Modifier Letter Small B

It marks a very short b-like sound in UPA.

The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, or UPA, uses raised letters for very short sounds. Eemil Nestor Setälä published it in 1901 for recording Uralic languages and reconstructing earlier forms from written evidence. That date belongs to the system, not necessarily to the origin of this exact character.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is another transcription system; its first chart appeared in 1888. Superscript marks have had different jobs: a 1930 IPA chart used raised s for an s-like sound, while a 2020 proposal described many raised letters in linguistic writing as meaningful modifiers. Read ᵇ from its notation, not its height alone.

Is ᵇ the same as formatting a b as superscript?

No. It is a separate character with a phonetic role.

Unicode encodes ᵇ as a spacing modifier character. Superscript formatting only raises an ordinary b visually; use it for a footnote or formula, and use ᵇ when the notation gives it a phonetic role.

A 2018 guide to Unicode for linguists treats ᵇ as outside the standard IPA inventory, while noting that linguists use it in practice. Placement distinguishes two analyses: ᵇʙ marks a brief airflow closure before repeated lip vibration; bᴮ marks a stop released into repeated vibration.

How do I type ᵇ?

Use Unicode input or an IPA keyboard.

Enter U+1D47 with your editor’s Unicode input, or select the character on an IPA keyboard.

A SIL support answer from February 2024 records b^ as an input that produces ᵇ. Its drawn height and spacing can vary by font, but the encoded character remains the same.