The (; Polish: , "little tail", diminutive of ) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European languages, and directly under a vowel in several Native American languages. It is also placed on the lower right corner of consonants in some Latin transcriptions of various indigenous languages of the Caucasus mountains.
An ogonek can also be attached to the bottom of a vowel in Old Norse–Icelandic to show length or vowel affection. For example, in Old Norse, ǫ represents the Old Norwegian vowel , which in Old Icelandic merges with ø ‹ö› and in modern Scandinavian languages is represented by the letter å.
Use
Cahto (letters ą, ę) Cayuga (ę, ǫ) Chickasaw (ą, į, ǫ) Chipewyan (ą ąą ę ęę ę̈ ę̈ę̈ ı̨ ı̨ı̨ ǫ ǫǫ ų ųų) Dadibi (ą, ę, į, ǫ) Dogrib (ą, ąą, ę, ęę, ı̨, ı̨ı̨, ǫ, ǫǫ, ų, ųų) Elfdalian (ą, ę, į, ų, y̨ and ą̊) some romanizations of Ancient Greek (ą, ę, ǫ) Ho-Chunk (ą, ąą, į, įį, ų, ųų) etymological Interslavic (ę, ų) Kashubian (ą) scholarly transcriptions of Vulgar Latin and Proto-Romance (ę, ǫ) Lithuanian (ą, ę, į, ų) Navajo (ą ą́ ąą ą́ą́ ę ę́ ęę ę́ę́ į į́ įį į́į́ ǫ ǫ́ ǫǫ ǫ́ǫ́) Ojibwe in older Romanization standards, representing either nasalization or vowel backing (ą, ąą, ą́, ę, įį, ǫǫ) scholarly transcriptions of Old Church Slavonic and Proto-Slavic (ę, ǫ) Old Norse (ǫ , ǫ́ , o᷎, ǫ᷎), (ę , æ ), (Alternatively, ą, etc. instead represent any nasalized vowel (, etc.) corresponding to the Norse runic letter Áss and the Proto-Norse runic letter AnsuR.) Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic (æ̨, ø̨, a᷎, e᷎, i᷎, o᷎, ø᷎, u᷎) Onondaga dialects (ę, ǫ), (Alternatively, eñ and oñ can also be used. ų is sometimes used for ǫ) Polish (letters ą, ę) Rheinische Dokumenta (ą̈, ǫ, ǫ̈, ą̈ą̈, ǫǫ, ǫ̈ǫ̈) Sierra Otomi (ą, į, ę, ǫ, ų) Tutchone (į, ų, ų̈, ę, ą̈, ǫ, ą)
Example in Polish:
— The ox asks him: "Mr. beetle, why do you buzz like that in the thicket?" — Jan Brzechwa, Chrząszcz
Example in Cayuga:
— we will become poor
Example in Chickasaw:
- I am walking
Example in Dogrib:
— native people
Example in Lithuanian:
— Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Margi sakalai
Example in Elfdalian:
"Ja, eð war įe plåg að gęslkallum, dar eð war slaik uondlostjyner i gęslun." — Vikar Margit Andersdotter, I fäbodlivet i gamla tider.
Values
Nasalization
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, to the present day, follow this convention in phonetic transcription (see Americanist phonetic notation).
The ogonek is also used to indicate a nasalized vowel in Polish, academic transliteration of Proto-Germanic, Old Church Slavonic, Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Tłįchǫ Yatiì, Slavey, Dëne Sųłiné and Elfdalian. In Polish, ę is nasalized e; however, ą is nasalized o, not a, because of a vowel shift: ą, originally a long nasal a, turned into a short nasal o when the distinction in vowel quantity disappeared.
Length
In Lithuanian, the nosinė (literally, "nasal") mark originally indicated vowel nasalization but around late 17th and early 18th century, nasal vowels gradually evolved into the corresponding long non-nasal vowels in most dialects. Thus, the mark is now de facto an indicator of vowel length (the length of etymologically non-nasal vowels is marked differently or not marked at all). The mark also helps to distinguish different grammatical forms with otherwise the same written form (often with a different word stress, which is not indicated directly in the standard orthography).
Lowered articulation
Between 1927 and 1989, the ogonek denoted lowering in vowels, and, since 1976, in consonants as well, in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). While the obsolete diacritic has also been identified as the left half ring diacritic , many publications of the IPA used the ogonek.
In Rheinische Dokumenta, it marks vowels that are more open than those denoted by their base letters Ää, Oo, Öö. In two cases, it can be combined with umlaut marks.