Macron

The macron originated in Greco-Roman poetry, where it was used for marking long syllables. It's use has since been extended to marking long vowels.

Macron in Unicode

Characters with Macron

¯

ˉ

◌̄

Ā

ā

Ǟ

ǟ

Ǡ

ǡ

Ǣ

ǣ

Ē

ē

U+00AF

U+02C9

U+0304

U+0100

U+0101

U+01DE

U+01DF

U+01E0

U+01E1

U+01E2

U+01E3

U+0112

U+0113

Macron

Modifier Letter Macron

Combining Macron

Latin Capital Letter A With Macron

Latin Small Letter A With Macron

Latin Capital Letter A With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Small Letter A With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Capital Letter A With Dot Above And Macron

Latin Small Letter A With Dot Above And Macron

Latin Capital Letter Ae With Macron

Latin Small Letter Ae With Macron

Latin Capital Letter E With Macron

Latin Small Letter E With Macron

Note: May be confused with Overline, ‾ (U+203E); Combining Double Macron, ◌͞◌ (U+035E); or Superscript Minus, ⁻ (U+207B).

Ḕ

ḕ

Ḗ

ḗ

Ḡ

ḡ

Ī

ī

Ḹ

ḹ

Ō

ō

Ǭ

U+1E14

U+1E15

​ U+1E16

U+1E17

U+1E20

U+1E21

U+012A

U+012B

U+1E38

U+1E39

U+014C

​ U+014D

U+01EC

Latin Capital Letter E With Macron And Grave

Latin Small Letter E With Macron And Grave

Latin Capital Letter E With Macron And Acute

Latin Small Letter E With Macron And Acute

Latin Capital Letter G With Macron

Latin Small Letter G With Macron

Latin Capital Letter I With Macron

Latin Small Letter I With Macron

Latin Capital Letter L With Dot Below And Macron

Latin Small Letter L With Dot Below And Macron

Latin Capital Letter O With Macron

Latin Small Letter O With Macron

Latin Capital Letter O With Ogonek And Macron

ǭ

Ṑ

ṑ

Ṓ

ṓ

Ȫ

ȫ

Ȭ

ȭ

Ȱ

ȱ

Ṝ

ṝ

U+01ED

U+1E50

U+1E51

U+1E52

U+1E53

U+022A

U+022B

U+022C

U+022D

U+0230

U+0231

U+1E5C

U+1E5D

Latin Small Letter O With Ogonek And Macron

Latin Capital Letter O With Macron And Grave

Latin Small Letter O With Macron And Grave

Latin Capital Letter O With Macron And Acute

Latin Small Letter O With Macron And Acute

Latin Capital Letter O With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Small Letter O With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Capital Letter O With Tilde And Macron

Latin Small Letter O With Tilde And Macron

Latin Capital Letter O With Dot Above And Macron

Latin Small Letter O With Dot Above And Macron

Latin Capital Letter R With Dot Below And Macron

Latin Small Letter R With Dot Below And Macron

Ū

ū

Ṻ

ṻ

Ǖ

ǖ

Ȳ

ȳ

U+016A

U+016B

U+1E7A

U+1E7B

U+01D5

U+01D6

U+0232

U+0233

Latin Capital Letter U With Macron

Latin Small Letter U With Macron

Latin Capital Letter U With Macron And Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter U With Macron And Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Capital Letter Y With Macron

Latin Small Letter Y With Macron

Macron in Natlangs

Uses of Macron

Use	Language	Letters	Notes
Fricative consonant	Arabic (Hans Wehr romanization)	ḡ /ɣ~ɡ/	ḡ replaced ġ in the fourth edition of this transliteration scheme. The pronunciation of this letter varies depending on dialect. Hans Wehr transliteration does not include capital letters. Macron below is used similarly together with other consonants in Hans Wehr.
	ISO/R 233 romanization	Ḡḡ /ɣ~ɡ/	The pronunciation of this letter varies depending on dialect. Macron below is used similarly together with other consonants in ISO/R 233.
High tone	Mandarin (Pinyin romanization)	Āā /a˥/, Ēē /ə˥/, Īī /i˥/, Ōō /ə˥/, Ūū /u˥/, Ǖǖ /y˥/	Note that these tone values are based on the Beijing dialect.
Long vowel	Arabic (DIN 31635 romanization, ISO/R 233 romanization)	Āā /aː/, Īī /iː/, Ūū /uː/
	Arabic (ISO 233 romanization)	Āā /aː/, W̄w̄, Ȳȳ
	Arabic (Hans Wehr romanization)	ā /aː/, ē /eː/, ī /iː/, ō /oː/, ū /uː/	ē and ō are only found in loan words. This romanization does not include capital letters.
	Croatian, Serbian	Āā /aː/, Ēē /eː/, Īī /iː/, Ōō /oː/, R̄r̄ /r̩ː/, Ūū /uː/	The macron marks a long vowel without pitch accent. These letters are not used in the standard orthography of Croatian or Serbian, but in linguistic materials.
	Japanese (Hepburn romanization)	Āā /aː/, Ēē /eː/, Īī /iː/, Ōō /oː/, Ūū /uː/	In traditional Hepburn Āā, Ēē, Īī are only used in loanwords, Aa aa, Ee ee, Ii ii being used otherwise. In modified Hepburn, only Īī is restricted to loanwords. In both systems the following also applies: /eː/ can be written Ei ei, depending on its spelling in kana. Long vowels are not written with a macron if a morpheme boundary appears in between. Thus /aː/ becomes Aa aa, /eː/ becomes Ee ee, /oː/ becomes Oo oo or Ou ou depending on kana spelling, and /uː/ becomes Uu uu. There are many deviations from these principles though. For example, a circumflex may be seen used instead of a macron due to keyboard/word processor limitations, accents may be entirely restricted to Uu and/or Oo, /oː/ may variously be romanized as Ou ou, Oo oo, Oh oh regardless of kana spelling, or marking of vowel length may be entirely absent.
	Latgalian	Āā /ɑː/, Ēē /eː/, Īī /iː/, Ōō /oː/, Ūū /uː/
	Latvian	Āā /ɑː/, Ēē /eː, æː/, Īī /iː/, Ūū /uː/
	Livonian	Āā /ɑː/, Ǟǟ /æː/, Ēē /ɛː/, Īī /iː/, Ōō /oː/, Ȱȱ /ʊː/, Ȭȭ /ɨː/, Ūū /uː/
	Māori	Āā /aː/, Ēē /eː/, Īī /iː/, Ōō /oː/, Ūū /uː/	In the early history of Māori writing, vowel length was inconsistently marked, and various methods for marking it existed. But nowadays the macron has become the established way of indicating vowel length.
Mid tone	Min Dong (Fuzhou dialect, Foochow romanization)	Āā /a˧, ɑ˧/, Ā̤ā̤ /ɛ˧, a˧/, Ēē /ɛi˧/, Ē̤ē̤ /œ˧/, Īī /i˧/, Ōō /ou˧/, Ō̤ō̤ /o˧, ɔ˧/, Ūū /u˧/, Ṳ̄ṳ̄ /y˧/	Note that the letters here that contain ◌̤ are not precomposed characters.
	Min Nan (Pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography)	Āā /a˧/, Āⁿ āⁿ /ã˧/, Ēē /e˧/, Ēⁿ ēⁿ /ẽ˧/, Īī /i˧/, Īⁿ īⁿ /ĩ˧/, M̄m̄ /m̩˧/, N̄g n̄g /ŋ̍˧/, Ōō /ə˧/, Ōⁿ ōⁿ /ɔ̃˧/, Ō͘ō͘ /ɔ˧/, Ūū /u˧/, Ūⁿ ūⁿ /u˧/	There is much variation in the tones and vowel qualities between different dialects of Min Nan. The vowel qualities here seem to be an approximation between the dialects, while the tones here are as they are pronounced in Taipei. M̄m̄, N̄n̄ and Ō͘ō͘ are not precomposed letters.

Macron in Phonetic Transcription

Uses of macron

Use	Transcription system	Characters	Notes
Mid tone	International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)	◌̄	Used on top of vowels (or syllabic consonants). Alternatively, one may use the high tone bar (˧) instead, placing it after the affected syllable.

Macron in Conlangs

Uses of Macron

Usage	Language	Creator	Letters	Notes
Long vowel	Qwynegold (Qwadralónia dialect)	Qwynegold	Āā /aː/, Ēē /eː, e̞ː/, Īī /ɪː, iː/, Ōō /o̜ː, oː/, Ūū /u̜ː, uː/, Ȳȳ /ʏː, yː/, Ā̈ā̈ /æː, ɛː/, Ō̈ō̈ /øː, œː/	There are no precomposed forms of Ā̈ā̈, Ō̈ō̈.

See Also

• Natlang Uses of Diacritics in the Latin Alphabet
• Macron Below
• Transliteration of Arabic (Pedersen, Thomas. 2008.) has a concise list of comparisons between DIN 31635, ISO 233, ISO/R 233, UNGEGN, ALA-LC, and The Encyclopedia of Islam romanizations of Arabic.