In typesetting, the hook or tail is a diacritic mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a descender, on top as an ascender and sometimes to the side. The orientation of the hook can change its meaning: when it is below and curls to the left it can be interpreted as a palatal hook, and when it curls to the right is called hook tail or tail and can be interpreted as a retroflex hook. It should not be mistaken with the hook above, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Letters with hook It could be argued that the hook was used to derive the letter ⟨J⟩ from the letter ⟨I⟩, or the letter Eng ⟨ŋ⟩ from the letter ⟨N⟩. However, these letters are usually not identified as being formed with the hook.
Most letters with hook are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and many languages use them (along with capitals) representing the same sounds.
The hook often attaches to the top part of the letter, curling to the left or to the right, finishing the ascender if present. It may then be referred to as a crook, in some languages like FrenchAs in the non-standard French translation of the UCS ListeNoms. more commonly than in English that is less successful in mitigating the semantic overload of the hook term.
If the hook attaches to the bottom part of the letter, it is often called a palatal hook if it curls to the left, or a retroflex hook if it curls to the right.
The retroflex hook occurs on alveolar and post-alveolar IPA letters; it also occurs on vowel letters, which currently indicates the effect of a retroflex consonant on the vowel, but formally was an option for writing rhotic vowels.
Note that the 'fishhook r', , is shaped like a fishhook; the same is true for reversed . They do not have hook diacritics despite their misleading Unicode names "(Reversed) R with fishhook".
Table Latin alphabet Letters Unicode name fragment Hook position A with retroflex hook bottom Alpha with retroflex hook bottom Phonotypic A with swash bottom B with hook top B with flourish left B with palatal hook bottom Beta with palatal hook bottom C with hook top C with palatal hook bottom C with retroflex hook bottom C with curl bottom Stretched C with curl bottom D with hook top African D, D with tail bottom D with hook and tail top and bottom D with palatal hook bottom D with hook and palatal hook top and bottom D with mid-height left hook left D with curl bottom Dz digraph with palatal hook bottom Dz digraph with curl bottom Dezh digraph with palatal hook right Dezh digraph with retroflex hook bottom Dezh digraph with curl bottom D-lezh digraph with retroflex hook bottom Eth with palatal hook bottom E with flourish left E with retroflex hook bottom E with notch bottom Schwa with hook right Schwa with retroflex hook right Open E with retroflex hook bottom Reversed open E with hook right Reversed open E with retroflex hook bottom F with hook bottom F with palatal hook bottom G with hook top Small capital G with hook top G with palatal hook right Small capital G with palatal hook bottom G with stroke and palatal hook right Script G with crossed-tail bottom Gamma with palatal hook right H with hook top Barred H with hook top H with palatal hook bottom right H with stroke and palatal hook bottom right Heng bottom Heng with hook top Turned H with fishhook top Turned H with fishhook and tail top and bottom I with retroflex hook bottom I with stroke and retroflex hook bottom I with pigtail at bottom bottom Phonotypic diphthong ai bottom J with crossed-tail bottom Dotless J with stroke and hook top K with hook top K with palatal hook bottom L with palatal hook bottom L with fishhook right L with mid-height left hook left L with retroflex hook bottom L with retroflex hook and belt bottom L with belt and palatal hook bottom L with curl bottom Lezh with curl bottom Lezh with retroflex hook bottom M with hook bottom Barred M with hook bottom M with palatal hook bottom M with crossed-tail bottom N with left hook bottom left N with palatal hook bottom right N with left hook left N with retroflex hook bottom right N with crossed-tail bottom N with curl bottom Eng bottom Barred eng bottom Eng with crossed-tail bottom Eng with palatal hook right O with retroflex hook bottom O with curl top Open O with retroflex hook bottom P with hook top P with palatal hook right P with flourish left middle P with squirrel tail left top Phi with palatal hook right Q with hook top Q with palatal hook right Small Q with hook tail bottom R with tail bottom left R with palatal hook bottom R with tail and palatal hook bottom Small capital R with palatal hook bottom Small capital inverted R with palatal hook bottom R with fishhook and palatal hook bottom R with mid-height left hook left Turned R with hook bottom Turned R with long leg and retroflex hook bottom Turned R with palatal hook bottom Turned R with tail top Turned r with mid-height left hook left R with crossed-tail bottom Double R with crossed-tail bottom S with palatal hook bottom right S with mid-height left hook left Ʂ S with hook bottom left S with curl bottom S with swash tail bottom right Esh with palatal hook right Esh with retroflex hook bottom Esh with curl bottom Esh with double bar and curl bottom T with hook top T with palatal hook bottom T with mid-height left hook left T with retroflex hook bottom T with hook and retroflex hook top and bottom T with curl bottom Turned T with curl bottom Tc digraph with curl bottom Stretched t-h digraph bottom Tl digraph with retroflex hook and belt bottom Tesh digraph with palatal hook right Tesh digraph with retroflex hook bottom Tesh digraph with curl right Theta with palatal hook bottom U with left hook top left U with retroflex hook bottom U with hook tail bottom V with palatal hook bottom V with right hook top right V with hook top right V with hook and palatal hook bottom V with curl top left W with hook top right X with palatal hook bottom right Chi with palatal hook right Y with hook top right Z with hook bottom Z with palatal hook bottom Z with retroflex hook bottom n/a top right or top left Z with curl bottom Z with swash tail bottom Ezh with palatal hook right Ezh with retroflex hook bottom Ezh with curl bottom Ezh with tail bottom Retroflex click with retroflex hook bottom Pharyngeal voiced fricative with palatal hook bottom Inverted glottal stop with curl bottom Cuatrillo bottom Cuatrillo with comma bottom Cyrillic alphabet n/a bottom Ghe with stroke and hook bottom Ghe with middle hook right Short i with tail bottom right Ka with hook bottom right El with hook bottom right El with tail bottom right Em with tail bottom right En with hook bottom right En with left hook bottom left En with tail bottom right Te with middle hook right Ha with hook bottom right
Overview
Unicode Unicode has the combining diacritics and but these are not recommended to be used with letters, and should be used to illustrate the hooks themselves. Instead Unicode recommends the use of precomposed characters that already include the hook.
The is used to mark an r-colored vowel.
See also Hook above Palatal hook Ogonek
References