What ၎ means
It is the abbreviated lead-in to the literary sequence ၎င်း. In ၎င်းစာအုပ်, it points to the noun as “that book” or “the aforementioned book.”
In Bagan-period Burmese writing, longer forms such as လေကောင် and လေည်ကောင် carried the same demonstrative sense. The abbreviation condensed လေးကောင်း by using ၄ for လေး (“four”) and reducing the written form of ကောင်း.
Why does ၎ appear in ၎င်း?
၎ is the abbreviated lead; ၎င်း is the full written sequence. A bare ၎ is not always the complete modern word.
When ၎င်း follows a noun phrase, it can point back to it. Repeated after two phrases, it can connect them with a sense like “as well as” or “both.” Usage guides differ: some accept this connector reading, while another recommends လည်းကောင်း.
Is ၎ a casual texting symbol?
No; it is a literary Burmese sign, not a general-purpose reaction. If a message contains only ၎, treat it as a possible fragment or older spelling and use the surrounding words to settle the reading. Its usual home is Burmese prose that already uses literary forms.
Literary and formal; it belongs in Burmese prose, not as a free-standing reaction.
A bare ၎ does not automatically mean “ditto”; the fuller form may be ၎င်း.
Drift: Unicode 5.1 changed the full spelling from one encoded character to the sequence ၎င်း, affecting segmentation, sorting, and line-break handling.
Part of the collection
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readings“That book” or “the aforementioned book”: a literary demonstrative reading.
Related characters
4
Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
1Why is ၎ a box on my screen?
A missing Myanmar font or an encoding mismatch is likely. As of early 2022, documented possibilities included a Unicode glyph, a Zawgyi/Myazedi glyph from a different Myanmar encoding, or a blank box.
More like this
8
How to type or find ၎
- Also called
- ၎င်း · lagaun · lagaung
- Search it as
- ၎ · Burmese shorthand · Burmese demonstrative · Myanmar ၎ · Burmese ditto
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
၎\104ECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.