Ethiopic syllable Tsaa

It adds one syllable to a word. In Ethiopic writing, each sign pairs a consonant with a vowel value. The surrounding Amharic, Tigrinya, or other Ethiopic-script word supplies its full reading.

As of 2026, the oldest known inscription of the Ethiopic script comes from Dakhanamo, where its letter order differs from South Arabian. The script descended from South Arabian consonant writing and was first used for Geʽez, the classical language of the Aksumite kingdom; Geʽez inscriptions are dated to the second or third century CE.

By the fourth century CE, vowel marks had turned it into a syllabic script: each sign could show a consonant with its vowel. King Ezana’s royal inscriptions preserve Ethiopic and South Arabian writing side by side. Adapted for Amharic in the 14th and 15th centuries, the script is also used for Tigrinya and other languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

How do I type ጻ?

On the GFF Amharic keyboard, press S, then a. This mnemonic layout uses S for the ጸ consonant series and a for its fourth, “a” vowel form. Other Ethiopic layouts may use different keys.

On the documented GFF mobile layout, choose the ጸ series and then its fourth form; access may use a modifier, flick, or long press, depending on the keyboard. If ጻ appears as a box, the current font lacks Ethiopic coverage. Abyssinica SIL and other Ethiopic fonts include language-specific designs.