Macron (diacritic) explained

Char:	◌̄
Macron
Unicode:

A macron is a diacritical mark: it is a straight bar placed above a letter, usually a vowel. Its name derives from Ancient Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: μακρόν (makrón) 'long' because it was originally used to mark long or heavy syllables in Greco-Roman metrics. It now more often marks a long vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the macron is used to indicate a mid-tone; the sign for a long vowel is instead a modified triangular colon (IPA|ː).

The opposite is the breve (˘), which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel.

Uses

Syllable weight

In Greco-Roman metrics and in the description of the metrics of other literatures, the macron was introduced and is still widely used in dictionaries and educational materials to mark a long (heavy) syllable. Even relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries^[1] are still concerned with indicating only the length (weight) of syllables; that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined. Many textbooks about Ancient Rome and Greece use the macron, even if it was not actually used at that time (an apex was used if vowel length was marked in Latin).

Vowel length

The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to mark long vowels:

• Slavicists use the macron to indicate a non-tonic long vowel, or a non-tonic syllabic liquid, such as on a, e, r, or u. Languages with this feature include standard and dialect varieties of Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, and Bulgarian.^[2]
• Transcriptions of Arabic typically use macrons to indicate long vowels – Arabic: ا (alif when pronounced pronounced as //aː//), Arabic: و (waw, when pronounced pronounced as //uː// or pronounced as //oː//), and Arabic: ي (ya', when pronounced pronounced as //iː// or pronounced as //eː//). Thus the Arabic word Arabic: ثلاثة (three) is transliterated thalāthah.
• Transcriptions of Sanskrit typically use a macron over ā, ī, ū, ṝ, and ḹ in order to mark a long vowel (e and o are always long and consequently do not need any macron).
• In Latin, many of the more recent dictionaries and learning materials use the macron as the modern equivalent of the ancient Roman apex to mark long vowels. Any of the six vowel letters (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ) can bear it. It is sometimes used in conjunction with the breve, especially to distinguish the short vowels pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u// from their semi-vowel counterparts pronounced as //j// and pronounced as //w//, originally, and often to this day, spelt with the same letters. However, the older of these editions are not always explicit on whether they mark long vowels or heavy syllables – a confusion that is even found in some modern learning materials. In addition, most of the newest academic publications use both the macron and the breve sparingly, mainly when vowel length is relevant to the discussion.
• In romanization of classical Greek, the letters η (eta) and ω (omega) are transliterated, respectively, as ē and ō, representing the long vowels of classical Greek, whereas the short vowels ε (epsilon) and ο (omicron) are always transliterated as plain e and o. The other long vowel phonemes do not have dedicated letters in the Greek alphabet, being indicated by digraphs (transliterated likewise as digraphs) or by the letters α, ι, υ – represented as ā, ī, ū. The same three letters are transliterated as plain a, i, u when representing short vowels.
• The Hepburn romanization system of Japanese, for example, tā (Japanese: たあ) as opposed to ta (Japanese: た).
• The Syriac language uses macrons to indicate long vowels in its romanized transliteration: ā for pronounced as //aː//, ē for pronounced as //eː//, ū for pronounced as //uː// and ō for pronounced as //ɔː//.
• Baltic languages and Baltic-Finnic languages:
  • Latvian. ā, ē, ī, ū are separate letters but are given the same position in collation as a, e, i, u respectively. Ō was also used in Latvian, but it was discarded as of 1946.^[3] Some usage remains in Latgalian.
  • Lithuanian. ū is a separate letter but is given the same position in collation as the unaccented u. It marks a long vowel; other long vowels are indicated with an ogonek (which used to indicate nasalization, but it no longer does): ą, ę, į, ų and o being always long in Lithuanian except for some recent loanwords. For the long counterpart of i, y is used.
  • Livonian. ā, ǟ, ē, ī, ō, ȱ, ȭ and ū are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after a, ä, e, i, o, ȯ, õ, and u, respectively.
  • Samogitian. ā, ē, ė̄, ī, ū and ō are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after a, e, ė, i, u and o respectively.
• Transcriptions of Nahuatl, the Aztecs' language, spoken in Mexico. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, they wrote the language in their own alphabet without distinguishing long vowels. Over a century later, in 1645, Horacio Carochi defined macrons to mark long vowels ā, ē, ī and ō, and short vowels with grave (`) accents. This is rare nowadays since many people write Nahuatl without any orthographic sign and with the letters k, s and w, not present in the original alphabet.
• Modern transcriptions of Old English, for long vowels.
• Latin transliteration of Pali and Sanskrit, and in the IAST and ISO 15919 transcriptions of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages.
• Polynesian languages

• • Cook Islands Māori. In Cook Islands Māori, the macron or mākarōna is not commonly used in writing, but is used in references and teaching materials for those learning the language.^{[4] [5]}
  • Hawaiian. The macron is called kahakō, and it indicates vowel length, which changes meaning and the placement of stress.
  • Māori. In modern written Māori, the macron is used to designate long vowels, with the trema mark sometimes used if the macron is unavailable (e.g. "wähine").^[6] The Māori word for macron is tohutō. The term pōtae ("hat") is also used.^[7] In the past, writing in Māori either did not distinguish vowel length, or doubled long vowels (e.g. "waahine"), as some iwi dialects still do.
  • Niuean. In Niuean, "popular spelling" does not worry too much about vowel quantity (length), so the macron is primarily used in scholarly study of the language.^[8]
  • Tahitian. The use of the macron is comparatively recent in Tahitian. The Fare Vānaʻa or Académie Tahitienne (Tahitian Academy) recommends using the macron, called the tārava, to represent long vowels in written text, especially for scientific or teaching texts^{[9] [10]} and it has widespread acceptance.^{[11] [12] [13]} (In the past, written Tahitian either did not distinguish vowel length, or used multiple other ways).^[14]
  • Tongan and Samoan. The macron is called the toloi/fakamamafa or fa'amamafa, respectively. Its usage is similar to that in Māori, including its substitution by a trema. Its usage is not universal in Samoan, but recent academic publications and advanced study textbooks promote its use.^[15]
• The macron is used in Fijian language dictionaries, in instructional materials for non-Fijian speakers, and in books and papers on Fijian linguistics. It is not typically used in Fijian publications intended for fluent speakers, where context is usually sufficient for a reader to distinguish between heteronyms.
• Both Cyrillic and Latin transcriptions of Udege.
• The Latin and Cyrillic alphabet transcriptions of the Tsebari dialect of Tsez.
• In western Cree, Sauk, and Saulteaux, the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) indicates long vowels pronounced as /[aː eː iː oː~uː]/ either with a circumflex ⟨â ê î ô⟩ or with a macron ⟨ā ē ī ō⟩.

Tone

The following languages or alphabets use the macron to mark tones:

• In the International Phonetic Alphabet, a macron over a vowel indicates a mid-level tone.
• In Yoruba an optional macron can be used to indicate mid-level tone if it would otherwise be ambiguous.
• In Pinyin, the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, macrons over a, e, i, o, u, ü (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ) indicate the high level tone of Mandarin Chinese. The alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable (for example, tā = ta1).
• Similarly in the Yale romanization of Cantonese, macrons over a, e, i, o, u, m, n (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, m̄, n̄) indicate the high level tone of Cantonese. Like Mandarin, the alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable (for example, tā = ta1).
• In Pe̍h-ōe-jī romanization of Hokkien, macrons over a, e, i, m, n, o, o͘, u, (ā, ē, ī, m̄, n̄, ō, ō͘, ū) indicate the mid level tone ("light departing" or 7th tone) of Hokkien.

Omission

Sometimes the macron marks an omitted n or m, like the tilde:

• In Old English texts a macron above a letter indicates the omission of an m or n that would normally follow that letter.
• In older handwriting such as the German Kurrentschrift, the macron over an a-e-i-o-u or ä-ö-ü stood for an n, or over an m or an n meant that the letter was doubled. This continued into print in English in the sixteenth century, and to some extent in German. Over a u at the end of a word, the macron indicated um as a form of scribal abbreviation.

Letter extension

In romanizations of Hebrew, the macron below is typically used to mark the begadkefat consonant lenition. However, for typographical reasons a regular macron is used on p and g instead: p̄, ḡ.

The macron is used in the orthography of a number of vernacular languages of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, particularly those first transcribed by Anglican missionaries. The macron has no unique value, and is simply used to distinguish between two different phonemes.

Thus, in several languages of the Banks Islands, including Mwotlap, the simple m stands for pronounced as //m//, but an m with a macron (m̄) is a rounded labial-velar nasal pronounced as //ŋ͡mʷ//; while the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal pronounced as //n//, an n with macron (n̄) represents the velar nasal pronounced as //ŋ//; the vowel ē stands for a (short) higher pronounced as //ɪ// by contrast with plain e pronounced as //ɛ//; likewise ō pronounced as //ʊ// contrasts with plain o pronounced as //ɔ//.

In Hiw orthography, the consonant r̄ stands for the prestopped velar lateral approximant pronounced as //ᶢʟ//.^[16] In Araki, the same symbol r̄ encodes the alveolar trill pronounced as //r// – by contrast with r, which encodes the alveolar flap pronounced as //ɾ//.^[17]

In Bislama (orthography before 1995), Lamenu and Lewo, a macron is used on two letters Bislama: m̄ p̄.^{[18] [19]} m̄ represents pronounced as //mʷ//, and p̄ represents pronounced as //pʷ//. The orthography after 1995 (which has no diacritics) has these written as mw and pw.

In Kokota, ḡ is used for the velar stop pronounced as //ɡ//, but g without macron is the voiced velar fricative pronounced as //ɣ//.^[20]

In Marshallese, a macron is used on four letters – Marshallese: ā n̄ ō ū – whose pronunciations differ from the unmarked Marshallese: a n o u. Marshallese uses a vertical vowel system with three to four vowel phonemes, but traditionally their allophones have been written out, so vowel letters with macron are used for some of these allophones. Though the standard diacritic involved is a macron, there are no other diacritics used above letters, so in practice other diacritics can and have been used in less polished writing or print, yielding nonstandard letters like Marshallese: ã ñ õ û, depending on displayability of letters in computer fonts.

• The letter Marshallese: ā is pronounced pronounced as /[æ~ɛ]/, the palatalized allophone of the phoneme pronounced as //a//.
• The letter Marshallese: n̄ represents the velar nasal phoneme pronounced as //ŋ// and the labialized velar nasal phoneme pronounced as //ŋʷ//, depending on context. The standard letter does not exist as a precombined glyph in Unicode, so the nonstandard variant Marshallese: ñ is often used in its place.
• The letter Marshallese: ō is pronounced pronounced as /[ʌ]/ or pronounced as /[ɤ]/, which are the unrounded velarized allophones of the phonemes pronounced as //ɜ// and pronounced as //ɘ// respectively.
• The letter Marshallese: ū is pronounced pronounced as /[ɯ]/, the unrounded velarized allophone of the phoneme pronounced as //ɨ//.

In Obolo, the simple n stands for the common alveolar nasal pronounced as //n//, while an n with macron (n̄) represents the velar nasal pronounced as //ŋ//.^[21]

Other uses

• In older German and in the German Kurrent handwriting, as well as older Danish, a macron is used on some consonants, especially n and m, as a short form for a double consonant (for example, n̄ instead of nn).
• In Russian cursive, as well as in some others based on the Cyrillic script (for example, Bulgarian), a lowercase Т looks like a lowercase m, and a macron is often used to distinguish it from Ш, which looks like a lowercase w (see Т). Some writers also underline the letter ш to reduce ambiguity further.

Also, in some instances, a diacritic will be written like a macron, although it represents another diacritic whose standard form is different:

• In some Finnish, Estonian and Swedish comic books that are hand-lettered, or in handwriting, a macron-style umlaut is used for ä or ö (also õ and ü in Estonian), sometimes known colloquially as a "lazy man's umlaut". This can also be seen in some modern handwritten German.
• In Norwegian ū, ā, ī, ē and ō can be used for decorative purposes both in handwritten and computed Bokmål and Nynorsk or to denote vowel length such as in dū (you), lā (infinitive form of to let), lēser (present form of "to read") and lūft (air). The diacritic is entirely optional, carries no IPA value and is seldom used in modern Norwegian outside of handwriting.
• In informal Hungarian handwriting, a macron is often a substitute for either a double acute accent or an umlaut (e.g., ö or ő). Because of this ambiguity, using it is often regarded as bad practice.
• In informal handwriting, the Spanish ñ is sometimes written with a macron-shaped tilde: (n̄).

Medicine

See main article: overline, bar (diacritic), scribal abbreviation and medical abbreviation. Continuing previous Latin scribal abbreviations, letters with combining macron can be used in various European languages to represent the overlines indicating various medical abbreviations, particularly including:

• ā for Latin: {{linktext|ante ("before")
• c̄ for Latin: {{linktext|cum ("with")
• p̄ for Latin: {{linktext|post ("after")^[22]
• q̄ for Latin: {{linktext|quisque and its inflections ("every", "each")
• s̄ for Latin: {{linktext|sine ("without")
• x̄ for Latin: {{linktext|exceptus and its inflections ("except")

Note, however, that abbreviations involving the letter h take their macron halfway up the ascending line rather than at the normal height for unicode macrons and overlines: ħ. This is separately encoded in Unicode with the symbols using bar diacritics and appears shorter than other macrons in many fonts.

Mathematics and science

The overline is a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science. For example, it is used to represent complex conjugation:

z = a + bi; \overline{z} = a - bi

and to represent a line segment in geometry (e.g.,

\overline{AB} ), sample means in statistics (e.g., \overline{X} ) and negations in logic.^[23] It is also used in Hermann–Mauguin notation.

Music

In music, the tenuto marking resembles the macron.

The macron is also used in German lute tablature to distinguish repeating alphabetic characters.

Technical notes

The Unicode Standard encodes combining and precomposed macron characters:

Description	Macrons
	Character	Unicode	HTML	Character	Unicode	HTML
Macron above
	Combining			Spacing
	single	U+0304	̄	¯ mark	U+00AF	¯ ¯
	double	U+035E	͞	ˉ letter	U+02C9	ˉ
Macron below	(see macron below)
Additional diacritic	Latin
	Upper case			Lower case
—	Ā	U+0100	Ā	ā	U+0101	ā
	Ǣ	U+01E2	Ǣ	ǣ	U+01E3	ǣ
	Ē	U+0112	Ē	ē	U+0113	ē
	Ḡ	U+1E20	Ḡ	ḡ	U+1E21	ḡ
	Ī	U+012A	Ī	ī	U+012B	ī
	Ō	U+014C	Ō	ō	U+014D	ō
	Ū	U+016A	Ū	ū	U+016B	ū
	Ȳ	U+0232	Ȳ	ȳ	U+0233	ȳ
Diaeresis	Ǟ	U+01DE	Ǟ	ǟ	U+01DF	ǟ
	Ȫ	U+022A	Ȫ	ȫ	U+022B	ȫ
	Ǖ	U+01D5	Ǖ	ǖ	U+01D6	ǖ
	Ṻ	U+1E7A	Ṻ	ṻ	U+1E7B	ṻ
Dot above	Ǡ	U+01E0	Ǡ	ǡ	U+01E1	ǡ
	Ȱ	U+0230	Ȱ	ȱ	U+0231	ȱ
Dot below	Ḹ	U+1E38	Ḹ	ḹ	U+1E39	ḹ
	Ṝ	U+1E5C	Ṝ	ṝ	U+1E5D	ṝ
Ogonek	Ǭ	U+01EC	Ǭ	ǭ	U+01ED	ǭ
Tilde	Ȭ	U+022C	Ȭ	ȭ	U+022D	ȭ
Acute	Ḗ	U+1E16	Ḗ	ḗ	U+1E17	ḗ
	Ṓ	U+1E52	Ṓ	ṓ	U+1E53	ṓ
Grave	Ḕ	U+1E14	Ḕ	ḕ	U+1E15	ḕ
	Ṑ	U+1E50	Ṑ	ṑ	U+1E51	ṑ
Cyrillic
—	Ӣ	U+04E2	Ӣ	ӣ	U+04E3	ӣ
	Ӯ	U+04EE	Ӯ	ӯ	U+04EF	ӯ
Greek
—		U+1FB9	Ᾱ	ᾱ	U+1FB1	ᾱ
		U+1FD9	Ῑ	ῑ	U+1FD1	ῑ
		U+1FE9	Ῡ	ῡ	U+1FE1	ῡ

Macron-related Unicode characters not included in the table above:

• CJK fullwidth variety:
  • • Kazakhstani tenge
    • Overlines
• Characters using a macron below instead of above
• Tone contour transcription characters incorporating a macron:
  • • • • • • • • Two intonation marks historically used by Antanas Baranauskas for Lithuanian dialectology:^{[24] [25]}

In LaTeX a macron is created with the command "\=", for example: M\=aori for Māori.In OpenOffice, if the extension Compose Special Characters is installed,^[26] a macron may be added by following the letter with a hyphen and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for composing special characters. A macron may also be added by following the letter with the character's four-digit hex-code, and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for adding unicode characters.

See also

• Macron below
• Vinculum (symbol)

External links

• Diacritics Project – All you need to design a font with correct accents
• Kupu o te Rā How to set up the keyboard to type macrons in various operating systems.

Notes and References

1. P.G.W. Glare (ed.), Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1990), p. xxiii: Vowel quantities. Normally, only long vowels in a metrically indeterminate position are marked.
2. Годечкият Говор от Михаил Виденов,Издателство на българската академия на науките,София, 1978, p. 19: ...характерни за всички селища от годечкия говор....Подобни случай са характерни и за книжовния език-Ст.Стойков, Увод във фонетиката на българския език, стр. 151..
3. Book: Latviešu valoda vidusskolām . Iluta Dalbiņa un Inese Lāčauniece . 2001 . RaKa . Rīga . 978-9984-46-130-4 . 110.
4. Buse, Jasper with Taringa, Raututi (Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moekaʻa, eds.). (1996). Cook Islands Maori Dictionary with English-Cook Islands Maori Finder List. Avarua, Rarotonga: The Ministry of Education, Government of the Cook Islands; The School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London; The Institute of Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific; The Centre for Pacific Studies, The University of Auckland; Pacific Linguistics, The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
5. Carpentier, Tai Tepuaoterā Turepu and Beaumont, Clive. (1995). Kai kōrero: A Cook Islands Maori Language Coursebook. Auckland, New Zealand: Pasifika Press.
6. Web site: Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz. 2008-09-02. 2015-01-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20150113071200/http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/unicode/macrons_issues.shtml. dead.
7. Web site: Macrons. kupu.maori.nz. 2017-10-08.
8. Sperlich, Wolfgang B. (ed.) (1997). Tohi vagahau Niue – Niue language dictionary: Niuen-English with English-Niuean finderlist. Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Linguistics.
9. Académie Tahitienne. (1986). Grammaire de la langue tahitienne. Papeete, Tahiti: Fare Vānaʻa.
10. Académie Tahitienne. (1999). Dictionnaire tahitien-français: Faʻatoro parau tahiti-farāni. Papeete, Tahiti: Fare Vānaʻa.
11. LeMaître, Yves. (1995). Lexique du tahitien contemporain: tahitien-français français-tahitien. Paris: Éditions de l'IRD (ex-Orstom).
12. Montillier, Pierre. (1999). Te reo tahiti ʻāpi: Dictionnaire du tahitien nouveau et biblique. Papeete, Tahiti: STP Multipress.
13. Jaussen, Mgr Tepano. (2001). Dictionnaire de la langue Tahitienne (10ème édition, revue et augmentée). Papeete, Tahiti: Société des Études Océaniennes.
14. Académie Tahitienne (6 January 2003). Graphie et graphies de la langue tahitienne.
15. Simanu, Aumua Mata'itusi. 'O si Manu a Ali'i: A Text for the Advanced Study of Samoan Language and Culture
16. , p. 421.
17. Web site: The alphabet of Araki . François, Alexandre . 2008 .
18. Web site: Letter Database. eki.ee.
19. "The Goal of the Good House": Seasonal Work and Seeking a Good Life in Lamen and Lamen Bay, Epi, Vanuatu . PhD . University of Manchester . 2016 . Rachel E. . Smith . 439.
20. Palmer, Bill. A grammar of the Kokota language, Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands . PhD dissertation.
21. OLBTO (2011) "Reading and Writing Obolo: Obolo Alphabet" in "A Workshop Manual for Teaching Obolo." Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organisation (OLBTO). p.1
22. Book: Cappelli, Adriano. Manuali Hoepli Lexicon Abbreviature Dizionario Di Abbreviature Latine ed Italiane. Editore Ulrico Hoepli Milano. 1961. Milan. 256.
23. Web site: Weisstein. Eric W.. Macron. 2020-08-24. mathworld.wolfram.com. en.
24. Web site: N3048: Proposal to encode two combining characters in the UCS . ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 . 2006-03-02 .
25. Web site: N3861: Resolutions of the WG 2 meeting 48 held in Mountain View, CA, USA, 2006-04-24/27 . ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 . 2006-04-27 .
26. Web site: Compose Special Characters . openoffice.org.