Ethiopic Syllable See

ሴ writes an s–e syllable in Ethiopic fidel, the writing system used for Amharic and Tigrinya. Alone, it marks a syllable; the word around it supplies meaning. Ethiopic keyboards have no universal key for it.

Text symbol

What ሴ means

It writes the s consonant with an e vowel.

It evolved from consonant writing

Ethiopic writing grew from consonant writing related to Old South Arabian, an older script that recorded consonants without vowels. Inscriptions show recognisable forms by the 2nd–3rd centuries CE; vowel-bearing forms developed by the 4th century, making it an abugida, a system whose signs represent consonant-vowel syllables, for Ge’ez.

It later appeared in Ge’ez manuscripts and was adapted for Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre and other languages.

Part of the collection

ሀ

Amharic Alphabet & Letters

Who writes ሴ

Loading…

Don't confuse it with

ሰ

Ethiopic Syllable Sa

ሰ versus ሴ: ሰ is the first s-series form; ሴ carries the e vowel.

ስ

Ethiopic Syllable Se

ስ is the sixth-order s form; ሴ carries the e vowel.

Questions people ask

Why does ሴ show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Ethiopic block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.