Unicode subscripts and superscripts explained

Unicode has subscripted and superscripted versions of a number of characters including a full set of Arabic numerals.^[1] These characters allow any polynomial, chemical and certain other equations to be represented in plain text without using any form of markup like HTML or TeX.

The World Wide Web Consortium and the Unicode Consortium have made recommendations on the choice between using markup and using superscript and subscript characters:

When used in mathematical context (MathML) it is recommended to consistently use style markup for superscripts and subscripts […] However, when super and sub-scripts are to reflect semantic distinctions, it is easier to work with these meanings encoded in text rather than markup, for example, in phonetic or phonemic transcription.^[2]

Uses

The intended use^[2] when these characters were added to Unicode was to produce true superscripts and subscripts so that chemical and algebraic formulas could be written without markup. Thus "H₂O" (using a subscript 2 character) is supposed to be identical to "H₂O" (with subscript markup).

In reality, many fonts that include these characters ignore the Unicode definition, and instead design the digits for mathematical numerator and denominator glyphs,^{[3] [4]} which are aligned with the cap line and the baseline, respectively. When used with the solidus, these glyphs are a common substitute for diagonal fractions, such as ³/₄ for the ¾ glyph. This change was made because using markup does not give a good graphic approximation of fractions (compare markup ³/₄ with super/sub-script ³/₄). The change also makes the superscript letters useful for ordinal indicators, more closely matching the ª and º characters. However, it makes them incorrect for normal superscript and subscript, and so chemical and algebraic formulas are better rendered by using markup.

Unicode intended that diagonal fractions be rendered by a different mechanism: the fraction slash U+2044 is visually similar to the solidus, but when used with the ordinary digits (not the superscripts and subscripts), it instructs the layout system that a fraction such as ¾ is to be rendered using automatic glyph substitution.^{[5] [6]} User-end support was quite poor for a number of years, but fonts, browsers,^[7] word processors,^[8] desktop publishing software^[9] and others increasingly support the intended Unicode behavior.

A selection of supporting fonts is displayed in the table below. (These will not display properly if you do not have the fonts installed, or if your browser does not support this behavior.)

Comparison of encodings of simple fractions, superscripts and subscripts
scaled to 150% for visibility! Font! !

!

	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Andika	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Arno Pro	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
URW Bookman	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Brill	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Brioso Pro	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Calibri	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Candara	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Carlito	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Cantarell	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
FiraGO	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
EB Garamond	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Gentium Book	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
URW Gothic	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Lato	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Linux Libertine	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Nimbus Roman	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Nimbus Sans	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Noto Sans	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Noto Serif	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Open Sans	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂
Yrsa	½	1⁄2	C¹ C₂

Superscripts and subscripts block

See main article: Superscripts and Subscripts (Unicode block). The most common superscript digits (1, 2, and 3) were in ISO-8859-1 and were therefore carried over into those positions in the Latin-1 range of Unicode. The rest were placed in a dedicated section of Unicode at to U+209F. The two tables below show these characters. Each superscript or subscript character is preceded by a normal x to show the subscripting/superscripting. The table on the left contains the actual Unicode characters; the one on the right contains the equivalents using HTML markup for the subscript or superscript.

-- outer table -->	Unicode characters - ! 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F - ! U+00Bx x² x³ x¹ - ! U+207x x⁰ xⁱ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ x⁺ x⁻ x⁼ x⁽ x⁾ xⁿ - ! U+208x x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ x₊ x₋ x₌ x₍ x₎ - ! U+209x xₐ xₑ xₒ xₓ xₔ xₕ xₖ xₗ xₘ xₙ xₚ xₛ xₜ -		HTML formatting using <sup> and <sub> tags - ! 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F - ! U+00Bx x^2 x^3 x^1 - ! U+207x x^0 x^i x^4 x^5 x^6 x^7 x^8 x^9 x^+ x^- x^= x^( x^) x^n - ! U+208x x0 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 x+ x- x= x( x) - ! U+209x xa xe xo xx xə xh xk xl xm xn xp xs xt

Other superscript and subscript characters

Unicode version version=15.1 also includes subscript and superscript characters that are intended for semantic usage, in the following blocks:^{[1] [10]}

Superscript

• The Latin-1 Supplement block contains the feminine and masculine ordinal indicators ª and º.
• The Latin Extended-C block contains one superscript, ⱽ.
• The Latin Extended-D block contains six superscripts: ꝰ ꟲ ꟳ ꟴ ꟸ ꟹ.
• The Latin Extended-E block contains five superscripts: ꭜ ꭝ ꭞ ꭟ ꭩ.
• The Latin Extended-F block is entirely superscript IPA letters: .
• The Spacing Modifier Letters block has superscripted letters and symbols used for phonetic transcription: ʰ ʱ ʲ ʳ ʴ ʵ ʶ ʷ ʸ ˀ ˁ ˠ ˡ ˢ ˣ ˤ.
• The Phonetic Extensions block has several superscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA ᴬ ᴭ ᴮ ᴯ ᴰ ᴱ ᴲ ᴳ ᴴ ᴵ ᴶ ᴷ ᴸ ᴹ ᴺ ᴻ ᴼ ᴽ ᴾ ᴿ ᵀ ᵁ ᵂ ᵃ ᵄ ᵅ ᵆ ᵇ ᵈ ᵉ ᵊ ᵋ ᵌ ᵍ ᵏ ᵐ ᵑ ᵒ ᵓ ᵖ ᵗ ᵘ ᵚ ᵛ, Greek ᵝ ᵞ ᵟ ᵠ ᵡ, Cyrillic ᵸ, other ᵎ ᵔ ᵕ ᵙ ᵜ. These are intended to indicate secondary articulation.
• The Phonetic Extensions Supplement block has several more: Latin/IPA ᶛ ᶜ ᶝ ᶞ ᶟ ᶠ ᶡ ᶢ ᶣ ᶤ ᶥ ᶦ ᶧ ᶨ ᶩ ᶪ ᶫ ᶬ ᶭ ᶮ ᶯ ᶰ ᶱ ᶲ ᶳ ᶴ ᶵ ᶶ ᶷ ᶸ ᶹ ᶺ ᶻ ᶼ ᶽ ᶾ, Greek ᶿ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-B block contains two Cyrillic superscripts: ꚜ ꚝ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block contains many Cyrillic superscripts: .
• The Georgian block contains one superscripted Mkhedruli letter: ჼ.
• The Kanbun block has superscripted annotation characters used in Japanese copies of Classical Chinese texts: ㆒ ㆓ ㆔ ㆕ ㆖ ㆗ ㆘ ㆙ ㆚ ㆛ ㆜ ㆝ ㆞ ㆟.
• The Tifinagh block has one superscript letter : ⵯ.
• The Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and its Extended blocks contain several mostly consonant-only letters to indicate syllable coda called Finals, along with some characters that indicate syllable medial known as Medials: Main block ᐜ ᐝ ᐞ ᐟ ᐠ ᐡ ᐢ ᐣ ᐤ ᐥ ᐦ ᐧ ᐨ ᐩ ᐪ ᑉ ᑊ ᑋ ᒃ ᒄ ᒡ ᒢ ᒻ ᒼ ᒽ ᒾ ᓐ ᓑ ᓒ ᓪ ᓫ ᔅ ᔆ ᔇ ᔈ ᔉ ᔊ ᔋ ᔥ ᔾ ᔿ ᕀ ᕁ ᕐ ᕑ ᕝ ᕪ ᕻ ᕯ ᕽ ᖅ ᖕ ᖖ ᖟ ᖦ ᖮ ᗮ ᘁ ᙆ ᙇ ᙚ ᙾ ᙿ; Extended block: ᣔ ᣕ ᣖ ᣗ ᣘ ᣙ ᣚ ᣛ ᣜ ᣝ ᣞ ᣟ ᣳ ᣴ ᣵ.

Combining superscript

• The Combining Diacritical Marks block contains medieval superscript letter diacritics. These letters are written directly above other letters appearing in medieval Germanic manuscripts, and so these glyphs do not include spacing, for example uͤ. They are shown here over the dotted circle placeholder ◌: ◌ͣ ◌ͤ ◌ͥ ◌ͦ ◌ͧ ◌ͨ ◌ͩ ◌ͪ ◌ͫ ◌ͬ ◌ͭ ◌ͮ ◌ͯ.
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains three combining insular letters for the Middle English Ormulum, ◌ᫌ ◌ᫍ ◌ᫎ.^[11]
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement block contains additional medieval superscript letter diacritics, enough to complete the basic lowercase Latin alphabet except for j, q and y, a few small capitals and ligatures (ae, ao, av), and additional letters: ◌᷒ ◌ᷓ ◌ᷔ ◌ᷕ ◌ᷖ ◌ᷗ ◌ᷘ ◌ᷙ ◌ᷚ ◌ᷛ ◌ᷜ ◌ᷝ ◌ᷞ ◌ᷟ ◌ᷠ ◌ᷡ ◌ᷢ ◌ᷣ ◌ᷤ ◌ᷥ ◌ᷦ ◌ᷧ ◌ᷨ ◌ᷪ ◌ᷫ ◌ᷬ ◌ᷭ ◌ᷮ ◌ᷯ ◌ᷰ ◌ᷱ ◌ᷲ ◌ᷳ ◌ᷴ, Greek ◌ᷩ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-A and -B blocks contains multiple medieval superscript letter diacritics, enough to complete the basic lowercase Cyrillic alphabet used in Church Slavonic texts, also includes an additional ligature (ст): ◌ⷠ ◌ⷡ ◌ⷢ ◌ⷣ ◌ⷤ ◌ⷥ ◌ⷦ ◌ⷧ ◌ⷨ ◌ⷩ ◌ⷪ ◌ⷫ ◌ⷬ ◌ⷭ ◌ⷮ ◌ⷯ ◌ⷰ ◌ⷱ ◌ⷲ ◌ⷳ ◌ⷴ ◌ⷵ ◌ⷶ ◌ⷷ ◌ⷸ ◌ⷹ ◌ⷺ ◌ⷻ ◌ⷼ ◌ⷽ ◌ⷾ ◌ⷿ ◌ꙴ ◌ꙵ ◌ꙶ ◌ꙷ ◌ꙸ ◌ꙹ ◌ꙺ ◌ꙻ ◌ꚞ ◌ꚟ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block has one additional combining character, that being і: ◌.

Subscript

• The Latin Extended-C block contains one subscript, ⱼ.
• The Phonetic Extensions block has several subscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA ᵢ ᵣ ᵤ ᵥ and Greek ᵦ ᵧ ᵨ ᵩ ᵪ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block also contains many Cyrillic subscripts: .

Combining subscript

• The Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement block contains a combining subscript: ◌᷊.
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains two combining letters for linguistic transcriptions of Scots, ◌ᪿ ◌ᫀ.

Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and IPA tables

Consolidated, the Unicode standard contains superscript and subscript versions of a subset of Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters. Here they are arranged in alphabetical order for comparison (or for copy and paste convenience). Since these characters appear in different Unicode ranges, they may not appear to be the same size or position due to font substitution in the browser. Shaded cells mark small capitals that are not very distinct from minuscules, and Greek letters that are indistinguishable from Latin, and so would not be expected to be supported by Unicode.

Little punctuation is encoded. Parentheses and the exclamation mark are shown above. A question mark may be created with a superscript gelded question mark and a combining dot: (IPA|ˀ̣), although some fonts do not render it properly.

Latin superscript and subscript letters

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Superscript capital	ᴬ	ᴮ	ꟲ	ᴰ	ᴱ	ꟳ	ᴳ	ᴴ	ᴵ	ᴶ	ᴷ	ᴸ	ᴹ	ᴺ	ᴼ	ᴾ	ꟴ	ᴿ	꟱^[12]	ᵀ	ᵁ	ⱽ	ᵂ
Superscript small cap	𝿩^[13]	𐞄		𝿨^[14]	𝿺		𐞒	𐞖	ᶦ			ᶫ		ᶰ				𐞪			ᶸ				𐞲
Superscript minuscule	ᵃ	ᵇ	ᶜ	ᵈ	ᵉ	ᶠ	ᵍ	ʰ	ⁱ	ʲ	ᵏ	ˡ	ᵐ	ⁿ	ᵒ	ᵖ	𐞥	ʳ	ˢ	ᵗ	ᵘ	ᵛ	ʷ	ˣ	ʸ	ᶻ
Overscript small cap							◌ᷛ					◌ᷞ	◌ᷟ	◌ᷡ				◌ᷢ
Overscript minuscule	◌ͣ	◌ᷨ	◌ͨ	◌ͩ	◌ͤ	◌ᷫ	◌ᷚ	◌ͪ	◌ͥ		◌ᷜ	◌ᷝ	◌ͫ	◌ᷠ	◌ͦ	◌ᷮ		◌ͬ	◌ᷤ	◌ͭ	◌ͧ	◌ͮ	◌ᷱ	◌ͯ		◌ᷦ
Subscript minuscule	ₐ				ₑ			ₕ	ᵢ	ⱼ	ₖ	ₗ	ₘ	ₙ	ₒ	ₚ		ᵣ	ₛ	ₜ	ᵤ	ᵥ		ₓ
Underscript minuscule																		◌᷊					◌ᪿ

Greek superscript and subscript letters

	Α	Β	Γ	Δ	Ε	Ζ	Η	Θ	Ι	Κ	Λ	Μ	Ν	Ξ	Ο	Π	Ρ	Σ	Τ	Υ	Φ	Χ	Ψ	Ω
Superscript minuscule		ᵝ	ᵞ	ᵟ	ᵋ			ᶿ	ᶥ												ᵠ	ᵡ	𝿳^[15]	𝿴^[16]
Overscript minuscule		◌ᷩ
Subscript minuscule		ᵦ	ᵧ						ͺ^[17]								ᵨ				ᵩ	ᵪ
Underscript minuscule									◌ͅ															◌̫^[18]

																										Ҫ
Superscript																					ᵸ
Overscript	◌ⷶ		◌ⷠ	◌ⷡ	◌ⷢ		◌ⷣ	◌ⷷ	◌ꙴ	◌ⷤ	◌ⷥ			◌ꙵ	◌𞂏	◌ꙶ		◌ⷦ	◌ⷧ	◌ⷨ	◌ⷩ	◌ⷪ		◌ⷫ	◌ⷬ	◌ⷭ
Subscript
																											Ӏ
Superscript														ꚜ			ꚝ
Overscript	◌ⷮ	◌ꙷ			◌ⷹ	◌ꚞ	◌ⷯ	◌ꙻ	◌ⷰ	◌ⷱ		◌ⷲ	◌ⷳ	◌ꙸ		◌ꙹ	◌ꙺ	◌ⷺ		◌ⷻ	◌ⷼ	◌ꚟ	◌ⷽ	◌ⷾ	◌ⷿ	◌ⷴ
Subscript

Many of the Cyrillic characters were added to the Cyrillic Extended-D block, which was added to the free Gentium Plus and Andika fonts with version 6.2 in February 2023.

See also small caps in Unicode.

The Latin Extended-F block was created for the remaining superscript IPA letters. They were added to the free Gentium Plus and Andika fonts with version 6.2 in February 2023. Additional characters for historical and para-IPA letters are pending as of 2024.

Consonant letters

The Unicode characters for superscript (modifier) IPA and extIPA consonant letters are as follows. Characters for sounds with secondary articulation are set off in parentheses and placed below the base letters. Pairs of click letters are the current letter on the left and a traditional or para-IPA letter on the right; the latter are pending in Unicode.

IPA and extIPA consonants, along with superscript variants and their Unicode code points

	Bilabial		Labiodental		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal		Glottal
Nasal		pronounced as /m ᵐ/ 1D50		pronounced as /ɱ ᶬ/ 1DAC				pronounced as /n ⁿ/ 207F 1DFF7		1DFF1		pronounced as /ɳ ᶯ/ 1DAF		pronounced as /ɲ ᶮ/ 1DAE		pronounced as /ŋ ᵑ/ 1D51		pronounced as /ɴ ᶰ/ 1DB0
Plosive	pronounced as /p ᵖ/ 1D56	pronounced as /b ᵇ/ 1D47					pronounced as /t ᵗ/ 1D57 1DB5	pronounced as /d ᵈ/ 1D48 1DFF5	1DFF2	1DFEF	pronounced as /ʈ 𐞯/ 107AF	pronounced as /ɖ 𐞋/ 1078B	pronounced as /c ᶜ/ 1D9C	pronounced as /ɟ ᶡ/ 1DA1	pronounced as /k ᵏ/ 1D4F	pronounced as /ɡ ᶢ//pronounced as /g ᵍ/ 1DA2/1D4D	pronounced as /q 𐞥/ 107A5	pronounced as /ɢ 𐞒/ 10792	pronounced as /ʡ 𐞳/ 107B3		pronounced as /ʔ ˀ/ 02C0
Affricate							pronounced as /ʦ 𐞬/ 107AC	pronounced as /ʣ 𐞇/ 10787	pronounced as /ʧ 𐞮/ 107AE 107AB	pronounced as /ʤ 𐞊/ 1078A 10789	pronounced as /ꭧ 𐞭/ 107AD 1DFE5	pronounced as /ꭦ 𐞈/ 10788 1DFE1
Fricative	pronounced as /ɸ ᶲ/ 1DB2	pronounced as /β ᵝ/ 1D5D	pronounced as /f ᶠ/ 1DA0	pronounced as /v ᵛ/ 1D5B	pronounced as /θ ᶿ/ 1DBF	pronounced as /ð ᶞ/ 1D9E	pronounced as /s ˢ/ 02E2 1DFF8	pronounced as /z ᶻ/ 1DBB 1DFF9	pronounced as /ʃ ᶴ/ 1DB4 1D9D	pronounced as /ʒ ᶾ/ 1DBE 1DBD	pronounced as /ʂ ᶳ/ 1DB3 1DFE3	pronounced as /ʐ ᶼ/ 1DBC 1DFE7	pronounced as /ç ᶜ̧/ 1D9C + 0327^[19]	pronounced as /ʝ ᶨ/ 1DA8	pronounced as /x ˣ/ 02E3 (pronounced as /ɧ 𐞗/) 10797	pronounced as /ɣ ˠ/ 02E0	pronounced as /χ ᵡ/ 1D61	pronounced as /ʁ ʶ/ 02B6	pronounced as /ħ 𐞕/ 10795 (pronounced as /ʩ 𐞐/) 10790	pronounced as /ʕ ˤ/ ^[20]	pronounced as /h ʰ/ 02B0 1DFF6	pronounced as /ɦ ʱ/ 02B1
Approximant				pronounced as /ʋ ᶹ/ 1DB9				pronounced as /ɹ ʴ/ 02B4				pronounced as /ɻ ʵ/ 02B5		pronounced as /j ʲ/ 02B2 (pronounced as /ɥ ᶣ/) 1DA3	(pronounced as /ʍ ꭩ/) AB69	pronounced as /ɰ ᶭ/ 1DAD (pronounced as /w ʷ/) 02B7
Tap/flap				pronounced as /ⱱ 𐞰/ 107B0				pronounced as /ɾ 𐞩/ 107A9				pronounced as /ɽ 𐞨/ 107A8
Trill		pronounced as /ʙ 𐞄/ 10784						pronounced as /r ʳ/ 02B3										pronounced as /ʀ 𐞪/ 107AA	pronounced as /ʜ 𐞖/ 10796	pronounced as /ʢ 𐞴/ 107B4
Lateral fricative							pronounced as /ɬ 𐞛/ 1079B (pronounced as /ʪ 𐞙/) 10799	pronounced as /ɮ 𐞞/ 1079E (pronounced as /ʫ 𐞚/) 1079A			pronounced as /ꞎ 𐞝/ 1079D	pronounced as /𝼅 𐞟/ 1079F	pronounced as /𝼆 𐞡/ 107A1		pronounced as /𝼄 𐞜/ 1079C
Lateral approximant								pronounced as /l ˡ/ 02E1 (pronounced as /ᶅ ᶪ/) 1DAA		1DFF0		pronounced as /ɭ ᶩ/ 1DA9		pronounced as /ʎ 𐞠/ 107A0		pronounced as /ʟ ᶫ/ 1DAB (pronounced as /ɫ ꭞ/)^[21] AB5E
Lateral tap/flap								pronounced as /ɺ 𐞦/ 107A6				pronounced as /𝼈 𐞧/ 107A7
Implosive	pronounced as /ƥ 𝿼/ 1DFFC	pronounced as /ɓ 𐞅/ 10785					pronounced as /ƭ 𝿾/ 1DFFE	pronounced as /ɗ 𐞌/ 1078C			pronounced as / 𝿿/ 1DFFF	pronounced as /ᶑ 𐞍/ 1078D	pronounced as /ƈ 𝿺/ 1DFFA	pronounced as /ʄ 𐞘/ 10798	pronounced as /ƙ 𝿻/ 1DFFB	pronounced as /ɠ 𐞓/ 10793	pronounced as /ʠ 𝿽/ 1DFFD	pronounced as /ʛ 𐞔/ 10794
Click release^[22]	pronounced as /ʘ 𐞵/ 107B5				pronounced as /ǀ 𐞶/ 107B6	pronounced as /ʇ 𐞻/ 107BB	pronounced as /ǃ ꜝ/ A71D	pronounced as /ʗ 𐞽/ 107BD			pronounced as /𝼊 𐞹/ 107B9	pronounced as /ψ 𝿳/ 1DFF3	pronounced as /ǂ 𐞸/ 107B8	pronounced as / 𐞿/ 107BF	(pronounced as /ʞ 𐞾/) 107BE
Lateral click release							pronounced as /ǁ 𐞷/ 107B7	pronounced as /ʖ 𐞼/ 107BC
Percussive							pronounced as /¡ ꜞ/ A71E^[23]

The spacing diacritic for ejective consonants, U+2BC, works with superscript letters despite not being superscript itself: (IPA|ᵖʼ ᵗʼ ᶜʼ ᵏˣʼ). If a distinction needs to be made, the combining apostrophe U+315 may be used: (IPA|ᵖ̕ ᵗ̕ ᶜ̕ ᵏˣ̕). The spacing diacritic should be used for a baseline letter with a superscript release, such as pronounced as /[tˢʼ]/ or pronounced as /[kˣʼ]/, where the scope of the apostrophe includes the non-superscript letter, but the combining apostrophe U+315 might be used to indicate a weakly articulated ejective consonant like pronounced as /[ᵗ̕]/ or pronounced as /[ᵏ̕]/, where the whole consonant is written as a superscript, or together with U+2BC when separate apostrophes have scope over the base and modifier letters, as in (IPA|pʼᵏˣ̕).^[24]

Spacing diacritics, as in (IPA|tʲ), cannot be secondarily superscripted in plain text: (IPA|ᵗʲ). (In this instance, the old IPA letter for pronounced as /[tʲ]/, (IPA|ƫ), has a superscript variant in Unicode, U+1DB5 (IPA|ᶵ), but that is not generally the case.)

Among older letters, (IPA|ꜧ) (U+A727) was a graphic variant of (IPA|ɮ). Its superscript is supported at (IPA|ꭜ) (U+AB5C). The most common letters with palatal hook are also supported; they are displayed in the table above. IPA once had an idiosyncratic curl on some of the palatalized letters: these are the fricative letters (IPA|ʆ ʓ) and the affricate ligatures (IPA|). In 2024 their superscript forms are pending at (IPA|𝿦 𝿢 𝿤 𝿠) (U+1DFE6, 1DFE2, 1DFE4, 1DFE0). The retired letters (IPA|ƞ) and (IPA|ɼ) have pending support at (IPA|𝿜) (1DFDC) and (IPA|𝿝) (1DFDD).

Among para-IPA letters, Sinological superscript (IPA|ȡ ȴ ȵ ȶ) are pending at (IPA|) (U+1DFEF - 1DFF2).^[13] Superscripts of the Bantuist labio-dental plosives (IPA|ȹ) and (IPA|ȸ) are pending at (IPA|𝿟) and (IPA|𝿞).The central semivowels (IPA|ɉ), (IPA|𝼾) (pronounced as /ɥ̶/) and (IPA|𝼿) (pronounced as /w̶/) are pending at U+1DFD9 (IPA|𝿙), 1DFD8 (IPA|𝿘), 1DFDB (IPA|𝿛).

Vowel letters

The Unicode characters for superscript (modifier) IPA vowel letters, plus a pair of extended letters (IPA|ᵻ ᵿ) found in English dictionaries, are as follows. Recently retired alternative letters such as (IPA|ɩ ɷ) are also supported; they are set off in parentheses and placed below the standard IPA letters:

IPA vowels and superscript variants

	Front		Central		Back
Close	pronounced as /i ⁱ/ 2071	pronounced as /y ʸ/ 02B8	pronounced as /ɨ ᶤ/ 1DA4	pronounced as /ʉ ᶶ/ 1DB6	pronounced as /ɯ ᵚ/ 1D5A	pronounced as /u ᵘ/ 1D58
Near-close	pronounced as /ɪ ᶦ/ 1DA6 (pronounced as /ɩ ᶥ/) 1DA5	pronounced as /ʏ 𐞲/ 107B2	(pronounced as /ᵻ ᶧ/) 1DA7	(pronounced as /ᵿ 𝿚/) 1DFDA		pronounced as /ʊ ᶷ/ 1DB7 (pronounced as /ɷ /) 107A4
Close-mid	pronounced as /e ᵉ/ 1D49	pronounced as /ø 𐞢/ 107A2	pronounced as /ɘ 𐞎/ 1078E	pronounced as /ɵ ᶱ/ 1DB1	pronounced as /ɤ 𐞑/ 10791	pronounced as /o ᵒ/ 1D52
Mid			pronounced as /ə ᵊ/ 1D4A
Open-mid	pronounced as /ɛ ᵋ/ 1D4B	pronounced as /œ ꟹ/ A7F9	pronounced as /ɜ ᶟ/ 1D9F (pronounced as /ᴈ ᵌ/) 1D4C	pronounced as /ɞ 𐞏/ 1078F	pronounced as /ʌ ᶺ/ 1DBA	pronounced as /ɔ ᵓ/ 1D53
Near-open	pronounced as /æ 𐞃/ 10783	pronounced as /ɶ 𐞣/ 107A3	pronounced as /ɐ ᵄ/ 1D44		pronounced as /ɑ ᵅ/ 1D45	pronounced as /ɒ ᶛ/ 1D9B
Open	pronounced as /a ᵃ/ 1D43

The precomposed Unicode rhotic vowel letters (IPA|ɚ ɝ) are not directly supported. The rhotic diacritic U+02DE pronounced as /◌˞/ should be used instead: (IPA|ᵊ˞ ᶟ˞).^[25]

(IPA|ɜ) and (IPA|ᶟ) are reversed pronounced as /ɛ/. The older IPA turned pronounced as /ɛ/, (IPA|ᴈ), is also supported, at U+1D4C (IPA|ᵌ). However, the briefly resurrected vowel letter (IPA|ʚ) (U+029A) is not supported, only its reversed replacement (IPA|ɞ) is.

Among older letters, (IPA|ᴜ) (U+1D1C), a graphic variant of (IPA|ʊ), is supported at (IPA|ᶸ) (U+1DB8).

Among para-IPA letters, Sinological superscript (IPA|ɿ ʅ ʮ ʯ) are pending at (IPA|) (U+1DFEB - 1DFEE).^[13]

Length marks

The two length marks are also supported:

These are used to add length to another superscript, such as long aspiration.

Wildcards

Superscript wildcards (full caps) are largely supported: e.g. pronounced as /ᴺC/ (prenasalized consonant), pronounced as /ꟲN/ (prestopped nasal), pronounced as /Pꟳ/ (fricative release), pronounced as /NᴾF/ (epenthetic plosive), pronounced as /CVNᵀ/ (tone-bearing syllable), pronounced as /Cᴸ/ (liquid or lateral release), pronounced as /Cᴿ/ (rhotic or resonant release), pronounced as /Vᴳ/ (off-glide/diphthong), pronounced as /Cⱽ/ (fleeting vowel). Superscript pronounced as /S/ for sibilant release has preliminary approval for Unicode 17 (as ꟱); superscript pronounced as /Ʞ/ for fleeting/epenthetic click does not. Other basic Latin superscript wildcards for tone and weak indeterminate sounds, as described in the article on the International Phonetic Alphabet, are mostly supported. (See table in previous section.)

Combining marks and subscripts

In addition, a very few IPA letters beyond the basic Latin alphabet have combining forms or are supported as subscripts:

ɑ	æ	ç	ð	ə	ʃ	ʍ	ʔ	ʼ
Overscript	◌ᷧ	◌ᷔ	◌ᷗ	◌ᷙ	◌ᷪ	◌ᷯ		◌̉^[26]	◌̓
Subscript					ₔ
Underscript							◌ᫀ		◌̦

Composite characters

Primarily for compatibility with earlier character sets, Unicode contains a number of characters that compose super- and subscripts with other symbols.^[1] In most fonts these render much better than attempts to construct these symbols from the above characters or by using markup.

• The Latin-1 Supplement block contains the precomposed fractions ½, ¼, and ¾. The copyright © and registered trademark signs ® are also in this block.
• The General Punctuation block contains the permille sign ‰ and the per-ten-thousand sign ‱, and Basic Latin has the percent sign %.
• The Number Forms block contains several precomposed fractions: ⅐ ⅑ ⅒ ⅓ ⅔ ⅕ ⅖ ⅗ ⅘ ⅙ ⅚ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ⅟ ↉.
• The Letterlike Symbols block contains a few symbols composed of subscript and superscript characters: ℀ ℁ ℅ ℆ № ℠ ™ ⅍.
• The Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block contains three superscript abbreviations : MC for French: marque de commerce (trademark), MD for French: marque déposée (registered trademark), both used in Canada; MR for Spanish; Castilian: marca registrada (registered trademark) in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.^[27]
• The Miscellaneous Technical block has one additional subscript, a subscript 10 (⏨), for the purpose of scientific notation.
• The Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and its Extended blocks contain several letters composed with superscripted letters to indicate extended sound values: Main block ᐂ ᐫ ᐬ ᐭ ᐮ ᐰ ᑍ ᑧ ᑨ ᑩ ᑪ ᑬ ᒅ ᒆ ᒇ ᒈ ᒊ ᒤ ᓁ ᓔ ᓮ ᔌ ᔍ ᔎ ᔏ ᔧ ᕅ ᕔ ᕿ ᖀ ᖁ ᖂ ᖃ ᖄ ᖎ ᖏ ᖐ ᖑ ᖒ ᖓ ᖔ ᙯ ᙰ ᙱ ᙲ ᙳ ᙴ ᙵ ᙶ, Extended block ᢰ ᢱ ᢲ ᢳ ᢴ ᢵ ᢶ ᢷ ᢸ ᢹ ᢺ ᢻ ᢼ ᢽ ᢾ ᢿ ᣀ ᣁ ᣂ ᣃ ᣄ ᣅ.

References

Notes and References

1. Web site: UCD: UnicodeData.txt. The Unicode Standard. 2016-05-14.
2. Web site: Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages . Martin Dürst, Asmus Freytag . 16 May 2007 . W3C . 13 September 2010.
3. Web site: 27 December 2021. fraction Dart Package. 21 September 2022. Dart packages. en-us.
4. Web site: 30 March 2021. MathML General layout elements Fractions. 13 January 2022. data2type GmbH. de-DE.
5. Web site: Fraction Slash . Martin Dürst, Asmus Freytag . 16 May 2007 . W3C . 13 September 2010.
6. For a general overview and technical information on glyph substitution (though not specifically for fractions): GSUB — Glyph Substitution Table in the OpenType specification on the Microsoft Typography site.
7. Such as Chrome, Firefox and Falkon
8. Such as LibreOffice Writer
9. Such as Adobe InDesign and Scribus
10. Web site: UCD: Scripts.txt. The Unicode Standard. 2022-09-21.
11. Web site: L2/20-268: Revised proposal to add ten characters for Middle English to the UCS. 2020-10-05. Michael. Everson. Andrew. West.
12. Approved in 2024. Unicode pipeline: MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL S
13. Approved in 2024. Latin modifier letter Sinological extensions to IPA
14. Approved in 2024. Latin historical and para-IPA modifier letters
15. Approved in 2024. Unicode pipeline: MODIFIER LETTER SMALL GREEK PSI
16. Approved in 2024. Unicode pipeline: MODIFIER LETTER SMALL GREEK OMEGA
17. (IPA|ͺ) is set lower than a normal subscript. It is equivalent to underscript (IPA|◌ͅ) on a space.
18. (IPA|◌̫) is traditionally typeset as an omega.
19. Superscript (IPA|ç) is composed of superscript pronounced as /c/ and a combining cedilla, which should display properly in a good font. Superscript c was specifically requested for this purpose in Unicode proposal L2/03-180.
20. is the superscript variant of and is defined for IPA use. The similar character is a reversed, perhaps a gelded reversed question mark. Fonts are inconsistent in whether they look different and what the difference is.
21. In Microsoft fonts, superscript (IPA|ɫ) was erroneously designed as a superscript (IPA|ꬸ).
22. Old-style click letters were approved in 2024 per IPA request. Unicode pipeline: Latin modifier letters for clicks
23. U+A71D (IPA|ꜝ) and A71E (IPA|ꜞ) were adopted as the Africanist equivalents of the IPA characters (IPA|ꜜ) downstep and (IPA|ꜛ) upstep. The correspondence of U+A71D (IPA|ꜝ) to the IPA click letter (IPA|ǃ) is thus accidental. Coincidentally, U+A71E (IPA|ꜞ) serves as the superscript variant of the extIPA percussive consonant (IPA|¡); the other percussive letters, (IPA|ʬ) and (IPA|ʭ), do not have superscript support in Unicode.
24. Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-253R Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic.
25. Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-252R Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic
26. This is actually the Vietnamese diacritic dấu hỏi, not specifically IPA, but graphically both are gelded question marks.
27. Web site: L2/17-066R: Proposal to encode the Marca Registrada sign. 2017-03-01. Eduardo Marín. Silva.