CIRCUMFLEX.
The circumflex is a union of the rising and falling inflections. Properly speaking, there are two of these, the one called the rising circumflex, in which the voice slides down and then up; and the other, the falling circumflex, in which the voice slides upward and then downward on the same vowel. They may both be denoted by the same mark, thus, (^). The circumflex is used chiefly to indicate the emphasis of irony, of contrast, or of hypothesis.