U+02C9 "ˉ" Modifier Letter Macron Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
ˉ
U+02C9 "ˉ" Modifier Letter Macron is a small, horizontal line placed above a letter, used in linguistic and phonetic transcription to indicate a long vowel or a level tone, particularly in systems like the International Phonetic Alphabet or Pinyin romanization for Mandarin Chinese. It is distinct from the combining macron (U+0304), as this modifier letter stands alone and serves as a diacritic in typed or plain text contexts, often appearing before or after a character to modify its pronunciation without overlapping it. This character can also be found in transliterations of certain languages and in medieval manuscripts where it marked abbreviation or vowel length.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+02C9 |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Modifier Letter Macron |
| Block | Spacing Modifier Letters |
| General Category | Modifier Letter |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Other Neutral |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ˉ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ˉ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xCB 0x89 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x02C9 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x000002C9 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u02c9 |