Modifier letter apostrophe
The modifier letter apostrophe ʼ is a letter found in Unicode encoding, used primarily for various glottal sounds.
Encoding
[edit]The letter apostrophe is encoded at U+02BC ʼ MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE, which is in the Spacing Modifier Letters Unicode block.
In Unicode code charts it looks identical to the U+2019 ’ RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK,[1] but this is not true for all fonts. The primary difference between the letter apostrophe and U+2019 is that the letter apostrophe U+02BC has the Unicode General Category "Letter, modifier" (Lm), while U+2019 has the category "Punctuation, Final quote" (Pf).
In early Unicode (versions 1.0[2]–2.1.9[3]) U+02BC was preferred for the punctuation apostrophe in English. Since version 3.0.0,[4][5] however, U+2019 is preferred, because it is defined as a punctuation mark. The behavior of Unicode letters and punctuation marks differs, causing complications if punctuation code points are used for letters or vice versa.
Use
[edit]In the International Phonetic Alphabet, it is used to express ejective consonants, such as [kʼ] and [tʼ].
It denotes a glottal stop [ʔ] in orthographies of many languages, such as Nenets (in Cyrillic script) and the artificial Klingon language.
In one version of the Kildin Sami alphabet, it denotes preaspiration.[6]
In the Ukrainian alphabet and in the Belarusian alphabet, U+02BC is used for the semi-letter 'apostrophe' (which plays a role similar to Russian ⟨ъ⟩) in certain contexts, such as, for example, in internationalized domain names where a punctuation mark would be disallowed.[7]
In Bodo and Dogri written in Devanagari, it marks high tone and low-rising tone on short vowels, respectively.
See also
[edit]- Apostrophe
- Hamza
- Modifier letter double apostrophe
- Modifier letter turned comma
- Saltillo and ʻOkina, other letters used for glottal stop
- Spacing Modifier Letters
References
[edit]- ^ Unicode code charts Archived 15 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Unicode.org. Retrieved on 7 April 2013.
- ^ "The Unicode Standard, Version 1.0, v. 1, p. 173" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ "Unicode 2.1.9 NamesList-1.txt". Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ "Unicode 3.0.0 NamesList-3.0.0.txt". Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ "Current NamesList.txt". Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ^ Куруч, Р. Д.; Афанасьева, Н. Е.; Виноградова, И. В. 1995. Правила орфографии и пунктуации саамского языка. Мурманск.
- ^ "IDN Variant TLDs – Cyrillic Script Issues" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2016.