What ꬒ means
It writes the syllable transcribed as “dzi” inside a word.
ꬒ belongs to the Gamo-Gofa-Dawro extension of Ethiopic writing. A Unicode proposal cites printed Gamo and Gofa Gospel of Luke editions from 2005 in the setting for adding these characters. The wider Ethiopic script has a historical connection to Geʽez, an older language written in it; ꬒ is a later adaptation for other languages.
Why do some Gamo texts use Latin letters?
The same language area has both Ethiopic and Latin spellings.
A shared Latin orthography for Wolaitta, Gamo, Gofa and Dawuro was put into use in February 2003. Language-literacy records list Dawro and Gofa material in both scripts and Gamo material in Latin. Books from the same language area can therefore use different scripts; ꬒ belongs to the Ethiopic spelling.
How do I type ꬒ?
Use Unicode hexadecimal input if your keyboard lacks it.
In an app with Unicode hexadecimal input, enter AB12 and confirm; the keystroke depends on your system. Ethiopic Extended-A font support controls whether ꬒ displays: a font without this glyph may show a box or fallback shape. The character in the text remains ꬒ.
Neutral within the relevant Ethiopic spelling; fragmentary as a one-character message.
Alone, it gives no reliable word-level meaning.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
2Why does this Ethiopic character show as a box?
Your font or app may lack the glyph. Use a font that covers Ethiopic Extended-A; the underlying character remains ꬒ.
Should I use ꬒ in ordinary Amharic text?
No. It belongs to the Gamo-Gofa-Dawro Ethiopic extension, so follow the spelling system of the language you are writing.
How to type ꬒ
ꬒ\AB12Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.