Bamum Letter Ee

The Bamum sign for the syllable 'ee.' Bamum is a syllabary — each sign is a whole syllable — created for the Bamum language of Cameroon.

The script was invented, but it evolved: the earliest surviving manuscripts date to around 1897, when King Ibrahim Njoya and his palace circle were turning picture-signs for objects and actions into a phonetic system. By 1910 it had become the A-ka-u-ku syllabary — named after its own first four signs: ꚠ a, ꚡ ka, ꚢ u, ꚣ ku.

It recorded the language, court business, and royal knowledge; by 2026, after decades of fading use, teaching and digitization projects treat it as a living script and heritage badge. The documented outside link is Vai, an older West African syllabary scholars believe influenced its design. Earlier Bamum phases survive as separate characters in the Bamum Supplement block.

Why can the glyph look different?

A font without Bamum coverage simply cannot draw it. ꚤ is plain text, not emoji art, so the font decides the outline — and without coverage systems show an empty 'tofu' box. As of 2026, Noto Sans Bamum covers both the modern range and the historical Bamum Supplement.

How do I type ꚤ?

Type it by code point U+A6A4, or install a Bamum keyboard. A device can draw ꚤ yet offer no way to enter it — display and input support are separate.

Single inserts go through code-point entry or a character picker; real Bamum writing calls for a Bamum virtual keyboard — a 2022 Unicode status note listed a Bamum picker but said a standard keyboard layout still needed work.