Bear Kaomoji ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

The phonetic secret: Latin glottal stop bear ears

Among all animal emoticons, the bear kaomoji stands out for its instant recognizability and widespread adoption in internet aesthetics. The signature rounded bear ears seen in ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ are not standard parentheses or brackets; they are specialized phonetic characters from the International Phonetic Alphabet: the Latin letter glottal stop (ʔ, U+0294) and its reversed counterpart (ʕ, U+0295).

Originally intended by linguists to transcribe guttural stops in Middle Eastern and indigenous languages, internet creators ingeniously noticed that when turned outward, these characters form the soft, rounded ears of a cuddly teddy bear. Today, millions of people use the bear face daily in social bios and gaming tags.

Japanese kanji snouts and animal typography

In addition to phonetic bear ears, classic Japanese kaomoji artists created bear faces using enclosed characters and specific kanji syllables:

• Teddy Bear Snout: The button nose in ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ is formed with the Latin small letter reversed glottal stop with stroke (ᴥ, U+1D25), perfectly mimicking a stuffed animal’s stitched leather snout.
• Kanji Bear Snouts: Older traditional Japanese bear faces use characters like (・(ｪ)・), where the enclosed kanji (ｪ) represents the wide snout and whiskers of a brown bear (kuma).
• Eyes & Cheeks: Bullet dots (•), asterisks, or solid circles provide sweet, curious eyes. Explore more wildlife symbols in our animal symbols guide.

Teddy bear aesthetics in social handles and discord

Bear kaomoji are particularly popular in cozy gaming communities, Animal Crossing fan channels, and aesthetic Discord server nicknames. You can combine bear text faces with unique usernames crafted in our nickname generator. For feline friends, visit our adorable cat kaomoji, check out happy kaomoji, or browse the complete kaomoji index.