Ɓ

Ɓ (minuscule: ɓ), called "B-hook" or "B with a hook", is a letter of the Latin alphabet and the International African Alphabet. Its lower-case form, ɓ, represents a voiced bilabial implosive in the International Phonetic Alphabet. It is used to spell that sound in various languages, notably Fula and Hausa. It was also formerly used in or at least proposed for Xhosa and Zulu.

In Unicode, the upper case Ɓ is in the Latin Extended B range (U+0181), and the lower case ɓ is in the IPA range (U+0253). In Shona the upper case form is a just a larger form of the lower case letter.

Alternative or obsolete capital form

The Practical Orthography for African Languages (1930 ed.) used a different capital form, similar to the Cyrillic letter be (Б).[1] A New Testament in the Loma language of Liberia, which was typeset in 1971, used this capital form.[2]

See also

Similar letters

Alphabets with this letter

Notes
  1. Practical Orthography of African Languages, Revised Edition, London: Oxford University Press, 1930
  2. Message posted to the "Qalam" list, Sept. 15, 2007

References
  • Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William A. (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide. University of Chicago Press. p. 23.
  • "Latin Extended B: Range 0180-024F" (Unicode code chart)
  • "IPA Extensions: Range 0250-02AF" (Unicode code chart)
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