Macron (diacritic) facts for kids

A macron is a special mark that looks like a straight line (¯) placed above a letter, usually a vowel. Its name comes from an Ancient Greek word, makrón, which means 'long'. This is because the macron was first used to show long or heavy sounds in old Greek and Latin poetry. Today, it mostly helps us know when a vowel sound is long.

The opposite of a macron is a breve (⟨˘⟩), which is a curved mark that shows a short sound.

How Macrons Are Used

Macrons have several cool uses in different languages and writing systems!

Showing Long Sounds in Poetry

Long ago, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, poets used macrons to mark "long" or "heavy" syllables in their poems. This helped them create the right rhythm. Even today, some dictionaries and school books about these ancient languages use macrons to show which syllables are long.

Marking Long Vowel Sounds

One of the most common uses for a macron is to show that a vowel has a long sound. Think of the 'a' in "father" (long) versus the 'a' in "cat" (short). Here are some languages that use macrons for long vowels:

• In Arabic, macrons are often used when writing Arabic words in our alphabet. They show long vowel sounds like ā, ū, and ī. For example, the Arabic word for "three" is written as thalāthah.
• In Latin, many modern books use the macron (like ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ) to show long vowels. This helps students learn the correct pronunciation.
• When writing Japanese words using our alphabet (called Hepburn romanization), macrons show long vowels. For example, kōtsū means "traffic," but kotsu means "bone." The macron changes the meaning!
• In Hawaiian, the macron is called kahakō. It's super important because it shows vowel length, which can change what a word means and how it's stressed.
• The Māori people of New Zealand use macrons (called tohutō or pōtae) to mark long vowels. This helps make sure words are pronounced correctly.
• In Sanskrit, an ancient language from India, macrons are used over vowels like ā, ī, ū to show they are long.
• Many Polynesian languages like Tahitian, Tongan, and Samoan also use macrons to show long vowels.

Showing Tones in Languages

Some languages use different "tones" or pitches when speaking, and macrons can help show these tones:

• In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is a system for writing down sounds, a macron over a vowel means it has a mid-level tone.
• In Pinyin, which is how Mandarin Chinese is written using our alphabet, a macron (like ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ) shows a high, flat tone.
• The Cantonese language also uses macrons in its Yale writing system to show a high, flat tone.

Marking Missing Letters

Sometimes, a macron can show that a letter or letters have been left out to save space:

• In old Old English texts, a macron above a letter could mean that an 'm' or 'n' was missing after it.
• In older handwriting, especially in German, a macron over a letter might mean that the letter was doubled (like n̄ for nn).

Distinguishing Similar Letters or Sounds

Macrons can also help tell the difference between two letters or sounds that look similar:

• In some languages from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, a macron helps tell apart different sounds. For example, in the Mwotlap language, m is one sound, but m̄ (m with a macron) is a different sound.
• In the Marshallese language, macrons are used on letters like ā, n̄, ō, ū to show different pronunciations of those vowels.

Other Uses

• In older German and Danish handwriting, a macron on a consonant like 'n' or 'm' could mean it was a double letter (like n̄ for nn).
• In Russian cursive handwriting, a macron is sometimes used over the letter т (which looks like an 'm') to tell it apart from ш (which looks like a 'w').

In Medicine

In medicine, macrons are sometimes used as a quick way to write common Latin abbreviations:

• ā means "before" (from Latin ante)
• c̄ means "with" (from Latin cum)
• p̄ means "after" (from Latin post)
• s̄ means "without" (from Latin sine)

In Math and Science

In math and science, a line similar to a macron, called an overline, is used for different things:

• It can show a complex conjugate in math.
• It can represent a line segment in geometry (like ).
• It can show sample means in statistics (like ).
• It can mean negation in logic.

In Music

In music, a mark that looks like a macron is called a tenuto. It tells a musician to hold a note for its full length.

Letters with Macron

Images for kids

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  A signature of Fyodor Dostoevsky showing a stylized macron above the ⟨т⟩ in "Достоевскій"

See also

• Macron below
• Vinculum (symbol)