Combining Caron Below

Type the base first, then the mark.

In Praat, enter s\vv for s̬. Elsewhere, use an IPA input method or character picker, and put the mark after the letter it modifies.

What does this mark do in phonetics?

It adds voicing to the base sound.

In IPA, “voiced” means your vocal folds vibrate as you make the sound. The base names the sound and this mark adds that vibration: s̬ is voiced s, and t̬ is voiced t. Ring below ◌̥ marks a sound as voiceless; caron above ◌̌ can mark rising tone.

Where does the caron come from?

The above caron entered Czech spelling during a reform in the early 15th century: dots over Latin letters distinguished consonant sounds that digraphs had written with two letters; the marks developed into small hooks called háček (“little hook”). The system spread to other languages using the Latin script and, from the 19th century, to scientific transcription. A 2023 study argues that Czech diacritics may have drawn on Old Irish manuscript practice. The English name “caron” appears in library-catalogue character-set standards by 1979. This family history concerns the above caron; here, the below mark has an IPA voicing role.