What ፓ means
ፓ spells “pa”: p followed by a.
Clearly formed Ethiopic signs appear in inscriptions from the second or third century CE; by the fourth century, vowel forms made the script syllabic. Aksum, an ancient Ethiopian kingdom, used both South Arabian and Ethiopic scripts in royal inscriptions. Geʽez, an Ethiopian language, used the script in inscriptions, literature and worship; it was adapted for Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Someone sent ፓ alone—what does it mean?
A syllable: read “pa” first. Alone, ፓ gives no reason for being sent; the surrounding message supplies the intent.
How to type ፓ
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 1353, then Alt+X to get ፓ.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “ethiopic syllable paa”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 1353, then Enter or Space.
HTML
ፓCSS
\1353How to type ፓ
Keyman GFF Amharic 3.3 on QWERTY maps p then a to ፓ; layouts may differ.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
ፓ
HTML hex
ፓ
CSS content
content: "\1353";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E1%8D%93
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.