Ethiopic Syllable Szaa

ሣ marks “sa” in Ethiopic writing, used for Ge’ez and Amharic. Modern Amharic pronounces it like ሳ, but spelling keeps the rows distinct.

Text symbol

What ሣ means

It is the fourth form in the ሠ series, marking “sa.”

Fidel is Ethiopic’s syllabic script: each consonant row changes form to mark its vowel. The script developed in the Horn from an ancient South Arabian alphabet. The earliest attestation is at the Dakhanamo site (as of 2026); Ethiopic inscriptions date to the second/third centuries CE, and vowel marks to the fourth century. It first wrote Ge’ez; Amharic adopted it in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Ge’ez distinguished the s-sounds of ሠ and ሰ; Amharic merged them, so ሣ and ሳ now sound alike there. Spelling follows the word’s conventional row. Ethiopic fonts can shift proportions, making shape alone a poor identity test.

Part of the collection

ሀ

Amharic Alphabet & Letters

Who writes ሣ

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Don't confuse it with

ሳ

Ethiopic Syllable Saa

Both sound alike in Amharic, but ሳ is in the ሰ row. Use the word’s conventional spelling.

Questions people ask

Why does ሣ show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.