circunflex

Circumflex, in the context of writing and linguistics, is a diacritic mark shaped like a small wedge or caret placed above a letter. It is used in several languages to indicate various phonetic or historical features, and its exact function varies by language. The term derives from the Latin circumflexus, meaning bent around.

In French, the circumflex on vowels (â, ê, î, ô, û) often reflects a historical loss of an s following the vowel and can subtly influence pronunciation, sometimes indicating a longer or tenser vowel quality. In modern French, the mark does not always correspond to a distinct sound, but its presence is still orthographically significant.

In Portuguese, the circunflexo marks a stressed syllable and frequently signals a closed or tenser vowel quality. It appears on a, e, and o (â, ê, ô) in words where the vowel quality is distinguished from its unaccented counterparts, and it helps indicate syllable emphasis in certain spellings.

In Romanian, the circumflex is used on the letters â and î, treating them as separate vowels with distinct sounds from unmarked a and i. This diacritic is an integral part of the Romanian alphabet and orthography.

In Vietnamese, the circumflex is part of several vowel letters such as â, ê, and ô, which modify both vowel quality and, in combination with other diacritics, tone. The circumflex therefore contributes to the large system of diacritics that define Vietnamese phonology.

In typography and computing, the circumflex is encoded in Unicode and can be combined with letters using the combining circumflex accent (U+0302) or as precomposed characters. It is one of several diacritics used to alter meaning, pronunciation, or etymology across languages.