Arabic - Combining Alef Overlay
The ◌ is a special form of a superscript alef. It has a separate codepoint since its appearance and behavior are different than that of ◌ٰ . The alef overlay is only used with a lam in certain orthographies. The same orthography can use the regular shape for superscript alef in appropriate contexts.
When a diacritic follows the alef-overlay it is positioned in relation to the top right of the alef-overlay rather than to the lam.
The image below demonstrates how alef overlay is used word initially and word medially. The first example shows the position of ◌ٓ when it follows the alef overlay.
