Lycian Letter En

𐊚 is the Lycian letter en: a nasal e, an e-like vowel spoken with air flowing through the nose. Lycian writers used the alphabet on inscriptions, coins, and other objects.

Text symbol

What 𐊚 means

It marks Lycian’s nasalized e. Modern editions write it ẽ; the tilde records sound, not the ancient letter’s shape. Before a consonant, some scholars read it as e followed by n, so “en” is a clue, not a Lycian word. The other nasal-vowel sign is 𐊙 (ã).

When did Lycian writing appear?

Lycian writing used an alphabet adapted from Greek, with extra letters for local sounds. The two oldest reported graffiti date to the seventh and sixth centuries BCE; their origin on Rhodes is disputed. Most surviving examples date to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. A fourth-century BCE dedication at Letoon near Xanthos pairs Lycian with Greek and Aramaic, helping scholars decipher the language.

Part of the collection

𔐀

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

Who writes 𐊚

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Questions people ask

Why does 𐊚 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.