Ethiopic Syllable Gurage Kwee

It spells the kwee syllable in modern Gurage writing.

The Ethiopic script often writes a consonant-and-vowel syllable with one sign. Here, kw combines k with a w-like rounding of the lips, followed by e. The Gurage Fider (the modern spelling system) uses this form for Inor, Mesqan, Sebatbeit, and Soddo.

Is 𞟶 the same as ኴ?

It represents the same syllable in the modern spelling.

An earlier Gurage spelling used ኴ. The 1966 book Ethiopians Speak, Volume 2: Chaha presented stories by Chaha writer Sahle Selassie. He and linguist Wolf Leslau developed extra Ethiopic signs to write Gurage sounds missing from the standard inventory.

Later, local experts regularized the spelling to make it clearer to read and easier to teach; the modern Gurage Fider entered public schools in 2020. Unicode assigned the revised form its own character in 2021. The two forms spell the same syllable but are distinct characters, so preserve ኴ when editing an older text.