Meroitic Cursive Letter A

It marks a word-initial vowel, usually read as “a.”

In Meroitic spelling, consonant signs normally include an unwritten “a” sound. 𐦠 instead writes a vowel at the start of a word. Specialists also discuss “u” and, in some contexts, “o” or a reduced vowel as possible readings, so the letter name does not promise that every occurrence sounds alike.

The Meroitic scripts are documented from around the second century BCE through the fourth century CE. Cursive Meroitic was a practical writing form in Kush, an ancient kingdom in present-day Sudan.

How did Meroitic writing develop?

Its cursive form evolved from Egyptian Demotic writing.

Demotic was a fast handwritten form of Egyptian writing. Cursive Meroitic developed over time from Demotic models; a separate Meroitic hieroglyphic register drew on Egyptian hieroglyphs and served royal monuments and temples.

Cursive Meroitic was the practical, general-use form. Early decipherment treated Meroitic as an incomplete alphabet; later analysis recognized an alphasyllabary, a system in which consonant signs carry an inherent vowel. Old Nubian, a later writing tradition in Nubia, used some Meroitic cursive signs alongside Greek and Coptic letters.

Why does 𐦠 look like a box?

That app’s font probably lacks Meroitic glyphs.

Apps and browsers draw the same text character using the fonts available to them. On systems with a font that lacks Meroitic glyphs, 𐦠 may appear as a box or fallback mark; that display does not change the underlying character.