Cham Letter E

It lets a syllable begin with a vowel instead of a consonant.

Cham uses independent vowel letters as complete syllable openings. In Eastern Cham, they can also mark a new syllable inside a word.

A 2026 Eastern Cham orthography summary assigns ꨃ an open e sound, written /ɛ/. Other descriptions do not always distinguish it from a closer e or the neutral, unstressed vowel /ə/.

How did Cham writing change?

Cham writing developed gradually from older Indic-derived scripts.

The Cham script belongs to a family descended from Brahmi, an ancient South Asian writing system, and its forms are related to the Pallava tradition in Southeast Asia. It also has historical connections with Khmer and Kawi writing.

The earliest known Cham-language text is inscription C.174, dated to the 4th or 5th century CE. It shows Old Cham writing, but does not establish that ꨃ already had this form.

Early royal and temple inscriptions recorded authority, offerings, taxes, and religious foundations. Later palm-leaf and paper manuscripts carried literature, records, ritual, and history. By the mid-19th century, much Cambodian Cham Islamic writing had shifted to Jawi, an Arabic-based writing system; Cham manuscript practice survived among a minority. The 2026 Unicode description says Indic-script writing remains more central to Eastern Cham than Western Cham.

How do I type ꨃ?

Enter U+AA03 with a hexadecimal Unicode input method.

ꨃ is a complete letter, not a vowel mark to attach to a consonant. In a full Cham syllable, dependent vowel signs are stored after the consonant even when shaping draws one before it; that order matters when entering a sequence.

If ꨃ appears as a square or blank, the font lacks Cham coverage. Use a font that supports Cham; the character itself has not changed.