Combining Acute Accent Below

In older IPA, it marked a low-rising tone. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system for writing speech sounds; here, the mark shows a syllable starting low and rising in pitch. A 1921 handbook on IPA transcription records this use.

The IPA dropped this notation in the 1989 Kiel revision. Its 2026 chart uses tone letters such as ˩˧ for the same pitch contour. The letters indicate pitch levels in sequence: low, then higher.

Other descriptions assign it local values: it appears in descriptions of Hupda, a language, and in some historical Baltic-language transcriptions. Those are specific transcription conventions, so the mark has no single fixed meaning across every system.

How do I make this mark sit on the right letter?

Put it immediately after the letter it modifies. In e̗, the mark follows e and sits below it. Combining marks apply to the preceding character, so if another character or a space comes between, the mark attaches there instead. At the start of a text sequence, it has no base; a font may show it alone or use a dotted circle as a fallback.

The mark has no advance width, so it takes no separate position in the text and usually moves with its base during editing or line breaks. Fonts position it using anchors; a letter with a descender or another mark below may push it aside. Check the whole letter-and-mark sequence because the isolated mark can be hard to recognize.