⟨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, Hausa, and Giziga. It was also formerly used in, or at least proposed for, Xhosa and Zulu.

B with a hook
Ɓ ɓ
Ƃ ƃ
Usage
Writing systemLatin
TypeAlphabetic
Sound values[ɓ]
In UnicodeU 0181, U 0253
History
Development
TransliterationsБ б (Cyrillic)
VariationsƂ ƃ
Other
Writing directionLeft-to-right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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

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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]

Encoding

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Character information
Preview Ɓ ɓ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B WITH HOOK LATIN SMALL LETTER B WITH HOOK
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 385 U 0181 595 U 0253
UTF-8 198 129 C6 81 201 147 C9 93
Numeric character reference Ɓ Ɓ ɓ ɓ

See also

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Similar letters

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Alphabets with this letter

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References

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Bibliography

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  • 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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