What ՚ means
It marks the spot where a vowel was dropped.
In Western Armenian, կ՚ըսեմ shortens the phrase կը ըսեմ (“I say”) to one word; ՚ shows that the vowel ը is left out.
Armenian punctuation grew in manuscripts
Armenian punctuation grew through manuscript practice, with roots reaching the fifth century; a fuller system took shape in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
An Armenian spelling mark; it records an omitted vowel, not a message tone.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does ՚ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ՚
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 055A, then Alt+X to get ՚.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “armenian apostrophe”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 055a, then Enter or Space.
HTML
՚CSS
\055AArmenian Mnemonic layout
On the Armenian Mnemonic layout, press AltGr (right Alt) + comma on Windows/Linux, or Option + comma on macOS, for ՚.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
՚
HTML hex
՚
CSS content
content: "\055A";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%D5%9A
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
2
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.