under the primary letter (e.g. for and for ), and a number of phoneticians still prefer such unambiguous usage, with and used specifically for off-glides, despite the official policy of the IPA. In the official IPA there remains only an alternative symbol for velarization/pharyngealizaton that is superposed over the primary (e.g. for dark L), but that has font support for a limited number of consonants and is inadvisable for others, where it can be illegible. A few phoneticians use superscript letters for offglides and subscript letters for simultaneous articulation (e.g. vs ). There is a longstanding tradition in the IPA that one may turn any IPA letter into a superscript, and in so doing impart its features to the base consonant. For instance, would be an articulation of that has qualities of . However, the features are not necessarily imparted as secondary articulation. Superscripts are also used iconically to indicate the onset or release of a consonant, the on-glide or off-glide of a vowel, and fleeting or weak segments. Among other things, these phenomena include pre-nasalization (), pre-stopping (), affrication (), pre-affrication (), trilled, fricative, nasal, and lateral release (), rhoticization (), and diphthongs (). So, while indicates velarization of non-velar consonants, it is also used for fricative release of the velar stop (). Mixed consonant-vowels may indicate a transition: may be the allophone of with the transition from that identifies the consonant, while may be the allophone of before , or the formants of anticipated in the . The 2015 edition of the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet formally advocates superscript letters for the first time since 1989, specifically for the release of plosives. See also Labialization Labio-palatalization Palatalization (phonetics) Pharyngealization Velarization superscript Latin and Greek letters Notes References Phonetics