Ethiopic syllable me

Choose the m family, then its sixth form.

Many Ethiopic keyboards group characters by consonant and vowel form rather than placing them in one flat row. The m group may open in a popover, swipe panel, or subkey.

Choose the sixth form in that group to enter ም; the exact control depends on the layout.

What does ም sound like in Amharic?

In Amharic, it is an m sound with a very short vowel.

ም is the sixth vowel form in the Ethiopic m family. In Amharic, it is pronounced as m followed by a very short, unstressed vowel, roughly like the first vowel in the English word 'about'.

The same writing system also serves Ge'ez, Tigrinya, and Tigre, so its pronunciation depends on the language. On its own, ም has no universal message meaning; it is a piece of writing whose reading comes from language and context. Fonts may draw the same syllable with different shapes; a shape change alone does not mean a different encoded character.

Where did Ethiopic writing come from?

It developed from an older consonant script into a syllable writing system.

An older, consonant-only South Arabian script reached the Horn of Africa by the eighth century BCE. Clearly identifiable Ethiopic writing appears in inscriptions from the second/third centuries CE, including royal texts and building dedications, seals, bronze, and pottery.

By the fourth century, vowel forms were changing the older consonant writing into the Ethiopic syllable series. Later, Ge'ez—a classical language used in literature and worship—carried manuscript learning; the script was also adapted to write Amharic, Tigrinya, and other languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea.