Non-trivial Unicode support Not all Unicode support is direct. Some typewriter substitutions made by overstriking a Latin letter with a virgule require composite encoding: • , for a
voiced bilabial fricative • , for a
voiced dental fricative • , for a
labially compressed velar approximant (suggested for some dialects of
Nahuatl) Similarly , an unused proposal to replace Americanist . The 'baby gamma' variant of the vowel letter is available as a
character variant in fonts such as
Gentium and
Andika. Similarly, ( with the stroke slanted through the descender) for a
voiced velar fricative is likewise font-dependent for accurate display. Several other symbols are graphic variants of Unicode characters: • p with a tail facing left ( ) and reversed o with
ogonek (). The first is an allograph in Doke of (turned delta ), and the latter a misanalysis by the
Guide of the same letter. • double virgule ⫽, a close-kerned // or italicized ǁ, is an allograph of . It might be adequately rendered with . • triple virgule ⫻, a close-kerned /// or italicized ⦀, used in a passing mention of
retroflex clicks in the Cole article "Bushman Languages" in the 1966
Encyclopædia Britannica (4: 469). The symbol was removed from later editions. It might be adequately rendered with . This is an allograph of a triple pipe, for which Unicode recommends using character U+2980 TRIPLE VERTICAL BAR DELIMITER . A couple are more distinct graphically, but without a corresponding semantic distinction: • superscript spacing diacritic , used to indicate clicks in Smalley (1963). This is similar to the subscript arrow U+02FF (˿) used to indicate clicks in the same way in the
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet. It might be hacked as a non-breaking space plus U+20D6: . • hooktop j, an Americanist variant of in Smalley (1963)
Manual of Articulatory Phonetics. Unlike , in the Smalley letter the hook connects to the dot of the jay and so is detached from the body of the letter.
Rare symbols The following are not supported by
Unicode as of version 18. Some of the symbols are idiosyncratic proposals by well-known scholars that never caught on: A couple symbols were mentioned in the 1949
Principles of the International Phonetic Association as "recent suggestions" for further improvement but were never adopted: • h-m ligature, approx. ⟨⟩ or (turned : ) for • turned small capital U for a generic vowel; is now generally used. ⟨⟩, a right-tail hooktop h (fusion of and : ), found for a velar fricative in the Germanic '
fortis' voiceless spirant series [
], contrasting with the voiced series [''''] and the Indo-European '
lenis' spirants [''
] in Prokosch (1939) A Comparative Germanic Grammar
(particularly pp. 50–51). Prokosch describes the symbol as a "modified h
, since h
is the usual spelling in all Germanic languages" (p. 83), though other authors simply write these sounds []. The Guide
notes that the letter only appears in italic font, and suggests that it may simply be an italic with an exaggerated right leg, similar to italic ( ƒ'' ) in many fonts. Some fonts such as
Helvetica incorrectly display with this form. The majority of the non-Unicode symbols were proposed by
George Trager to improve the
Bloch & Trager system of vowel transcription and other conventions of Americanist notation, but were never adopted: • inverted (turned) small capital to replace ; this had been the original IPA form of the letter that is now . • small capital ligature (resembles an ligature in guide: ) to replace • small capital Δ to replace • barred (reversed ) to replace • inverted (turned) to replace • u with a bar on the left leg ⟨ ⟩ to replace Consonants proposed by Trager: • fusion of + (n with the arm of ᴛ to the left: ), approx. ⟨ ⟩ for the dental nasal . It is similar in shape to , though with a flat left arm. • reversed small capital L (turned or small-cap ⅃) for a labial lateral approximant; this is not a distinctive sound and the symbol was never used. However, it would potentially be used for a
velodorsal lateral in
extIPA, analogous to the other velodorsals which are likewise reversed variants of their derivative velar letters . • 'front-tail' (left-swinging) gamma (approx. ); noted in the guide as a 'prevelar slit spirant' or voiced fronted velar fricative . This symbol is found in other traditions. • 'back-tail' (right-swinging) gamma (approx. ); noted in the guide as a 'postvelar slit spirant' or voiced uvular fricative . This symbol is found in other traditions.
Gallery Turned small cap A.svg|The proposed turned small-cap A for ; old IPA for . Small cap AO ligature.svg|The proposed small-cap A-O ligature for . small-cap delta.svg|The proposed small-cap delta for . Turned c-bar.svg|The proposed ɔ-bar for . Gamma with left hook.svg|Left-hook ('front-tail') gamma for . Gamma with right hook.svg|Right-hook ('back-tail') gamma for . Hm ligature.svg|The h-m ligature for . H with hook and tail.svg|Prokosch's right-tail hooktop h, assuming the tail is inherent. Dental N with left arm.svg|The proposed letter for . Half-barred u.svg|The proposed half-barred u for . Turned small cap U.svg|The proposed turned small-cap U for . Turned omega.svg|The proposed turned omega for . ==References==