What ߾ means
Read the number as a count of five-franc units. N’Ko is a script used to write Manding languages in West Africa, including Bambara, also called Bamana. In Bambara, dorome is a way of counting money in fives; it need not refer to coins in your hand.
N’Ko runs from right to left, including its numerals. In the notation documented in the 2015 proposal for this sign, ߾ precedes the number in that reading order, so it sits to the number’s right. Mixed amounts can also use the separate taman sign, .
Why count money in fives?
The unit has roots in the circulation of five-franc coins. Its history is tied to coins used in the wild-rubber trade and later to colonial head-tax payments in the early 1900s. A head tax was a tax charged per person. Dorome names the counting value, so an amount expressed in dorome does not have to be paid with those historical coins.
A monetary notation sign used with N’Ko writing.
Do not read the number as individual francs: each dorome represents five.
Part of collections
Related characters
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Questions people ask
1Why does ߾ show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the NKo 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
9
Collections with ߾
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How to type or find ߾
- Search it as
- dorome · dɔrɔmɛ · dorome sign · five francs · 5 francs · NKo currency sign
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.