous Latin scribal abbreviations letters with combining macron can be used in various European languages to represent the overlines indicating various medical abbreviations particularly including a for ante before c for cum with p for post after 23 q for quisque and its inflections every each s for sine without x for exceptus and its inflections except Note however that abbreviations involving the letter h take their macron halfway up the ascending line rather than at the normal height for unicode macrons and overlines ħ This is separately encoded in Unicode with the symbols using bar diacritics and appears shorter than other macrons in many fonts Mathematics and science Edit The overline is a typographical symbol similar to the macron used in a number of ways in mathematics and science For example it is used to represent complex conjugation z a b i z a b i displaystyle z a bi quad overline z a bi and to represent a line segment in geometry e g A B displaystyle overline AB sample means in statistics e g X displaystyle overline X and negations in logic 24 It is also used in Hermann Mauguin notation how Music Edit In music the tenuto marking resembles the macron The macron is also used in German lute tablature to distinguish repeating alphabetic characters Letters with macron Editvte Macron Latin A aA a A a A a A a Ǟ ǟA a Ǡ ǡA a A a Ǣ ǣB b Ḇ ḇC c C c D d Ḏ ḏE eḖ ḗḔ ḕE e E e E e E e E e E e Ḡ ḡG g H ẖi ii i i i i i i i I i J j J j Ḵ ḵL l Ḹ ḹḺ ḻM m M m N n Ṉ ṉŌ ōṒ ṓṐ ṑŌ ō Ō ō Ȫ ȫŌ ō Ǭ ǭȬ ȭȰ ȱO o O o Œ œ P p P p Q q R r Ṟ ṟṜ ṝS s S s T t Ṯ ṯu uu u u u u u u u U u Ǖ ǖṺ ṻṲ ṳ U u V v W w X x X x Ȳ ȳȲ ȳ Ȳ ȳ Ȳ ȳ Y y Z z Ẕ ẕ Greek Ᾱ ᾱE Ῑ ῑῩ ῡ Cyrillic A a Ӣ ӣӮ ӯTechnical notes EditThe Unicode Standard encodes combining and precomposed macron characters Description MacronsCharacter Unicode HTML Character Unicode HTMLMacronaboveCombining Spacing single U 0304 amp 772 mark U 00AF amp macr amp 175 double U 035E amp 862 ˉletter U 02C9 amp 713 Macronbelow see macron below Additionaldiacritic LatinUpper case Lower case A U 0100 amp 256 a U 0101 amp 257 Ǣ U 01E2 amp 482 ǣ U 01E3 amp 483 E U 0112 amp 274 e U 0113 amp 275 Ḡ U 1E20 amp 7712 ḡ U 1E21 amp 7713 i U 012A amp 298 i U 012B amp 299 Ō U 014C amp 332 ō U 014D amp 333 u U 016A amp 362 u U 016B amp 363 Ȳ U 0232 amp 562 ȳ U 0233 amp 563 Diaeresis Ǟ U 01DE amp 478 ǟ U 01DF amp 479 Ȫ U 022A amp 554 ȫ U 022B amp 555 Ǖ U 01D5 amp 469 ǖ U 01D6 amp 470 Ṻ U 1E7A amp 7802 ṻ U 1E7B amp 7803 Dot above Ǡ U 01E0 amp 480 ǡ U 01E1 amp 481 Ȱ U 0230 amp 560 ȱ U 0231 amp 561 Dot below Ḹ U 1E38 amp 7736 ḹ U 1E39 amp 7737 Ṝ U 1E5C amp 7772 ṝ U 1E5D amp 7773 Ogonek Ǭ U 01EC amp 492 ǭ U 01ED amp 493 Tilde Ȭ U 022C amp 556 ȭ U 022D amp 557 Acute Ḗ U 1E16 amp 7702 ḗ U 1E17 amp 7703 Ṓ U 1E52 amp 7762 ṓ U 1E53 amp 7763 Grave Ḕ U 1E14 amp 7700 ḕ U 1E15 amp 7701 Ṑ U 1E50 amp 7760 ṑ U 1E51 amp 7761 Cyrillic Ӣ U 04E2 amp 1250 ӣ U 04E3 amp 1251 Ӯ U 04EE amp 1262 ӯ U 04EF amp 1263 Greek Ᾱ U 1FB9 amp 8121 ᾱ U 1FB1 amp 8113 Ῑ U 1FD9 amp 8153 ῑ U 1FD1 amp 8145 Ῡ U 1FE9 amp 8169 ῡ U 1FE1 amp 8161 Macron related Unicode characters not included in the table above CJK fullwidth variety U FFE3 FULLWIDTH MACRON Kazakhstani tenge U 20B8 TENGE SIGN Overlines Characters using a macron below instead of above Tone contour transcription characters incorporating a macron U 1DC4 COMBINING MACRON ACUTE U 1DC5 COMBINING GRAVE MACRON U 1DC6 COMBINING MACRON GRAVE U 1DC7 COMBINING ACUTE MACRON Two intonation marks historically used by Antanas Baranauskas for Lithuanian dialectology 25 26 U 1DCB COMBINING BREVE MACRON U 1DCC COMBINING MACRON BREVEIn LaTeX a macron is created with the command for example M aori for Maori In OpenOffice if the extension Compose Special Characters is installed 27 a macron may be added by following the letter with a hyphen and pressing the user s predefined shortcut key for composing special characters A macron may also be added by following the letter with the character s four digit hex code and pressing the user s predefined shortcut key for adding unicode characters See also EditMacron below Vinculum symbol References Edit P G W Glare ed Oxford Latin Dictionary Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1990 p xxiii Vowel quantities Normally only long vowels in a metrically indeterminate position are marked Godechkiyat Govor ot Mihail Videnov Izdatelstvo na blgarskata akademiya na naukite Sofiya 1978 p 19 harakterni za vsichki selisha ot godechkiya govor Podobni sluchaj sa harakterni i za knizhovniya ezik St Stojkov Uvod vv fonetikata na blgarskiya ezik str 151 in Bulgarian Iluta Dalbina un Inese Lacauniece 2001 Latviesu valoda vidusskolam Riga RaKa p 110 ISBN 978 9984 46 130 4 Buse Jasper with Taringa Raututi Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moekaʻa eds 1996 Cook Islands Maori Dictionary with English Cook Islands Maori Finder List Avarua Rarotonga The Ministry of Education Government of the Cook Islands The School of Oriental and African Studies The University of London The Institute of Pacific Studies The University of the South Pacific The Centre for Pacific Studies The University of Auckland Pacific Linguistics The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Carpentier Tai Tepuaotera Turepu and Beaumont Clive 1995 Kai kōrero A Cook Islands Maori Language Coursebook Auckland New Zealand Pasifika Press Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori www tetaurawhiri govt nz Macrons kupu maori nz Retrieved 2017 10 08 Sperlich Wolfgang B ed 1997 Tohi vagahau Niue Niue language dictionary Niuen English with English Niuean finderlist Honolulu University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Linguistics Academie Tahitienne 1986 Grammaire de la langue tahitienne Papeete Tahiti Fare Vanaʻa Academie Tahitienne 1999 Dictionnaire tahitien francais Faʻatoro parau tahiti farani Papeete Tahiti Fare Vanaʻa LeMaitre Yves 1995 Lexique du tahitien contemporain tahitien francais francais tahitien Paris Editions de l IRD ex Orstom Montillier Pierre 1999 Te reo tahiti ʻapi Dictionnaire du tahitien nouveau et biblique Papeete Tahiti STP Multipress Jaussen Mgr Tepano 2001 Dictionnaire de la langue Tahitienne 10eme edition revue et augmentee Papeete Tahiti Societe des Etudes Oceaniennes Academie Tahitienne 6 January 2003 Graphie et graphies de la langue tahitienne Simanu Aumua Mata itusi O si Manu a Ali i A Text for the Advanced Study of Samoan Language and Culture Francois Alexandre 2005 A typological overview of Mwotlap an Oceanic language of Vanuatu Linguistic Typology 9 1 115 146 118 doi 10 1515 lity 2005 9 1 115 S2CID 55878308 Francois Alexandre 2010 Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment Phonology 27 3 393 434 doi 10 1017 s0952675710000205 S2CID 62628417 p 421 Francois Alexandre 2008 The alphabet of Araki Letter Database eki ee Smith Rachel E 2016 The Goal of the Good House Seasonal Work and Seeking a Good Life in Lamen and Lamen Bay Epi Vanuatu PDF PhD University of Manchester p 439 Palmer Bill A grammar of the Kokota language Santa Isabel Solomon Islands PhD dissertation OLBTO 2011 Reading and Writing Obolo Obolo Alphabet in A Workshop Manual for Teaching Obolo Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organisation OLBTO p 1 Cappelli Adriano 1961 Manuali Hoepli Lexicon Abbreviature Dizionario Di Abbreviature Latine ed Italiane Milan Editore Ulrico Hoepli Milano p 256 Weisstein Eric W Macron mathworld wolfram com Retrieved 2020 08 24 N3048 Proposal to encode two combining characters in the UCS PDF ISO IEC JTC1 SC2 WG2 2006 03 02 N3861 Resolutions of the WG 2 meeting 48 held in Mountain View CA USA 2006 04 24 27 PDF ISO IEC JTC1 SC2 WG2 2006 04 27 Compose Special Characters openoffice org External links EditDiacritics Project All you need to design a font with correct accents Kupu o te Ra How to set up the keyboard to type macrons in various operating systems Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Macron diacritic amp oldid 1133180264, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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