(Redirected from Ą)
The 'ogonek' (Polish for "little tail", the
diminutive of ''ogon'') is a
diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the
Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.
Languages that use the ogonek
★
Polish (letters ''ą'', ''ę'')
★
Lithuanian (''ą'', ''ę'', ''į'', ''ų'')
★
Creek,
Navajo and
Western Apache (''ą'', ''ąą'', ''ę'', ''ęę'', ''į'', ''įį'', , )
★
Chiricahua and
Mescalero (''ą'', ''ąą'', ''ę'', ''ęę'', ''į'', ''įį'', ''ų'', ''ųų''),
★
Tutchone and
Älvdalen Dalecarlian ,
★
Gwich'in.
★ Modern scholarly transcriptions of
Old Norse (letter '')
Example in Polish:
:
:
:: —
Jan Brzechwa, ''
''
Example in Lithuanian:
:
:
:: — Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, ''Margi sakalai''
Example in
Älvdalen Dalecarlian:
:"Ja, eð war įe plåg að gęslkallum, dar eð war slaik uondlostjyner i gęslun."
:: — Vikar Margit Andersdotter, ''I fäbodlivet i gamla tider''.
Values
Nasalization
The use of the ogonek to indicate
nasality is common in the transcription of the
indigenous languages of the Americas. This usage originated in the orthographies created by Christian missionaries to transcribe these languages. Later, the practice was continued by Americanist anthropologists and linguists who still follow this convention in phonetic transcription to the present day (see
Americanist phonetic notation).
The ogonek is also used in academic transliteration of
Old Church Slavonic and
Old Norse. In Polish, Old Church Slavonic, Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, and Älvdalen Dalecarlian it indicates that the vowel is nasalized.
Length
In Lithuanian, where it formerly indicated nasalization which is no longer distinctive, it indicates that a vowel is
long. The Lithuanian word for "ogonek" is ''nosinė'' which literally means "nasal".
Tone
In Navajo, Chiricahua, Western Apache, and Mescalero it can be combined with the acute and grave accents where it indicates high
tone, or in long vowels high, falling, rising tone (e.g. ''ą́'', , ''į́į''). In the orthography conventions of Willem de Reuse, Western Apache has combinations of ogonek and
macron (e.g. , '').
Typographical notes
The ogonek should be almost the same size as a
descender (in larger type sizes may be relatively quite shorter) and should not be confused with the
cedilla or
comma diacritic marks used in other languages.
The
HTML/
Unicode numbers for ogonek letters are:
| Upper Case | Lower Case |
|---|
| Letter | HTML | Alt Code | Letter | HTML | Alt Code |
|---|---|---|
| | Ą | Alt + 0260 | | ą | Alt + 0261 |
| | Ę | Alt + 0280 | | ę | Alt + 0281 |
| | Į | Alt + 0302 | | į | Alt + 0303 |
| | Ǫ | Alt + 0490 | | ǫ | Alt + 0491 |
| | Ų | Alt + 0370 | | ų | Alt + 0371 |
| | ˛ | Alt + 0731 |
LaTeX2e
In
LaTeX2e macro
k will typeset a letter with ogonek, if it is supported by the font encoding , e.g.
k{a} will typeset ''ą''. The package
TIPA activated by using the command "
usepackage{tipa}", offers a different way: "
extpolhook{a}" will produce ''ą''.
See also
★
Ę
★
Cedilla
★
Comma (punctuation)
★
ᚬ
External links
★
Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
★
Polish Diacritics — How To?
★
Förslag till en enhetlig stavning för älvdalska (March, 2005)