Ethiopic Syllable Hhyee

It writes xʸe, one palatalized Gurage syllable.

Here xʸ is the consonant: a voiceless friction sound made toward the back of the mouth with the tongue raised toward the palate; e is the vowel. The Ethiopic script combines a consonant and vowel in one syllable-shaped character.

A modern shape replaced an older marked one

An earlier Gurage series for palatalized sounds appeared in print in a 1966 collection of Chaha stories by Sahle Selassie Berhane Mariam, prepared at linguist Wolf Leslau’s request. A separate orthography developed by Carolyn Ford and Degefe Gebremariam reached print in 1977; its small check-shaped mark signaled palatalization. The older character mapped to this syllable is ⷔ.

The modern Gurage spelling gives the palatalized x syllables dedicated shapes instead of attached marks, making them more regular for reading and learning. Gurage Zone authorities endorsed the new orthography in 2013; its Administration Council endorsed it in 2019, and public schools began teaching it in 2020.