What ᎃ means
It marks an m-syllable in the Gurage writing system. The letter represents a spoken syllable in text; its consonant is pronounced with the lips rounded.
Sahle Selassie and Wolf Leslau introduced this form in a 1966 convention to write Gurage sounds the existing Ethiopic syllabary did not cover. The convention extended four established letter families, including m, with systematic labialized forms.
What changed in Gurage spelling?
Modern Gurage keeps some forms from the older m-series and retires others. A 2022 review lists ᎃ and ᎀ as retained, while ᎁ and ᎂ are legacy-only. All four belong to the labialized m-series built from መ.
Sebat Bet is one Gurage group. The label “Sebatbeit” reflects the orthography’s earlier association with that group; the 2022 review uses the broader name “Gurage” for related languages that share the writing system.
Part of the collection
Who writes ᎃ
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Related characters
4
Questions people ask
1Why does ᎃ look different in another font?
Yes. Abyssinica SIL forms for ᎃ include Standard, Sebat Bet, and Leslau. As of 2026, each is a font variant of the same encoded character.
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How to type or find ᎃ
- Search it as
- Gurage mwe · ᎃ meaning · Gurage spelling · Gurage keyboard · Sebatbeit
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ᎃ\1383Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.