Hook (diacritic)

◌̡ ◌̢ ◌˞
◌̡ ◌̢ ◌˞o
Hook
In Unicode
	U+0321 ̡ COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW; U+0322 ̢ COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW; U+02DE ˞ MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK;

This article contains uncommon Unicode characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

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 French^[1] 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.

In some fonts, a retroflex hook on a vowel letter may be attached to the bottom serif. However, in IPA publications, as here, the hook is continuous with the right stroke without a serif in letters such as ⟨ᶏ⟩, ⟨ᶐ⟩, ⟨ᶖ⟩, ⟨𝼚⟩ and ⟨ᶙ⟩.

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', ɾ, is shaped like a fishhook; the same is true for reversed ɿ. They do not have hook diacritics despite their misleading Unicode names "(Reversed) R with fishhook".

Table

Latin alphabet
Letters			Unicode name fragment^[2]	Hook position
	ᶏ		A with retroflex hook	bottom
	ᶐ		Alpha with retroflex hook	bottom
𝽨	𝽩		Phonotypic A with swash^[3]	bottom
Ɓ	ɓ	𐞅	B with hook^[4]	top
Ꞗ	ꞗ		B with flourish	left
	ᶀ		B with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼻		Beta with palatal hook^[5]	bottom
Ƈ	ƈ	𝿺	C with hook	top
Ꞔ	ꞔ		C with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼝		C with retroflex hook^[6]	bottom
	ɕ	ᶝ	C with curl	bottom
	𝼏		Stretched C with curl	bottom
Ɗ	ɗ	𐞌	D with hook^[4]	top
Ɖ	ɖ	𐞋	African D, D with tail^[7]	bottom
	ᶑ	𐞍	D with hook and tail^[4]	top and bottom
	ᶁ	𝿵	D with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼭		D with hook and palatal hook	top and bottom
	𝼥		D with mid-height left hook	left
	ȡ	𝿯	D with curl	bottom
	𝼮		Dz digraph with palatal hook	bottom
	ʥ	𐞉	Dz digraph with curl	bottom
	𝼒		Dezh digraph with palatal hook	right
	𝼙	𝿡	Dezh digraph with retroflex hook	bottom
	𝼫	𝿠	Dezh digraph with curl	bottom
	𝼡		D-lezh digraph with retroflex hook	bottom
	𝼯		Eth with palatal hook^[8]	bottom
	ꬴ		E with flourish	left
	ᶒ		E with retroflex hook	bottom
	ⱸ		E with notch	bottom
	ɚ		Schwa with hook	right
	ᶕ		Schwa with retroflex hook	right
	ᶓ		Open E with retroflex hook	bottom
	ɝ		Reversed open E with hook	right
	ᶔ		Reversed open E with retroflex hook	bottom
Ƒ	ƒ		F with hook	bottom
	ᶂ		F with palatal hook	bottom
Ɠ	ɠ	𐞓	G with hook^[4]	top
	ʛ	𐞔	Small capital G with hook^[4]	top
	ᶃ		G with palatal hook	right
	𝼰		Small capital G with palatal hook^[8]	bottom
	𝽅		G with stroke and palatal hook	right
	ꬶ		Script G with crossed-tail	bottom
	𝼱		Gamma with palatal hook^[8]	right
Ɦ	ɦ	ʱ	H with hook	top
	𝽇		Barred H with hook	top
	ꞕ	𝿶	H with palatal hook	bottom right
	𝼲		H with stroke and palatal hook	bottom right
Ꜧ	ꜧ	ꭜ	Heng	bottom
	ɧ	𐞗	Heng with hook^[7]	top
	ʮ	𝿭	Turned H with fishhook	top
	ʯ	𝿮	Turned H with fishhook and tail	top and bottom
	ᶖ		I with retroflex hook	bottom
	𝼚		I with stroke and retroflex hook	bottom
	𝽰		I with pigtail at bottom^[9]	bottom
	𝽯		Phonotypic diphthong ai^[3]	bottom
Ʝ	ʝ	ᶨ	J with crossed-tail	bottom
	ʄ	𐞘	Dotless J with stroke and hook^[4]	top
Ƙ	ƙ	𝿻	K with hook	top
	ᶄ		K with palatal hook	bottom
	ᶅ	ᶪ	L with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼑		L with fishhook^[10]	right
	𝼦		L with mid-height left hook	left
	ɭ	ᶩ	L with retroflex hook	bottom
	ꞎ	𐞝	L with retroflex hook and belt^[11]^[12]	bottom
	𝼓		L with belt and palatal hook	bottom
	ȴ	𝿰	L with curl	bottom
	𝽧		Lezh with curl	bottom
	𝼅	𐞟	Lezh with retroflex hook^[12]	bottom
Ɱ	ɱ	ᶬ	M with hook	bottom
	𝽌		Barred M with hook^[13]	bottom
	ᶆ		M with palatal hook	bottom
	ꬺ		M with crossed-tail	bottom
Ɲ	ɲ	ᶮ	N with left hook	bottom left
	ᶇ	𝿷	N with palatal hook	bottom right
	𝼧		N with left hook	left
	ɳ	ᶯ	N with retroflex hook	bottom right
	ꬻ		N with crossed-tail	bottom
	ȵ	𝿱	N with curl	bottom
Ŋ	ŋ	ᵑ	Eng	bottom
	𝽏		Barred eng	bottom
	ꬼ		Eng with crossed-tail	bottom
	𝼔		Eng with palatal hook^[10]	right
	𝼛		O with retroflex hook^[10]	bottom
𝽲	𝽳		O with curl	top
	ᶗ		Open O with retroflex hook	bottom
Ƥ	ƥ	𝿼	P with hook	top
	ᶈ		P with palatal hook	right
Ꝓ	ꝓ		P with flourish	left middle
Ꝕ	ꝕ		P with squirrel tail	left top
	𝼳		Phi with palatal hook^[8]	right
	ʠ	𝿽	Q with hook	top
	𝼴		Q with palatal hook^[8]	right
Ɋ	ɋ		Small Q with hook tail	bottom
Ɽ	ɽ	𐞨	R with tail^[7]	bottom left
	ᶉ		R with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼷		R with tail and palatal hook	bottom
	𝼵		Small capital R with palatal hook^[8]	bottom
	𝼶		Small capital inverted R with palatal hook^[8]	bottom
	𝼖		R with fishhook and palatal hook	bottom
	𝼨		R with mid-height left hook	left
	ɻ	ʵ	Turned R with hook	bottom
	𝼈		Turned R with long leg and retroflex hook^[10]	bottom
	𝼕		Turned R with palatal hook^[10]	bottom
	ⱹ		Turned R with tail	top
	𝽗	𝿍	Turned r with mid-height left hook	left
	ꭉ		R with crossed-tail	bottom
	ꭊ		Double R with crossed-tail	bottom
	ᶊ	𝿸	S with palatal hook	bottom right
	𝼩		S with mid-height left hook	left
Ʂ	ʂ	ᶳ	S with hook	bottom left
	𝼞	𐞺	S with curl	bottom
Ȿ	ȿ		S with swash tail	bottom right
	ᶋ		Esh with palatal hook	right
	ᶘ	𝿣	Esh with retroflex hook	bottom
	ʆ	𝿢	Esh with curl	bottom
	𝼌		Esh with double bar and curl	bottom
Ƭ	ƭ	𝿾	T with hook	top
	ƫ	ᶵ	T with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼪		T with mid-height left hook	left
Ʈ	ʈ	𐞯	T with retroflex hook^[7]	bottom
	𝼉	𝿿	T with hook and retroflex hook^[10]	top and bottom
	ȶ	𝿲	T with curl	bottom
	𝼍		Turned T with curl	bottom
	ʨ	𐞫	Tc digraph with curl	bottom
	𝽣		Stretched t-h digraph	bottom
	𝼣		Tl digraph with retroflex hook and belt	bottom
	𝼗		Tesh digraph with palatal hook	right
	𝼜	𝿥	Tesh digraph with retroflex hook	bottom
	𝼬	𝿤	Tesh digraph with curl	right
	𝼼		Theta with palatal hook^[5]	bottom
	ꭒ	ꭟ	U with left hook	top left
	ᶙ		U with retroflex hook	bottom
𝽺	𝽻		U with hook tail^[9]	bottom
	ᶌ		V with palatal hook	bottom
	ⱱ	𐞰	V with right hook^[14]^[7]	top right
Ʋ	ʋ	ᶹ	V with hook	top right
	𝼹		V with hook and palatal hook	bottom
	ⱴ		V with curl	top left
Ⱳ	ⱳ		W with hook	top right
	ᶍ		X with palatal hook	bottom right
	𝼽		Chi with palatal hook^[5]	right
Ƴ	ƴ		Y with hook	top right
Ȥ	ȥ		Z with hook	bottom
Ᶎ	ᶎ	𝿹	Z with palatal hook	bottom
	ʐ	ᶼ	Z with retroflex hook	bottom
			n/a	top right or top left
	ʑ	ᶽ	Z with curl	bottom
Ɀ	ɀ		Z with swash tail	bottom
	𝼘		Ezh with palatal hook^[10]	right
	ᶚ	𝿧	Ezh with retroflex hook	bottom
	ʓ	𝿦	Ezh with curl	bottom
	ƺ		Ezh with tail	bottom
	𝼊	𐞹	Retroflex click with retroflex hook^[15]^[4]	bottom
	𝼺		Pharyngeal voiced fricative with palatal hook^[8]	bottom
	𝼎		Inverted glottal stop with curl	bottom
Ꜭ	ꜭ		Cuatrillo	bottom
Ꜯ	ꜯ		Cuatrillo with comma	bottom
Cyrillic alphabet
			n/a	bottom
Ӻ	ӻ		Ghe with stroke and hook	bottom
Ҕ	ҕ		Ghe with middle hook	right
Ҋ	ҋ		Short i with tail	bottom right
Ӄ	ӄ		Ka with hook	bottom right
Ԓ	ԓ		El with hook	bottom right
Ӆ	ӆ		El with tail	bottom right
Ӎ	ӎ		Em with tail	bottom right
Ӈ	ӈ		En with hook	bottom right
Ԩ	ԩ		En with left hook	bottom left
Ӊ	ӊ		En with tail	bottom right
Ꚋ	ꚋ		Te with middle hook	right
Ӽ	ӽ		Ha with hook	bottom right

Overview

Unicode

Unicode has the combining diacritics U+0321 ̡ COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW and U+0322 ̢ COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW 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.^[16]

The U+02DE ˞ MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK is used to mark an r-colored vowel.^[17]

References

↑ As in the non-standard French translation of the UCS ListeNoms.
↑ "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
1 2 "L2/24-277: Fifth Revised Proposal to encode characters for the English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA) in the UCS" (PDF). 2025-04-07.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-253R: Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic" (PDF).
1 2 3 "L2/24-049: Unicode support for historical and para-IPA letters" (PDF). 2024-01-01.
↑ Miller, Kirk (2021-01-11). "L2/21-041: Unicode request for additional para-IPA letters" (PDF).
1 2 3 4 5 Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Miller, Kirk (2024-03-28). "L2/24-050: Unicode request for letters with palatal hook" (PDF).
1 2 Pentzlin, Karl (2024-06-05). "L2/24-136: Fourth Revised Proposal to encode characters for the English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA) in the UCS" (PDF).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Kirk (2020-07-11). "L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks" (PDF).
↑ Priest, Lorna (2008-07-28). "L2/08-182: Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
1 2 Miller, Kirk; Ball, Martin (2020-07-11). "L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS" (PDF).
↑ Cite error: The named reference L24234 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
↑ Priest, Lorna; Constable, Peter (2005-08-09), N2945: Proposal to Encode Additional Latin Phonetic and Orthographic Characters (PDF)
↑ Miller, Kirk; Sands, Bonny (2020-07-10). "L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters" (PDF).
↑ Constable, Peter (1 February 2004). "Revised Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Retroflex Hook in the UCS" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. pp. 8–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 January 2024.
↑ "The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 2015)" (PDF). IPA Association. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

[1] As in the non-standard French translation of the UCS ListeNoms.

[2] "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2026-09-29.

[L24277-3] 1 2 "L2/24-277: Fifth Revised Proposal to encode characters for the English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA) in the UCS" (PDF). 2025-04-07.

[L220253-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-253R: Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic" (PDF).

[L24049-5] 1 2 3 "L2/24-049: Unicode support for historical and para-IPA letters" (PDF). 2024-01-01.

[L221041-6] Miller, Kirk (2021-01-11). "L2/21-041: Unicode request for additional para-IPA letters" (PDF).

[L220252-7] 1 2 3 4 5 Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).

[L24050-8] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Miller, Kirk (2024-03-28). "L2/24-050: Unicode request for letters with palatal hook" (PDF).

[L24136-9] 1 2 Pentzlin, Karl (2024-06-05). "L2/24-136: Fourth Revised Proposal to encode characters for the English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA) in the UCS" (PDF).

[L220125-10] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Kirk (2020-07-11). "L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks" (PDF).

[11] Priest, Lorna (2008-07-28). "L2/08-182: Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).

[L220116-12] 1 2 Miller, Kirk; Ball, Martin (2020-07-11). "L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS" (PDF).

[L24234-13] Cite error: The named reference L24234 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[14] Priest, Lorna; Constable, Peter (2005-08-09), N2945: Proposal to Encode Additional Latin Phonetic and Orthographic Characters (PDF)

[15] Miller, Kirk; Sands, Bonny (2020-07-10). "L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters" (PDF).

[16] Constable, Peter (1 February 2004). "Revised Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Retroflex Hook in the UCS" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. pp. 8–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 January 2024.

[17] "The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 2015)" (PDF). IPA Association. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

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v t e Diacritics
In Latin, Cyrillic and Greek	◌́ ◌̋ acute and Roman apex, double acute ◌̆ ◌̑ breve, inverted breve ◌̌ caron, háček ◌̧ cedilla ◌̂ circumflex ◌̈ diaeresis, umlaut, other ◌̇ ◌̣ dot ◌̀ ◌̏ grave, double grave ◌̉ hook above ◌̡ ◌̢ palatal hook, retroflex hook ◌̛ horn ◌ͅ iota subscript ◌̄ macron ◌̨ ogonek, nosinė ◌̊ ◌̥ overring, underring ◌͗ sicilicus ◌̃ tilde, perispomene ◌᷃ Vietnamese tilde ◌῾ ◌᾿ rough breathing, smooth breathing
In Early Cyrillic	◌҄ palatalization sign ◌҇ pokrytie ◌҃ titlo
In Indic	ं ং ଂ ം anusvara ऽ ঽ ଽ ఽ ഽ ྅ avagraha ँ ఁ ྃ chandrabindu ़ nuqta ् ് ్ ್ ් ် virama ः ঃ ଃ ஃ visarga
In other scripts	Arabic diacritics Greek diacritics Gurmukhī diacritics Hebrew diacritics diacritics in IPA Japanese kana diacritics ◌゙ ◌゚ dakuten, handakuten Khmer diacritics Syriac diacritics Thai diacritics
Marks used as diacritics	’ apostrophe / bar : colon , comma . full stop/period ˗ hyphen ′ prime
Non-diacritic uses	^ caret ° degree symbol ~ tilde § Mathematics
In Unicode	◌ dotted circle (placeholder glyph character) combining character § Unicode ranges
See also: English terms with diacritical marks Metal umlaut Punctuation marks Category: Diacritics

Letters with hook

Table

Overview

Unicode

See also

References