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Caronhacek

Caron, also called háček, is a diacritic mark shaped like a small wedge or hook placed above certain letters in Latin-based alphabets. It is used to indicate a modification of pronunciation, often signaling a palatalized or postalveolar articulation, depending on the language. The name háček derives from Czech, meaning “little hook”; in English the diacritic is commonly referred to as caron or wedge.

The caron is widely used in Central and Southeast European orthographies. In Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian,

In digital text, carons can be encoded as precomposed characters, such as Č U+010C, č U+010D, Š U+0160, š U+0161,

Bosnian,
and
Serbian
Latin
alphabets,
letters
such
as
č,
š,
and
ž
carry
the
caron
to
denote
sounds
like
/tʃ/,
/ʃ/,
and
/ʒ/.
Other
letters
with
a
caron
include
ř
(a
rhotic
with
a
háček),
ň
(a
palatal
nasal),
and
ě
(e
with
caron,
historically
marking
iotation
in
Czech).
The
diacritic
also
appears
in
Latvian
and
Lithuanian,
where
č,
š,
and
ž
serve
similar
phonetic
purposes.
Ž
U+017D,
ž
U+017E,
Ř
U+0158,
ř
U+0159,
Ť
U+0164,
ť
U+0165,
Ň
U+0147,
ň
U+0148,
Ě
U+011A,
ě
U+011B,
among
others.
A
combining
form,
U+030C,
can
also
be
used
to
apply
a
caron
to
any
base
letter.
The
caron
is
distinct
from
other
diacritics
and
is
a
characteristic
feature
of
the
orthographies
that
employ
it.