Coptic Small Letter Hori

It is a letter used inside Coptic words, not a standalone message.

Attempts to write Egyptian with Greek letters began in the late fourth century BCE, after Alexander's conquest. Greek could not represent every Egyptian sound, so writers supplemented it with letters from Demotic, a cursive everyday Egyptian script. By around the third century CE, several Demotic-derived letters, including Hori, had become part of the Coptic alphabet.

As Arabic spread, Coptic receded as an everyday spoken language but continued in Christian worship and study. Coptic has several dialects, so the reading and spelling around Hori can vary.

Why does Coptic Hori look different?

Its font and Unicode history both affect its appearance.

Before Unicode 4.1, Unicode treated Coptic mainly as a stylistic variant of Greek. Unicode 4.1 added a separate block for the rest of basic Coptic text, while Hori and several other unique Coptic letters stayed in the Greek and Coptic block. In Version 5.0, Unicode's charts changed these Demotic-derived letters from Bohairic-style to Sahidic-style forms.

Fonts can still draw ϩ differently, and older fonts may omit it. If it appears as a box, choose a font with Coptic support.