Ethiopic Syllable Zho

It writes the “zh” sound followed by “o.”

In English, “zh” is the sound in “measure.” An Ethiopic syllable sign combines a consonant and vowel in one character, so the o is built into ዦ rather than added to ዠ as a separate mark. Read it as part of an Amharic or Tigrinya word; alone, it represents a syllable, not a complete message.

The Ethiopic script developed over centuries. Regional writing evidence includes South Arabian inscriptions from the 8th/7th centuries BCE; a clearly recognizable Ethiopic script appears in inscriptions of the 2nd/3rd centuries CE. An earlier consonant-based script linked to South Arabian writing gained systematic vowel notation around the 4th century CE as Geʿez church literature expanded. The script later served Amharic and Tigrinya too; the zh series was added for Amharic by the 14th–15th centuries and is shared with Tigrinya.

How do I type ዦ?

Choose the zh row and its o form.

Ethiopic keyboards build syllables from consonant-and-vowel choices, but exact keys depend on the input method. Unicode does not set a universal key sequence. A character map can find it by name, or by U+12E6 if that tool accepts code points.

Why does ዦ look different in another font?

The font draws the shape; the text character stays the same.

As of 2026, Ethiopic fonts can provide alternate letter shapes, while plain text does not select among those designs. If ዦ appears as a box or blank, the font or application lacks usable Ethiopic coverage. ዞ, ዥ, and ዧ are different syllables, not alternate font shapes.