The grave accent originates from the Greek alphabet where it was used for marking low pitch.[1][2]
Characters with Grave Accent
` |
ˋ |
˴ |
◌̀ |
◌̀ |
À |
à |
Ầ |
ầ |
Ằ |
ằ |
È |
è
|
U+0060 |
U+02CB |
U+02F4 |
U+0300 |
U+0340 |
U+00C0 |
U+00E0 |
U+1EA6 |
U+1EA7 |
U+1EB0 |
U+1EB1 |
U+00C8 |
U+00E8
|
Grave Accent |
Modifier Letter Grave Accent |
Modifier Letter Middle Grave Accent |
Combining Grave Accent |
Combining Grave Tone Mark |
Latin Capital Letter A With Grave |
Latin Small Letter A With Grave |
Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter A With Breve And Grave |
Latin Small Letter A With Breve And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter E With Grave |
Latin Small Letter E With Grave
|
|
|
|
|
Note: The tone mark was created for Vietnamese, but its use is now discouraged.[3]
|
Ḕ |
ḕ |
Ề |
ề |
Ì |
ì |
Ǹ |
ǹ |
Ò |
ò |
Ṑ |
ṑ |
Ồ
|
U+1E14 |
U+1E15 |
U+1EC0 |
U+1EC1 |
U+00CC |
U+00EC |
U+01F8 |
U+01F9 |
U+00D2 |
U+00F2 |
U+1E50 |
U+1E51 |
U+1ED2
|
Latin Capital Letter E With Macron And Grave |
Latin Small Letter E With Macron And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter I With Grave |
Latin Small Letter I With Grave |
Latin Capital Letter N With Grave |
Latin Small Letter N With Grave |
Latin Capital Letter O With Grave |
Latin Small Letter O With Grave |
Latin Capital Letter O With Macron And Grave |
Latin Small Letter O With Macron And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex And Grave
|
ồ |
Ờ |
ờ |
Ù |
ù |
Ǜ |
ǜ |
Ừ |
ừ |
Ẁ |
ẁ |
Ỳ |
ỳ
|
U+1ED3 |
U+1EDC |
U+1EDD |
U+00D9 |
U+00F9 |
U+01DB |
U+01DC |
U+1EEA |
U+1EEB |
U+1E80 |
U+1E81 |
U+1EF2 |
U+1EF3
|
Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter O With Horn And Grave |
Latin Small Letter O With Horn And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter U With Grave |
Latin Small Letter U With Grave |
Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis And Grave |
Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter U With Horn And Grave |
Latin Small Letter U With Horn And Grave |
Latin Capital Letter W With Grave |
Latin Small Letter W With Grave |
Latin Capital Letter Y With Grave |
Latin Small Letter Y With Grave
|
Uses of Grave Accent
Use
|
Language
|
Letters
|
Notes
|
Contraction
|
Portuguese
|
Àà /a/, Òò
|
In modern Portuguese, only Àà is officially used. It marks crasis on Aa, meaning that two Aa in separate words are contracted, forming one word out of the two. Òò is used inofficially for a similar purpose.[4]
|
Disambiguation of homographs
|
Malagasy
|
Àà /ˈa/, Èè /ˈe/, Ìì /ˈi/, Òò /ˈu/, Ỳỳ /ˈi/
|
The grave accent marks stress, but it usually only used for distinguishing between homographs. With pairs of these words, it is the one with exceptional stress placement that is marked with the grave, while the other word is unmarked. Dictionaries however may mark the stress of all words.[5]
|
Falling tone
|
Fon
|
Àà [â], Èè [ê], Ɛ̀ɛ̀ [ɛ̂], Ìì [î], Òò [ô], Ɔ̀ɔ̀[ɔ̂], Ùù [û]
|
The falling tone is not phonemic in Fon, but it is still marked with a grave accent. Tones are however not always marked at all.[6] Note that Ɛ̀ɛ̀ and Ɔ̀ɔ̀ are not precomposed characters.
|
Mandarin (Pinyin romanization)
|
Àà /a˥˩/, Èè /ə˥˩/, Ìì /i˥˩/, Òò /ə˥˩/, Ùù /u˥˩/, Ǜǜ /y˥˩/
|
Pinyin was created in the 1950s, and its tone marks were based on the Bopomofo phonetic notation.[7] Note that these tone values are based on the Beijing dialect.[8]
|
Min Dong (Fuzhou dialect, Foochow romanization)
|
Àà /a˥˧, ɑ˥˧/, À̤à̤ /ɛ˥˧, a˥˧/, Èè /ɛi˥˧/, È̤è̤ /œ˥˧/, Ìì /i˥˧/, Òò /ou˥˧/, Ò̤ò̤ /o˥˧, ɔ˥˧/, Ùù /u˥˧/, Ṳ̀ṳ̀ /y˥˧/
|
Note that the letters here that contain ◌̤ are not precomposed characters.
|
Min Nan (Pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography)
|
Àà /a˨˩/, Àⁿ àⁿ /ã˨˩/, Èè /e˨˩/, Èⁿ èⁿ /ẽ˨˩/, Ìì /i˨˩/, Ìⁿ ìⁿ /ĩ˨˩/, M̀m̀ /m̩˨˩/, Ǹg ǹg /ŋ̍˨˩/, Òò /ə˨˩/, Òⁿ òⁿ /ɔ̃˨˩/, Ò͘ò͘ /ɔ˨˩/, Ùù /u˨˩/, Ùⁿ ùⁿ /u˨˩/
|
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,[9] while the tones here are as they are pronounced in Taipei.[10]
|
Vietnamese
|
Àà /a̤ː˨˩/, Ằằ /a̤˨˩/, Ầầ /ə̤˨˩/, Èè /ɛ̤˨˩/, Ềề /e̤˨˩/, Ìì /i̤˨˩/, Òò /ɔ̤˨˩/, Ồồ /o̤˨˩/, Ờờ /ə̤ː˨˩/, Ùù /ṳ˨˩/, Ừừ /ɨ̤˨˩/, Ỳỳ /i̤˨˩/
|
The grave accent stands for low falling tone with breathy voice. There are many exceptions to the phonemic values of these letters though.[11]
|
Lowered vowel
|
Portuguese
|
Èè /ɛ/, Òò /ɔ/
|
Used by some grammarians to show that unstressed Ee and Oo are realized as lowered vowels, not as /e, o/. This use is not official in Portuguese orthography.[4]
|
Short vowel
|
Croatian, Serbian
|
Àà /ǎ/, Èè /ě/, Ìì /ǐ/, Òò /ǒ/, R̀r̀ /ř̩/, Ùù /ǔ/
|
The grave accent marks that these vowels are short and have rising pitch. These letters are not used in the standard orthography of Croatian or Serbian, but in linguistic materials.[12]
|
Slovene (orthography with dynamic accentuation)
|
Àà /ˈa/, Èè /ˈɛ/, Ìì /ˈi/, Òò /ˈɔ/, R̀r̀ /ˈəɾ/, Ùù /ˈu/
|
The grave accent marks that these vowels are stressed and short, and that Èè and Òò are mid-open vowels rather than mid-close. These letters are not used in the standard orthography of Slovene, but in language materials.[13]
|
Slovene (orthography with tonal accentuation)
|
Àà /á/, Èè /ɛ́/, Ẹ̀ẹ̀ /é/, Ìì /í/, Òò /ɔ́/, Ọ̀ọ̀ /ó/, R̀r̀ /ə́ɾ/, Ùù /ú/
|
The grave accent marks that these vowels are short and have high pitch. These letters are not used in the standard orthography of Slovene, but in language materials.[13]
|
Welsh
|
Àà /a/, Èè /ɛ/, Ìì /ɪ/, Òò /ɔ/, Ùù /ɨ̞, ɪ/, Ẁẁ /ʊ/, Ỳỳ /ɨ̞, ɪ/
|
The grave accent is used for marking vowels that are short, in environments where a long vowel would otherwise be expected. Oftentimes it is omitted altogether, though.[14] Regarding Ùù and Ỳỳ: The first pronunciation given is used in northern dialects and the second in southern dialects.[15] Letters with diacritics do not count as separate letters in Welsh.[16]
|
Stress
|
Catalan
|
Àà /ˈa/, Èè /ˈɛ/, Òò /ˈɔ/
|
The rules for when stress is to be marked in Catalan are quite complex. The grave accent also distinguishes stressed /ɛ ɔ/ from /e o/,[17] see Acute Accent, Acute Accent in Natlangs.
|
Portuguese
|
Àà, Èè, Ìì, Òò, Ùù
|
Used for marking irregular stress. This usage started to disappear in the 1970's.[4]
|
Varying length
|
Arabic (ISO 233 romanization)
|
Ỳỳ [a(ː)]
|
Ỳỳ is used for transcribing the Arabic letter ى, which is phonemically long but is often realized short.[18] Yy is probably used as base letter because ى is a dotless version of ي which stands for /j/ (and other sounds), transcribed Yy.
|
Arabic (ISO/R 233 romanization)
|
Àà [a(ː)]
|
Àà is used for transcribing the Arabic letter ى, which is phonemically long but is often realized short.[18]
|
Uses of Grave Accent
Usage
|
Language
|
Creator
|
Letters
|
Notes
|
Low pitch
|
Inng (external transcription)
|
Qwynegold
|
Àà /à/, Èè /ə̀, ì/, Ìì /ì/, L̀l̀ /l̩̀/, M̀m̀ /ŋ̩̀/, Ǹǹ /ŋ̩̀/, Òò /ò, ə̀, à/, Ùù /ù/
|
Some of these accented letters only appear as part of a digraph when representing a certain sound.[19]
|
Low tone
|
Lhueslue (external romanization)
|
Qwynegold
|
Àà /ɑ̀/, Àe àe /æ̀/, Èè /è/. Èe èe /ɛ̀/, Ìì /ì/, Ìe ìe /ɘ̀/, Òò /ò/, Òe òe /ø̀/, Ùù /ù/, Ùe ùe /ỳ/
|
This tone may be realized as either a low level tone, or a falling tone. Unaccented vowels have mid level tone.[20]
|
Stress
|
Liu (external romanization)
|
Qwynegold
|
Àà /ˈa/, Èè /ˈe/, Ìì /ˈi/, Òò /ˈo/, Ùù /ˈu/
|
The grave accent marks that the vowel is stressed and short. In the native script, the corresponding diacritic would be placed on the first letter of the syllable, whether it's a vowel or a consonant, but in the romanization it is only used on vowel letters for simplicity's sake.
|