Ring (diacritic)

In punctuation, the term ring is usually reserved for the ring above diacritic mark ˚ (looks similar to the degree sign °). The ring may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets.

Related Topics:
Punctuation - Diacritic - Degree sign - Letter - Latin alphabet

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Å å ? ?

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The Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Walloon character Å (å) is typically seen as an A with a ring above. However, in the languages in which it is used, the letter is seen as a unique symbol, rather than an A with a diacritic.

Related Topics:
Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Walloon - Å - A

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Other characters with a ring diacritic are ? and ? (a Latin U with ring above). These characters are used in the Czech language (where the ring is known as a krou?ek), together with há?ek and ?árka above many other letters. This vowel "?" shows how the pronunciation of various words evolved during the centuries. For example, the word "k??" (a horse; "?" is softened "n"; pronounce as softened "koon") used to be "ko?", which evolved into "kuo?". Ultimately, the vowel "o" disappeared completely, and it is only kept as the ring above "u".

Related Topics:
U - Czech language - Há?ek - ?árka

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Many more characters can be created in Unicode using the 'combining ring above' U+030A, for example {{Unicode|e̊}} (e with ring above) or even {{Unicode|?̊}} (n with acute and ring above). The ring symbol alone can be created using the character U+02DA.

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Half rings also exist as diacritic marks, these are characters U+0351 (combining left half ring above) and U+0357 (combining left half ring below). These characters may be used with the International Phonetic Alphabet. They are here given with the lowercase a: {{Unicode|a͑}} and {{Unicode|a͗}}. These may or may not display correctly in your user agent.

Related Topics:
International Phonetic Alphabet - User agent

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Other, similar signs are in use in Armenian: the 'left half ring above' U+0559 ( ՙ ), and the Armenian comma or 'right half ring above' U+055A ( ՚ ).

Related Topics:
Armenian - Armenian comma

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The ring as a diacritic mark should not be confused with the dot above or comma above diacritic marks, or with the degree sign °. Additionally this symbol Å (U+00C5) is the proper angstrom sign, though Unicode includes an angstrom sign symbol Å for use with in converting legacy applications in old code pages in certain East Asian languages which looks similar to Å.

Related Topics:
Dot above - Comma above - Angstrom - Code page

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