Latin Small Letter P with Middle Tilde

Latin Small Letter P with Middle Tilde at U+1D71 is a specialized phonetic letter based on p with a tilde through its middle, used to represent a particular speech sound distinction in transcription. It belongs to the Phonetic Extensions block and is classified as a lowercase letter rather than punctuation or a combining mark. Its main use is in linguistic transcription systems, especially Americanist and related phonetic notation traditions, where modified Latin letters record sounds more narrowly than ordinary spelling allows. This character is associated with a p-like consonant carrying a velarized, pharyngealized, or otherwise “tilde-modified” articulation depending on the transcription convention being used. In practice it appears most often in dictionaries, grammars, field notes, and academic articles about specific languages, rather than in everyday writing. Readers are likely to encounter it inside phonetic word forms, comparative sound tables, or examples documenting how a language contrasts plain p with a modified consonant. Because it is a precomposed phonetic letter, it is not the same as typing a regular p and adding a separate tilde mark. That distinction can matter when searching linguistic data, matching transcriptions, or exchanging text between fonts and databases.