What 𐁁 means
It represents the sound “ai” in Linear B spelling.
In the Mycenaean Greek syllabary, a3 is the transliteration for a sign read as a two-vowel glide: the vowels join in one syllable. Beside goat sign 𐁒, 𐁁 can serve as a phonetic complement, a sound clue for the word the goat sign represents.
A tablet spelling begins a3-ka-na-jo; a record also uses a3 alone for a liquid commodity. The exact product is uncertain.
Why was 𐁁 made?
Linear B served Bronze Age palace bookkeeping. The earliest surviving archives at Knossos reach about 1450 BCE; scribes used clay tablets and related records to track goods, people, production, movement, and offerings.
In the Bronze Age, scribes adapted Linear A, an earlier Aegean script, into Linear B to write Greek. The ancestry of 𐁁 itself is debated: some classifications treat a3 as a new Linear B sign, while another account allows a possible continuation from Linear A.
The Cypriot syllabary is connected through the broader Aegean tradition of Minoan and Cypro-Minoan writing.
How do I type 𐁁?
In a Unicode-hex input tool, enter 10041.
A Mac Linear B layout documented in a file last updated 14 Sep 2009 maps ai to a3; the shortcut belongs to that specific layout.
A specialist transcription sign; outside a Linear B reading, it is not self-explanatory.
Don't confuse it with
3Questions people ask
1Why does 𐁁 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.
How to type 𐁁
𐁁\10041Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.