Unicode Block - Spacing Modifier Letters
Spacing Modifier Letters is a set of characters that serve as phonetic and linguistic modifiers, typically used to indicate tone, aspiration, palatalization, or other articulatory features without being combined with a base letter as diacritics are. These letters are designed to stand alone in the text, with their own spacing, rather than being superimposed onto adjacent characters, which makes them useful in transcription systems for languages such as African and Native American languages, as well as in the International Phonetic Alphabet for representing secondary articulations and suprasegmental features. Their forms often resemble superscript or subscript variants of ordinary letters, such as small raised ‘h’, ‘w’, or ‘j’, and they occupy a dedicated space between purely alphabetic and purely diacritical characters, allowing for clearer visual separation in scholarly and technical writing.