Note: You will likely need to have the "Arial Unicode MS" font installed on your system to read the tables below.
Phonetic modifiers (a.k.a. diacritics) are small glyphs attached to primary alphabetic glyphs whose purpose is generally to modify the pronunciation of the primary glyph or the characters around it. Here we have three tables: common modifiers, uncommon modifiers, and Thai modifiers. Modifiers exist for a number of scripts (writing systems) that we don't cover here, but the concepts are similar. The Thai modifiers are present because we often make applications for the Thai market and have to work with these modifiers in text processing code. The common modifiers are used in the most common European languages, while the uncommon modifiers are used sporadically in other languages. The Thai modifiers are specific to Thai.
In many cases, modifiers are built into the characters they are commonly used with. For example, there are independent pre-built characters for á, ý, ć and ń as well as a standalone ´ character. This makes it easy on code that processes and draws text, as it doesn't need to worry about combining characters with their modifiers. However, in some cases modifiers aren't built into characters and text processing code must do this itself. In particular, Thai characters use modifiers so extensively that the combinatorial explosion of possible combinations makes it prohibitive to have pre-built characters. Thus text processing and drawing code must take care of combining itself. This makes writing text editors a bit more difficult, to say the least.
Here we have a table of the primary modifiers in use by most languages. Note that each modifier has a Unicode value and a combining Unicode value. The Unicode value refers to a standalone modifier character that exists in its own character cell. The combining Unicode value refers to the same character shifted to the left such that when drawn it appears over the previous character. Combining forms of characters allow you to synthesize modified characters on your own. For example, here is an equals sign with a caron implemented with two characters:
=̌
| Modifier |
Name |
Example | Unicode Value |
Combining Unicode Value |
| ´ | acute accent | á | 02CA | 0301 |
| ` | grave accent | à | 02CB | 0300 |
| ˆ | circumflex accent | â | 02C6 | 0302 |
| ˜ | tilde | ã | 02DC | 0303 |
| ¨ | diaeresis (or umlaut) | ä | 00A8 | 0308 |
| ˚ | ring (or bolle) | å | 02DA | 030A |
| ¸ | cedilla | ç | 00B8 | 0327 |
| ˇ | caron | ǎ | 02C7 | 030C |
| ˘ | breve | ă | 02D8 | 0306 |
| ˉ | macron | ā | 02C9 | 0304 |
| ˙ | dot above | ċ | 02D9 | 0307 |
| ˛ | ogonek | ą | 02DB | 0328 |
Below
is a table
of uncommonly used modifiers. These modifiers are used in African
languages, among others. You probably won't ever need to work with
these.
| Modifier |
Name |
Example | Unicode Value |
Combining Unicode Value |
| ̐ | condrabindu | a̐ | 0310 | 0310 |
| ̑ | inverted breve | ȃ | 0311 | 0311 |
| ʻ | turned comma | a̒ | 02BB | 0312 |
| ʽ | reversed comma | a | 02BD | 0314 |
| ˍ | low macron | a̱ | 02CD | 0331 |
| ˎ | low grave accent | a̖ | 02CE | 0316 |
| ˏ | low acute accent | a̗ | 02CF | 0317 |
| ̏̏ ̏ | double grave accent | ȁ |
<NA> | 030F |
| ˝ | double acute accent | a̋ | 02DD | 030B |
| ˞ | rhotic hook | ɚ | 02DE | <NA> |
| . | dot below | ẓ | 0323 | 0323 |
| ̤ | diaeresis below | a̤ | <NA> | 0324 |
Below
is a table
of all Thai modifier characters. Unlike other modifiers, Thai modifiers
exist only in combining form. Thus there are no pre-built Thai
characters that have modifiers built into them like with many Western
characters.
| Modifier |
Name |
Example | Combining Unicode Value |
| ั | Thai mai han-akat | กั | 0E31 |
| ิ | Thai sara i | กิ | 0E34 |
| ี | Thai sara ii | กี | 0E35 |
| ึ |
Thai sara ue |
กึ | 0E36 |
| ื | Thai sara uee |
กื | 0E37 |
| ุ | Thai sara u | กุ | 0E38 |
| ู | Thai sara uu | กู | 0E39 |
| ฺ | Thai phinthu | กฺ | 0E3A |
| ็ | Thai maithaikhu | ก็ | 0E47 |
| ่ | Thai mai ek | ก่ | 0E48 |
| ้ | Thai mai tho | ก้ | 0E49 |
| ๊ | Thai mai tri | ก๊ | 0E4A |
| ๋ | Thai mai chattawa | ก๋ | 0E4B |
| ์ | Thai thanthakhat | ก์ | 0E4C |
| ํ | Thai nikhahit | กํ | 0E4D |
| ๎ | Thai yamakkam | ก๎ | 0E4E |