circumflex accent
Linguistic term for the diacritic mark (ˆ) used in French, Portuguese, Esperanto, and romanization systems such as Hepburn romanization of Japanese.
In French, the circumflex accent can indicate vowel length or historical changes.
In the romanization of Japanese, the circumflex accent is sometimes used to indicate long vowels.
Compound of 曲折 (kyokusetsu, 'bending' or 'curve') and アクセント (akusento, 'accent'), calqued from English 'circumflex accent' or French 'accent circonflexe'.