The circumflex ( ˆ ) (often called a "caret", a "hat" or an "uppen") is a diacritic mark used in written Greek, French, Dutch, Esperanto, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Vietnamese, Japanese romaji, Welsh, Portuguese, Italian, Afrikaans and other languages, and formerly in Turkish. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus (bent about)--a translation of the Greek πεÏισπωμÎνη (perispomene).