What ˑ means
It marks the preceding sound as half-long. The IPA is a system for writing pronunciation. Here, half length means the sound lasts between an unmarked sound and one marked with ː; in aˑ, the mark follows the vowel it measures.
The first published IPA alphabet already included half length in 1888. The IPA began as a practical teaching system for clearer pronunciation, then expanded into linguistic description and speech science.
How do I type ˑ?
Use a phonetic input tool. Enter ˑ after the sound it measures, as in aˑ; it goes after its target, not before it.
Technical and specialist: it signals phonetic transcription, a way to write speech sounds.
Outside a transcription, check the surrounding notation before reading it as punctuation.
Don't confuse it with
2Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
1Why does ˑ look different in my font?
Its shape depends on the font: some drawings make this spacing modifier look rounder than its triangular design. Use the transcription context and distinguish it from ː before treating it as a different mark.
How to type ˑ
ˑ\02D1Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.