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̯

combining inverted breve below

Combining Inverted Breve Below

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a vowel with this mark glides into a neighboring vowel instead of forming its own syllable. You’ll mainly meet it in phonetic transcription. Other transcription traditions use the same mark differently, so context matters.

Text symbol
Also called
non-syllabic diacritic · subscript arch · non-syllabic mark
Search it as
ipa · non-syllabic · semivowel · glide · underbreve · diacritic · u032f
Shows up in
Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What ̯ means

In IPA, it marks the attached vowel as non-syllabic. In aɪ̯, the ɪ-like element glides within one syllable instead of making a second one. The mark changes the sequence’s syllable pattern, not the vowel quality. It follows the vowel it modifies.

A documented milestone came at the 1989 Kiel convention: a report on the revision of the International Phonetic Alphabet allowed a subscript arc to mark a non-syllabic vowel. The same glyph has other jobs in Americanist and Indo-Europeanist transcription, so the notation key matters.

A specialist phonetic mark whose meaning depends on the transcription system.

Outside IPA, check the transcription key before reading it as a glide.

What it means when someone sends it to you

3 readings
IPA transcription: `e̯`
The vowel is non-syllabic; it glides instead of carrying its own syllable.
Americanist notation: `g̯`
It marks fronted articulation: the sound is made with the tongue farther forward.
Indo-Europeanist notation: `i̯`
It marks a semivowel, a vowel used as a glide rather than a syllable’s main sound.

Don't confuse it with

3
◌̆
In IPA, the ordinary breve means extra-shortness; this inverted arch marks a non-syllabic vowel.
◌̑
This inverted breve sits above its base; this mark sits below.
◌̩
The vertical line below marks a sound as syllabic; this mark indicates a non-syllabic vowel in IPA.

Combination ideas

3
The final `ɪ` glides within the same syllable instead of starting another.
The first vowel glides into the syllabic `a`.
The first vowel glides into `a`, which carries the syllable.

Questions people ask

1

Why does this mark look detached from the letter?

It combines with the preceding character, so a font with a weak or missing below-mark anchor may place it badly. The encoded sequence still puts the mark after its base.

How to type ̯

Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 032F, then Alt+X to get ̯.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “combining inverted breve below”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 032f, then Enter or Space.
HTML
̯
CSS
\032F
After its base
To type the combining mark after a letter, place it immediately after the letter or symbol it modifies.
Source code
In programming languages that support Unicode escapes, write `\u032F` after the base character.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
̯
HTML hex
̯
CSS content
content: "\032F";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%CC%AF
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
2
UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

1

Accents & marks659 symbols

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