Combining Diacritical Marks Unicode Block

The Unicode block "Combining Diacritical Marks" is a collection of characters ranging from U+0300 to U+036F designed to overlay or modify base characters to convey additional phonetic, tonal, or linguistic information. These diacritical marks are essential in various writing systems for representing accentuation, nasalization, length, pitch, and other phonemic distinctions without altering the underlying letter. Notably used in languages with rich orthographies such as Vietnamese, Navajo, and Classical Greek, these marks provide versatility in textual representation. Combining diacritical marks are non-spacing and appear above, below, or through the base letter, earning them a special status in typographical arrangements. Their non-spacing nature means they do not occupy an additional space in the text and are visually attached to the preceding character, transforming it according to specific linguistic rules.

Initially designed to accommodate European alphabets, the block has expanded to support over 70 mark types utilized in a multitude of languages worldwide, including tonal languages in Africa and Asia. In addition to linguistic applications, these diacritical marks play a significant role in phonetic transcription systems like the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), allowing precise notation of speech sounds. Additionally, they find usage in scholarly works, musical annotations, and digital typography to denote minute and diverse sounds that base characters alone cannot express. By providing a separate block for these marks, Unicode ensures the flexibility necessary to encode the world's languages fully and accurately, preserving linguistic diversity and enabling clearer digital communication.

View a range of fonts that support the Combining Diacritical Marks block.

Below you will find all the characters that are in the Combining Diacritical Marks unicode block. Currently there are 112 characters in this block.