Cham Vowel Sign U

It marks the u vowel on a preceding Cham consonant.

Cham is an abugida, a writing system where consonant signs carry an inherent vowel and a dependent vowel sign changes it. Cham writing developed from Pallava, a script in the Brahmi family. Old Cham is attested in inscriptions from the 4th/5th century; Middle Cham manuscripts came later.

Why does the Cham U sign move?

Its written order stays after the base; shaping can move it.

Unicode stores a dependent vowel after the consonant it modifies, even when a font draws the sign elsewhere. It occupies the syllable’s vowel position rather than taking a separate character cell.

After a medial consonant—a consonant element inside a syllable—ꨭ may need a position or size adjustment in Eastern Cham text. The sign also appears in longer vowel sequences with the Cham lengthener and other vowel signs. If it looks detached, tiny, or misplaced, the font may be shaping it poorly.

Is this the Western Cham U sign?

No. Western Cham has a different U sign.

The Western Cham sign is U+1E232, a different character. Eastern and Western Cham are related but distinct writing traditions; Western Cham also uses an Arabic-based writing tradition, including Jawi. Their writing systems share a base-and-mark pattern, but ꨭ belongs to Eastern Cham and is not a universal substitute.