Rotated letter
In the days of printing with metal type sorts, it was common to rotate letters and digits 180° to create new symbols. This was done for example with the Palaeotype alphabet, the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Fraser script, and for some mathematical symbols. Perhaps the earliest instance of this that is still in use was turned e for schwa.
In the eighteenth-century Caslon metal fonts, the British pound sign (£) was set with a rotated italic uppercase J.[1]
Unicode support
The following rotated (turned) letters have Unicode codepoints unless otherwise indicated.
Latin
In this table, parentheses mark letters that stand in for themselves or for another. For instance, a rotated 'b' would be a 'q', and indeed some physical typefaces didn't bother with distinct sorts for those letters, while a rotated 's' would be itself. Long s with a combining dot below, ⟨ſ̣⟩, can stand in for a rotated j.
⟨–⟩ (En dash) mark small caps that would not be very distinct from the turned lower case letter, though they are possible: turned small cap c is supported, for example: ⟨ᴐ⟩).
The Fraser script creates duplicates of all the rotated capitals, except for M, Q and W. Rotated Y was added as an additional to the script in March 2020.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rotated minuscule | ɐ | [q] | [ɔ] | [p] | [ə]·ǝ | ɟ[2] | ᵷ·[ɓ] | ɥ | ᴉ | [ſ̣] | ʞ | ꞁ | ɯ | [u] | (o) | [d] | [b] | ɹ | (s) | ʇ | [n] | ʌ | ʍ | (x) | ʎ | (z) |
Rotated small cap | [⦡] | [ꞛ] | ⱻ | ⅎ | 𝼂·[פ] | (ʜ) | (ɪ) | [ɾ][2] | 𝼐 | ꟺ[lower-alpha 1] | (ɴ) | ᴚ | [ㅗ] | [ꭅ] | ||||||||||||
Rotated capital | Ɐ | [ᗺ] | [Ɔ] | [ᗡ] | Ǝ | Ⅎ | ⅁ | (H) | (I) | [Ր] | Ʞ | Ꞁ·⅂ | ꟽ[lower-alpha 2] | (N) | (O) | [Ԁ] | [Ꝺ] | [Ꞟ] | (S) | Ʇ | [Ո] | Ʌ | [𐊰]·[𐤵] | (X) | ⅄ | (Z) |
Fraser | ꓯ | ꓭ | ꓛ | ꓷ | ꓱ | ꓞ | ꓨ | (ꓧ) | (ꓲ) | ꓩ | ꓘ | ꓶ | – | (ꓠ) | (ꓳ) | ꓒ | – | ꓤ | (ꓢ) | ꓕ | ꓵ | ꓥ | – | (ꓫ) | 𑾰 | (ꓜ) |
The letters ⅁, ⅂, ⅄ are specified as sans-serif. Additional small cap forms are found in the literature (e.g. turned ᴀ ʟ ᴜ), but they are not supported as of Unicode 13.
Turned ɢ was added to the extIPA in 2015; it and turned ᴋ are scheduled for Unicode support in 2021.
Other rotated letters include the digraphs ᴂ and ᴔ. The "rotated" capital Q in Unicode is only turned 90 degrees: ℺.
Additional
Rotated minuscule |
Rotated capital |
Greek and Cyrillic
Many of the few rotated Greek letters are intended for mathematical notation. In this table, an en dash is used to mark Greek and Cyrillic letters that are not distinct from a Latin letter. Reversed L, ⟨⅃⟩, can stand in for a rotated gamma Γ, though it is defined as sans serif.
Α | Β | Γ | Δ | Ε | Ζ | Η | Θ | Ι | Κ | Λ | Μ | Ν | Ξ | Ο | Π | Ρ | Σ | Τ | Υ | Φ | Χ | Ψ | Ω | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rotated minuscule | [ɒ] | [ꭅ] | [ƍ] | ᴈ·϶ | [2] | [ն] | (θ) | ℩ | [ჸ] | [ฟ] | [ᴧ] | [Ԑ] | [ᚇ] | [ᑯ] | [ᓄ] | [ㅗ] | [𐐌] | (χ) | [𐓸] | [ო] | ||||
Rotated small cap | [⦡] | [ꞛ] | [⌟] | [𝅎] | [ⱻ] | ([z]) | ([ʜ]) | [ꙩ] | ([ɪ]) | [𝼐] | [v] | [ꟺ] | ([ɴ]) | ([≡]) | (ο) | [ⳙ] | ||||||||
Rotated capital | [Ɐ] | [ᗺ] | [⅃] | [∇] | [Ǝ] | (Ζ) | (Η) | (Θ) | (Ι) | [Ʞ] | [V] | [ꟽ] | (Ν) | (Ξ) | (Ο) | [ⵡ] | [Ԁ] | [𐅠] | [Ʇ] | [⅄] | (Φ) | (Χ) | [𐓐] | ℧ |
А | Б | В | Г | Д | Е | Ж | З | И | Й | К | Л | М | Н | О | П | Р | С | Т | У | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Ш | Щ | Ъ | Ы | Ь | Э | Ю | Я | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rotated minuscule | [ɐ] | [g] | [ꞛ] | [⌟] | ә | (ж) | [ɛ] | (и) | и̯ | [𝼐] | [ѵ] | [ꟺ] | (н) | (о) | [ⳙ] | ԁ | [ɔ] | [⊥] | [ʎ] | (ф) | (х) | һ | ᲅ | [ɋ] | є | ꙕ | [ʁ][lower-alpha 3] | |||||
Rotated capital | [Ɐ] | [𐕌] | [ᗺ] | [⅃] | [Ǝ] | (Ж) | [Ɛ] | (И) | И̯ | [Ʞ] | [Ѵ] | [ꟽ] | (Н) | (О) | [ⵡ] | Ԁ | [Ɔ] | [Ʇ] | [ⵃ] | (Ф) | (Х) | Һ | [𐊿] | [𐕑] | [Iꟼ] | [ꟼ] | Є | Ꙕ | [ᖉ] |
⟨ƍ⟩ is close to the turned form of one variant of lower-case Б.
In some fonts, an allograph of Ʒ displays as turned Σ.
In addition, the horseshoe ʊ ᶷ of the IPA has allographs that are a turned small-capital Ω.
Other
Other rotated symbols include ɞ (rotated or reversed ʚ), ʖ (rotated ʕ) ⱹ (rotated ɽ), ɺ (rotated ɼ), ↊ and ↋ (inverted digits 2 and 3), Ꝿ ꝿ (inverted Ᵹ ᵹ), and ⅋ (inverted &). Spanish uses the rotated punctuation marks ¡ and ¿ (inverted ! and ?).
The 'turned comma' ⟨‘⟩ is, as its name suggests, a rotated comma. It is used for the Hawaiian letter ʻokina. Since 1995, it has been used in the Uzbek alphabet to write the letters Oʻ (Cyrillic Ў) and Gʻ (Cyrillic Ғ). It is also sometimes used in Latin transliterations of the Hebrew letter ʻáyin and the Arabic letter ʻayn. In English, a turned comma was also sometimes used on printing presses to approximate ⟨c⟩, a small superscript c, such as when abbreviating surnames beginning with the prefix "Mac-".[3] For example, this can be seen in the U.S. Supreme Court's reports of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Johnson v. McIntosh (1823), where those names where printed "M‘Culloch" and "M‘Intosh".
Reversed letters
In addition to turned letters, Unicode supports a few reversed (mirror-image) letters from the Latin alphabet (including 𝼇, Ƹ ƹ and ʕ); the Cyrillic alphabet (as well as Cyrillic И и and Я я, which are graphically equivalent to reversed Latin N ɴ and R ʀ), superscript ᶟ ᴻ, the tresillo Ꜫ ꜫ, which historically is a reversed 3, and the math symbol ∂, which historically is a reversed 6.
Current IPA ɜ is officially a reversed rather than rotated ɛ; the older rotated ᴈ is now deprecated.
Lower-case Ƌ is close to a reversed Cyrillic capital Б.
Reversed k ɡ ŋ (𝼃 𝼁 𝼇) were added to the extIPA in 2015 and are scheduled for Unicode support in 2021.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reversed minuscule | [d] | ↄ | [b] | ɘ | 𝼁 | (i) | 𝼃 | (o) | [q] | [p] | ƨ | (v) | (w) | (x) | [ჸ] | |||||||||||
Reversed small cap | (ᴀ) | ᴐ | – | – | – | (ʜ) | (ɪ) | – | – | – | (ᴍ) | ᴎ | (ᴏ) | ᴙ | (ᴛ) | (ᴜ) | (ᴠ) | (ᴡ) | – | (ʏ) | ||||||
Reversed capital | (A) | [𐤡] | [Ↄ] | – | Ǝ | ꟻ | (H) | (I) | [𐐢] | 𝈲 | ⅃ | (M) | [И] | (O) | ꟼ | [Я] | Ƨ | (T) | (U) | (V) | (W) | (X) | (Y) | [𑨖] |
Greek and Cyrillic
Note: The greek letters are still in the works. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Α | Β | Γ | Δ | Ε | Ζ | Η | Θ | Ι | Κ | Λ | Μ | Ν | Ξ | Ο | Π | Ρ | Σ | Τ | Υ | Φ | Χ | Ψ | Ω | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reversed minuscule | ɒ | (ү) | ɜ | [𝼇] | (θ) | [ᴊ] | [ʎ] | [v] | (ο) | [ᑫ] | [ᓀ] | (ᴜ) | (φ) | (ψ) | (ω) | |||||||||
Reversed capital | (Α) | [ꓭ] | [⅂] | (Δ) | [Ǝ] | [𑨖] | [Η] | (Θ) | (Ι) | [ꟼ] | [𐅠] | [Τ] | [Υ] | (Φ) | (Χ) | (Ψ) | (Ω) |
А | Б | В | Г | Д | Е | Ж | З | И | Й | К | Л | М | Н | О | П | Р | С | Т | У | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Ш | Щ | Ъ | Ы | Ь | Э | Ю | Я | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reversed minuscule | – | – | – | – | (ж) | ԑ | [ɴ] | [ɴ̆] | – | (м) | (н) | (о) | (п) | (q) | – | (т) | – | (ф) | (х) | ꙡ | (ш) | є | ꙕ | [ʀ] | ||||||||
Reversed capital | (А) | [Ƌ] | [ꓭ] | [⅂] | – | (Ж) | Ԑ | [N] | [N̆] | [ꓘ] | (М) | (Н) | (О) | (П) | – | – | (Т) | (Ф) | (Х) | Ꙡ | [𐋍] | (Ш) | [ІԀ] | [Ԁ] | Є | Ꙕ | [R] |
Sideways
There are only a few characters that are sideways that are encoded in Unicode, but some might come in future versions.
Latin tables
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sideways minuscule | [ᓄ] | [ပ] | [ᓀ] | [𐆉] | [⹃⃓] | [·–] | [ᓜ] | [—] | [ᗴ] | [ჺ] | ᴑ | [ᓇ] | [ᓂ] | [ﬠ] | ᴝ | [>] | [ᕒ] | [×] | [ɴ] | |||||||
Sideways small cap | [ߘ] | – | [ш] | [z] | – | [ơ] | [⸧][lower-alpha 4] | – | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||
Sideways capital | [ᗉ] | [ᗶ] | [𝈱] • [U] | [ᗝ] | [Ш] | [𝈯] | [ᘎ] | [エ] | ꟷ[lower-alpha 5] | [ᓓ] • [𝈥] | [𝈎] | [Σ] | [Z] | [𝈟] | ℺[lower-alpha 6] | ᔕ | [𝈩] | [ᑐ] | [ᐳ] | [𐅠] | [⨉] | [𝈠] | [N] |
Ʞ | ꬳ | Ɯ | ꟽ | Ɔ | Ü | ᵁ | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sideways minuscule | [𐐡] | ᴟ | [ᴟ] | ᴒ | ᴞ | ᵙ | |
Sideways capital | [𐅺] | – | [ꡗ] | [𐅠] | [ᐣ] |
Greek and Cyrillic tables
There are no brackets included for the following tables because any sideways character that is not in the Latin script do not have encoded Unicode characters.
А | Б | В | Г | Ы | Ю | Ѧ | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sideways minuscule | [ⱷ] | ߘ | ┖ | |||||
Sideways capital | ᗉ | [ഥ] | ᗶ | L | ᖝ | 오 | ᗛ |
Notes
- ⟨ꟺ⟩ displays a number of ways in different typefaces, but according to Unicode it is a turned small capital M.
- ⟨ꟽ⟩ is actually an inverted M.
- ⟨ʁ⟩ is equivalent to rotated Cyrillic я, though historically it is an inverted Latin ʀ
- This is a sideways u bracket, so the glyph often appears small, making it have an appearance of a small capital.
- This is not a dash, this is a sideways capital I.
- Despite its Unicode character name, ⟨℺⟩ (rotated capital q) is only rotated 90 degrees.
References
- Howes, Justin (2000). "Caslon's punches and matrices". Matrix. 20: 1–7.
- Geoffrey K Pullum; William A Ladusaw. Phonetic symbol guide. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.1017/S0008413100017230. ISBN 9780226685366. S2CID 149152125.
- Michael G. Collins, M‘Culloch and the Turned Comma, 12 Greenbag 2d 265 (2009).