Cypriot Syllable Ma

It represents “ma” as a syllable within a word. By itself, it has no established word meaning.

The Cypriot syllabary wrote the Cypriot dialect of Greek and was also used for Eteocypriot, another language used at Amathus. The sign's value stays “ma”; the language and surrounding word supply the sense.

Where did 𐠔 come from?

Its script lineage reaches back to Bronze Age Cyprus. The Cypro-Minoan script, used on Cyprus and at sites beyond the island, dates to about 1550–1050 BCE. Cypriot may descend from it, and Cypro-Minoan may in turn connect to Linear B; those links are possible, not certain.

The syllabary's signs were used to write speech. As alphabetic Greek took over public writing, the script continued in religious, private, and administrative settings. Kafizin offerings dated 183–177 BCE and Nea Paphos sealings from the mid-second to the end of the first centuries BCE show that later use. The Idalion bilingual inscription helped scholars decipher Cypriot; it does not show that 𐠔 was borrowed from a Phoenician letter.

Why does 𐠔 look different on screen?

Cypriot writing normally runs right to left. Spaces or separating marks can show word boundaries. In text mixed with Latin writing, bidirectional layout can shift the sample on screen without changing the character.

A font without Cypriot coverage shows a missing-glyph box or another substitute. A different font may draw 𐠔 with another outline, but its Unicode identity remains the same.