What 𖼋 means
It marks the opening consonant of a syllable.
A syllable is one spoken beat: this letter starts it, while vowel signs and tone marking complete the spelling. Tone is the pitch pattern that can distinguish words. A single letter does not give you the whole pronunciation or word.
How did the script's meaning shift?
It moved from Christian literacy into broader Miao heritage debates. In 1904–05, Samuel Pollard and A-Hmao and Han collaborators shaped a writing system from Latin forms, English shorthand, Miao picture signs, and ideas from Cree syllabics. It was used for local reading instruction and Christian texts; primers appeared in 1905, and a New Testament in 1936 marked a stable form.
In the early 20th century, some A-Hmao readers saw the script as a return of lost ancestral writing, and some understood Christian books as recovered ancient Miao texts. That belief shaped how some readers received it; it does not show that the Pollard writing itself is ancient.
Its identity shifted by place and time. In the 1950s, some A-Hmao Christian intellectuals treated Pollard writing as Christian-specific and promoted Latin-script Miao as a shared ethnic writing. After 1978, activism in northern Yunnan's A-Hmao community reframed the older script as Miao heritage and sought to loosen its Christian association.
Can another Miao letter also stand for da?
Yes, in one language adaptation.
Unicode's Miao chart labels 𖼋 DA, but records 𖼊, named TA, as the letter used for da in Gan Yi. The script was adapted for different languages, so a letter's standardized name does not guarantee the same local sound everywhere. Keep the glyphs separate and follow the spelling of the language you're reading.
A specific letter in a written tradition; use it in a spelling example, not as a universal Miao emblem.
Don't present it as an “ancient Miao symbol”: in the early 20th century, some A-Hmao readers saw the script as recovered ancestral writing.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𖼋
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Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does 𖼋 show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the Miao 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 𖼋
- Search it as
- pollard da · a-hmao · shimenkan · syllabary · miao da · t with loop · t with semicircle
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𖼋\16F0BWhy is 𖼋 a box on my screen?
fsymbols draws rare signs with its own fonts, so they show here even where your device has none. An app or website without such a font shows an empty box (□) or a question mark instead. Turn our fonts off to see each sign as your device draws it by itself: a box here means a box in your chats and documents too.
Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.