Lingoflyʼ — tugu belgisi
«tugu belgisi» is a sign of the Uzbek script. It makes no sound of its own: it cuts a vowel off for an instant, like the catch in "uh-oh". It stands between syllables and keeps them from melting together. For example, in the word “taʼlim” — education. The Uzbek alphabet has 29 letters in total. This character does not count as a letter of the alphabet. It tells words apart: taʼm is "taste", while tam without the mark is "fed".
In short
| Character | ʼ |
| Name | tugu belgisi |
| Sound | a glottal catch (separator) |
| What it is | a sign |
In our course the character comes 30th of 30: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, before it comes ng, appears in 58 words of this site.
How to type ʼ
- On a phone: add the Uzbek keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+02BC and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 02BC.
- Unicode code point: U+02BC. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
It makes no sound of its own: it cuts a vowel off for an instant, like the catch in "uh-oh". It stands between syllables and keeps them from melting together.
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- taʼlimeducation
The character in the “ʼ — the tugu belgisi: a mark, not a letter” group
It splits syllables and marks a glottal catch: taʼm is "taste", tam without the mark is "fed". It does not count as a letter, but words cannot be read without it. One shape for the whole course: ʼ (U+02BC), never a straight apostrophe.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «tugu belgisi» it is “a glottal catch (separator)”, as in the word “taʼlim”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 29 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Uzbek character ʼ read?
A glottal catch (separator). It is a sign of the Uzbek script. It makes no sound of its own: it cuts a vowel off for an instant, like the catch in "uh-oh". It stands between syllables and keeps them from melting together. For example, in the word “taʼlim” — education.
What is the sign ʼ called?
Tugu belgisi is what this character is called when the alphabet is recited aloud.