typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...

, the hook or tail is a

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a

descender In typography and handwriting, a descender is the portion of a grapheme that extends below the Baseline (typography), baseline of a typeface, font. For example, in the letter ''y'', the descender is the "tail", or that portion of the diagonal li ...

, 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 The palatal hook (◌̡) is a type of hook diacritic formerly used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent palatalized and prevelar consonants. It is a small, leftwards-facing hook joined to the bottom-right side of a letter, and i ...

, 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 In typesetting, the hook above () is a diacritic mark placed on top of vowels in the Vietnamese alphabet. In shape it looks like a tiny question mark without the dot underneath, or a tiny glottal stop, glottal stop (ʔ). For example, a capita ...

, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

. Letter ⟨Z⟩ with tophook - became letter ⟨ Latin capital letter Z with tophook

⟩. Letter ⟨X⟩ with two high hooks - became letter ⟨ Latin capital letter X with two high hooks

⟩.

Letters with hook

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

, 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 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

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 Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...

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 vowel An r-colored or rhotic vowel (also called a retroflex vowel, vocalic r, or a rhotacized vowel) is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various w ...

s. 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".

Unicode

Unicode has the combining diacritics and 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. The is used to mark an

r-colored vowel An r-colored or rhotic vowel (also called a retroflex vowel, vocalic r, or a rhotacized vowel) is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various w ...

References

{{Latin script, , show diacritic=hook , show diacritic 2=retroflex hook Latin-script diacritics Cyrillic-script diacritics

Letters with hook

Unicode

See also

References