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Intypesetting, the hookortail is a diacritic mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a descender, on top as an ascender and sometimes to the side. The orientation of the hook can change its meaning: when it is below and curls to the left it can be interpreted as a palatal hook, and when it curls to the right is called hook tail or tail and can be interpreted as a retroflex hook. It should not be mistaken with the hook above, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
| ◌̡ ◌̢ ◌˞ | |
|---|---|
Hook | |
| In Unicode | |
|
Letter ⟨Z⟩ with tophook - became letter ⟨
⟩.
Letter ⟨X⟩ with two high hooks - became letter ⟨
⟩.
It could be argued that the hook was used to derive the letter ⟨J⟩ from the letter ⟨I⟩, or the letter Eng ⟨ŋ⟩ from the letter ⟨N⟩. However, these letters are usually not identified as being formed with the hook.
Most letters with hook are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and many languages use them (along with capitals) representing the same sounds.
The hook often attaches to the top part of the letter, curling to the left or to the right, finishing the ascender if present. It may then be referred to as a crook, in some languages like French[1] more commonly than in English that is less successful in mitigating the semantic overload of the hook term.
If the hook attaches to the bottom part of the letter, it is often called a palatal hook if it curls to the left, or a retroflex hook if it curls to the right.
The retroflex hook occurs on alveolar and post-alveolar IPA letters; it also occurs on vowel letters, which currently indicates the effect of a retroflex consonant on the vowel, but formally was an option for writing rhotic vowels.
Note that the "fishhook r", ɾ, is shaped like a fishhook. It does not have a hook diacritic despite its misleading Unicode name "R with fishhook".
| Latin alphabet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letters | Name | Hook position | ||
| ᶏ | A with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| ᶐ | Script a or alpha with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| Ɓ | ɓ | 𐞅 | B with hook[2] | top |
| Ꞗ | ꞗ | B with flourish | left | |
| ᶀ | B with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| Ƈ | ƈ | C with hook | top | |
| ꞔ | C with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| 𝼝 | C with retroflex hook[3] | bottom | ||
| Ɗ | ɗ | 𐞌 | D with hook[2] | top |
| Ɖ | ɖ | 𐞋 | African d or d with tail[4] | bottom |
 |
ᶑ | 𐞍 | D with hook and tail[2] | top and bottom |
| ᶁ | D with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| ꬴ | E with flourish | left | ||
| ᶒ | E with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| ɚ | Schwa with hook | right | ||
| ᶕ | Schwa with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| ᶓ | Open e or epsilon with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| ɝ | Reversed open e or epsilon with hook | right | ||
| ᶔ | Reversed open e or epsilon with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| Ƒ | ƒ | F with hook | bottom | |
| ᶂ | F with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| Ɠ | ɠ | 𐞓 | G with hook[2] | top |
| ʛ | 𐞔 | Small capital g with hook[2] | top | |
| ᶃ | G with palatal hook | right | ||
| ꬶ | Script g with crossed-tail | bottom | ||
| Ɦ | ɦ | ʱ | H with hook | top |
| ꞕ | H with palatal hook | bottom right | ||
| ɧ | 𐞗 | Heng with hook[4] | top | |
| ʮ | Turned h with fishhook | top | ||
| ʯ | Turned h with fishhook and tail | top and bottom | ||
| ᶖ | I with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| Ʝ | ʝ | ᶨ | J with crossed-tail | bottom |
| ʄ | 𐞘 | Dotless j with stroke and hook[2] | top | |
| Ƙ | ƙ | K with hook | top | |
| ᶄ | K with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| 𝼑 | L with fishhook[5] | right | ||
| ᶅ | ᶅ | L with palatal hook | bottom | |
| ɭ | ᶩ | L with retroflex hook | bottom | |
| ꞎ | 𐞝 | L with retroflex hook and belt[6][7] | bottom | |
| Ɱ | ɱ | ᶬ | M with hook | bottom |
| ᶆ | M with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| ꬺ | M with crossed-tail | bottom | ||
| Ɲ | ɲ | ᶮ | N with left hook | bottom left |
| ᶇ | N with palatal hook | bottom right | ||
| ɳ | ᶯ | N with retroflex hook | bottom right | |
| ꬻ | N with crossed-tail | bottom | ||
| ꬼ | Eng with crossed-tail | bottom | ||
| 𝼔 | Eng with palatal hook[5] | bottom | ||
| 𝼛 | O with retroflex hook[5] | bottom | ||
| ᶗ | Open o with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| Ƥ | ƥ | P with hook | top | |
| ᶈ | P with palatal hook | right | ||
| Ꝓ | ꝓ | P with flourish | left middle | |
| Ꝕ | ꝕ | P with squirrel tail | left top | |
| ʠ | Q with hook | top | ||
| Ɋ | ɋ | Small q with hook tail | bottom | |
| Ɽ | ɽ | 𐞨 | R with tail[4] | bottom left |
| ᶉ | R with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| ɻ | ʵ | Turned r with hook | bottom | |
| 𝼕 | Turned r with palatal hook[5] | bottom | ||
| ⱹ | Turned r with tail | top | ||
| ꭉ | R with crossed-tail | bottom | ||
| ꭊ | Double r with crossed-tail | bottom | ||
| ᶊ | S with palatal hook | bottom right | ||
| Ʂ | ʂ | ᶳ | S with retroflex hook | bottom left |
| Ȿ | ȿ | S with swash tail | bottom right | |
| ᶋ | Esh with palatal hook | right | ||
| ᶘ | Esh with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| Ƭ | ƭ | T with hook | top | |
| ƫ | ƫ | T with palatal hook | bottom | |
| Ʈ | ʈ | 𐞯 | T with retroflex hook[4] | bottom |
| ꭒ | ꭟ | U with left hook | top left | |
| ᶙ | U with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| ᶌ | V with palatal hook | bottom | ||
| ⱱ | 𐞰 | V with right hook[8][4] | top | |
| Ʋ | ʋ | ᶹ | Script v or v with hook | top |
| Ⱳ | ⱳ | W with hook | top right | |
| ᶍ | X with palatal hook | bottom right | ||
| Ƴ | ƴ | Y with hook | top right | |
| Ȥ | ȥ | Z with hook | bottom | |
| Ᶎ | ᶎ | Z with palatal hook | bottom | |
| ʐ | ᶼ | Z with retroflex hook | bottom | |
 |
 |
Z with top hook | top right or top left | |
| Ɀ | ɀ | Z with swash tail | bottom | |
| 𝼘 | Ezh with palatal hook[5] | right | ||
| ᶚ | Ezh with retroflex hook | bottom | ||
| ƺ | Ezh with tail | bottom | ||
| 𝼅 | 𐞟 | Lezh with retroflex hook[7] | bottom | |
| 𝼊 | 𐞹 | Retroflex click with retroflex hook[9][2] | bottom | |
| Ꜭ | ꜭ | Cuatrillo tail | bottom | |
| Ꜯ | ꜯ | Cuatrillo hook | bottom | |
| Cyrillic alphabet | ||||
| Ӻ | ӻ | Ghe with stroke and hook | bottom | |
| Ҋ | ҋ | Short i with tail | bottom right | |
| Ӄ | ӄ | Ka with hook | bottom right | |
| Ԓ | ԓ | El with hook | bottom right | |
| Ӆ | ӆ | El with tail | bottom right | |
| Ӎ | ӎ | Em with tail | bottom right | |
| Ӈ | ӈ | En with hook | bottom right | |
| Ԩ | ԩ | En with left hook | bottom left | |
| Ӊ | ӊ | En with tail | bottom right | |
| Ӽ | ӽ | Ha with hook | bottom right | |
Unicode has the combining diacritics U+0321 ̡ COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW and U+0322 ̢ COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW but these are not recommended to be used with letters, and should be used to illustrate the hooks themselves. Instead Unicode recommends the use of characters that already include the hook.[10]
The U+02DE ˞ MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK is used to mark an r-colored vowel.[11]