Sogdian Circle with Dot Punctuation

It marks a boundary between Sogdian text segments.

The Sogdian script was used in Central Asia from the seventh to fourteenth centuries CE to write Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language, as well as Chinese, Sanskrit, and Uyghur.

The Ancient Letters, Sogdian correspondence found at Dunhuang in China, are the earliest known Sogdian manuscripts, dated to 312–13 CE. Sogdian writing developed from Old Sogdian. Its connected cursive style gave rise to Old Uyghur, whose script later helped shape Mongolian writing. Christian Sogdian manuscripts also show dot conventions from Syriac Christian writing (Syriac has its own script): dots could mark pauses, four small circles a full stop, and decorative dots a quire (a gathered group of pages). These parallels give context, not a fixed reading for 𐽗.

Why does 𐽗 change shape or direction?

Fonts and page layout can change its appearance.

Sogdian punctuation marks may vary in shape. In horizontal writing, Sogdian runs right to left; it can also be written vertically, top to bottom in columns that proceed left to right, with glyphs rotated. Your font and text app determine how the sign appears.