What ᶙ means
It marks an r-colored, u-like vowel. A u-like vowel is made with the tongue high and toward the back of the mouth while the lips are rounded; the hook adds rhoticity, an r-like resonance. Its value depends on the phonetic notation being used.
The English Phonotypic Alphabet (EPA), a spelling-reform system for English, used a related hooked-u form for the vowel in “mule” in its stable 1847 version. The IPA’s 1946 chart included vowel letters with retroflex hooks, showing that this family of phonetic forms predates digital encoding.
Is ᶙ current IPA?
Usually no: modern IPA uses u. Since 1989, the IPA convention has used a separate rhotic-hook mark after the vowel. Older IPA references and historical quotations may preserve the single-letter form.
The English Phonotypic Alphabet used a related hooked-u form for English spelling reform; older IPA used ᶙ for rhotic u. These are connected historical uses, not one universal spelling. Check which notation a source uses before reading the hook.
Specialist and archival: it signals phonetic transcription or a historical spelling system.
The hook alone does not settle the sound; identify the notation tradition.
Who writes ᶙ
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Don't confuse it with
2u Modern IPA writes an ordinary u followed by a separate rhotic-hook mark; it is the current notation for r-colored u.
u̢ This is ordinary u followed by a combining retroflex hook below. It is a different encoded sequence and is not automatically interchangeable with ᶙ.
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ᶙ look different in fonts?
It can. The 2005 IPA chart joins the hook to the right stem; other typefaces may draw a gap. The outline changes, not the character.
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ALatin Capital Letter A
BLatin Capital Letter B
CLatin Capital Letter C
DLatin Capital Letter D
ELatin Capital Letter EHow to type or find ᶙ
- Search it as
- IPA · EPA · rhotic u · r-colored vowel · r-coloured vowel · u˞ · u̢ · phonotypic alphabet
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ᶙ\1D991D99 and use that editor’s conversion command.ᶙ in HTML and serve the page as UTF-8.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.