The circumflex comes from the Greek alphabet where it marked pitch. It was originally a combination of acute and grave accent.[1] Note that the circumflex is easily confused with the similar looking inverted breve ◌̑.
Characters with Circumflex
^ |
ˆ |
◌̂ |
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â |
Ấ |
ấ |
Ầ |
ầ |
Ẩ |
ẩ |
Ẫ |
ẫ
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U+005E |
U+02C6 |
U+0302 |
U+00C2 |
U+00E2 |
U+1EA4 |
U+1EA5 |
U+1EA6 |
U+1EA7 |
U+1EA8 |
U+1EA9 |
U+1EAA |
U+1EAB
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Circumflex Accent |
Modifier Letter Circumflex Accent |
Combining Circumflex Accent |
Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex And Acute |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex And Acute |
Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex And Hook Above |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex And Hook Above |
Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex And Tilde |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex And Tilde
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Note: May be confused with Modifier Letter Up Arrowhead, ˄ (U+02C4); or Up Arrowhead, ⌃ (U+2303). |
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Ậ |
ậ |
Ĉ |
ĉ |
Ê |
ê |
Ế |
ế |
Ề |
ề |
Ể |
ể |
Ễ
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U+1EAC |
U+1EAD |
U+0108 |
U+0109 |
U+00CA |
U+00EA |
U+1EBE |
U+1EBF |
U+1EC0 |
U+1EC1 |
U+1EC2 |
U+1EC3 |
U+1EC4
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Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex And Dot Below |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex And Dot Below |
Latin Capital Letter C With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter C With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex And Acute |
Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex And Acute |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex And Hook Above |
Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex And Hook Above |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex And Tilde
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ễ |
Ệ |
ệ |
Ĝ |
ĝ |
Ĥ |
ĥ |
Î |
î |
Ĵ |
ĵ |
Ô |
ô
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U+1EC5 |
U+1EC6 |
U+1EC7 |
U+011C |
U+011D |
U+0124 |
U+0125 |
U+00CE |
U+00EE |
U+0134 |
U+0135 |
U+00D4 |
U+00F4
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Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex And Tilde |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex And Dot Below |
Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex And Dot Below |
Latin Capital Letter G With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter G With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter H With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter H With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter I With Circumflex |
Latin Small Ltter I With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter J With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter J With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex
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Ố |
ố |
Ồ |
ồ |
Ổ |
ổ |
Ỗ |
ỗ |
Ộ |
ộ |
Ŝ |
ŝ |
Û
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U+1ED0 |
U+1ED1 |
U+1ED2 |
U+1ED3 |
U+1ED4 |
U+1ED5 |
U+1ED6 |
U+1ED7 |
U+1ED8 |
U+1ED9 |
U+015C |
U+015D |
U+00DB
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Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex And Acute |
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex And Acute |
Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex And Hook Above |
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex And Hook Above |
Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex And Tilde |
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex And Tilde |
Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex And Dot Below |
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex And Dot Below |
Latin Capital Letter S With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter S With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter U With Circumflex
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û |
Ŵ |
ŵ |
Ŷ |
ŷ |
Ẑ |
ẑ
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U+00FB |
U+0174 |
U+0175 |
U+0176 |
U+0177 |
U+1E90 |
U+1E91
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Latin Small Letter U With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter W With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter W With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter Y With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter Y With Circumflex |
Latin Capital Letter Z With Circumflex |
Latin Small Letter Z With Circumflex
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Uses of Circumflex
Usage
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Language
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Letters
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Notes
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Central vowel
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Moldovan
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Ââ /ɨ/, Îî /ɨ/
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Ââ and Îî both stand for the same sound, but Ââ is used word-internally, and Îî initially and finally. Exceptions are compound words and proper nouns.[2]
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Pashto (BGN/PCGN 2007 romanization)
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Êê /ə/
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Unaccented Ee stands for /e/.[3]
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Romanian
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Ââ /ɨ/, Îî /ɨ/
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Ââ and Îî both stand for the same sound, but Ââ is used word-internally, and Îî initially and finally. Exceptions are compound words and proper nouns.[2]
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Diphthong
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Slovak
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Ôô /u̯o/
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Disambiguation of homographs
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Turkish
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Ââ /a/, Îî /i/, Ûû /u/
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The circumflex may optionally be used on Aa, Ii and Uu for distinguishing words that would otherwise be homographs.[4] See also the Turkish sections on Long vowel and on Palatal phoneme further down in this table.
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Long vowel
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Arabic (ISO 233 romanization)
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Ââ /aː/
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This letter is only found in the sequence ʾÂ ʾâ which is used for transcribing آ /ʔaː/.[5][6]
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Japanese (Nihon-siki romanization)
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Ââ /aː/, Êê /eː/, Îî /iː/, Ôô /oː/, Ûû /uː/
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This is the official way of spelling the long vowels, but it is not always followed. See the note about Japanese on Macron.
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Turkish
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Ââ /aː/, Îî /iː/, Ûû /uː/
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Îî is just a long /iː/, while the circumflex on Ââ and Ûû may mark that the vowel is long and/or that the previous consonant is not velar.[7] see Palatal phoneme below. Ââ, Îî and Ûû are not counted as distinct letters in the Turkish alphabet. See also Disambiguation of homographs further up in this table.
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Welsh
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Ââ /ɑː/, Êê /eː/, Îî /iː/, Ôô /oː/, Ûû /ɨː, iː/, Ŵŵ /uː/, Ŷŷ /ɨː, iː/
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Vowel length is not marked when it is predictable.[8] Regarding Ûû and Ŷŷ: The first pronunciation given is used in northern dialects and the second in southern dialects.[9] Letters with diacritics do not count as separate letters in Welsh.[10]
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Long vowel with low pitch
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Slovene (orthography with tonal accentuation)
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Ââ /àː/, Êê /ɛ̀ː/, Ệệ /èː/, Îî /ìː/, Ôô /ɔ̀ː/, Ộộ /òː/, Ûû /ùː/
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Inverted breve may be used instead of circumflex. These letters are not used in the standard orthography of Slovene, but in language materials.[11]
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Palatal phoneme
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Turkish
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Ââ /a(ː)/, Ûû /u(ː)/
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The circumflex on these vowels marks that a previous Gg, Kk, Ll stand for /ɟ, c, l/ instead of /ɡ, k, ɫ/, and/or that the vowel is long.[7] See also the Turkish sections on Long vowel and on Disambiguation of homographs further up in this table.
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Raised vowel
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Portuguese
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Ââ /ˈɐ/, Êê /ˈe/, Ôô /ˈo/
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The circumflex marks the vowels as being stressed and having a raised realization (rather than /a, ɛ, ɔ/). It also marks the vowel as being oral, unless it is followed by Mm or Nn and second consonant, in which case they are nasalized. Another exception is that Êê followed by a wordfinal Mm is also nasalized.[12]
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Slovene (orthography with dynamic accentuation)
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Êê /ˈeː/, Ôô /ˈoː/
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The circumflex marks that these vowel are stressed, long, and mid-close instead of mid-open. These letters are not used in the standard orthography of Slovene, but in language materials.[11]
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Vietnamese
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Ââ /ə˧/, Ấấ /ə˧˥/, Ầầ /ə̤˨˩/, Ẩẩ /ə˧˩˧/, Ẫẫ /əˀ˧˥/, Ậậ /ə̰ʔ˧˨/, Êê /e˧/, Ếế /e˧˥/, Ềề /e̤˨˩/, Ểể /e˧˩˧/, Ễễ /eˀ˧˥/, Ệệ /ḛʔ˧˨/, Ôô /o˧/, Ốố /o˧˥/, Ồồ /o̤˨˩/, Ổổ /o˧˩˧/, Ỗỗ /oˀ˧˥/, Ộộ /o̰ʔ˧˨/
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Generally, unaccented Aa, Ee, Oo stand for /aː, ɛ, ɔ/. There are many exceptions to the phonemic value of all these letters though.[13]
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Rising tone
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Min Nan (Pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography)
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Ââ /a˨˦/, Âⁿ âⁿ /ã˨˦/, Êê /e˨˦/, Êⁿ êⁿ /ẽ˨˦/, Îî /i˨˦/, Îⁿ îⁿ /ĩ˨˦/, M̂m̂ /m̩˨˦/, N̂g n̂g /ŋ̍˨˦/, Ôô /ə˨˦/, Ôⁿ ôⁿ /ɔ̃˨˦/, Ô͘ô͘ /ɔ˨˦/, Ûû /u˨˦/, Ûⁿ ûⁿ /u˨˦/
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There is much variation in the tones and vowel qualities between different dialects of Min Nan. The vowel qualities here seem to be an approximation between the dialects,[14] while the tones here are as they are pronounced in Taipei.[15]
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Rising-falling (peaking) tone
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Fon
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Ââ [a᷈], Êê [e᷈], Ɛ̂ɛ̂ [ɛ᷈], Îî [i᷈], Ôô [o᷈], Ɔ̂ɔ̂ [ɔ᷈], Ûû [u᷈]
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The rising-falling tone is not phonemic in Fon, but it is still marked with a circumflex. Tones are however not always marked at all.[16] Note that Ɛ̂ɛ̂ and Ɔ̂ɔ̂ are not precomposed characters.
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Min Dong (Fuzhou dialect, Foochow romanization)
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Ââ /a˨˦˨, ɑ˨˦˨/, Â̤â̤ /ɛ˨˦˨, a˨˦˨/, Êê /ɛi˨˦˨/, Ê̤ê̤ /œ˨˦˨/, Îî /i˨˦˨/, Ôô /ou˨˦˨/, Ô̤ô̤ /o˨˦˨, ɔ˨˦˨/, Ûû /u˨˦˨/, Ṳ̂ṳ̂ /y˨˦˨/
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Note that the letters here that contain ◌̤ are not precomposed characters.
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Stress
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Portuguese
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Ââ /ˈɐ/, Êê /ˈe/, Ôô /ˈo/
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See the note on Portuguese in Raised vowel further up in this table.
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Other
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Darī (Yaqubi romanization)
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Ââ
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Darī distinguishes /a/ and /ɑ/, but it is unclear what Ââ is used for.[17]
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Malagasy
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Ââ /a/, Êê /e/, Ôô /o/
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 and Ê are single letter words in Malagasy. The circumflex on these words is not obligatory, and it does not really have any significance, as these letters are pronounced just the same unaccented. Ôô is distinguished from Oo which stands for /u/. Ôô is used only in some dialects, and in loan words, where it is not obligatory when not needed for disambiguation.[18]
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Pashto (Yaqubi romanization)
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Ââ
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Pashto distinguishes /a/ and /ɑ/, but it is unclear what Ââ is used for.[17]
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