groff ms retains some legacy features solely to support
formatting of historical documents; contemporary ones should not use
them because they can render poorly. See the groff_char(7)
man page.
AT&T ms defined accent mark strings as follows.
\*['] ¶Apply acute accent to subsequent glyph.
\*[`] ¶Apply grave accent to subsequent glyph.
\*[:] ¶Apply dieresis (umlaut) to subsequent glyph.
\*[^] ¶Apply circumflex accent to subsequent glyph.
\*[~] ¶Apply tilde accent to subsequent glyph.
\*[C] ¶Apply caron to subsequent glyph.
\*[,] ¶Apply cedilla to subsequent glyph.
Berkeley ms offered an AM macro; calling it redefined the
AT&T accent mark strings (except for ‘\*C’), applied them to the
preceding glyph, and defined additional strings, some for spacing
glyphs.
.AM ¶Enable alternative accent mark and glyph-producing strings.
\*['] ¶Apply acute accent to preceding glyph.
\*[`] ¶Apply grave accent to preceding glyph.
\*[:] ¶Apply dieresis (umlaut) to preceding glyph.
\*[^] ¶Apply circumflex accent to preceding glyph.
\*[~] ¶Apply tilde accent to preceding glyph.
\*[,] ¶Apply cedilla to preceding glyph.
\*[/] ¶Apply stroke (slash) to preceding glyph.
\*[v] ¶Apply caron to preceding glyph.
\*[_] ¶Apply macron to preceding glyph.
\*[.] ¶Apply underdot to preceding glyph.
\*[o] ¶Apply ring accent to preceding glyph.
\*[?] ¶Interpolate inverted question mark.
\*[!] ¶Interpolate inverted exclamation mark.
\*[8] ¶Interpolate small letter sharp s.
\*[q] ¶Interpolate small letter o with hook accent (ogonek).
\*[3] ¶Interpolate small letter yogh.
\*[d-] ¶Interpolate small letter eth.
\*[D-] ¶Interpolate capital letter eth.
\*[th] ¶Interpolate small letter thorn.
\*[Th] ¶Interpolate capital letter thorn.
\*[ae] ¶Interpolate small æ ligature.
\*[Ae] ¶Interpolate capital Æ ligature.
\*[oe] ¶Interpolate small oe ligature.
\*[OE] ¶Interpolate capital OE ligature.