"O macron", "O-", and "Ū" redirect here. For the Greek letter, seeomicron.For the o- prefix in Japanese, seeJapanese honorifics.For the Indic vowel, seeŪ (Indic).
InGreco-Roman metricsand in the description of the metrics of other literatures, the macron was introduced and is still widely used in dictionaries and educational materials to mark along (heavy) syllable.Even relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries[1]are still concerned with indicating only the length (weight) of syllables; that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined. Many textbooks about Ancient Rome and Greece use the macron, even if it was not actually used at that time (anapexwas used if vowel length was marked in Latin).
The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to marklong vowels:
Slavicistsuse the macron to indicate a non-tonic long vowel, or a non-tonic syllabic liquid, such as ona,e,r,oru.Languages with this feature include standard and dialect varieties ofSerbo-Croatian,Slovene,andBulgarian.[2]
Transcriptions ofArabictypically use macrons to indicate long vowels –ا(alifwhen pronounced/aː/),و(waw,when pronounced/uː/or/oː/), andي(ya',when pronounced/iː/or/eː/). Thus the Arabic wordثلاثة(three) is transliteratedthalāthah.
Transcriptions ofSanskrittypically use a macron over ā, ī, ū, ṝ, and ḹ in order to mark a long vowel (e and o are always long and consequently do not need any macron).[citation needed]
InLatin,many of the more recent dictionaries and learning materials use the macron as the modern equivalent of the ancient Romanapexto mark long vowels. Any of the six vowel letters(ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ)can bear it. It is sometimes used in conjunction with thebreve,especially to distinguish the short vowels/i/and/u/from their semi-vowel counterparts/j/and/w/,originally, and often to this day, spelt with the same letters. However, the older of these editions are not always explicit on whether they mark long vowels or heavy syllables – a confusion that is even found in some modern learning materials. In addition, most of the newest academic publications use both the macron and the breve sparingly, mainly when vowel length is relevant to the discussion.
Inromanizationofclassical Greek,the lettersη(eta) andω(omega) are transliterated, respectively, asēandō,representing the long vowels of classical Greek, whereas the short vowelsε(epsilon) andο(omicron) are always transliterated as plaineando.The other long vowel phonemes do not have dedicated letters in theGreek alphabet,being indicated by digraphs (transliterated likewise as digraphs) or by the lettersα,ι,υ– represented asā, ī, ū.The same three letters are transliterated as plaina, i, uwhen representing short vowels.
Latvian.ā,ē,ī,ūare separate letters but are given the same position incollationasa,e,i,urespectively.Ōwas also used in Latvian, but it was discarded as of 1946.[3]Some usage remains inLatgalian.
Lithuanian.ūis a separate letter but is given the same position incollationas the unaccentedu.It marks a long vowel; other long vowels are indicated with anogonek(which used to indicate nasalization, but it no longer does):ą,ę,į,ųandobeing always long in Lithuanian except for some recent loanwords. For the long counterpart ofi,yis used.
Livonian.ā,ǟ,ē,ī,ō,ȱ,ȭandūare separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately aftera,ä,e,i,o,ȯ,õ,andu,respectively.
Samogitian.ā,ē,ė̄,ī,ūandōare separate letters that sort in alphabetical order immediately aftera,e,ė,i,uandorespectively.
Transcriptions ofNahuatl,theAztecs' language, spoken inMexico.When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, they wrote the language in their own alphabet without distinguishing long vowels. Over a century later, in 1645,Horacio Carochidefined macrons to mark long vowelsā,ē,īandō,and short vowels with grave (`) accents. This is rare nowadays since many people write Nahuatl without any orthographic sign and with the lettersk,sandw,not present in the original alphabet.
Modern transcriptions ofOld English,for long vowels.
Cook Islands Māori.In Cook Islands Māori, the macron ormākarōnais not commonly used in writing, but is used in references and teaching materials for those learning the language.[4][5]
Hawaiian.The macron is calledkahakō,and it indicates vowel length, which changes meaning and the placement ofstress.
Māori.In modern written Māori, the macron is used to designate long vowels, with thetremamark sometimes used if the macron is unavailable (e.g. "wähine" ).[6]The Māori word for macron istohutō.The termpōtae( "hat" ) is also used.[7]In the past, writing in Māori either did not distinguish vowel length, or doubled long vowels (e.g. "waahine" ), as someiwidialects still do.
Niuean.In Niuean, "popular spelling" does not worry too much about vowel quantity (length), so the macron is primarily used in scholarly study of the language.[8]
Tahitian.The use of the macron is comparatively recent in Tahitian. TheFare VānaʻaorAcadémie Tahitienne(Tahitian Academy) recommends using the macron, called thetārava,to represent long vowels in written text, especially for scientific or teaching texts[9][10]and it has widespread acceptance.[11][12][13](In the past, written Tahitian either did not distinguish vowel length, or used multiple other ways).[14]
TonganandSamoan.The macron is called thetoloi/fakamamafaorfa'amamafa,respectively. Its usage is similar to that in Māori, including its substitution by a trema. Its usage is not universal in Samoan, but recent academic publications and advanced study textbooks promote its use.[15]
The macron is used inFijian languagedictionaries, in instructional materials for non-Fijian speakers, and in books and papers on Fijian linguistics. It is not typically used in Fijian publications intended for fluent speakers, where context is usually sufficient for a reader to distinguish betweenheteronyms.
The Latin and Cyrillic alphabet transcriptions of the Tsebari dialect ofTsez.
In westernCree,Sauk,andSaulteaux,the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) indicates long vowels[aːeːiːoː~uː]either with acircumflex⟨â ê î ô⟩ or with a macron ⟨ā ē ī ō⟩.
InYorubaan optional macron can be used to indicate mid-level tone if it would otherwise be ambiguous.
InPinyin,the officialRomanization of Mandarin Chinese,macrons over a, e, i, o, u, ü (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ) indicate the high leveltoneofMandarin Chinese.The alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable (for example, tā = ta1).
Similarly in theYale romanization of Cantonese,macrons over a, e, i, o, u, m, n (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, m̄, n̄) indicate the high leveltoneofCantonese.Like Mandarin, the alternative to the macron is the number 1 after the syllable (for example, tā = ta1).
InPe̍h-ōe-jīromanization ofHokkien,macrons over a, e, i, m, n, o, o͘, u, (ā, ē, ī, m̄, n̄, ō, ō͘, ū) indicate the mid leveltone( "light departing" or 7th tone) of Hokkien.
Sometimes the macron marks an omittednorm,like thetilde:
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 GermanKurrentschrift,the macron over an a-e-i-o-u or ä-ö-ü stood for ann,or over anmor annmeant that the letter was doubled. This continued into print in English in the sixteenth century, and to some extent in German. Over auat the end of a word, the macron indicatedumas a form ofscribal abbreviation.
The macron is used in the orthography of a number of vernacular languages of theSolomon IslandsandVanuatu,particularly those first transcribed byAnglican missionaries.The macron has no unique value, and is simply used to distinguish between two different phonemes.
Thus, in several languages of theBanks Islands,includingMwotlap,[16]the simplemstands for/m/,but anmwith a macron (m̄) is arounded labial-velar nasal/ŋ͡mʷ/;while the simplenstands for the commonalveolar nasal/n/,annwith macron (n̄) represents thevelar nasal/ŋ/;the vowelēstands for a (short) higher/ɪ/by contrast with plaine/ɛ/;likewiseō/ʊ/contrasts with plaino/ɔ/.
InBislama(orthography before 1995),LamenuandLewo,a macron is used on two lettersm̄ p̄.[19][20]m̄represents/mʷ/,andp̄represents/pʷ/.The orthography after 1995 (which has no diacritics) has these written asmwandpw.
InMarshallese,a macron is used on four letters –ā n̄ ō ū– whose pronunciations differ from the unmarkeda n o u.Marshallese uses avertical vowel systemwith three to four vowel phonemes, but traditionally their allophones have been written out, so vowel letters with macron are used for some of these allophones. Though the standard diacritic involved is a macron, there are no other diacritics usedaboveletters, so in practice other diacritics can and have been used in less polished writing or print, yielding nonstandard letters likeã ñ õ û,depending on displayability of letters incomputer fonts.
The lettern̄represents thevelar nasalphoneme/ŋ/and thelabialized velarnasal phoneme/ŋʷ/,depending on context. The standard letter does not exist as aprecombined glyphinUnicode,so the nonstandard variantñis often used in its place.
The letterōis pronounced[ʌ]or[ɤ],which are theunroundedvelarizedallophones of the phonemes/ɜ/and/ɘ/respectively.
The letterūis pronounced[ɯ],the unrounded velarized allophone of the phoneme/ɨ/.
In olderGermanand in the GermanKurrenthandwriting, as well as olderDanish,a macron is used on some consonants, especially n and m, as a short form for a double consonant (for example,n̄instead ofnn).
A signature ofFyodor Dostoevskyshowing a stylized macron above the ⟨т⟩ in "Достоевскій"InRussian cursive,as well as in some others based on theCyrillic script(for example,Bulgarian), a lowercaseТlooks like a lowercasem,and a macron is often used to distinguish it fromШ,which looks like a lowercasew(seeТ). Some writers also underline the letterшto reduce ambiguity further.
Also, in some instances, a diacritic will be written like a macron, although it represents another diacritic whose standard form is different:
In someFinnish,EstonianandSwedishcomic books that are hand-lettered, or in handwriting, a macron-style umlaut is used foräorö(alsoõandüin Estonian), sometimes known colloquially as a "lazy man's umlaut". This can also be seen in some modern handwrittenGerman.
InNorwegianū,ā,ī,ēandōcan be used for decorative purposes both in handwritten and computedBokmålandNynorskor to denote vowel length such as indū(you),lā(infinitive form of to let), lēser (present form of "to read" ) andlūft(air). The diacritic is entirely optional, carries no IPA value and is seldom used in modern Norwegian outside of handwriting.
In informalHungarianhandwriting, a macron is often a substitute for either adouble acute accentor anumlaut(e.g.,öorő). Because of this ambiguity, using it is often regarded as bad practice.
In informal handwriting, theSpanishñis sometimes written with a macron-shaped tilde: (n̄).
Note, however, that abbreviations involving the letter h take their macron halfway up the ascending line rather than at the normal height for unicode macrons and overlines:ħ.This is separately encoded inUnicodewith the symbols usingbar diacriticsand appears shorter than other macrons in many fonts.
Theoverlineis a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science. For example, it is used to representcomplex conjugation:
InTeXa macron is created with the command "\=", for example: M\=aori for Māori.
InOpenOffice,if the extension Compose Special Characters is installed,[27]a macron may be added by following the letter with a hyphen and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for composing special characters. A macron may also be added by following the letter with the character's four-digit hex-code, and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for adding unicode characters.
^P.G.W. Glare (ed.),Oxford Latin Dictionary(Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1990), p. xxiii:Vowel quantities. Normally, only long vowels in a metrically indeterminate position are marked.
^Годечкият Говор от Михаил Виденов,Издателство на българската академия на науките,София, 1978, p. 19:...характерни за всички селища от годечкия говор....Подобни случай са характерни и за книжовния език-Ст.Стойков, Увод във фонетиката на българския език, стр. 151..(in Bulgarian)
^Iluta Dalbiņa un Inese Lāčauniece (2001).Latviešu valoda vidusskolām.Rīga: RaKa. p. 110.ISBN978-9984-46-130-4.
^Buse, Jasper with Taringa, Raututi (Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moekaʻa, eds.). (1996).Cook Islands Maori Dictionary with English-Cook Islands Maori Finder List.Avarua, Rarotonga: The Ministry of Education, Government of the Cook Islands; The School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London; The Institute of Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific; The Centre for Pacific Studies, The University of Auckland; Pacific Linguistics, The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
^Carpentier, Tai Tepuaoterā Turepu and Beaumont, Clive. (1995).Kai kōrero: A Cook Islands Maori Language Coursebook.Auckland, New Zealand: Pasifika Press.
^Sperlich, Wolfgang B. (ed.) (1997).Tohi vagahau Niue – Niue language dictionary: Niuen-English with English-Niuean finderlist.Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Linguistics.
^Académie Tahitienne. (1986).Grammaire de la langue tahitienne.Papeete, Tahiti: Fare Vānaʻa.
^Académie Tahitienne. (1999).Dictionnaire tahitien-français: Faʻatoro parau tahiti-farāni.Papeete, Tahiti: Fare Vānaʻa.
^LeMaître, Yves. (1995).Lexique du tahitien contemporain: tahitien-français français-tahitien.Paris: Éditions de l'IRD (ex-Orstom).
^Montillier, Pierre. (1999).Te reo tahiti ʻāpi: Dictionnaire du tahitien nouveau et biblique.Papeete, Tahiti: STP Multipress.
^Jaussen, Mgr Tepano. (2001).Dictionnaire de la langue Tahitienne(10ème édition, revue et augmentée). Papeete, Tahiti: Société des Études Océaniennes.
^Simanu, Aumua Mata'itusi. 'O si Manu a Ali'i: A Text for the Advanced Study of Samoan Language and Culture
^François, Alexandre (2005), "A typological overview of Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu",Linguistic Typology,9(1): 115–146 [118],doi:10.1515/lity.2005.9.1.115,S2CID55878308
^OLBTO (2011) "Reading and Writing Obolo: Obolo Alphabet" in "A Workshop Manual for Teaching Obolo." Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organisation (OLBTO). p.1
^Cappelli, Adriano (1961).Manuali Hoepli Lexicon Abbreviature Dizionario Di Abbreviature Latine ed Italiane.Milan: Editore Ulrico Hoepli Milano. p. 256.
^Weisstein, Eric W."Macron".mathworld.wolfram.com.Retrieved2020-08-24.
