Editing Rough breathing

{{Short description|Diacritical mark used in polytonic orthography}}
{{distinguish|Shortness of breath{{!}}Difficulty breathing}}
{{one source|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox diacritic|char=◌̔
|name=
|unicode={{unichar|0314|COMBINING REVERSED COMMA ABOVE}}
|see_also=[[Smooth breathing]]
}}
In the [[Greek diacritics|polytonic orthography]] of [[Ancient Greek]], the  '''rough breathing''' ({{langx|grc|δασὺ πνεῦμα|dasỳ pneûma}} or {{lang|grc|δασεῖα}} {{translit|grc|daseîa}};  {{langx|la|spiritus asper}}) character is a [[diacritic|diacritical mark]] used to indicate the presence of an {{IPAslink|h}} sound before a [[vowel]], [[diphthong]], or after [[rho (letter)|rho]]. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the [[Koine Greek phonology|Hellenistic]] period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language. In the [[monotonic orthography]] of [[Modern Greek phonology]], in use since 1982, it is not used at all.

The absence of an {{IPA|/h/}} sound is marked by the [[smooth breathing]].

The character, or those with similar shape such as {{unichar|02BB|MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA}}, have also been used for a similar sound by [[Thomas Francis Wade|Thomas Wade]] (and others) in the [[Wade–Giles]] system of [[romanization]] for [[Mandarin Chinese]]. [[Herbert Giles]] and others have used a left (opening) curved single [[quotation mark]] for the same purpose; the [[apostrophe]], [[backtick]], and visually similar characters are often seen as well.

==History==
[[Image:Heta uc lc.svg|thumb|right|100px|Tack-shaped archaic consonantal Heta, together with a lowercase variant designed for [[modern typography]]]]

The rough breathing comes from the left-hand half of the letter H.<ref>[[Herbert Weir Smyth]], Greek Grammar, [http://www.ccel.org/s/smyth/grammar/html/smyth_1a_uni.htm#14 par. 14].</ref> In some [[archaic Greek alphabets]], the letter was used for {{IPAblink|h}} ([[Heta (letter)|Heta]]), and this usage survives in the Latin letter [[H]]. In other dialects, it was used for the vowel {{IPAblink|ɛː}} ([[Eta]]), and this usage survives in the modern system of writing [[Ancient Greek]], and in [[Modern Greek]].

==Usage==
The rough breathing (  ̔) is placed over an initial vowel, or over the second vowel of an initial diphthong.
* {{lang|grc|αἵρεσις}} ''haíresis'' 'choice' (→ Latin ''haeresis'' → English ''heresy'')
* {{lang|grc|ἥρως}} ''hē&#769;rōs'' 'hero'

An [[upsilon]]<ref>Smyth, [http://www.ccel.org/s/smyth/grammar/html/smyth_1a_uni.htm#10 par. 10].</ref> or [[rho (letter)|rho]]<ref name="rho">Smyth, [http://www.ccel.org/s/smyth/grammar/html/smyth_1a_uni.htm#13 par. 13].</ref> at the beginning of a word always takes a rough breathing.
* {{lang|grc|ὕμνος}} ''hýmnos'' 'hymn'
* {{lang|grc|ῥυθμός}} ''rhythmós'' 'rhythm'

===Inside a word===
In some writing conventions, the rough breathing is written on the second of two rhos in the middle of a word.<ref name="rho" /> This is transliterated as ''rrh'' in Latin.
* {{lang|grc|διάῤῥοια}} ''diárrhoia'' '[[diarrhea|diarrhoea]]'

In [[crasis]] (contraction of two words), when the second word has a rough breathing, the contracted vowel does not take a rough breathing. Instead, the consonant before the contracted vowel changes to the [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]] equivalent (i.e., π → φ, τ → θ, κ → χ),<ref>Smyth, [http://www.ccel.org/s/smyth/grammar/html/smyth_1c_uni.htm#64 par. 64].</ref> if possible, and the contracted vowel takes the [[apostrophe]] or [[Smooth breathing#Coronis|coronis]] (identical to the [[smooth breathing]]). 
* {{lang|grc|τὸ ἕτερον → θοὔτερον (not *τοὕτερον)}} 'the other one'
*:''tò héteron'' → ''thoúteron''

Under the [[archaism|archaizing]] influence of [[Katharevousa]], this change has been preserved in [[modern Greek]] [[neologism]]s coined on the basis of ancient words, e.g. πρωθυπουργός ('prime minister'), from {{lang|grc|πρῶτος}} ('first') and {{lang|grc|ὑπουργός}} ('minister'), where the latter was originally aspirated.

In the ancient Laconian dialect, medial intervocalic {{lang|grc|σ}} would become a rough breathing: {{lang|grc|ἐνῑ́κᾱἑ}} for Attic {{lang|grc|ἐνῑ́κησε}}.<ref>Smyth, [https://archive.org/details/agreekgrammarfo02smytgoog/page/10/mode/2up not. 9D].</ref>

==Technical notes==
In [[Unicode]], the [[code point]] assigned to the rough breathing is {{unichar|0314|COMBINING REVERSED COMMA ABOVE|cwith=}}. It is intended to be used in all alphabetic scripts (including Greek and Latin).

It was also used in the original Latin transcription of Armenian for example with {{unichar|0074|LATIN SMALL LETTER T}} in <big style="font-size:150%">t̔</big>.

The pair of space + combining rough breathing is {{unichar|02BD|MODIFIER LETTER REVERSED COMMA|cwith=◌}}. It may bind typographically with the letter encoded ''before'' it to its left, to create ligatures for example with {{unichar|0074|LATIN SMALL LETTER T}} in <big style="font-size:150%">tʽ</big>, and it is used for the modern Latin transcription of [[Armenian language|Armenian]] (which no longer uses the combining version).

It is also encoded for compatibility as {{unichar|1FFE|GREEK DASIA|cwith=◌}} mostly for usage in the Greek script, where it may be used ''before'' Greek capital letters to its right and aligned differently, e.g. with {{unichar|0391|GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA|cwith=&#x1FFE;}}, where the generic space+combining ''dasia'' should be used ''after'' the letter it modifies to its left (the space is inserted so that the dasia will be to the left instead of above that letter). Basically, U+1FFE was encoded for full roundtrip compatibility with legacy 8-bit encodings of the Greek script in documents where dasia was encoded before the Greek capital letter it modifies (it is then not appropriate for transliterating Armenian and Semitic scripts to the Latin script).

There is a polytonic Greek code range in Unicode, covering precomposite versions (i.e. breathing mark + vowel or rho, or vowel with pitch accent and/or iota subscript): Ἁ ἁ, Ἇ ἇ, ᾏ ᾇ, ᾉ ᾁ, Ἑ ἑ, Ἡ ἡ, Ἧ ἧ, ᾟ ᾗ, ᾙ ᾑ, Ἱ ἱ, Ἷ ἷ, Ὁ ὁ, Ῥ ῥ, Ὑ ὑ, Ὗ ὗ, Ὡ ὡ, Ὧ ὧ, ᾯ ᾧ, and ᾩ ᾡ.

The rough breathing was also used in the [[early Cyrillic alphabet]] when writing the [[Old Church Slavonic]] language. In this context it is encoded as Unicode {{unichar|0485|COMBINING CYRILLIC DASIA PNEUMATA}}

In Latin transcription of [[Semitic languages]], especially [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], either {{unichar|02BD|MODIFIER LETTER REVERSED COMMA}} or [[Modifier letter left half ring|a symbol similar to it]], {{unichar|02BF|MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING|cwith=◌}}, is used to represent the letter [[ayin]]. This left half ring may also be used for the Latin transcription of [[Armenian language|Armenian]] (though the Armenian aspiration is phonetically nearer to the Greek ''dasia'' than the Semitic ''ayin'').

==See also==
* [[Greek diacritics]]
** [[Smooth breathing]]
* [[Ayin]] ( ʿ )
* [[ʻOkina]] ( ʻ )

==References==
<references />

{{Navbox diacritical marks}}

[[Category:Greek-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Cyrillic-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek]]