What ̞ means
It marks a pronunciation variant of the base letter.
In IPA, the mark below a vowel means a lower or more open version of it, as in o̞. Below a fricative, it can show the sound opening toward an approximant—a consonant made with smooth airflow and less friction. This refines a base letter's pronunciation without adding a new letter.
The IPA's first alphabet dates to 1888. Its historical chart shows spacing up- and down-tack forms below symbols by 1947; as of 2026, it does not date this exact combining form.
Why does a related tack appear above a letter?
An above-position tack belongs to a separate notation tradition.
John Peabody Harrington's transcriptions use a tack above the carrier for middle pitch in Karuk. IPA proposals also use an above-position tack when a letter's descender leaves no room below. Those uses do not change the lowering meaning of this below mark.
How do I type the IPA lowering mark?
Enter a base letter first, then the combining mark.
Combining marks follow a base letter, as in o̞. On its own, this mark may appear with a dotted circle or sit without useful placement. Praat's phonetic editors use o\Tv, and the TIPA LaTeX package uses \textlowering.
Even a correct sequence may look detached, too low, or unusually large in a particular font. The font and text-shaping system place and size the mark; check it in the typeface used for publication.
Specialist phonetic notation for a more open or lowered pronunciation.
Without a base letter, it can look like a stray mark or dotted-circle placeholder.
Don't confuse it with
2Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
1Why does the mark show a dotted circle?
The circle is only a display aid for an isolated combining mark; it is not part of the sequence. Put the mark after a base letter, as in o̞.
How to type ̞
̞\031ECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.