Ogonek (Polish for little tail, the diminutive of ogon; the Lithuanian equivalent is nosinė which literally means nasal) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in Polish (letters ą, ę), Lithuanian (ą, ę, į, ų), Creek, Navajo and Western Apache (ą, ąą, ę, ęę, į, įį, , ), Chiricahua and Mescalero (ą, ąą, ę, ęę, į, įį, ų, ųų), Tutchone and Älvdalen Dalecarlian (ą, ę, į, ų, y̨ and ą̊). It is also used in academic transliteration of Old Church Slavonic and Old Norse. In Polish, Old Church Slavonic, Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, and Älvdalen Dalecarlian it indicates that the vowel is nasalized; in Lithuanian, where it formerly indicated nasalization which is no longer distinctive, it indicates that a vowel is long. In Navajo, Chiricahua, Western Apache, and Mescalero it can be combined with the acute and grave accents where it indicates high tone or in long vowels high, falling, rising tone (e.g. ą́, , į́į). In the orthography conventions of Willem de Reuse, Western Apache has combinations of ogonek and macron (e.g. , ).

The use of the ogonek to indicate nasality is common in the transcription of the indigenous languages of the Americas. This usage originated in the orthographies created by Christian missionaries to transcribe these languages. Later, the practice was continued by Americanist anthropologists and linguists who still follow this convention in phonetic transcription to the present day (see Americanist phonetic notation).

Ogonek should be almost the same size as a descender (in larger type sizes may be relatively quite shorter) and should not be confused with the cedilla or comma diacritic marks used in other languages.

Example in Polish:

— Jan Brzechwa,

Example in Älvdalen Dalecarlian:

"Ja, eð war įe plåg að gęslkallum, dar eð war slaik uondlostjyner i gęslun."

"I fäbodlivet i gamla tider", by Vikar Margit Andersdotter.

The HTML/Unicode numbers for ogonek letters are:

External links

• Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
• Polish Diacritics — How To?
• Förslag till en enhetlig stavning för älvdalska (March, 2005)

Diacritics

Ogonek | Ogonek | Ogonek | Ogonek | Ogonek | זנבון | Nosinė (diakritinis ženklas) | Ogonek | オゴネク | Ogonek | Ogonek