Reversed glottal stop

{{Short description|Letter of the Latin alphabet}} {{hatnote group| {{for|the sound transcribed by this letter in the IPA|voiced pharyngeal fricative}} {{Distinguish|text=the Greek letters ς or Ϛ, the Cyrillic letter Ҁ, the Canadian Aboriginal syllabic ᕋ, or the late form Roman numeral ↅ}} }} {{Infobox grapheme | image = Latin letter pharyngeal voiced fricative (non-casing and casing).svg | imageclass = skin-invert-image | script = Latin script | type = Alphabet | language = casing pair: Pilagá | fam1 = ◌̓ | fam2 = ʔ | letter = ʕ ꟎ ꟏ ˁ ˤ | direction = Left-to-right | typedesc = ic | phonemes = {{IPAslink|ʕ}} | unicode = U+0295, U+A7CE, U+A7CF, U+02C1, U+02E4 | usageperiod = caseless: 1928-present<br>casing pair: 1996-present | children = {{flex list|ʢ}} | sisters = ʔ Ɂ ɂ ˀ | associates = ʽ ʿ ʻ }}

The '''reversed glottal stop''', {{angbr IPA|'''ʕ'''}} (majuscule: '''꟎''', minuscule: '''꟏''', superscript: '''ˤ'''), is a letter of the Latin script. It is used to denote a voiced pharyngeal fricative and similar sounds, either as a caseless letter as in the International Phonetic Alphabet, or as a cased pair in the Pilagá alphabet. Like the glottal stop {{angbr|ʔ}}, which is derived historically from an apostrophe, it derives from the reversed comma {{angbr|ʽ}}, as does the half ring {{angbr|ʿ}}.

== Graphic variants == In Unicode, five graphic variants of the reversed glottal stop are available. * Caseless {{Unichar|0295}}, used in phonetic transcriptions and some orthographies. * Casing pair {{Unichar|A7CE}} and {{Unichar|A7CF}}, used in Pilagá orthography. * Superscript {{Unichar|02C1}}, graphical alternative of {{angbr|ʿ}}. * Superscript {{Unichar|02E4}}, technical superscript of caseless {{angbr|ʕ}}.

Additionally, there are two graphic variants with a stroke, both used in phonetic transcriptions. * Caseless {{Unichar|02A2}} * Superscript {{Unichar|107B4}}

== Usage == The phonetic symbol ʕ became part of the International Phonetic Alphabet in 1928, replacing the small capital Q {{angbr|ꞯ}} used in the 1912 ''Principles'', to transcribe the voiced pharyngeal fricative. Like the glottal stop letter, it has since been borrowed into Americanist phonetic notation and the transliteration of languages such as Arabic (see Romanization of Arabic).

The reversed glottal stop is used as a caseless letter in several orthographies: Okanagan and Columbia-Moses in the United States, Ditinaht, Nuuchahnulth, St'at'imcets and Thompson in Canada. In Ethiopia, it is used by some authors in Tsamai<ref>{{Cite book |last=Savà |first=Graziano |url=https://www.openstarts.units.it/entities/publication/d3fde8f7-3643-4edc-a581-71004018cb8d/details |title=Language and Identity Theories and experiences in lexicography and linguistic policies in a global world |publisher=EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste |year=2021 |isbn=978-88-5511-267-3 |editor-last=Micheli |editor-first=Ilaria |chapter=Transcription and orthography in two endangered languages of Ethiopia: Ts’amakko and Ongota |editor-last2=Aiello |editor-first2=Flavia |editor-last3=Toscano |editor-first3=Maddalena |editor-last4=Pensabene |editor-first4=Amelia}}</ref> while others use {{angbr|/}}, and was used in Ale<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012 |title=Ikkito Poko ʕalena = Ale Alphabet : Trial alphabet chart produced by the participants of the language development workshop held in Arba Minch, 2012 |url=https://www.alepeople.org/sites/www.alepeople.org/files/ALPHABET%20of%20%CA%95ALE.jpg}}</ref> but has been replaced by {{angbr|q}}.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2020-07-27 |title=Salutări calde din Etiopia - Luminița Prisecaru |url=https://wycliffe.ro/salutari-calde-din-etiopia-luminita-prisecaru/ |access-date=2025-11-16 |website=Wycliffe România |language=ro-RO}}</ref>

The bicameral form of the letter (majuscule: ꟎, minuscule: ꟏) is used in the Pilagá language to represent the voiced pharyngeal fricative {{Ipa|[ʕ]}}. It was created in 1996 after much deliberation throughout the Pilagá community, along with the rest of the Pilagá alphabet. In Pilagá, it is rendered similarly to the gelded reversed question mark 20px|class=skin-invert.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alfabeto pilagá {{!}} Lengua pilagá |url=https://lenguapilaga.com.ar/alfabeto-pilaga/ |access-date=2025-09-29 |language=es}}</ref>

== Appearance in computer fonts == The caseless {{Unichar|0295}} has been in Unicode since version 1.1 and has been available in previous phonetic encodings as well.

The casing pair ꟎ and ꟏ were added to Unicode in Latin Extended-D on September 9th, 2025, with the release of Unicode 17.0.0.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unicode 17.0.0 |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode17.0.0/ |access-date=2025-09-29 |website=www.unicode.org}}</ref> Due to its infrequent usage and recent introduction into Unicode, few fonts have created a glyph for it (such as GNU Unifont), and the character may appear rendered as a box to many users. ꟎ and ꟏ occupy codepoints {{Unichar|A7CE}} and {{Unichar|A7CF}} respectively.

== References == Category:Latin-script letters Category:Pharyngeal consonants <references />{{Latin script}} {{Writingsystem-stub}} Category:Indigenous languages of South America