Combining Dot Above

Type the base letter first, then insert the dot. It attaches to the preceding letter, as in ȧ.

When a precomposed form exists, it can use one code point while a base-plus-dot sequence uses two. They may look alike but count differently. Turkish and Lithuanian spelling also have language-specific casing rules that can retain or remove a dot.

What does an overdot mean?

Its job depends on the letter and writing system. Traditional Irish spelling used an overdot to mark lenition, a softening or change in a consonant's sound; modern Irish spelling commonly writes h after the consonant instead. Syriac and Hebrew traditions use dots in vowel notation, so the dot's shape alone does not tell you its job.

A documented Syriac dot system from the late antique and early Islamic periods helped readers distinguish vowel readings in important texts. In the early 15th century, Czech orthography described a dot for soft consonants that later developed into the caron, a small wedge-shaped mark. A scholarly account suggests Czech writers may have encountered the Irish pattern in Latin books with Irish notes; that route is a hypothesis, not proof that all overdots share an Irish origin.

In manuscript transcription, a punctum delens is an editorial dot that marks text for deletion, not a pronunciation mark. Its job comes from the transcription convention.

Why does the dot float or disappear?

The sequence may be valid even when display fails. The mark follows its base in the text, but a font or text-layout system with incomplete combining-mark support may leave it offset or show it with a dotted-circle placeholder. Try another font or editor before changing the spelling.