Inverted breve
Encyclopedia
Inverted breve or arch is a diacritic
al mark ̑, shaped like the top half of a circle, that is, like an upside-down breve
. It looks similar to the circumflex
, but the circumflex has a sharp tip, whilst the inverted breve is rounded: compare  â Ê ê Î î Ô ô Û û (circumflex) with Ȃ ȃ Ȇ ȇ Ȋ ȋ Ȏ ȏ Ȗ ȗ (inverted breve). Inverted breve can occur above or below the letter. It is not used in any natural language alphabet
, but only as a phonetic indicator.
to indicate long falling accent. It is placed above the syllable nucleus, which can be one of five vowels (ȃ ȇ ȋ ȏ ȗ) or syllabic ȓ.
This use of the inverted breve is derived from the Ancient Greek
circumflex
, which was preserved in the polytonic orthography
of Modern Greek
and influenced early Serbian Cyrillic
printing through religious literature. In the early 19th century, it began to be used in both Latin and Cyrillic as a diacritic
to mark prosody
in the systematic study of the Serbian-Croatian linguistic continuum.
, inverted breve below is used to denote that the vowel is not syllabic. Thus, semivowel
s are transcribed either using dedicated symbols (e.g. [j w]) or by adding the diacritic to a vowel sound (e.g. [i̯, u̯]).
The same diacritic is placed under iota
to represent the Proto-Indo-European
semivowel as it relates to Greek grammar; upsilon
with an inverted breve is used alongside digamma
to represent the Proto-Indo-European semivowel .
and HTML
code (decimal numeric character reference
).
In LaTeX
the control \textroundcap{o} puts an inverted breve over the letter o.
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...
al mark ̑, shaped like the top half of a circle, that is, like an upside-down 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...
. It looks similar to the circumflex
Circumflex
The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
, but the circumflex has a sharp tip, whilst the inverted breve is rounded: compare  â Ê ê Î î Ô ô Û û (circumflex) with Ȃ ȃ Ȇ ȇ Ȋ ȋ Ȏ ȏ Ȗ ȗ (inverted breve). Inverted breve can occur above or below the letter. It is not used in any natural language alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
, but only as a phonetic indicator.
Serbo-Croatian
The inverted breve above is used in traditional Slavicist notation of Serbo-Croatian phonologySerbo-Croatian phonology
Serbo-Croatian is a South Slavic language with four very similar national standards. This article deals exclusively with the Eastern Herzegovinian Neo-Shtokavian dialect, the basis for the official standard of Yugoslavia and its present-day forms of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian.All...
to indicate long falling accent. It is placed above the syllable nucleus, which can be one of five vowels (ȃ ȇ ȋ ȏ ȗ) or syllabic ȓ.
This use of the inverted breve is derived from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient 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...
circumflex
Circumflex
The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
, which was preserved in the polytonic orthography
Greek diacritics
Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period. The complex polytonic orthography notates Ancient Greek phonology...
of Modern Greek
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
and influenced early Serbian Cyrillic
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
printing through religious literature. In the early 19th century, it began to be used in both Latin and Cyrillic as 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...
to mark prosody
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
in the systematic study of the Serbian-Croatian linguistic continuum.
International Phonetic Alphabet
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...
, inverted breve below is used to denote that the vowel is not syllabic. Thus, semivowel
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s are transcribed either using dedicated symbols (e.g. [j w]) or by adding the diacritic to a vowel sound (e.g. [i̯, u̯]).
The same diacritic is placed under iota
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...
to represent the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
semivowel as it relates to Greek grammar; upsilon
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...
with an inverted breve is used alongside digamma
Digamma
Digamma is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet which originally stood for the sound /w/ and later remained in use only as a numeral symbol for the number "6"...
to represent the Proto-Indo-European semivowel .
Encoding
Inverted breve characters are supported in 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...
and HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
code (decimal numeric character reference
Numeric character reference
A numeric character reference is a common markup construct used in SGML and other SGML-related markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of characters that, in turn, represent a single character from the Universal Character Set of Unicode...
).
| Name | Letter | Unicode | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combining Inverted Breve | ̑ | U+0311 | ̑ |
| Combining Inverted Breve Below | ̯ | U+032F | ̯ |
| Combining Double Inverted Breve | ͡ | U+0361 | ͡ |
| Latin Capital Letter A With Inverted Breve | Ȃ | U+0202 | Ȃ |
| Latin Small Letter A With Inverted Breve | ȃ | U+0203 | ȃ |
| Latin Capital Letter E With Inverted Breve | Ȇ | U+0206 | Ȇ |
| Latin Small Letter E With Inverted Breve | ȇ | U+0207 | ȇ |
| Latin Capital Letter I With Inverted Breve | Ȋ | U+020A | Ȋ |
| Latin Small Letter I With Inverted Breve | ȋ | U+020B | ȋ |
| Latin Capital Letter O With Inverted Breve | Ȏ | U+020E | Ȏ |
| Latin Small Letter O With Inverted Breve | ȏ | U+020F | ȏ |
| Latin Capital Letter R With Inverted Breve | Ȓ | U+0212 | Ȓ |
| Latin Small Letter R With Inverted Breve | ȓ | U+0213 | ȓ |
| Latin Capital Letter U With Inverted Breve | Ȗ | U+0216 | Ȗ |
| Latin Small Letter U With Inverted Breve | ȗ | U+0217 | ȗ |
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...
the control \textroundcap{o} puts an inverted breve over the letter o.