In typesetting, the hook or tail is a diacritic mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a descender, on top as an ascender and sometimes to the side. The orientation of the hook can change its meaning: when it is below and curls to the left it can be interpreted as a palatal hook, and when it curls to the right is called hook tail or tail and can be interpreted as a retroflex hook. It should not be mistaken with the hook above, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Letter ⟨Z⟩ with tophook - became letter ⟨⟩.

Letter ⟨X⟩ with two high hooks - became letter ⟨⟩.

Different types of hook diacritics

Letters with hook

It could be argued that the hook was used to derive the letter ⟨J⟩ from the letter ⟨I⟩, or the letter Eng ⟨ŋ⟩ from the letter ⟨N⟩. However, these letters are usually not identified as being formed with the hook.

Most letters with hook are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and many languages use them (along with capitals) representing the same sounds.

The hook often attaches to the top part of the letter, curling to the left or to the right, finishing the ascender if present. It may then be referred to as a crook, in some languages like French^[1] more commonly than in English that is less successful in mitigating the semantic overload of the hook term.

If the hook attaches to the bottom part of the letter, it is often called a palatal hook if it curls to the left, or a retroflex hook if it curls to the right.

The letter ⟨ɿ⟩ with right hook does not necessarily mean retroflex (this is not true for ⟨ʅ⟩).

Latin alphabet
Letters			Name	Hook position
	ᶏ		A with retroflex hook	bottom
	ᶐ		Script a or alpha with retroflex hook	bottom
Ɓ	ɓ	𐞅	B with hook[2]	top
Ꞗ	ꞗ		B with flourish	left
	ᶀ		B with palatal hook	bottom
Ƈ	ƈ		C with hook	top
	ꞔ		C with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼝		C with retroflex hook[3]	bottom
Ɗ	ɗ	𐞌	D with hook[2]	top
Ɖ	ɖ	𐞋	African d or d with tail[4]	bottom
	ᶑ	𐞍	D with hook and tail[2]	top and bottom
	ᶁ		D with palatal hook	bottom
	ꬴ		E with flourish	left
	ᶒ		E with retroflex hook	bottom
	ɚ		Schwa with hook	right
	ᶕ		Schwa with retroflex hook	bottom
	ᶓ		Open e or epsilon with retroflex hook	bottom
	ɝ		Reversed open e or epsilon with hook	right
	ᶔ		Reversed open e or epsilon with retroflex hook	bottom
Ƒ	ƒ		F with hook	bottom
	ᶂ		F with palatal hook	bottom
Ɠ	ɠ	𐞓	G with hook[2]	top
	ʛ	𐞔	Small capital g with hook[2]	top
	ᶃ		G with palatal hook	right
	ꬶ		Script g with crossed-tail	bottom
Ɦ	ɦ	ʱ	H with hook	top
	ꞕ		H with palatal hook	bottom right
	ɧ	𐞗	Heng with hook[4]	top
	ʮ		Turned h with fishhook	top
	ʯ		Turned h with fishhook and tail	top and bottom
	ᶖ		I with retroflex hook	bottom
Ʝ	ʝ	ᶨ	J with crossed-tail	bottom
	ʄ	𐞘	Dotless j with stroke and hook[2]	top
Ƙ	ƙ		K with hook	top
	ᶄ		K with palatal hook	bottom
	𝼑		L with fishhook[5]	right
	ᶅ	ᶅ	L with palatal hook	bottom
	ɭ	ᶩ	L with retroflex hook	bottom
	ꞎ	𐞝	L with retroflex hook and belt[6][7]	bottom
Ɱ	ɱ	ᶬ	M with hook	bottom
	ᶆ		M with palatal hook	bottom
	ꬺ		M with crossed-tail	bottom
Ɲ	ɲ	ᶮ	N with left hook	bottom left
	ᶇ		N with palatal hook	bottom right
	ɳ	ᶯ	N with retroflex hook	bottom right
	ꬻ		N with crossed-tail	bottom
	ꬼ		Eng with crossed-tail	bottom
	𝼔		Eng with palatal hook[5]	bottom
	𝼛		O with retroflex hook[5]	bottom
	ᶗ		Open o with retroflex hook	bottom
Ƥ	ƥ		P with hook	top
	ᶈ		P with palatal hook	right
Ꝓ	ꝓ		P with flourish	left middle
Ꝕ	ꝕ		P with squirrel tail	left top
	ʠ		Q with hook	top
Ɋ	ɋ		Small q with hook tail	bottom
Ɽ	ɽ	𐞨	R with tail[4]	bottom left
	ᶉ		R with palatal hook	bottom
	ɻ	ʵ	Turned r with hook	bottom
	𝼕		Turned r with palatal hook[5]	bottom
	ⱹ		Turned r with tail	top
	ꭉ		R with crossed-tail	bottom
	ꭊ		Double r with crossed-tail	bottom
	ɾ		R with fishhook	bottom
	ᵳ		R with fishhook and middle tilde	bottom
	ɿ		Reversed R with fishhook	bottom
	ᶊ		S with palatal hook	bottom right
Ʂ	ʂ	ᶳ	S with retroflex hook	bottom left
Ȿ	ȿ		S with swash tail	bottom right
	ᶋ		Esh with palatal hook	right
	ᶘ		Esh with retroflex hook	bottom
Ƭ	ƭ		T with hook	top
	ƫ	ƫ	T with palatal hook	bottom
Ʈ	ʈ	𐞯	T with retroflex hook[4]	bottom
	ꭒ	ꭟ	U with left hook	top left
	ᶙ		U with retroflex hook	bottom
	ᶌ		V with palatal hook	bottom
	ⱱ	𐞰	V with right hook[8][4]	top
Ʋ	ʋ	ᶹ	Script v or v with hook	top
Ⱳ	ⱳ		W with hook	top right
	ᶍ		X with palatal hook	bottom right
Ƴ	ƴ		Y with hook	top right
Ȥ	ȥ		Z with hook	bottom
Ᶎ	ᶎ		Z with palatal hook	bottom
	ʐ	ᶼ	Z with retroflex hook	bottom
			Z with top hook	top right or top left
Ɀ	ɀ		Z with swash tail	bottom
	𝼘		Ezh with palatal hook[5]	right
	ᶚ		Ezh with retroflex hook	bottom
	ƺ		Ezh with tail	bottom
	𝼅	𐞟	Lezh with retroflex hook[7]	bottom
	𝼊	𐞹	Retroflex click with retroflex hook[9][2]	bottom
Ꜭ	ꜭ		Cuatrillo tail	bottom
Ꜯ	ꜯ		Cuatrillo hook	bottom
Cyrillic alphabet
Ӻ	ӻ		Ghe with stroke and hook	bottom
Ҋ	ҋ		Short i with tail	bottom right
Ӄ	ӄ		Ka with hook	bottom right
Ԓ	ԓ		El with hook	bottom right
Ӆ	ӆ		El with tail	bottom right
Ӎ	ӎ		Em with tail	bottom right
Ӈ	ӈ		En with hook	bottom right
Ԩ	ԩ		En with left hook	bottom left
Ӊ	ӊ		En with tail	bottom right
Ӽ	ӽ		Ha with hook	bottom right

Unicode

Unicode has the combining diacritics U+0321  ̡  COMBINING PALATALIZED HOOK BELOW and U+0322  ̢  COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW but these are not recommended to be used with letters, and should be used to illustrate the hooks themselves. Instead Unicode recommends the use of characters that already include the hook.

The U+02DE ˞ MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK is used to mark an r-colored vowel.

See also

• Hook above
• Palatal hook
• Ogonek

References