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First of all, I want to say I am a complete layman, so I apologize in advance for the lack of specific terminology or even if I am asking in the wrong place. I am looking for a character, which most probably does not exist, but I wonder whether it's possible to create it. It's basically made out of two characters, namely (<) and (=). I attach a drawing so you can see. Hope to hear news soon. Thanks in advance!

enter image description here

GJC
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  • Hi and welcome. Related: How to look up a symbol or identify a math symbol or character? – Johannes_B Dec 11 '14 at 09:46
  • You used unicode, is this a unicode charackter? Can you tell us its codepoint? – Johannes_B Dec 11 '14 at 09:47
  • What does this symbol mean? Do you have any reference? You should always ask yourself, if your readers are going to understand a new created symbol. It is possible to create that, sure. But it would be much easier and nicer, if we can find the real symbol and use its unicode or alike. – LaRiFaRi Dec 11 '14 at 09:58
  • detextify told me to ask here. This symbol is used in the phonetic and phonology field. This character apparently does not exist, so I'd like to know whether I can create it someway. Thanks in advance for replying! – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 11:02
  • If you can link to an instance of the symbol that would help. Even with your sketch I'm having trouble. – Jim Hefferon Dec 11 '14 at 13:12
  • This symbol or character does not exist, so what I would like to know is whether it could somehow be created. To sum up, Could I use some software to create, or rather design, a unicode/tex (or other type) character? Thanks in advance pals! – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 14:07
  • Assuming you are willing to use a macro (like \alpha), one ould use Tikz to either draw it from scratch or shrink, rotate and ovelay the = onto a <. – John Kormylo Dec 11 '14 at 14:45
  • i think this would best be constructed using tikz to add the lines of the = to an existing < and then using it as a small graphic. the reason to use tikz would be to match the thickness of all the lines, which is not the result one would get by taking an existing =, rotating and scaling it. (i'm not a tikz adept, so will leave that for someone else.) what is the phonological value that you're using this for? is it really not covered by an existing symbol, say in one of the sil fonts? – barbara beeton Dec 11 '14 at 14:49
  • This symbol is used in generative phonology for the concept of "disassociation of a node", so it is not in the IPA set.Tikz? ok, but the problem is the I am a complete layman, so I do not understand anything about macros; yet, the idea is exactly that: kinda rotate (=) and adjust it to (<), scaling down or rather working its width around. Now, could I create a real character instead of a small graphic? I mean one that you can copy and paste, for instance, into a pdf or MS Word document. Sorry for the bad terminology I use... Hope to hear news soon. Thanks in advance! – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 15:05
  • But this is not a symbol in phonology. The convention is to use two short crossbars to 'cut' a line indicating an association between two nodes. It is, in other words, part of a larger graphic representation, not a single symbol. At least to my knowledge. – Sverre Dec 11 '14 at 15:20

1 Answers1

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enter image description here

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newcommand{\whatzit}{\tikz{\path node[anchor=base,inner sep=0pt](a){$<$}
(a.center) +(0pt,.25ex) node[rotate=-30,scale=.6]{$=$};}}

\begin{document}
Text with \whatzit{} in the middle.
\end{document}
John Kormylo
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  • ok, that's What I want, but could i create a real character instead of a small graphic? I mean one that you can copy and paste, for instance, into a pdf or MS Word document. Sorry for the bad terminology I use... Hope to hear news soon. Thanks in advance! – – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 15:11
  • Technically, all characters are small graphics.. – John Kormylo Dec 11 '14 at 15:15
  • @GEORGEJUNG You can't copy into a PDF and if you want to copy the symbol into word, it has to be some existing symbol... How should Word know, what to paste. If you have a real use for this symbol, you should recommend it for unicode and ask the maintainer of your favourite font, to set such symbol for you. – LaRiFaRi Dec 11 '14 at 15:22
  • There are tools that create fonts. I guess this is what you are looking for (having read the comments). You could use this font with TeX or Word or ... But font creation is off-topic here. Not sure, but maybe this would be better at http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ – Johannes_B Dec 11 '14 at 15:22
  • @GEORGEJUNG LaRiFaRi has a good point there. Did you invent the symbol? Or has it been described before? – Johannes_B Dec 11 '14 at 15:23
  • Ok, so 1 where should the code \documentclass{standalone} ...\end{document} be entered? using tikz? 2)Can I isolate just that IMAGE, and paste it in line with text in a pdf or MSWord document? 3) could I outline its shape a bit? Thanks in advance – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 15:30
  • @GEORGEJUNG 1) add \usepackage{tikz} and the \newcommand to your preamble of what ever document and you are ready to go. 2) See my comment above: no, but you may make a screenshot and paste the graphic. 3) I do not understand what that means. – LaRiFaRi Dec 11 '14 at 15:32
  • Ok, so this is the symbol I needed. Thanks to every single one! Yet, and sorry for asking once again, I do not understand "your preamble of what ever document and you are ready to go", so could you please elaborate on this a bit? – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 15:43
  • @GEORGEJUNG Please don't feel offended, but do you use LaTeX and know what it is? – Johannes_B Dec 11 '14 at 15:46
  • I do not use LaTeX, as I said I am a complete layman on this issues. I am a student of linguistics who needed to create a non-existent symbol/character for a paper I have to write. Yet, JohnKormylo really worked it out, and @LaRiFaRi "reshaped it" marvelously, so it looks just like any other character. So for me to do the same next time, I would like to have some basic guidelines on how to proceed: what software to use, how to get different fonts etc. – GJC Dec 11 '14 at 15:58
  • @GEORGEJUNG Then you can use Paint if you just need to create the image. Why come to the TeX world? – Manuel Dec 11 '14 at 16:02