ʼ

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word ʼ. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word ʼ, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say ʼ in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word ʼ you have here. The definition of the word ʼ will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofʼ, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: ◌̓, ʻ , , ' , and

ʼ U+02BC, ʼ
MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE
ʻ
Spacing Modifier Letters ʽ
In IPA usage, the ejective mark always modifies a letter. It may be typeset larger than an apostrophe, as here.

Translingual

Etymology

Use for glottal stop derives from the apostrophe, for example in Hawaiian (now replaced by the okina to distinguish it from an actual apostrophe).

Use to mark ejective consonants started with transliteration of Georgian script; it was an adaptation of the spiritus lenis and contrasted with the spiritus asper used to mark aspirated consonants, as the most salient distinctive feature of Georgian ejectives was that they were not aspirated. Usage extended from there to other languages with ejective consonants.

Symbol

ʼ

  1. (IPA) an ejective consonant
    e.g. , , .
  2. (UPA) glottal closure:
    E.g. is k with simultaneous glottal closure.
    mⁱeʼr or mⁱe̓r with a glottalized vowel.
    ʼeppä ʼollu with epenthetic glottal stops separating the vowels.
  3. transliteration of Semitic glottal stop (aleph and hamza).
    Synonym: ʾ

Usage notes

Americanist phonetic notation may instead use a combining diacritic ◌̓ for ejective consonants.

Derived terms

Letters/digraphs that contain ⟨ʼ⟩:

Further reading

Avokaya

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. A letter of the Avokaya alphabet.

Bodo (India)

Letter

ʼ (ʼ)

  1. High tone on a short vowel /ɔ/, as in बरʼ /bɔrɔ́/ 'Bodo'.

Cayuga

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ

  1. Alternative form of ˀ

Chamorro

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The first letter of the Chamorro alphabet, used for the glottal stop.

Chiwere

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  1. IPA(key): /ʔ/

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. A letter of the Chiwere alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Chukchi

Letter

ʼ (ʼ)

  1. The thirty-seventh letter of the Chukchi alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

Dogri

ʼ (ʼ)

  1. Low rising tone on a short vowel /ə ɪ ʊ/, e.g. लʼत्त /lə̌tː/ 'leg'.

Guaraní

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The thirty-third letter of the Guaraní alphabet, called puso, used for the glottal stop.

Khoekhoe

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. (obsolete) the lateral clicks, modern ⟨ǁ⟩. (Besides plain ⟨ʼ⟩, it is also used for the lateral click consonants ʼk ʼg ʼn ʼh ʼkh.)
    See also , , ʻ.

Kildin Sami

Alternative forms

  • Capital Һ (H), lower-case һ (h).

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Kildin Sami Cyrillic alphabet

See also

Kwak'wala

Alternative forms

  • ʔ in Liqʼwala dialect

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. A letter of the Kwak'wala alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Lakota

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. A letter of the Lakota alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Lashi

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. High-falling lexical tone.

Usage notes

A final glottal stop is unwritten on syllables with this tone. Thus transcribes both /a᷇/ and /a᷇ʔ/. Full falling tone is unmarked, except for syllables with a final glottal stop, which is transcribed ,.

Lhao Vo

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. High lexical tone with a final plosive consonant.

Usage notes

A final glottal stop is unwritten. Thus /a/ with a final plosive and high tone is written abʼ adʼ agʼ aʼ for . High tone is written ˮ with a final vowel or nasal.

Lisu

Letter

ʼ

  1. The forty-seventh letter of the Lisu alphabet.

Usage notes

  • Used to indicate nasalisation and is combined with tone marks.

Mam

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ

  1. A letter of the Mam alphabet.

Pronunciation

  1. IPA(key): /ʔ/

Letter

ʼ

  1. The nineteenth letter of the Navajo alphabet. It is used before or after a vowel to indicate a glottal stop.

Usage notes

Every Navajo word begins with either the glottal stop or another consonant. If an orthographic vowel begins a word, it is pronounced with a glottal stop: ooljééʼ (sometimes spelled ʼooljééʼ).

⟨ʼ⟩ forms the following Navajo letters: chʼ, , , tłʼ, tsʼ.

See also

O'odham

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The letter of the O'odham alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Pilagá

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. A letter of the Pilagá alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Seneca

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The letter of the Seneca alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Somali

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The first letter of the Somali alphabet, called alef and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

  • This is the first letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is followed by B. It is rarely used in the initial position.

See also

Tabasaran

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The forty-eighth letter of the Tabasaran alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

Tahitian

The Tahitian ʼeta

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. A letter of the Tahitian alphabet, the ʻeta.

Usage notes

In formal typesetting, the ʼeta is rotated 90 degrees. This does not have a separate Unicode character.

All Tahitian lemmas on Wiktionary use the ʻokina ⟨ʻ⟩ as the Unicode character for this letter.

Tundra Nenets

Pronunciation

Letter

ʼ (no case)

  1. The thirty-fifth letter of the Tundra Nenets alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

Marks instances of the glottal stop /ʔ/ that alternate with nasal consonants н () /n/, ӈ (ŋ°) /ŋ/ in inflection, in contrast with the letter ˮ. Often transcribed h in scholarly works.

See also