What ˿ means
It marks a click consonant in UPA transcription. The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet records speech sounds in Uralic languages. Setälä’s 1901 description uses p˿ for a click made by sucking air into the mouth.
UPA grew from older Uralic transcription and differs from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), another way to write speech sounds. A 2002 Unicode proposal calls this value implosive, for a consonant made with inward airflow.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ˿ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ˿
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 02FF, 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 “modifier letter low left arrow”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 02ff, then Enter or Space.
HTML
˿CSS
\02FFUnicode input
If your Unicode input method supports hexadecimal entry, type 02FF and confirm. It occupies its own space; it is not a combining mark.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
˿
HTML hex
˿
CSS content
content: "\02FF";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%CB%BF
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.