What ̟ means
It marks articulation farther forward than the base.
The base symbol names the sound; ̟ adds a small fronting adjustment. In u̟, the vowel is fronted. In IPA x̟, the fricative x—made near the soft palate, the back roof of the mouth—is shifted farther forward.
When did IPA charts first show this mark?
The archive's earliest chart with it is from 1947.
The IPA archive's 1947 chart labels the recognizable mark “tongue advanced” and shows it with spacing modifier ˖, beside the retracted marks ̠ and ˗. The 1949 chart describes the advanced and retracted pair and notes a farther-forward ɡ in a Russian example.
The International Phonetic Association formed in 1886 to improve modern-language teaching through phonetics. It later broadened its work into linguistic description, speech science, and clinical practice.
How do I type ̟ after a sound?
Put the base sound first, then place ̟ directly after it.
Unicode combining marks follow their base. An isolated mark may appear with a dotted circle or as a loose glyph; its placement depends on the base and font.
Check the full sequence, such as o̟, in the font used for the transcription.
This is a technical phonetic mark; on its own in ordinary text, it reads as unexplained punctuation.
Without its base, it can look like a stray plus or a dotted-circle placeholder.
Don't confuse it with
2Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
1Is the dotted circle part of ̟?
No. It is a display aid for an unattached combining mark, not part of the character. The mark belongs after the sound symbol it modifies.
How to type ̟
̟\031FCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.