Ahom Letter Bha

It represents the Ahom consonant transliterated as bha or bh.

Ahom is an abugida, a writing system where each consonant includes an inherent vowel. A dependent vowel sign changes that vowel, while the virama suppresses it. 𑜘 therefore contributes a consonant to a written syllable; it does not name a freestanding idea.

By itself, 𑜘 is only one letter; without surrounding Ahom text, it cannot identify a whole word.

How did 𑜘 get from manuscripts to Unicode?

It belongs to an Ahom script with centuries of written history.

The broader Lik Tai script tradition, used for Tai languages, is placed in Moeng Maw between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, probably drawing on Burmese writing; dated references include 1396 and 1407. The oldest surviving Ahom text is the Snake Pillar inscription, a carved record from King Siuw Hum Miung’s reign (1497–1539); coins also provide Ahom evidence from the early-to-mid-sixteenth century.

The script served chronicles, lineages, dictionaries, poetry, ritual, divination, and astrology. As Tai Ahom declined after the late seventeenth century, priests kept the script in religious use through the nineteenth century; modern use is conventionally dated from a 1920 dictionary. Scholars debate Ahom’s ties to other Lik Tai scripts. A 1407 Tay text has been cited as resembling Ahom and challenging Lik Tho Ngok as its ancestor; evidence supports a connection, not a settled single origin.

Why does 𑜘 render differently?

A supporting font and working Ahom shaping both matter.

A March 2024 report from the Keyman community described dotted circles, missing spacing, and misaligned vowel marks in some combinations of Word, Chrome, Facebook, and mobile software.