Ethiopic syllable Mwa

It represents the syllable mwa.

In Ethiopic writing, this syllable forms part of a word; alone, ሟ gives no translation or universal reaction. The surrounding word and language supply the meaning.

ሟ is the m-series form transliterated mwa. It differs from ም, transliterated me, and ሞ, transliterated mo.

How did ሟ become part of the Ethiopic script?

It grew out of older South-Arabian writing.

South-Arabian writing reached the northern Horn of Africa around the eighth century BCE; an early alphabet is reported at Dakhanamo. A clearly defined Ethiopic script appears in inscriptions from the second or third century CE. By the fourth century CE, vowel marks had reshaped consonant signs into syllable forms, including the mwa series.

In the Aksumite kingdom, public monuments displayed Ge'ez, the language written with this script, alongside Sabaean, another South-Arabian language, and Greek. Coins also carried Ge'ez for local use; churches and monasteries later used it for religious writing. The script was adapted, with changes, for Amharic, Tigrinya, and Tigre.

How do I type ሟ?

On GFF Amharic keyboard 3.3, type mua.

That layout uses consonant-and-vowel key mnemonics; mua is its sequence for ሟ, not a universal Unicode shortcut. Other Ethiopic keyboards use their own mappings.

On older apps, missing Ethiopic font coverage can make ሟ appear as a box or question mark. Check the app or font before assuming it is another character.