What ቪ means
It writes one syllable from the v-series with the i vowel. In fidel, each Ethiopic form pairs a consonant series with a vowel: ቪ is the i-order form in the ቨ series, beside ቩ (u order) and ቫ (a order).
How did ቪ enter Ethiopic writing?
Its v-series was probably added for borrowed words. Catholic missionaries probably added the ቨ series in the 17th century to transcribe Portuguese. Ethiosemitic languages did not have a native v sound, so the series served loanwords.
Ethiopic writing descends from the South Arabian abjad, a consonant-based script. The earliest writing in Ethiopia and Eritrea includes pseudo-Sabaean inscriptions—texts in a script modeled on ancient Sabaean—from the 8th/7th centuries BC. A clearly defined Ethiopic script appears in the second/third centuries CE; its vowel system developed by the fourth century. First used for Geʽez, it was later adapted for Amharic, Tigrinya, and Tigre.
Part of the collection
Who writes ቪ
Loading…
Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ቪ 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.
More like this
10
Collections with ቪ
2
How to type or find ቪ
- Search it as
- fidel · amharic · geez · v · keyboard · typing
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ቪ\126ACodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.