Turned dagger

In Palaeotype, ⸸ marks a retroflex consonant; Cornish use differed. Palaeotype is Alexander Ellis’s phonetic alphabet for writing speech sounds. In his 1869 work on early English pronunciation, placing ⸸ after a consonant marked the tongue tip curling back toward the roof of the mouth. d⸸ and t⸸ show voiced and unvoiced forms: d-like and t-like consonants made with that tongue position. ⸸ is a modifier, not free-standing punctuation.

In Edward Lhuyd’s 1707 work on Cornish, ⸸ marked words from “modern Cornish”; the upright dagger, †, marked forms found in an Old Cornish vocabulary. The pair distinguished sources—where a word was recorded—not pronunciation.

What does turned dagger mean when someone sends it?

In an ordinary message, ask what notation the sender means. The documented readings are specialist and context-specific: a phonetic transcription can use it for retroflexion, while Lhuyd’s Cornish writing used it to label a source. The surrounding text tells you which reading fits.

Why does turned dagger look different in fonts?

A font can change its silhouette, not the character. A font that lacks ⸸ may show a missing-glyph box, a question mark, or blank space; a supporting font can draw different stroke proportions. Check the surrounding notation before treating a cross-like shape as a different symbol.