Modifier Letter Low Right Arrowhead

It marks a more forward articulation of the sound it follows.

UPA, the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, is a way linguists record speech sounds, especially in research on Uralic languages. The mark modifies a neighboring sound letter; it is not a sound name. In Setälä's examples, k˲, s˲, and e˲ show those letters articulated farther forward than their unmarked counterparts.

A shared system grew from Helsinki discussions in 1892, when competing ways of writing sounds made comparison difficult. E. N. Setälä published a proposal in 1901; it aimed to make Uralic transcription precise enough for research while keeping it readable.

Does ˲ mean right?

No; in UPA, it marks a sound, not a direction.

The related combining mark ͕ carries the same fronting contrast but attaches below a letter; ˲ takes its own spacing position.

A 2017 account of transcription for Mari, a Uralic language, describes UPA alongside the Cyrillic alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It also says UPA is less consistently standardized, so conversion between systems can require judgment rather than a one-to-one symbol swap. The arrowhead's two arms may differ in length, so a slightly uneven shape can still be ˲.

How do I type ˲ accurately?

Choose the spacing modifier, then check whether your font supports it.

In a Unicode character map, search for the character name and select the spacing modifier. Ordinary keyboard layouts usually do not assign this specialist sign to a key.

Where HTML character references are accepted, enter ˲. If the mark is missing or misaligned, a phonetics font such as Charis SIL or Doulos SIL may help.