What ꓝ means
It marks one consonant sound: “ts.”
In the Fraser script, also called Old Lisu, ꓝ writes a joined t-and-s sound, like the ending of English “cats.” A vowel letter completes a syllable; a separate tone letter may follow it.
Between 1908–1914, Ba Thaw adapted Latin shapes into a writing system later revised by James Outram Fraser and Lisu pastors. They developed it to put spoken Lisu into print for Christian teaching, Bible translation, hymns, and literacy. Lisu communities later used it in education, publishing, media, and religion in China, Myanmar, Thailand, and India.
Why does ꓝ look like a Latin letter?
Its shape is Latin-derived; its letter value is Old Lisu.
Old Lisu uses upright and 180-turned Latin-capital shapes, but has no uppercase and lowercase pairs. Each shape has its own Lisu sound value, so ꓝ can resemble a turned capital P while remaining a separate Lisu character.
A separate Lisu syllabary was created in 1924–1930 from Chinese, Dongba, and Geba scripts. It belongs to Lisu’s wider writing history, but it is not another form of ꓝ.
This is a letter used in Lisu writing; outside that context, its Latin-derived shape can be mistaken for a Latin character.
Do not use it as a decorative replacement for Latin P.
Drift: In a 2007 naming proposal, Old Lisu was preferred to Fraser script because Ba Thaw, Fraser, and Lisu clergy developed the system together.
Part of the collection
Who writes ꓝ
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Don't confuse it with
2
Questions people ask
1Why does ꓝ show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the Lisu 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
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How to type or find ꓝ
- Also called
- Fraser tsa · Old Lisu tsa · Lisu tsa
- Search it as
- tsa · ts · fraser · old lisu · fraser script · fraser alphabet · lisu script · lisu alphabet
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ꓝ\A4DDCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.