Old Coptic Small Letter Shei

It marks the “sh” sound in Old Coptic writing. Old Coptic was an early way to write Egyptian: it combined Greek letters with Demotic signs, from an earlier Egyptian script, for sounds Greek lacked. Its scripts were developing by the 1st century CE at latest; ⳅ is one such sign.

Examples include ⳅ in an Old Coptic horoscope, two mummy tags in Berlin, and a Demotic magical papyrus with Coptic glosses—short notes beside the text. Its Demotic ancestor is linked to a hieroglyph—a picture sign—showing a pool with lotus flowers. Standard Coptic uses ϣ for the same sound. Preserve ⳅ in Old Coptic transcriptions; reserve ϣ for deliberate standardization.