Lycian Letter An

𐊙 marks Lycian’s nasalized “a” vowel, often transcribed A or ã. It appears in Lycian inscriptions; “An” is its Unicode label, not a translation.

Text symbol

What 𐊙 means

It marks Lycian’s nasalized “a” vowel. Transcriptions use A or ã; say an “a” sound with air passing through the nose. “An” is the Unicode label, not an English translation.

The Lycian alphabet adapted Greek writing and added signs for sounds Greek lacked. Its earliest reported graffiti date to the seventh and sixth centuries BCE; that is not a first-attestation date for 𐊙.

Most surviving inscriptions date to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE; many concern tombs, burials, dedications, or decrees. On monuments in both languages, Lycian could carry local authority while Greek signaled prestige. Lycian also appears on coins. Nasal-vowel signs have several carved forms, so an inscription may not match the modern glyph.

Part of the collection

𔐀

Anatolian Scripts (Luwian Hieroglyphs, Lycian, Lydian, Carian)

Who writes 𐊙

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Questions people ask

Why does 𐊙 show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Lycian 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.