Meroitic Cursive Letter Ya

Enter 109A4 with Unicode input. Use an editor’s Unicode-entry tool and a font that supports Meroitic Cursive; an emoji keyboard will not enter this script. Meroitic text runs right to left. In cursive text, the sign for i can join the consonant before it; the script does not join every consonant automatically.

What does Meroitic ya mean?

It is a syllabic sign in Meroitic writing. Scholars transliterate its value as ya. Meroitic writing normally pairs a consonant sign with a built-in a vowel; another vowel sign can change it.

When did Meroitic cursive writing begin?

Its earliest dated text is around 200 BC. Kushite scribes developed cursive Meroitic partly from Egyptian Demotic, a quick everyday writing system. Inscriptions with less-evolved forms suggest the cursive script was already used by the third century BC.

A separate Meroitic Hieroglyphic script was used for monumental temple writing and drew partly on Egyptian hieroglyphs; its earliest dated example is around 150 BC. After the fourth century CE, the Meroitic language was gradually replaced by Nubian. By the sixth century CE, the Meroitic scripts had been superseded by Coptic script; the Old Nubian script borrowed three signs from Meroitic cursive.