This article is about the diacritic used to modify other characters. For use as an independent, spacing character, see
Caret (proofreading) and
Caret (computing).
The circumflex (◌̂) is a
diacritic in the
Latin and
Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various
romanization and
transcription schemes. It received its English name from
Latin: circumflexus "bent around"—a translation of the
Greek: περισπωμένη (perispōménē).
The circumflex in the Latin script is
chevron-shaped (◌̂), while the Greek circumflex may be displayed either like a
tilde (◌̃) or like an
inverted breve (◌̑). For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin alphabet,
precomposed characters are available.
In
English, the circumflex, like other diacritics, is sometimes retained on
loanwords that used it in the original language (for example, crème brûlée).
In mathematics and
statistics, the circumflex diacritic is sometimes used to denote a function and is called a hat operator.
A free-standing version of the circumflex symbol, ^, is encoded in
ASCII and
Unicode and has become known as caret and has acquired special uses, particularly in
computing and
mathematics. The
original caret, ‸, is used in
proofreading to indicate insertion.
The shape of the circumflex was originally a combination of the
acute and
grave accents (^), as it marked a
syllable contracted from two vowels: an acute-accented vowel and a non-accented vowel (all non-accented syllables in Ancient Greek were once marked with a grave accent).[1][clarification needed] Later a variant similar to the
tilde (~) was also used.
The term "circumflex" is also used to describe similar tonal accents that result from combining two vowels in related languages such as Sanskrit and Latin.
Since
Modern Greek has a
stress accent instead of a pitch accent, the circumflex has been replaced with an
acute accent in the modern monotonic orthography.
In
Afrikaans, the circumflex marks a
vowel with a lengthened pronunciation, often arising from
compensatory lengthening due to the loss of ⟨g⟩ from the original
Dutch form. Examples of circumflex use in Afrikaans are sê "to say", wêreld "world", môre "tomorrow", brûe "bridges".
Akkadian. In the transliteration of this language, the circumflex indicates a long vowel resulting from an
aleph contraction.
In western
Cree,
Sauk, and
Saulteaux, the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) indicates long vowels [aːeːiːoː~uː] either with a circumflex ⟨â ê î ô⟩ or with a
macron ⟨ā ē ī ō⟩.
The PDA orthography for
Domari uses circumflex-bearing vowels for length.
In
Emilian, â î û are used to represent [aː,iː,uː]
Japanese. In the
Nihon-shiki system of
romanization, the circumflex is used to indicate long vowels. The
Kunrei-shiki system, which is based on Nihon-shiki system, also uses the circumflex. The Traditional and Modified forms of the
Hepburn system use the
macron for this purpose, though some users may use the circumflex as a substitute if there are difficulties inputting the macron, as the two diacritics are visually similar.
In
UNGEGN romanization system for
Khmer, â is used to represent [ɑː], ê[ae] in first series and [ɛː] in second series, and ô for [ɔː]. There are also additional vowels which are
diphthongs such as aô[ao], âu[ʔɨw], âm[ɑm], ŏâm[oəm] and aôh[ɑh].
The circumflex accent marks the
stressed vowel of a word in some languages:
Portugueseâ, ê, and ô are stressed
close vowels, opposed to their open counterparts á, é, and ó (see below).
Welsh: the circumflex, due to its function as a disambiguating lengthening sign (see above), is used in polysyllabic words with word-final long vowels. The circumflex thus indicates the stressed syllable (which would normally be on the
penultimate syllable), since in Welsh, non-stressed vowels may not normally be long. This happens notably where the singular ends in an a, to, e.g. singular camera, drama, opera, sinema → plural camerâu, dramâu, operâu, sinemâu; however, it also occurs in singular nominal forms, e.g. arwyddocâd; in verbal forms, e.g. deffrônt, cryffânt; etc.
Vowel quality
In
Breton, it is used on an e to show that the letter is pronounced
open instead of closed.
In
Bulgarian, the sound represented in Bulgarian by the Cyrillic letter ъ (er goljam) is usually transliterated as â in systems used prior to 1989. Although called a
schwa (misleadingly suggesting an unstressed lax sound), it is more accurately described as a
mid back unrounded vowel/
ɤ/. Unlike
English or
French, but similar to
Romanian and
Afrikaans, it can be stressed.
In
Pinyin romanized
Mandarin Chinese, ê is used to represent the sound /
ɛ/ in isolation, which occurs sometimes as an exclamation.
In French, the letter ê is normally pronounced
open, like è. In the usual pronunciations of central and northern
France, ô is pronounced
close, like eau; in Southern France, no distinction is made between
close and
openo.
Portugueseâ/
ɐ/, ê/
e/, and ô/
o/ are stressed high vowels, in opposition to á/
a/, é/
ɛ/, and ó/
ɔ/, which are stressed low vowels.
In
Romanian, the circumflex is used on the vowels â and î to mark the vowel /
ɨ/, similar to Russian yery. The names of these accented letters are â din a and î din i, respectively. (The letter â only appears in the middle of words; thus, its
majuscule version appears only in all-capitals inscriptions.)
In
Swedishdialect and
folkloreliterature the circumflex is used to indicate the phonemes /
a(ː)/ or /
æ(ː)/(â), /
ɶ(ː)/ or /
ɞ(ː)/ (ô) and /
ɵ(ː)/ (û) in dialects and regional accents where these are distinct from /
ɑ(ː)/ (a), /
ø(ː)/ (ö) or /
o(ː)/ (o or å) and /
ʉ(ː)/ (u) respectively, unlike Standard Swedish where [a] and [ɑː], [ɵ] and [ʉː] are short and long allophones of the phonemes /a/ and /ʉ/ respectively, and where
Old Swedish short /
o/ (ŏ) has merged with /o(ː)/ from Old Swedish /ɑː/ (ā, Modern Swedish å) instead of centralizing to [ɞ] or fronting to [ɶ] and remaining a distinct phoneme (ô) as in the dialects in question. Different methods can be found in different literature, so some author may use æ instead of â, or use â where others use å̂ (å with a circumflex; for a sound between /ɑ(ː)/ and /o(ː)/).
Vietnameseâ/
ə/, ê/
e/, and ô/
o/ are higher vowels than a/
ɑ/, e/
ɛ/, and o/
ɔ/. The circumflex can appear together with a
tone mark on the same vowel, as in the word Việt. Vowels with circumflex are considered separate letters from the base vowels.
Nasality
In
Luxembourgishm̂ n̂ can be used to indicate nasalisation of a vowel. Also, the circumflex can be over the vowel to indicate nasalisation. In either case, the circumflex is rare.
In
Emilian, ê ô[eː,oː] denote both length and height.
In
Philippine languages, the circumflex (pakupyâ) is used to represent the simultaneous occurrence of a stress and a
glottal stop in the last vowel of the word.[4][5]
In
Romagnol, they are used to represent the diphthongs /eə,oə/, whose specific articulation varies between dialects, e.g. sêl[seəl~seɛl~sæɛl~sɛɘl] "salt".
In
Old Tupi, the circumflex changed a vowel into a
semivowel: î[
j], û[
w], and ŷ[
ɰ].
In
Rusyn, the letter ŷ[
ɨ] is sometimes used to transliterate the
Cyrillicы.
In
Turkish, the circumflex over a and u is sometimes used in words of
Arabic or
Persian derivation to indicate when a preceding consonant (k, g, l) is to be pronounced as a
palatal plosive; [
c], [
ɟ] (kâğıt, gâvur, mahkûm, Gülgûn). The circumflex over i is used to indicate a
nisba suffix (millî, dinî).[6]
In
Pe̍h-ōe-jī romanization of
Hokkien, the circumflex over a vowel (a, e, i, o, o͘, u) or a syllabic nasal (m, ng) indicate the
tone number 5, traditionally called Yang Level or Light Level (陽平). The
tone contour is usually low rising. For example, ê[e˩˧], n̂g[ŋ̩˩˧].
Visual discrimination between homographs
In
Serbo-Croatian the circumflex can be used to distinguish
homographs, and it is called the "genitive sign" or "length sign". Examples include sam "am" versus sâm "alone". For example, the phrase "I am alone" may be written Ja sam sâm to improve clarity. Another example: da "yes", dâ "gives".[7]
Turkish. According to
Turkish Language Association orthography, düzeltme işareti "correction mark" over a, i and u marks a
long vowel to disambiguate similar words. For example, compare ama "but" and âmâ "blind", şura 'that place, there' and şûra "council".[6] In general, circumflexes occur only in
Arabic and
Persianloanwords as vowel length in early Turkish was not phonemic. However, this standard was never applied entirely consistently[8] and by the late 20th century many publications had stopped using circumflexes almost entirely.[9]
Welsh. The circumflex is known as hirnod "long sign" or acen grom "crooked accent", but more usually and colloquially as to bach "little roof". It lengthens a stressed vowel (a, e, i, o, u, w, y), and is used particularly to differentiate between
homographs; e.g. tan and tân, ffon and ffôn, gem and gêm, cyn and cŷn, or gwn and gŵn. However the circumflex is only required on elongated vowels if the same word exists without the circumflex - "nos" (night), for example, has an elongated "o" sound but a circumflex is not required as the same word with a shortened "o" doesn't exist.
In
Pinyin, the romanized writing of
Mandarin Chinese, ẑ, ĉ, and ŝ are, albeit rarely, used to represent zh[
tʂ], ch[
tʂʰ], and sh[
ʂ], respectively.
In
Esperanto, the circumflex is used on ĉ[
tʃ], ĝ[
dʒ], ĥ[
x], ĵ[
ʒ], ŝ[
ʃ]. Each indicates a different consonant from the unaccented form, and is considered a separate letter for purposes of
collation. (See
Esperanto orthography.)
In
Chichewa, ŵ (present for example in the name of the country Malaŵi) used to denote the
voiced bilabial fricative/
β/; nowadays, however, most Chichewa-speakers pronounce it as a regular [
w].[10]
In the African language
Venda, a circumflex below d, l, n, and t is used to represent dental consonants: ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ.
In the 18th century, the
Real Academia Española introduced the circumflex accent in Spanish to mark that a ch or x were pronounced /k/ and /ɡs/ respectively (instead of /tʃ/ and /x/, which were the default values): châracteres, exâcto (spelled today caracteres, exacto). This usage was quickly abandoned during the same century, once the RAE decided to use ch and x with one assigned pronunciation only: /tʃ/ and /ɡs/ respectively.
In
Domari (according to the Pan-Domari Alphabet orthography), the circumflex is used on the letters <ĉ ĝ ĵ ŝ ẑ> to represent the sounds of /t͡ʃɣd͡ʒʃʒ/. It is also used above vowels to indicate length.
Abbreviation, contraction, and disambiguation
English
In 18th century
British English, before the cheap
Penny Post and while paper was taxed, the combination ough was occasionally shortened to ô when the gh was not pronounced, to save space: thô for though, thorô for thorough, and brôt for brought.
In
French, the circumflex generally marks the former presence of a consonant (usually s) that was
deleted and is no longer pronounced. (The corresponding
Norman French words, and consequently the words derived from them in English, frequently retain the lost consonant.) For example:
ancêtre "ancestor"
hôpital "hospital"
hôtel "hostel"
forêt "forest"
rôtir "to roast"
côte "rib, coast, slope"
pâté "paste"
août "August"
dépôt (from the Latin depositum 'deposit', but now referring to both a deposit or a storehouse of any kind)[12]
Some
homophones (or near-homophones in some varieties of French) are distinguished by the circumflex. However, â, ê and ô distinguish different sounds in most varieties of French, for instance cote[kɔt] "level, mark, code number" and côte[kot] "rib, coast, hillside".
In handwritten French, for example in taking notes, an m with a circumflex (m̂) is an informal abbreviation for même "same".
In February 2016, the Académie française decided to remove the circumflex from about 2,000 words, a plan that had been outlined since 1990. However, usage of the circumflex would not be considered incorrect.[13]
Italian
In
Italian, î is occasionally used in the plural of nouns and adjectives ending with -io[jo] as a
crasis mark. Other possible spellings are -ii and obsolete -j or -ij. For example, the plural of vario[ˈvaːrjo] "various" can be spelt vari, varî, varii; the pronunciation will usually stay [ˈvaːri] with only one [i]. The plural forms of principe[ˈprintʃipe] "prince" and of principio[prinˈtʃiːpjo] "principle, beginning" can be confusing. In pronunciation, they are distinguished by whether the stress is on the first or on the second syllable, but principi would be a correct spelling of both. When necessary to avoid ambiguity, it is advised to write the plural of principio as principî or as principii.[citation needed]
Latin
In
Neo-Latin, circumflex was used most often to disambiguate between forms of the same word that used a long vowel, for example ablative of first declension and genitive of fourth declension, or between second and third conjugation verbs. It was also used for the interjection ô.[14]
Norwegian
In
Norwegian, the circumflex differentiates fôr "lining, fodder" from the preposition for. From a historical point of view, the circumflex also indicates that the word used to be spelled with the letter ð in
Old Norse – for example, fôr is derived from fóðr, lêr 'leather' from leðr, and vêr "weather, ram" from veðr (both lêr and vêr only occur in the
Nynorsk spelling; in
Bokmål these words are spelled lær and vær). After the ð disappeared, it was replaced by a d (fodr, vedr).
Portuguese
Circumflexes are used in many common words of the language, such as você (you), mês (month), português (Portuguese), três (three), ânimo (cheer), câmara (camera, chamber), avô (grandfather) and pôr (to put). Usually, â, ê and ô appear before nasals (m and n) in
proparoxytone words, like trânsito, higiênico, cômico but in many cases in European Portuguese e and o will be marked with an acute accent (e.g. higiénico and cómico) since the vowel quality is open (ɛ or ɔ) in this standard variety. In early literacy classes in school, it is commonly nicknamed chapéu (hat).
The circumflex (ˆ) is mostly used to mark
long vowels, so â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ are always long. However, not all long vowels are marked with a circumflex, so the letters a, e, i, o, u, w, y with no circumflex do not necessarily represent short vowels.
In mathematics, the circumflex is used to modify variable names; it is usually read "hat", e.g., is "x hat". The
Fourier transform of a function ƒ is often denoted by .
In geometry, a hat is sometimes used for an
angle. For instance, the angles or .
In
statistics, the hat is used to denote an
estimator or an estimated value, as opposed to its theoretical counterpart. For example, in
errors and residuals, the hat in indicates an observable estimate (the residual) of an unobservable quantity called (the statistical error). It is read x-hat or x-roof, where x represents the character under the hat.
Unicode encodes a number of cases of "letter with circumflex" as
precomposed characters and these are displayed below. In addition, many more symbols may be composed using the
combining character facility (U+0302◌̂COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT and U+032D◌̭COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX BELOW) that may be used with any letter or other diacritic to create a customised symbol but this does not mean that the result has any real-world application and thus are not shown in the table.
The
Greek diacriticπερισπωμένη, perispōménē, 'twisted around' is encoded as U+0342͂COMBINING GREEK PERISPOMENI. In distinction to the angled Latin circumflex, the Greek circumflex is printed in the form of either a tilde (◌̃) or an inverted breve (◌̑).
For historical reasons, there is a similar but larger character, U+005E^CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT (^) (^ in HTML5[15]), which is also included in
ASCII but often called a
caret instead (though this term has a long-standing meaning as a
proofreader's mark, with its own codepoints in Unicode). It is, however, unsuitable for use as a diacritic on modern computer systems, as it is a spacing character. Two other spacing circumflex characters in Unicode are the smaller
modifier lettersU+02C6ˆMODIFIER LETTER CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT and U+A788ꞈMODIFIER LETTER LOW CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT, mainly used in
phonetic notations or as a sample of the diacritic in isolation.
Typing the circumflex accent
You may need
rendering support to display the uncommon
Unicode characters in this section correctly.
In countries where the local language(s) routinely include letters with a circumflex, local keyboards are typically engraved with those symbols.
For users with American or British
QWERTY keyboards, the characters â, ĉ, ê, ĝ, ĥ, î, ĵ, ô, ŝ, û, ŵ, ŷ (and their uppercase equivalents) may be obtained after installing the
International or extended keyboard layout setting.[a] Then, by using (
US Int) ⇧ Shift+6 or (
UK Ext) AltGr+6 (^), then release, then the base letter, produces the accented version. (With this keyboard mapping, ⇧ Shift+6 or AltGr+6 becomes a
dead key that applies the diacritic to the subsequent letter, if such a precomposed character exists. For example, AltGr+6w produces ŵ as used in
Welsh.) Alternatively for systems with a
'compose' function, compose^w, etc. may be used.
^Not all operating systems provide this full repertoire.
References
^Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920).
A Greek Grammar for Colleges. New York: American Book Company.
Archived from the original on 2018-01-26. Retrieved 2017-10-15 – via ccel.org.: "155. The ancients regarded the grave originally as belonging to every syllable not accented with the acute or circumflex; and some Mss. show this in practice, e.g. πὰγκρὰτής. [...]"
^Halawa, T.; Harefa, A.; Silitonga, M. (1983).
Struktur Bahasa Nias [Nias Language Structure] (PDF) (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
Archived(PDF) from the original on 2021-03-06. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via repositori.kemdikbud.go.id.
^"Dépôt". Larousse (in French).
Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.