What ᴿ means
Enter ᴿ as a character, not with superscript formatting.
A word processor can raise an ordinary R, but that changes only its appearance. ᴿ is its own spacing character; in UPA, its raised position carries phonetic information.
Enter U1D3F through a code-point input method or use the HTML character reference ᴿ. UPA, also called Finno-Ugric transcription, is specialist notation for recording Uralic-language sounds, sound patterns, and word histories.
What does ᴿ mean in UPA?
In UPA, raised placement marks a very short sound.
UPA uses superscripts for very short sounds and subscripts for co-articulation: a sound shaped together with a neighboring one. So ᴿ marks a very short R-like element in that system; its value is not universal across phonetic notation. Small capitals can mark voicelessness or related voice distinctions.
The tradition grew from E. N. Setälä’s proposal in 1901. A 1939 UPA sample by Lagercrantz includes this form.
Technical and context-dependent; use it in phonetic notation, not casual emphasis.
Outside a notation key, it can be mistaken for an ordinary R styled as superscript.
Part of the collection
Who writes ᴿ
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Don't confuse it with
4
Questions people ask
4Is ᴿ an IPA symbol?
No. It is associated chiefly with UPA rather than the standard IPA inventory. Other phonetic traditions use their own superscript characters, so follow the source’s notation key.
Can I use ᴿ as a decorative superscript R?
No. Use ordinary R with markup for general superscript styling; ᴿ is a distinct character whose raised form has phonetic meaning in UPA.
Why does ᴿ look different in my font?
It can. ᴿ is a spacing letter, not a combining mark, so fonts may give it different proportions. A font without the glyph may display a fallback.
Why did ᴿ turn into R?
NFKC compatibility normalization maps ᴿ to ordinary R. Avoid that transformation when its modifier meaning matters.
More like this
11
Collections with ᴿ
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How to type or find ᴿ
- Also called
- superscript R
- Search it as
- UPA · Uralic phonetic alphabet · Finno-Ugric transcription · modifier R · phonetic R
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ᴿ\1D3Fᴿ.\u1D3F in a JavaScript or JSON string.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.