Typing aided with HTM
[ Modified: 2024 Apr 18 ]

Summary: Type the letter ʻokina and letters with accents. Either save this document, or memorize the one or two letters or accents that are needed.

Favor typing the entity names rather than their numbers when possible, as the names are descriptive. The ambiguous numbers are listed because they are still important as a reference for deciphering them when found in other documents. Additionally, some symbols have no name or have a confusing Unicode name, f.e. the ʻokina is named "modifier letter turned comma" in Unicode.

When an HTM document is viewed in a web browser, the named characters for HTM are converted into a single character, f.e. the "é" becomes the letter "e" with an acute accent: é. Notice the HTM named entity begins with an ampersand "&" and ends with a semicolon ";".

So, "café" becomes "café". Or, for the letter ʻokina which has a number "699" (or "x2bb" in hexadecimal) instead of a name: Hawaiʻi becomes Hawaiʻi.

That also means you can then just select that converted character in the web browser and copy it, and then paste it into any document in any other computer program. Nowadays, the converted character is accepted in most all computer programs, event though the computer itself might be without an easy way to type those characters.

Common accents: tilde, acute, grave, umlaut, cedilla, circumflex

A lot of common accented letters have names in HTM. Otherwise, the Unicode number for the letter can be used instead. There are also "combining diacritical marks" in Unicode that are intended for combining with the previous typed character, but that will depend on the abilities of the computer program displaying the text.

Combining diacritical marks
     tilde:  ~  =  ̃  ->  ̃
     acute:  ´  =  ́  ->  ́
     grave:  `  =  ̀  ->  ̀
circumflex:  ^  =  ̂  ->  ̂

For example, the tilde "~" as an accent is usually available already combined with a letter. Otherwise, the Unicode number "771" is for the combining tilde mark, t.i. in HTM it is "̃". Notably, the letter "e" with a tilde is unavailable as a named HTM entity, but can be referenced with the combining tilde mark: "ẽ" is "ẽ".

Tilde: ~
( ñ Ñ )
( ñ Ñ )
( ñ Ñ)
( ñ Ñ )
( Ã Ẽ Ĩ Õ Ũ)
( ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ)
( Ã Ẽ Ĩ Õ Ũ )
( ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ )
Acute: ´
( Á É Í Ó Ú)
( á é í ó ú)
( Á É Í Ó Ú )
( á é í ó ú )
Grave: `
( À È Ì Ò Ù)
( à è ì ò ù)
( À È Ì Ò Ù )
( à è ì ò ù )
Vowels with kahakō or macron: ¯

Hawaiian vowels written with the kahakō have "macr" in their HTM entity names because in other languages it is often said to be a macron.

The kahakō is a horizontal line over a vowel (f.e. over the "o" in its name), often known as the macron: ¯. The ʻokina implies no blending of the vowel sounds before and after it: ʻ . Unfortunately, other substitute characters that were more commonaly typable on the computer have been punctuation marks (thereby, inappropriate): grave ( ` ); left single quote mark ( ‘ ); apostrophe ( ' ). The ʻokina is officially in most of the written island names of the state of Hawaiʻi.

( Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū )
( Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū )
hexadecimal number:
( #x100 #x112 #x12a #x14c #x16a )
( ā ē ī ō ū )
( ā ē ī ō ū )
hexadecimal number:
( #x101 #x113 #x12b #x14d #x16b )
The consonant ʻokina: ʻ

The ʻokina is defined in Unicode as the decimal number "699", f.e. the HTM entity ʻ: ʻ .
Decimal "699" is the same as hexadecimal "2bb", f.e. the HTM entity ʻ: ʻ . Though "2bb" is rather easy to memorize, note that HTM requires a preceding "x" when the number is a hexadecimal number.

For writing some Hawaiian words. For example, before the final "i" in the word Hawaiʻi, hence the glottal stop before its final "i" when it is pronounced. Also, this is why "Hawaiʻi" might have seemed weirdly pronounced or seemed oddly spelled with "ii", as it is sort of misspelled (t.i. incompletely represented) without the consonant ʻokina for indicating the glottal stop (pause) between the vowel sounds.


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