A macron, from the Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of μακρόv (makrón), meaning "long", is a diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign) is an ancillary glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός (diakritikós, "distinguishing"). Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the placed above a vowel In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! [ɑː] or oh! [oʊ], pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! [ʃː], where there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. A (and, more rarely, under or above a consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a). It was originally used to mark a long or heavy In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants) in Græco-Roman metrics In poetry, the meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody. (Within linguistics, "Prosody" is used in a more general sense, but now marks a long In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in many other languages, for instance in Arabic, vowel In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! [ɑː] or oh! [oʊ], pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! [ʃː], where there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. A. In the International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet [note 1] is a system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. The IPA is used by foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech pathologists and therapists, singers, the macron is used to indicate mid tone Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish; the sign for a long vowel is a modified triangular colon As with many other punctuation marks, the usage of colon varies among languages and, for a given language, among historical periods. As a rule, however, a colon informs the reader that what follows proves and explains, or simply provides elements of, what is referred to before.

The opposite is the breve A breve is a diacritical mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It looks similar to the caron (i.e. wedge or háček in Czech), but the caron has a sharp tip, whilst the breve is rounded. Compare Ǎ ǎ Ě ě Ǐ ǐ Ǒ ǒ Ǔ ǔ (caron) with Ă ă Ĕ ĕ Ĭ ĭ Ŏ ŏ Ŭ ŭ (breve) ( ˘ ), which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel.

Uses

Syllable weight

In Græco-Roman metrics In poetry, the meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody. (Within linguistics, "Prosody" is used in a more general sense and in the description of the metrics of other literatures, the macron was introduced and is still widely used to mark a long (i.e., heavy) syllable In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line. Even the best and relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries^[1] are still only concerned with indicating the length (i.e., weight) of syllables; that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined. Though many textbooks about ancient Rome and Greece employ the macron, it was not actually used at that time.

Vowel length

The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to mark long vowels In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in many other languages, for instance in Arabic,:

• Slavicists use the macron to indicate a non-tonic long vowel, or a non-tonic syllabic liquid, such as on l, lj, m, n, nj, and r. Languages with this feature include standard and jargon varieties of Serbian Serbian is a South Slavic language, spoken mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora. Serbian is the official language in Serbia, one of the official languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a minority language in Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia. Standard, Croatian Croatian is a South Slavic language spoken chiefly by Croats in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighbouring countries, as well as the Croatian diaspora worldwide, Macedonian Macedonian (македонски јазик, pronounced [maˈkɛdɔnski ˈjazik] ) is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia and a member of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Standard Macedonian was implemented as the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in June 1945 after being codified in the 1940s and 1^{[citation needed]}, Slovak The Slovak language ( slovenský jazyk , slovenčina, not to be confused with slovenski jezik, slovenščina, or Slovenian), is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and Sorbian)^{[citation needed]}, Bulgarian Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.^[2]
• Transcriptions of Arabic Arabic (العربية al-ʿarabīyah, ( Arabic pronunciation ) or عربي ʿarabi) is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. Arabic has more speakers than any other language in the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million typically use macrons to indicate long vowels — ا (alif ʾĀlep is the reconstructed name of the first letter of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, continued in descended Semitic alphabets as Phoenician Aleph , Syriac 'Ālaph ܐ, Hebrew Aleph א, and Arabic ʾAlif ا when pronounced as /aː/), و (waw Vav is the sixth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic (in abjadi order; it is 27th in modern Arabic order). In most Semitic languages it represents the voiced labial-velar approximant IPA: [w], and in some (such as Hebrew and Arabic) also the long close back rounded vowel /uː/ depending on, when pronounced as /uː/), and ي (ya' Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Yud י, Syriac ܝ and Arabic Yāʾ ﻱ (in abjadi order, 28th in modern order). Its sound value is IPA: [j] in all languages for which it is used; in many languages, it also serves as a long vowel, representing IPA: [iː], when pronounced as /iː/). Thus the Arabic word ثلاثة (three) is transliterated ṯalāṯah.
• Some modern dictionaries of classical Greek Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (& and Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native speakers, a small number of scholars can fluently speak it and it continues to be taught in schools and universities and has been, and currently is, used in the process of, where the macron is sometimes used in conjunction with the breve A breve is a diacritical mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It looks similar to the caron (i.e. wedge or háček in Czech), but the caron has a sharp tip, whilst the breve is rounded. Compare Ǎ ǎ Ě ě Ǐ ǐ Ǒ ǒ Ǔ ǔ (caron) with Ă ă Ĕ ĕ Ĭ ĭ Ŏ ŏ Ŭ ŭ (breve). However, many such dictionaries still have ambiguities in their treatment and distinction of long vowels or heavy syllables.
• The Hepburn romanization The Hepburn romanization system is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the Society for the Romanization of the Japanese Alphabet (羅馬字会 Rō system of Japanese Japanese (日本語, Nihongo?, [nihoŋɡo] ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none of them has gained unanimous acceptance. Japanese is an. Examples: kōtsū (交通) "traffic" as opposed to kotsu (骨) "bone" or "knack" (fig.)
• Latvian Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language. Because of language policy in Latvia approximately 30% of. "Ā", "ē", "ī", "ū" are separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately after "a", "e", "i", "u" respectively. Ō was also used in Latvian, but it was discarded as of 1957.
• Lithuanian Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they are not mutually intelligible. It is written in an. "Ū" is a separate letter but given the same position in collation Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetisation, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet. Collating lists of words or names into alphabetical order is the basis of most office filing systems, library catalogs and reference books as the unaccented "u". It marks a long vowel; other long vowels are indicated with an ogonek The ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages (which used to indicate nasalization, but no longer does): "ą", "ę", "į", "ų", "o" being always long in Lithuanian except for some recent loanwords. For the long counterpart of "i", "y" is used.
• Transcriptions of Nahuatl Nahuatl (Nahuatl pronunciation: [ˈnaː.watɬ] , with stress on the first syllable) is a group of related languages and dialects of the Nahuan (traditionally called "Aztecan") branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Collectively they are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua people, most of whom live in Central Mexico. All Nahuan (spoken in Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico). Since Nahuatl (Nāhuatl) (Aztecs' language) did not have a writing system, when Spanish conquistadors arrived, they wrote the language in their own alphabet without distinguishing long vowels. Over a century later, in 1645, Horacio Carochi defined macrons to mark long vowels ā, ē, ī and ō, and short vowels with grave (`) accents. This is rare nowadays since many people write Nahuatl without any orthographic sign and with the letters /k/, /s/ and /w/, not present in the original alphabet.
• Modern transcriptions of Old English Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon.
• Latin transliteration of Pali Pāli (ISO 15919/ALA-LC: is a Middle Indo-Aryan language of India. It is best known as the language of many of the earliest extant Buddhist scriptures, as collected in the Pāḷi Canon or Tipitaka, and as the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism and Sanskrit Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism[note 1]. Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand.
• Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. There is an estimation of almost 5 million Polynesians in the world:
  • Hawaiian. The macron is called kahakō, and it indicates vowel length, which changes meaning and the placement of stress In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.
  • Māori Māori or te reo Māori commonly te reo ("the language"), is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori, where it has the status of an official language. Linguists classify it within the Eastern Polynesian languages as being closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to. Early writing in Māori did not distinguish vowel length. Some — notably Professor Bruce Biggs^[3] — have advocated that double vowels be written to mark long vowel sounds (e.g., Maaori), but he was more concerned that they be marked at all than with the method. The Māori Language Commission (Te Taura Whiri o te Reo Māori) advocates that macrons be used to designate long vowels. The use of the macron is widespread in modern Māori, although sometimes the diaeresis In linguistics, diaeresis, diæresis or dieresis, is the pronunciation of two adjacent vowels in two separate syllables rather than as a diphthong or vowel digraph, and also the name of the diacritic mark used to prompt the reader to pronounce adjacent vowels in this manner. For example the first two vowels in the word cooperate, which can be mark is used instead (e.g. "Mäori" instead of "Māori") if the macron is not available for technical reasons [1]. The Māori Māori or te reo Māori commonly te reo ("the language"), is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori, where it has the status of an official language. Linguists classify it within the Eastern Polynesian languages as being closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to words for macron are pōtae "hat", or tohuto.
  • Tongan Tongan is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has around 100,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language. Called the toloi, its usage is similar to that in Māori, including its substitution by a diaeresis In linguistics, diaeresis, diæresis or dieresis, is the pronunciation of two adjacent vowels in two separate syllables rather than as a diphthong or vowel digraph, and also the name of the diacritic mark used to prompt the reader to pronounce adjacent vowels in this manner. For example the first two vowels in the word cooperate, which can be.

Tone

The following languages or alphabets use the macron to mark tones:

• In the International Phonetic Alphabet, a macron over a vowel indicates a mid-level tone.
• In Pinyin, macrons over a, e, i, o, u, ü (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ) indicate the high level tone of Mandarin Chinese. The alternative to macron is the number 1 after the syllable, e.g. tā = ta1.
• Similarly, the Cantonese Yale Romanization uses the macron to represent the high level tone, as in yāt gāan chāan tēng.

Omission

Sometimes the macron marks an omitted n or m, like the tilde:

• In Old English texts a macron above a letter indicates the omission of an m or n that would normally follow that letter.
• In older handwriting such as the German Kurrentschrift, the macron over an a-e-i-o-u or ä-ö-ü stood for an n, or over an m or an n meant that the letter was doubled. This continued into print in English in the sixteenth century. Over a u at the end of a word, the macron indicated um as a form of scribal abbreviation.

Letter extension

In some Finnish and Swedish comic books that are hand-lettered, or in handwriting, the macron is used instead of ä or ö, sometimes known colloquially as a "lazy man's umlaut".

In Kokota, ḡ is used for the normal /g/ sound, g without macron the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/; an n with macron (n̄) represents the velar nasal /ŋ/, n without macron the normal /n/ sound.^[4]

Other uses

• In some German handwriting the a macron is used to distinguish u from n or instead of the umlaut.
• In modernized Hepburn romanization of Japanese, an n with macron represents a syllabic n.
• In Russian handwriting, as well as in some others based on the Cyrillic script (for example, Ukrainian), a lowercase Т looks like a lowercase m, and a macron is often used to distinguish it from Ш, which looks like a lowercase w. Some writers also underline the letter ш to reduce ambiguity further.

Medicine

In medical prescriptions and other handwritten notes, macrons mean:

• over c, with, abbreviating Latin cum
• over p, after, abbreviating Latin post
• over q, every, abbreviating Latin quisque (and its inflected forms)
• over s, without, abbreviating sine
• over x, except

Math and science

The overline is a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science.

Music

In music, the tenuto marking resembles the macron.

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