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The apostrophe distinguishes it from the letter combination ng (pronounced [ŋɡ]), which has separate use in the language. Compare this with the Swahili usage below. In Hebrew, the geresh (a diacritic similar to the apostrophe and often represented by one) is used for several purposes other than to mark an elision:
Astronomical symbols – Symbols in astronomy; Chemical symbol – Abbreviations used in chemistry; Chinese punctuation – Punctuation used with Chinese characters; Currency symbol – Symbol used to represent a monetary currency's name; Diacritic – Modifier mark added to a letter (accent marks etc.)
A few letters, such as that of the voiced pharyngeal fricative, ʕ , were inspired by other writing systems (in this case, the Arabic letter ﻉ , ʿayn, via the reversed apostrophe). [9] Some letter forms derive from existing letters: The right-swinging tail, as in ʈ ɖ ɳ ɽ ʂ ʐ ɻ ɭ , indicates retroflex articulation.
Little punctuation marks—like a comma, question mark, or an apostrophe—can make or break the flow or meaning of a sentence. In fact, this is how confusing life would be without proper punctuation.
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 διακριτικός ( diakritikós , "distinguishing"), from διακρίνω ( diakrínō , "to distinguish").
The only diacritic native to Modern English is the two dots (representing a vowel hiatus): its usage has tended to fall off except in certain publications and particular cases. [3] [a] Proper nouns are not generally counted as English terms except when accepted into the language as an eponym – such as Geiger–Müller tube.
The apostrophe (ʼ) is not usually considered part of the English alphabet nor used as a diacritic, even in loanwords. But it is used for two important purposes in written English: to mark the "possessive" [r] and to mark contracted words. Current standards require its use for both purposes.
The symbol's names and phonetic descriptions are described in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. The symbols also have nonce names in the Unicode standard. In some cases, the Unicode names and the IPA names do not agree. For example, IPA calls ɛ "epsilon", but Unicode calls it "small letter open E".