What ꬑ means
It marks a syllable, not a whole word.
Ethiopic signs pair consonants with vowels. ꬑ is the Dzu form; five related signs change its vowel.
The Ethiopic script grew from South Arabian consonant writing; its syllable system developed in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. In 2009, a Unicode proposal described this series as already in use in languages needing additional Ethiopic spellings.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Why does ꬑ show as a box?
A browser may show a box when its selected font lacks Ethiopic Extended-A coverage. Try a font that includes this range.
How to type ꬑ
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType AB11, then Alt+X to get ꬑ.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “ethiopic syllable dzu”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType ab11, then Enter or Space.
HTML
ꬑCSS
\AB11Ethiopic keyboard
How to type ꬑ: choose a layout that includes Gamo-Gofa-Dawro; key sequences vary by layout.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
ꬑ
HTML hex
ꬑ
CSS content
content: "\AB11";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%EA%AC%91
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.