Bopomofo letter gw

It marks Cantonese’s unaspirated, lip-rounded k sound at a syllable’s start.

ㆼ is one letter in Cantonese Bopomofo, a way of writing Cantonese pronunciation with Bopomofo signs. In 1931, Ziu Ngaating’s Cantonese literacy dictionary used this dedicated letter. A national phonetic table from 1932 instead wrote the same onset as ㄍㄨ. Government-published Cantonese material recorded the dedicated form again in 1954.

A following sign supplies the rhyme—the vowel and any ending—so ㆼ is only the start of a written syllable. One documented Cantonese spelling of 鬼 (“ghost”) is ㆼㄟ: ㆼ starts the syllable and ㄟ supplies its rhyme; the tone is written separately.

How do I type ㆼ?

Use Unicode input for the literal character.

A standard Bopomofo input method turns phonetic keystrokes into character candidates; entering ㆼ as a literal character is a separate task. On Windows Microsoft Bopomofo, as of 2026, use backtick → U → 31BC → Space.

As of 2026, font support for Bopomofo Extended varies. If ㆼ appears as a box, the active font may lack its glyph; the character itself remains unchanged.